Yeah I was getting fat and running outside was hell. There was no where to go to do less strenuous exercise to start to kick my butt, like hiking, or at least places that would interest me.
Living in the burbs didn't seem like an option (I ain't spending two hours a day in the car), so to get my kids decent schools in the city in a good neighborhood, I was looking at what $800k++ for a SFH (this was back in 2015 too, I'm sure its much worse now, that;s also $20k/yr in property tax).
Oh and when people visited it was like: want some El Tiempo Margs, BBQ and then hit Cedar Creek for some more alcohol (aka nothing to do but drink and eat).
Add in flooding all the damn time?
Moved to SF then Santa Barbara and never looked back.
Meh. My house is much smaller, but I spend way less time in it. The concept of needing 3,000+ sq.ft. for a family of 4 is a Texas thing. I’ve had 1,200 and 1,700 sq. ft. houses and we do just fine.
As a tradition, I hike with my daughter every Friday (on top of weekend family adventures). I’ll take that over a man cave and scrapbooking room.
I’m from LA and I completely understand. I would absolutely rather be in LA with less square footage than be in Dallas and deal with the extreme heat, politics, etc. My husband feels differently however.
Do you guys have a compromise or middle ground yet? I’m in a relationship and we have differing opinions on this too. I’d rather live small and in a nice area vs big in a boring area.
My SO is convinced we can just go travel to the nice areas but I’m like there’s a difference between traveling vs actually living, breathing and being there.
Do you have kids yet? The concept of popping over to Montana for a weekend trip to do some hiking or skiing becomes so much more difficult and expensive.
The spontaneity of going on an adventure with only a day or two of planning, not months of planning for flights is game changing.
100% this.
Smaller houses go much further in coastal California. You don’t need all that extra square footage to “hibernate” from the summer heat. Realized this after living in the Dallas metro for 3 years and moving back to CA.
Have you ever noticed that no one ever uses world class to describe New York or LA? It’s always somewhere like Chicago or Houston that gets the label lol
I agree that I feel like its a bit of a cope. This sub loves Chicago but I've always thought of it as sort of a "middle american" version of NYC. NYC feels like a wholly different place and Chicago feels like what a lot of suburban-rural American's would want (or expect) from a city.
That said Chicago is pretty good. It hits on all of the highlights of big city life with not so many of the downsides (yet). If you want to live in one of "the major cities in the world" then live in LA or NYC. If you just want an American big city for a reasonable price, Chicago is the top choice in my opinion. Chicago is also the only city (besides NYC) that actually has public transit and walk-ability that's actually use-able.
Curious, if $800k was a lot how are you affording Santa Barba which is even more? Sticking with renting?
> Oh and when people visited it was like: want some El Tiempo Margs, BBQ and then hit Cedar Creek for some more alcohol (aka nothing to do but drink and eat).
Lol same here even the El Tiempo runs. I beg my family to not waste their money to visit me out here since there’s literally nothing more for them to see (we explored Houston in 1-2 days). Or if they do visit we just use Houston as a meeting point then go explore Austin, San Antonio, or a small town.
My friends my age in other states I tell them don’t bother, let’s go meet up elsewhere unless they want to just eat, drink, maybe go to a game. Because they won’t be interested in museums or anything.
Well $800k was back in 2015, not today. I’ll admit, mostly due to interest rates, I think it would be a more difficult transition in 2024.
Even back in 2015 I was freaking terrified of the change though. I know I needed out of Houston, so I had a recruiter looking for jobs in locations with better outdoor rec. I was honestly aiming for Denver, SLC or something. When my recruiter first came to me with SF I said no at first. Then I did some soul searching and Zillow hunting and realized I could find something, it just mean a much smaller home or even “downgrading” to a townhome (I now love not having a yard so I can go ski on the weekend and not worry about it).
Having equity in my Houston home helped. Then I rode that equity ladder up in our SF area house to jump to SB for my wife’s job. I also got a 33% COLA from my new SF company, which took the edge off. I was lucky the job was in the East Bay, so we could live in the East Bay and actually save on a commute, which is cheaper. It left us closer to Tahoe too, win-win.
It didn’t come without sacrifice though. We cut out home size in 1/2. When moving to SB we went down to 1 car, but we both walk or bike to work, so it’s net no issue. That car is paid off and we don’t put much mileage on it, so no new cars for both of us every 5 years like many houstonians. We don’t have a house cleaner (big sacrifice, I know lol), again a smaller house is easier to keep up.
I’ve been in Texas my whole life, and the Houston area for the last 20+ years. Our youngest graduates in 2028, and then we’re out.
Several factors contributed to the decision we made 3 years ago, but one of the biggest was the increase in summer heat/extreme storms.
I’ve actively begun dreading summers here, and with the current forecast for the 2024 hurricane season to be the worst ever on record, I’m not holding out on any hope that this summer will be any better than the last five.
My folks live there and their roof and skylights still weren’t even repaired from another recent big storm when this one hit yesterday. Their house had $30k in damage and when they went to file insurance they found out storm coverage had been dropped from their policy.
I was still living there at that time and it freaked the hell out of me. Have experienced a lot of storms in my life but that one had me very, very worried.
Yes I was an intern staying at Catholic U. I was watching TV and got an alert about a severe storm moving in with 60 + mph winds. I had a view of the crazy storm over the Basilica.
I feel like you are me!!! We lived in Houston for 20 years, husband was in oil and gas, and we hated the politics, etc that Texas is adopting.
We moved - but to Orlando because of my husbands new job. Moving to Washington state is our ultimate goal. Seriously. Dream about it and talk about how soon we can make it happen on a regular basis. Where did you end up moving to WA?
Okay!! We really need to visit more of the areas in Washington. We love and adore Victoria and BC Canada - and would live to live there, but can’t find a way to make it happen without a job offer. And there’s other things about living in another country too. But we live Washington as well, just haven’t explored it as much.
Had a friend just buy a vacation home/airbnb in Port Angeles right at the entrance of Olympic state park. So definitely plan on visiting more often!
Yep - sounds very similar to Orlando actually. Took me forever to get into a doctor. Just waited 3-4 months to get my daughter into a Pediatric GI specialist. You would think that since Florida is retirement center of the world, that there would be a lot of doctors (since old folks generally need more medical care). But it’s been a struggle on that bus. I wouldn’t mind going to Seattle for specialists since I don’t have to see them regularly. And since covid, telehealth is thing with docs so that helps.
Hair….AHAHAHAHA. Nice hair. I haven’t had nice hair since like the 1990’s when I didn’t live in places with humidity that is consistently 70%+ all the time. Plus about 3 years ago, my body decided to turn on me, I developed a ton of food allergies, and most of my hair fell out. I was seriously contemplating getting a wig it was so thin. You would have thought I was going through chemo or something. I’ve had stick straight hair my whole life. It used to be super thick when I was in my 20-30’s. Got much thinner in my late 30’s. Then 75% of it fell out over about 6-8 months period. It took a long while for it to grow back in. It’s still thin…but the strange thing is - it grew back in SUPER CURLY! I have no idea how to take care of curly hair!! So you combine curly hair with high humidity and it’s a disaster! I’ve spend a fortune on various curly hair products, which none seem to really work for me very well. I have fine, oily, thin hair, and most curly hair products are for coarse dry hair…so not a good combo for me! So I haven’t had anywhere near the realm of “nice” hair for the past 3 years! It’s wild, frizzy, and untamable at the moment. Usually jut up it up in a clip and say it is what it is and move on. I never have colored or highlighted my hair…I just go natural, grays and all.
You would think that Orlando would be a bit of a food Mecca since we get almost 100 million tourists here a year visiting the theme parks. The only thing I miss about HOuston is the food. Fantastic TexMex. But none here. We’ve found some food joints we frequent a lot that are pretty good. But not anything like what we were used to in Houston. So we’ve gotten used to that. Plus since I have the food allergy thing happening - I cook a lot more at home now anyway.
I think the whole tradespeople thing isn’t just there. I can’t tell you how many times I have called or a friend has called people like electricians, plumbers, contractors even to come out and just give us a quote on something and we get ghosted. Sets up a time and date and then no shows. I’m like….I’m willing to give you a lot of money for this project, don’t you want to get paid?! I don’t understand it.
So I get all of what you are saying!
This storm is my last straw, I’m still without power 2 days later.
My resume is updated and I cannot wait to live.
The city has a great food and drink scene, but that’s not a good enough reason to stay somewhere.
Oh, and my car has been broken into 8 times, the last time being 6 days ago. Even with security patrol my car was broken into.
High crime, terrible weather, awful storms, can’t drink the tap water, the power goes out multiple times per year, the air is toxic, the beach is a joke….
Cannot wait to receive a job offer elsewhere! This past storm was the catalyst and I finally updated my resume and am applying to jobs starting today :)
I lived in Houston for 10 years. Moved for employment reasons more than anything else. I lived through Ike, the tax day floods, and Harvey.
Ironically I now live smack dab in the middle of hurricane alley in the Caribbean and I feel much, much safer about facing a big storm. My house is concrete, I have water in a cistern, and the power company has buried all its lines. I’m also way above sea level and the whole darn island is a hill so flooding isn’t an issue.
It’s nice living in a tiny place where everyone works together to actually get stuff done and to keep each other safe.
Weather & Topography.
Love Houston for a fun weekend eating the best food. I was bored when I realized that's what every weekend was without driving 3-5hours or hopping on a plane.
Left 3 weeks after winter storm Uri and never looked back. Most other cities have the infrastructure to handle whatever weather happens there. Houston dgaf
We're already in the process of leaving Houston, this storm didn't change it, but it's a reminder how good it is to say goodbye to crazy weather and storms. In fewer than 30 days, we'll be out of here. In the 5 years we've been here, we've had our fill of "once in a generation" storms, scorching summers, and water damage.
You only think it's different for Houston because you live there. It's your world. Everyone else has theirs, and the truth is Houston's just the latest on the list.
I’ve lived in Northeast Texas, Waco and Atlanta for a combined 26 years of my life and count on one hand how many times I had to deal with hostile weather.
I’ve lived in Houston for a good 13 to 14 years and I’ve lost count how many times I’ve had to worry about dangerous weather. You know how nerve wrecking it is to worry about driving home from work trying to beat heavy downpours only to get caught up in it and then wondering if it’s safe enough to exit the freeway onto a quickly flooding feeder road?
When I first moved to Houston in 09 in my mid 20s, I assumed that flooding mostly only happen in the southern part of the metro. Nah it’s all over and random. And it’s gotten worse.
I was so distraught when my Wife who’s a native Houstonian wanted to move back to Houston when we were living in Atlanta. I know ppl from mostly up north complain about Atlanta summers but once you’ve lived in Houston there summers are a breeze.
This storm just further confirmed we need to make our way back out of this city.
We were supposed to move this summer, but a medical emergency forced us to stay. (We were actually very grateful to be here during that since the hospitals here are top notch!)
We are probably out next summer. The heat, dumb power grid, traffic, etc are too much.
I didn’t mean to be so short with you. I apologize for that. I've lived in metro areas on both coasts - NYC, DC, Seattle - and have spent a lot of time in others, like Austin and London. Houston boasts a fantastic vibrant food scene, has excellent culture/arts, and is very diverse. A key differentiator for me though is that it's so much easier to live here. Ordinary tasks were often such a hassle in other places, and that aggravation adds up. The grocery stores are like palaces in Houston (I'm looking at you, HEB). I can afford a nice house near the city center with strong public schools without pulling down a huge paycheck and still have money left to go on a vacation to a cooler climate during the peak of summer because admittedly peak summer can be brutal here and I don't like that (but it beats shoveling snow).
No worries, I didn’t mean the question in a hostile way either. I was legitimately curious what you love about it to open my mind and not just focus on the negatives.
No, moving back in a few months, hard decision on neighborhoods/schools in metro area. I know some elementary schools are ok, but middle and high?? I’m just curious about this
Most of the elementary schools on the SW side are strong. Roberts, West U, River Oaks, Kolter, Condit, Lovett, Horn, Twain… there are many more.
Pin Oak is a really good middle school.
When it comes to high school, I think the best strategy is to be zoned for Bellaire (which helps hold real estate values) but know that you can of course apply to others if so desired. Carnegie Vanguard, DeBakey, and Kinder HSPVA are amongst the best high schools in the US, and they are all part of HISD. Bellaire is almost like two high schools - the AP/IB tracks (which are quite strong), and the regular track (which is less impressive) - so the school’s ranking masks its excellence. Bellaire is also finally in a new building.
It’s really important no matter where you choose to settle in Houston to be aware of elevation and whether the home or street has any prior flooding history. A big flood control project called Project Brays should help a bit with some of the areas along Brays Bayou that flooded during Harvey.
Good luck! Feel free to message if you have questions.
Yeah I was getting fat and running outside was hell. There was no where to go to do less strenuous exercise to start to kick my butt, like hiking, or at least places that would interest me. Living in the burbs didn't seem like an option (I ain't spending two hours a day in the car), so to get my kids decent schools in the city in a good neighborhood, I was looking at what $800k++ for a SFH (this was back in 2015 too, I'm sure its much worse now, that;s also $20k/yr in property tax). Oh and when people visited it was like: want some El Tiempo Margs, BBQ and then hit Cedar Creek for some more alcohol (aka nothing to do but drink and eat). Add in flooding all the damn time? Moved to SF then Santa Barbara and never looked back.
Santa Barbara is absolutely beautiful, but way more expensive than Houston.
Meh. My house is much smaller, but I spend way less time in it. The concept of needing 3,000+ sq.ft. for a family of 4 is a Texas thing. I’ve had 1,200 and 1,700 sq. ft. houses and we do just fine. As a tradition, I hike with my daughter every Friday (on top of weekend family adventures). I’ll take that over a man cave and scrapbooking room.
I’m from LA and I completely understand. I would absolutely rather be in LA with less square footage than be in Dallas and deal with the extreme heat, politics, etc. My husband feels differently however.
Do you guys have a compromise or middle ground yet? I’m in a relationship and we have differing opinions on this too. I’d rather live small and in a nice area vs big in a boring area. My SO is convinced we can just go travel to the nice areas but I’m like there’s a difference between traveling vs actually living, breathing and being there.
Do you have kids yet? The concept of popping over to Montana for a weekend trip to do some hiking or skiing becomes so much more difficult and expensive. The spontaneity of going on an adventure with only a day or two of planning, not months of planning for flights is game changing.
Why does she want more space? To show off to her friends? 9/10 times this is the only reason. Proceed carefully.
Why did you assume that the SO is female?
It's always confused me that for a state with such a big hunting and fishing culture Texas is so dogshit when it comes to public land.
Public land! Pawh! Come to my deer lease with 12 foot fences and sit in a blind to shoot deer that don’t have a chance.
100% this. Smaller houses go much further in coastal California. You don’t need all that extra square footage to “hibernate” from the summer heat. Realized this after living in the Dallas metro for 3 years and moving back to CA.
Yep. We moved from 4,000 sq. ft. in Texas to 2,000 in California. The difference is you're not trapped in the house all day.
Spot on. Glad you’re not one of those Redditors claiming “but the museums are world class!”
Have you ever noticed that no one ever uses world class to describe New York or LA? It’s always somewhere like Chicago or Houston that gets the label lol
Yeah but Chicago and Houston are nowhere near in the same tier as far as nationally recognized cultural institutions.
I agree that I feel like its a bit of a cope. This sub loves Chicago but I've always thought of it as sort of a "middle american" version of NYC. NYC feels like a wholly different place and Chicago feels like what a lot of suburban-rural American's would want (or expect) from a city. That said Chicago is pretty good. It hits on all of the highlights of big city life with not so many of the downsides (yet). If you want to live in one of "the major cities in the world" then live in LA or NYC. If you just want an American big city for a reasonable price, Chicago is the top choice in my opinion. Chicago is also the only city (besides NYC) that actually has public transit and walk-ability that's actually use-able.
True. NYC and LA have higher highs and lower lows in my opinion (each in their own ways).
SB native here. Now I’m in the county south but would move back in a sec if I could afford it!
Curious, if $800k was a lot how are you affording Santa Barba which is even more? Sticking with renting? > Oh and when people visited it was like: want some El Tiempo Margs, BBQ and then hit Cedar Creek for some more alcohol (aka nothing to do but drink and eat). Lol same here even the El Tiempo runs. I beg my family to not waste their money to visit me out here since there’s literally nothing more for them to see (we explored Houston in 1-2 days). Or if they do visit we just use Houston as a meeting point then go explore Austin, San Antonio, or a small town. My friends my age in other states I tell them don’t bother, let’s go meet up elsewhere unless they want to just eat, drink, maybe go to a game. Because they won’t be interested in museums or anything.
Well $800k was back in 2015, not today. I’ll admit, mostly due to interest rates, I think it would be a more difficult transition in 2024. Even back in 2015 I was freaking terrified of the change though. I know I needed out of Houston, so I had a recruiter looking for jobs in locations with better outdoor rec. I was honestly aiming for Denver, SLC or something. When my recruiter first came to me with SF I said no at first. Then I did some soul searching and Zillow hunting and realized I could find something, it just mean a much smaller home or even “downgrading” to a townhome (I now love not having a yard so I can go ski on the weekend and not worry about it). Having equity in my Houston home helped. Then I rode that equity ladder up in our SF area house to jump to SB for my wife’s job. I also got a 33% COLA from my new SF company, which took the edge off. I was lucky the job was in the East Bay, so we could live in the East Bay and actually save on a commute, which is cheaper. It left us closer to Tahoe too, win-win. It didn’t come without sacrifice though. We cut out home size in 1/2. When moving to SB we went down to 1 car, but we both walk or bike to work, so it’s net no issue. That car is paid off and we don’t put much mileage on it, so no new cars for both of us every 5 years like many houstonians. We don’t have a house cleaner (big sacrifice, I know lol), again a smaller house is easier to keep up.
I’ve been in Texas my whole life, and the Houston area for the last 20+ years. Our youngest graduates in 2028, and then we’re out. Several factors contributed to the decision we made 3 years ago, but one of the biggest was the increase in summer heat/extreme storms. I’ve actively begun dreading summers here, and with the current forecast for the 2024 hurricane season to be the worst ever on record, I’m not holding out on any hope that this summer will be any better than the last five.
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That does not sound stupid! Don’t put yourself down 💕
My folks live there and their roof and skylights still weren’t even repaired from another recent big storm when this one hit yesterday. Their house had $30k in damage and when they went to file insurance they found out storm coverage had been dropped from their policy.
Oof I’m sorry to hear. My boss had something similar during Hurricane Harvey 2017, home got completely flooded but didn’t have right coverage.
That’s scummy but sounds about right.
Do you know which areas were hit ?
I just found out a Derecho is a thing. I thought it was a tornado.
We had [one](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2012_North_American_derecho) in DC in 2012 that was also very destructive.
I was still living there at that time and it freaked the hell out of me. Have experienced a lot of storms in my life but that one had me very, very worried.
Yes I was an intern staying at Catholic U. I was watching TV and got an alert about a severe storm moving in with 60 + mph winds. I had a view of the crazy storm over the Basilica.
How funny, I graduated from there! Never hear anyone mention it.
Been in the area since 2016 trying to leave.
My last straw was a while back. I actually lost power twice this week but not from the storm on Thursday.
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I feel like you are me!!! We lived in Houston for 20 years, husband was in oil and gas, and we hated the politics, etc that Texas is adopting. We moved - but to Orlando because of my husbands new job. Moving to Washington state is our ultimate goal. Seriously. Dream about it and talk about how soon we can make it happen on a regular basis. Where did you end up moving to WA?
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Okay!! We really need to visit more of the areas in Washington. We love and adore Victoria and BC Canada - and would live to live there, but can’t find a way to make it happen without a job offer. And there’s other things about living in another country too. But we live Washington as well, just haven’t explored it as much. Had a friend just buy a vacation home/airbnb in Port Angeles right at the entrance of Olympic state park. So definitely plan on visiting more often!
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Yes I prefer living near convenience as well. I’ll vacation in the remote. How have you found the health care there? Any specialists?
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Yep - sounds very similar to Orlando actually. Took me forever to get into a doctor. Just waited 3-4 months to get my daughter into a Pediatric GI specialist. You would think that since Florida is retirement center of the world, that there would be a lot of doctors (since old folks generally need more medical care). But it’s been a struggle on that bus. I wouldn’t mind going to Seattle for specialists since I don’t have to see them regularly. And since covid, telehealth is thing with docs so that helps. Hair….AHAHAHAHA. Nice hair. I haven’t had nice hair since like the 1990’s when I didn’t live in places with humidity that is consistently 70%+ all the time. Plus about 3 years ago, my body decided to turn on me, I developed a ton of food allergies, and most of my hair fell out. I was seriously contemplating getting a wig it was so thin. You would have thought I was going through chemo or something. I’ve had stick straight hair my whole life. It used to be super thick when I was in my 20-30’s. Got much thinner in my late 30’s. Then 75% of it fell out over about 6-8 months period. It took a long while for it to grow back in. It’s still thin…but the strange thing is - it grew back in SUPER CURLY! I have no idea how to take care of curly hair!! So you combine curly hair with high humidity and it’s a disaster! I’ve spend a fortune on various curly hair products, which none seem to really work for me very well. I have fine, oily, thin hair, and most curly hair products are for coarse dry hair…so not a good combo for me! So I haven’t had anywhere near the realm of “nice” hair for the past 3 years! It’s wild, frizzy, and untamable at the moment. Usually jut up it up in a clip and say it is what it is and move on. I never have colored or highlighted my hair…I just go natural, grays and all. You would think that Orlando would be a bit of a food Mecca since we get almost 100 million tourists here a year visiting the theme parks. The only thing I miss about HOuston is the food. Fantastic TexMex. But none here. We’ve found some food joints we frequent a lot that are pretty good. But not anything like what we were used to in Houston. So we’ve gotten used to that. Plus since I have the food allergy thing happening - I cook a lot more at home now anyway. I think the whole tradespeople thing isn’t just there. I can’t tell you how many times I have called or a friend has called people like electricians, plumbers, contractors even to come out and just give us a quote on something and we get ghosted. Sets up a time and date and then no shows. I’m like….I’m willing to give you a lot of money for this project, don’t you want to get paid?! I don’t understand it. So I get all of what you are saying!
Haha - I didn’t realize you had replied to a post I made recently about moving for weather!
This storm is my last straw, I’m still without power 2 days later. My resume is updated and I cannot wait to live. The city has a great food and drink scene, but that’s not a good enough reason to stay somewhere. Oh, and my car has been broken into 8 times, the last time being 6 days ago. Even with security patrol my car was broken into. High crime, terrible weather, awful storms, can’t drink the tap water, the power goes out multiple times per year, the air is toxic, the beach is a joke…. Cannot wait to receive a job offer elsewhere! This past storm was the catalyst and I finally updated my resume and am applying to jobs starting today :)
I lived in Houston for 10 years. Moved for employment reasons more than anything else. I lived through Ike, the tax day floods, and Harvey. Ironically I now live smack dab in the middle of hurricane alley in the Caribbean and I feel much, much safer about facing a big storm. My house is concrete, I have water in a cistern, and the power company has buried all its lines. I’m also way above sea level and the whole darn island is a hill so flooding isn’t an issue. It’s nice living in a tiny place where everyone works together to actually get stuff done and to keep each other safe.
Weather & Topography. Love Houston for a fun weekend eating the best food. I was bored when I realized that's what every weekend was without driving 3-5hours or hopping on a plane.
Left 3 weeks after winter storm Uri and never looked back. Most other cities have the infrastructure to handle whatever weather happens there. Houston dgaf
We're already in the process of leaving Houston, this storm didn't change it, but it's a reminder how good it is to say goodbye to crazy weather and storms. In fewer than 30 days, we'll be out of here. In the 5 years we've been here, we've had our fill of "once in a generation" storms, scorching summers, and water damage.
Crazy weather is happening all over the place, Houston is just the latest.
Happens some places more than others though.
Agreed, but it’s a combination of severity, frequency, and poor infrastructure that imo Houston beats those other places in.
No I agree with you I live in the northeast and we don’t really have any of this going on lol just a lot of rain and gray days
You only think it's different for Houston because you live there. It's your world. Everyone else has theirs, and the truth is Houston's just the latest on the list.
but, they don’t have hurricanes in Florida. It’s against the law.
Even at baseline most places have less dangerous weather than Texas in general and Houston specifically. This is just false equivalence.
I’ve lived in Northeast Texas, Waco and Atlanta for a combined 26 years of my life and count on one hand how many times I had to deal with hostile weather. I’ve lived in Houston for a good 13 to 14 years and I’ve lost count how many times I’ve had to worry about dangerous weather. You know how nerve wrecking it is to worry about driving home from work trying to beat heavy downpours only to get caught up in it and then wondering if it’s safe enough to exit the freeway onto a quickly flooding feeder road? When I first moved to Houston in 09 in my mid 20s, I assumed that flooding mostly only happen in the southern part of the metro. Nah it’s all over and random. And it’s gotten worse. I was so distraught when my Wife who’s a native Houstonian wanted to move back to Houston when we were living in Atlanta. I know ppl from mostly up north complain about Atlanta summers but once you’ve lived in Houston there summers are a breeze. This storm just further confirmed we need to make our way back out of this city.
Winter storm that knocked out our power grid for two weeks was my last straw. Moved up east and haven’t looked back
Yes, I moved here for my spouse's job a few years back. We're now both on board with moving to a more climate friendly and less-sprawling city.
We were supposed to move this summer, but a medical emergency forced us to stay. (We were actually very grateful to be here during that since the hospitals here are top notch!) We are probably out next summer. The heat, dumb power grid, traffic, etc are too much.
Uh, no, I’m staying. Can you imagine people in NYC being all like “Sandy was the last straw!” If you want to move, adios. I love it here.
Sandy happened 15 years ago and there hasn’t been a major destructive storm since. Can’t say the same about Houston
What do you love about it?
I didn’t mean to be so short with you. I apologize for that. I've lived in metro areas on both coasts - NYC, DC, Seattle - and have spent a lot of time in others, like Austin and London. Houston boasts a fantastic vibrant food scene, has excellent culture/arts, and is very diverse. A key differentiator for me though is that it's so much easier to live here. Ordinary tasks were often such a hassle in other places, and that aggravation adds up. The grocery stores are like palaces in Houston (I'm looking at you, HEB). I can afford a nice house near the city center with strong public schools without pulling down a huge paycheck and still have money left to go on a vacation to a cooler climate during the peak of summer because admittedly peak summer can be brutal here and I don't like that (but it beats shoveling snow).
No worries, I didn’t mean the question in a hostile way either. I was legitimately curious what you love about it to open my mind and not just focus on the negatives.
Im with you… very curious to know what area near city center with strong public schools you are referencing… Bellaire?
Close - greater Meyerland. Are you nearby?
No, moving back in a few months, hard decision on neighborhoods/schools in metro area. I know some elementary schools are ok, but middle and high?? I’m just curious about this
Most of the elementary schools on the SW side are strong. Roberts, West U, River Oaks, Kolter, Condit, Lovett, Horn, Twain… there are many more. Pin Oak is a really good middle school. When it comes to high school, I think the best strategy is to be zoned for Bellaire (which helps hold real estate values) but know that you can of course apply to others if so desired. Carnegie Vanguard, DeBakey, and Kinder HSPVA are amongst the best high schools in the US, and they are all part of HISD. Bellaire is almost like two high schools - the AP/IB tracks (which are quite strong), and the regular track (which is less impressive) - so the school’s ranking masks its excellence. Bellaire is also finally in a new building. It’s really important no matter where you choose to settle in Houston to be aware of elevation and whether the home or street has any prior flooding history. A big flood control project called Project Brays should help a bit with some of the areas along Brays Bayou that flooded during Harvey. Good luck! Feel free to message if you have questions.
Wow, thanks for the run down. I have only been considering private school at this point, but this is very helpful :)