so tell me about the Houston area

well we've been in one spot for to long so it looks like it's time to move again...

specificly to Webster TX or there abouts (just south east of houston 1/2 way between Houston and Galveston.

other then the suck of emission testing and vehicle inspection what should I expect? whats good? what sucks?

What sucks is toll roads and traffic. It is worse than L.A.

15 years ago, this is how I remember it:

Flat, HOT, humid, crowded, old, and dirty.

I wouldn't say worse than L.A. I've lived in both places and L.A. traffic takes it by the nads.

Where do I start with Houston? Allow me to preface this with the assertion that this is entirely opinion and you should make your own decision.

Houston is a vile pit of horrific despair, depression, and a mortal vacuum of deadly indifference and rampantly flagrant hatred.

Ok, its not that bad, but almost. Add in the 50000000% humidity during the 7 months of 110-degree weather, the landscape of depressing corporate influence, and air quality similar to living inside of a catalytic converter, and you have your picture of Houston.

Imagine living in a sauna that is heated by oil companies' illegal burning of waste hydrocarbon sludge while being surrounded by 15 perfectly normal upstanding Mexican immigrants who have been tainted by the hatred of the conservative, big-money mantra which has surrounded the entire east-Texas lifestyle and you can imagine just how horrible it is.

Conversely, Austin is one of the finest places I ever lived.

^That pretty much describes it.

I dated a girl in college who lived there, went back 3-4 times to visit. I flew into Hobby one time, driving back toward downtown you couldn't see the tops of the building's through the pollution.

I hope I never have to go back there.

donalson wrote: other then the suck of emission testing and vehicle inspection what should I expect?

The emissions testing isn't that bad. Pre 198x cars don't have to be tested, and 96-up OBD2 just gets a plug-in. As long as you don't have a CEL you're OK. I passed a 97 'vette that put 500+ hp to the wheels with O2 simulators and a pretty wild cam. As long as it gets plugged in, can communicate with the systems and come back with valid numbers, its a pass. Most of TX "inspection" is a 3-minute plug-in flowchart and making sure your turn signals and windshield wipers work. My impala passed with bald tires and missing upper control arm bushings, but failed because the windshield wipers left streaks.

Insurance and registration are pretty cheap and easy. Titling "questionable" paperwork isn't too bad - especially compared to PA.

And the big plus is that clean, rust-free cars are a dime a dozen. I snagged a cherry 67 LeMans 2dht with a freshly-built 326/PG for $750. I also grabbed a 98 F150 4x4 with only 90k for $4200. Then there was the 87 S10 with an LS1/T56 that I grabbed for $1500, the 05 Scion xB with 70k that I snagged for $6000.... its like southern california with the car culture, but 1/5th the price

I have to chime in after Curtis' glowing review and say Houston isn't as bad as it seems.

Despite being very large, you can live 85-90% of your life within 15-20 minutes of your house, save for those times when you want to go to a certain store or restaurant. Webster isn't bad, I've spent some time in clear lake, which would be my locale of choice for south side living.

The traffic and pollution have been improved over the last 5 years I've lived here (I10 expansion finished) I live 15 minutes from my office and don't have to get on any major highways to do it. Still, there are people that sit in traffic for an hour plus so they can live on the west side of Katy in their McMansion. Everyone makes sacrifices I guess. My biggest gripe is that if you want to have enough room to really spread out, you have to spend a lot or go hours away.

The weather isn't that bad if you're used to texas weather, northerners come down in July and wonder why it's so much hotter here than "up there". I guess they didn't pay attention in geography. Last summer was hotter than usual because it was so dry, although it feels hotter, it really doesn't get over 100 very often, but it will be 97. Then it cools off at night. To 91 or so. People here have gotten used to it, Everything is air conditioned and people have learned to appreciate the 3-4 weeks of spring and the 4-5 weeks of fall we get each year.

curtis73 wrote: Ok, its not that bad, but almost. Add in the 50000000% humidity during the 7 months of 110-degree weather, the landscape of depressing corporate influence, and air quality similar to living inside of a catalytic converter, and you have your picture of Houston.

Perfect description. What a E36 M3 hole. I was raised in Houston and I would only move back if I was desperate and had to move in with someone.

This thing about Mexicans is funny to me. I grew up in a fairly middle to upper middle class family. I never had problems with Mexicans in school, around town, nothing. But the distance alot of white people put between themselves and many Mexican families is weird. My stepmother still has a hatred of Mexicans that seems unfounded to me. And by the way, she is staunchly democrat. But most of my white friends didn't seem to care as much about that as they did "other groups".

Strizzo wrote: Despite being very large, you can live 85-90% of your life within 15-20 minutes of your house, save for those times when you want to go to a certain store or restaurant.

I agree... which is one of my reasons for posting the whole corporate atmosphere thing. The oil companies put you there, WalMart and Lowe's keep you there, and most of the people who live there don't care about finding a farmer's market to buy local food, or a naturopath to cure their allergies. Its a huge corporate trap.

The traffic and pollution have been improved over the last 5 years I've lived here (I10 expansion finished) I live 15 minutes from my office and don't have to get on any major highways to do it. Still, there are people that sit in traffic for an hour plus so they can live on the west side of Katy in their McMansion. Everyone makes sacrifices I guess. My biggest gripe is that if you want to have enough room to really spread out, you have to spend a lot or go hours away.

That's the big reason I moved back to Pittsburgh. (and the big reason I moved away from L.A.) I have over an acre with a 3/2 house that I bought for $50k and change. I'm 7 miles from downtown and I have deer and turkeys in my back yard.

.... but that's my preference, not everyone's

The weather isn't that bad if you're used to texas weather, northerners come down in July and wonder why it's so much hotter here than "up there". I guess they didn't pay attention in geography.

They also didn't pay attention to the weather channel The predominant weather patterns follow a big curve from Anchorage, AK through Portland, OR, down to Dallas, TX, then back up to Washington D.C. There were several times last winter that Anchorage was the same temperature as Austin and D.C.

I've travelled and driven to Houston and L.A. a lot over the past 2 years - Houston is worse!!

Texas doesn't have a state income tax, but that means they have a property tax. It's always an either or thing. They'll get it one way or the other. Depending upon where you're coming from rent and housing prices are usually considered low for most of the country.

Lots of good restaurants in Houston, more than in most cities and there's no way you can live, work and stay 15-30 minutes from your house. You will spend an inordinate amount of time on the road.

I agree Austin of old was the best. Austin has grown quite a bit which has given it's share of problems. Fort Worth is more like the Austin of old than Austin is. Great music scene, cultural scene and easy to get around in.

Most newcomers to Texas have trouble with the scale and size. You can travel for days and not leave Texas. The distance between cities is sometimes greater than most states are big.

I lived in League City, right next to Webster. We moved out, screaming, in 2000. Still visit occasionally, when I absolutely HAVE to. Traffic in that area is a nightmare. Let me tell you how much fun that MONTH when it was over 100F EVERY DAY was. And the Webster PoPo are about the worst you will ever find. You don't have to own a microwave oven. Just put your food on the dash and the PoPo will cook it for you with their RADAR guns. They were always bad. In the 50's, my friend in Bryan was in high school. A kid in his class would drive down to Galveston to visit his girlfriend. The only way there was through Webster, as I40 wasn't built yet. He got stopped in Webster on his way home, arrested and put in jail for being underage after curfew.

Oh, and while Texas has no state income tax, every single encounter with the state will cost you. For example: Want to go to park? It will cost you.

Houston, the good: Low cost of living (especially for a city of this size) A thriving economy No snow shovels required

The bad: Everything else

Don't believe the Chamber of Commerce stuff about being near the coast. Galveston is just as much a E36 M3 hole as Houston itself.

I lived here for 13 years and Dallas for 10 before that. I much preferred Dallas, though it wasn't all that much better. Then I was transferred to North Carolina and thought I had died and gone to heaven, except the cost of living went up considerably.

Then the company that transferred me sold out and now I'm moving back to Houston, only because I was able to land a job quickly here and the NC job market sucks big time.

I don't know why anyone would move to Houston except for business reasons. There's plenty of economic opportunity, but the lifestyle sucks.

Even for a car guy, unless you are into straight-ahead muscle cars, there is not much fun to be had. The land is flat and all the roads are straight and mostly buckled and rough from the unstable soil. The only saving grace is we have a great vintage racing group.

The only natural beauty is in the strip bars, and even there it is hard to find "natural."

If you are moving just because it is "time" I have no idea why you would pick this area.

On the plus side, the Houston area SCCA has good autocrosses, usually just south in the Texas City area. Or they used to anyway. Autocrossing on a track >> autocrossing in a parking lot. Otherwise, I would Pick Someplace Else. Actually, I did.

I'm also not so sure about "low cost of living." My step son lives there now and it ain't cheap. A small (2 bedroom) apartment in a "safe" area seems very expensive to me. I think it's over 1 large/month. Like well over.

cost of living is relative, compared to most of Texas, houston is high, compared to either coast, its very cheap. If you are into road racing there are a number of good tracks withing a couple hours drive.

I'm on the north side, not the south side, so my view is a little different. We have trees up here and that makes a huge difference. The family even goes hiking in the national forest quite a lot.
Expect everything to be about 40 minutes away. For some reason that's just how far it is. The Houston area is BIG. A highschool friend moved to Houston and thought we could hang out. I'm north east, he's southwest, we were an hour and 20 minutes of freeway driving apart. We might as well have lived on different planets.
Autocrossing is pretty ok. I run with the SCCA at the beginning of the month and with the BMWCCA two weeks later. It's enough to bug my wife.
Living can be cheap or expensive depending on how you play it. We're cheap and have dead cars in the yard and my kids go to school with brown kids that speak Spanish. Some people pay a lot of money to avoid those things. It's up to you.
Employment opportunities are vast. The oil industry has been very very good to us and it's fair to say that there's probably nowhere else in the country where we could have done as well in the last decade. Life is always about compromises. We accept some heat and some driving for not having to scrape by. College friends who stayed in Michigan ended up with great snowy winters and nice small towns and unemployment.

^You must live up in the Woodlands.

In reply to z31maniac:

Heh, Woodlands, nope. I live east of there where the help comes from. We don't enjoy having a committee of busy bodies tell us what color shingles are on the approved list. To each their own.

I lived downtown on campus at UH for several years in the early 90's, and then i remember summer time being a lot like an SD winter, as in quick as you can from one climate-controlled building to the next. Once you accepted that for a couple of months you were trapped indoors you were fine.

Weather aside, the thing I miss most is being able to do pretty much anything within an hours drive and nearly any time of day. Need some DOM tubing on a Sat? Pick up the phone and you're on your way. Tacos at 2am? Taco Cabana to the rescue.

I grew up where the trees were too. Spring/Klein area near 45.

Resurrected thread!

That company that is based in Langley, B.C. (Sicom) just opened a 30,000 sq.ft. facility on the north side of Houston. I've been looking at suburbs and 10 of the 50 safest cities (according to some website) are on the south side of Houston. Up until I read this thread I thought we could live in one of those and I'd just hop on the loop and drive the 40-50 miles to the company. Apparently traffic is a motherberkeleyer.

Now I'm searching for a suburb to the north of Houston that has less crime, as good or better schools and a comparable cost of living to Pekin,IL. The schools MUST have a good wrestling program too. Both of the munchkins rassle.

The cold weather here really sets off my wife's Trigeminal Neuralgia so we've been looking to move to a warmer climate. We initially had our eyes on Florida but then this job opening popped up and I applied.

So I'm looking for a small town that fits the above criteria (bold) and is <40 miles away from the corner of Aldine Westfield road and Farrell road.

I appreciate any info you could send my way.

Conroe area is supposed to have good schools. Beyond that, I can't help because I have no idea what life is like in Pekin, Il.

Find a map of the Conroe Independent School District. Now look for something within that area. Real estate prices are going to vary wildly due to the lack of zoning. Master planned communities like The Woodlands have the most consistency, but people like that and it costs more.
You really need to search out individual high schools that have what you want, figure out where their boundry is, and go from there. Any competent Realtor down here should be able to help you with that.
Be aware, the new Exxon campus has brought a ton of people to the north side and prices are up because of that. Come look at houses before it gets hot, because if you wait until summer it will be really easy to talk yourself out of it. Right now it's nice.

And if you are down here looking at stuff on an autocross weekend, let me know, you can come drive something. Tell your wife you're 'researching' the area.

looks like they built at 19705 Aldine Westfield... I'm down in the clear lake area (nasa area) and what I know about that part of town is that it's over an hr drive and I've never been up that way... lol... I've seen plenty of cars on CL up that way in spring/woodlands and just skip right over them when shopping... but if it's like it is down here it's far enough away from the city itself but close enough to have access to the things that a big city offers.

best of luck... and like these guys say... get down asap to start looking... finding a place in the middle of summer sucks, you'll sweat just going from the a/c car to the a/c house... on the plus side until yesterday I'd been running around in shorts for the last week or so... but the winter heat bill is offset by the summer cooling bills :(

Basil Exposition wrote: Conroe area is supposed to have good schools. Beyond that, I can't help because I have no idea what life is like in Pekin, Il.

Woops, sorry. I've been running on very little sleep lately.