How is Texas?

[AMechEng]

I'm thinking of getting into the oil and gas industry and moving from South Florida to Texas. I have never been to Texas so I don't really know what to expect. I like that the move would keep me in the South where there is hot weather, hot rods, hot women, and most importantly, no state income tax. So how does Texas compare to South Florida? Does it really vary city to city?

 

[ZackDaniels]

Texas is divided among it's 3 1/2 major cities.

1. San Antonio is awesome. More of a tropical than desert climate, the city is surrounded by a double ring of often double decked 8 lane expressways. Getting in and out of the city on a commute takes like 20 minutes. In Chicago I can barely make it around the block in 20 minutes. Getting around there is a dream, the real estate is cheap, and in general the people are nice. If I were going to Texas this would be top of the list.

2. Houston is the better oil and gas working city if that's the industry you're going for. All of Texas gets the oil business rep, but Houston is mainly where it comes from. Most of your work in this field will be found there. It's ungodly humid and as an industrial city it sort of smells... traffic in and out of it is fine until you hit the city exit ramps, on which you'll double or triple your commute just be sitting there parked. It's nice and close to Corpus Christi though so you have a beach run about 30 minutes from home.

3. Dallas. Eh... information industry mecca, but somewhat boring and due to the cost saving design of almost exclusively brown and black buildings it sort of looks like a skyline shaped turd. DFW airport is one of the most backwards in the US, but I imagine you'd learn the ins and outs if you lived there and had to use it often.

3 1/2. Austin. Home to those that work in Dallas but don't want to live there. Generally viewed as one of the best places to live in the state, but it's rather dull. King of the Hill takes place in an Austin suburb and from what I gather it's about as spot on as comedy cartoons can get. Cookie cutter middle class suburbs and lots of dudes really concerned with their lawnmower's capability.

 

[AMechEng]

So San Antonio is where its at. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[CaptainKyle]

I was born & raised in South Texas. I still call it home. I would leave Florida in a heartbeat & go back if I could get the other half to go for it. I was raised in Santa Fe about 30 minutes south of Houston & about 30 minutes from Galveston. Its a redneck town but its me. The beaches are ugly 7 dont compare to Florida but its no biggie for me since I very rarily visit them. I love Austin & the Hill country area I have some of them king of the hill friends out there & I fit right in.LOL There is some great riding out there to. You could not pay me to live in the middle of Houston. The outskirts like Conroe & Magnolia are better but there growing rapidly to.

 

[ninjaneer]

i'll race you there AMech. if things fall into place, we should be in Austin by next summer.

 

[Bruiser1198]

I would KILL to go back too Texas !! Was not born there but 5 yrs. in the U.S. Air Force , Dyess AFB, Abilene Texas . Experienced things I would have never seen , rode all over the State and LOVED it. Abilene was kinda dead but San Antonio rocked . Going too Dallas next yr for a wedding and can't wait!!.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

Zach's assessment is fairly accurate. Dallas is very corporate and boring, and HEAVILY zoned and generally thought of as a city full of "tight ass prudes"

San Antonio is a lot of fun with a lot to do, the weather in San Antonio and Austin both is fantastic,

I would disagree that Austin is boring as its generally thought of as the San Francisco of Texas, there's is LOTS of nightlife and the music and art scene is thriving greatly in Austin. Being in the hill country is a plus is if you like good landscape, weather and scenery. It's the trendiest city in Texas and packed full of hipsters with ironic facial hair, its also the liberal pocket of Texas. It's also the Tech Capitol of Texas, not Dallas, Dallas is generally thought of as a financial center.


Houston is the best economy above and beyond any city in Texas, and the same goes for the nightlife and arts scene and although the music scene is good it ain't Austin. Galveston is 35 miles south if you like the beach but the beaches aren't very pretty like Kyle said. Downtown or "inner loop" (meaning inside loop 610) is 100% city life with all its pros and cons, the urban sprawl is a good thing here as it lends lots of options for styles if living from suburban life to country living within reach of Houston's job market.
Houston's economy is largely oil and gas but remember that includes all the support industry that springs up around it and that can take off in many directions, and of course having a thriving economy that means that all the ways that people can spend money do well also.
The traffic in none of these cities is even close to as bad as I've seen in other metropolitan areas around the country. If you choose to live in the west or northwest side of Houston the traffics worse, if you live on the east or southeast side its minimal.

Gulf coast weather in general is brutal and unfriendly, I.E. summers are 100 plus degrees at 90% and greater humidity, lots of folks come in a down economy and leave soon to escape the weather.

All of Texas is probably more friendly than any place you've ever lived, although the bigger the city and the greater the concentration of "foreigners" (people from out of state) the less friendly but still above the norm from places I've been. ( I get around, worked in 7 different states last year.)

Having no income tax means the property taxes on owned real estate are higher than other states and sales taxes run I the 8% range. But most of the ways that the state finds ways to drain the pockets if its citizens aren't in
Place here. Fees and bureaucracy are kept to a minimum to maintain a business friendly environment. Overall tax burden is much less than most places.

I think its a great place to live and having been to probably 40 of our states wouldn't want to live any where else.
Would I like to live somewhere besides the gulf coast? Yes. When I retire. Ill probably end up out in far west Texas where there aren't many people.

Also, don't let TV fool you, Texas has every sort of topography and climate you can think of. It's not all desert and cowboy hats.

 

[AMechEng]

This thread is a big help. Keep the information coming.

Ninjaneer, what are you moving to Austin for?

Also, is the weather in Houston really that different from San Antonio? I see that Houston is directly east of San Antonio.

 

[NHVmaxpower]

To populated for me. Give me mountains & quiet country roads & I'm happy.

 

[donnelly317]

To populated for me. Give me mountains & quiet country roads & I'm happy.

Amen to that!!!! I live in the middle of a small village about 500 population and I had it Haha. Looking for a house with no neighbors right now

 

[m-cman]

Oh man, all these people bashing Dallas... I love Dallas.

Houston and most of the Gulf coast is really humid. A lot like Florida coastal areas. San Antonio is not on the coast so climate is better. Texas can have wild weather and can swing overnight. In the last week it has varied from mid 80's to mid 30's here in Dallas. I have had two vehicles totaled by hail. Home owners insurance is the highest in the country mostly due to hail, tornado's and flooding. And it can get really hot here. Some summers go for a month or two with the high over 100 every day. Lots of different terrains and styles. Austin is mostly a young persons town with the giant UT campus there and is considered "hip".

I have lived all over the country and went to 15 schools before graduating high school. Born in Memphis, started school in California, etc... I would not live anywhere else. :biglaugh:

 

[CaptainKyle]

To populated for me. Give me mountains & quiet country roads & I'm happy.

Austin & Bandara has a lot of country very nice roads & Land. Where I am at in Florida is overpopulated & Sucks !

 

[tothemax93]

Oh man, all these people bashing Dallas... I love Dallas.

Houston and most of the Gulf coast is really humid. A lot like Florida coastal areas. San Antonio is not on the coast so climate is better. Texas can have wild weather and can swing overnight. In the last week it has varied from mid 80's to mid 30's here in Dallas. I have had two vehicles totaled by hail. Home owners insurance is the highest in the country mostly due to hail, tornado's and flooding. And it can get really hot here. Some summers go for a month or two with the high over 100 every day.

Is this what the hails like :eusa_dance:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLX2tAPy0jU

 

[dekberg]

I've lived in San Antonio for about 16 months now. Agree with what everyone has said except for the traffic deal. Traffic around here sucks and the city is not getting any less populated. There is a lot of short cuts but you will catch a ton of lights. I will say this...the riding is the best (in my opinion) around SA. You have hill country just outside of town with lots of twist, turns and of course hilsl. The Houston VMOA comes up here twice a year to ride. (Bandera to be exact). The weather is ridable all year which is nice. 300 days of sunshine on average.

I'm always looking to ride with other VMAXers....drop me a line if you head this way.

Cheers
Darren

 

[AMechEng]

Cool man will do. San Antonio sounds like a nice place. I'm going to have to check it out.

 

[dekberg]

Is this what the hails like :eusa_dance:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLX2tAPy0jU

OK...THAT WAS FUNNY!!!!:biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh: KAPOOYA....KAPOOYA!!!

 

[ZackDaniels]

I've lived in San Antonio for about 16 months now. Agree with what everyone has said except for the traffic deal. Traffic around here sucks and the city is not getting any less populated. There is a lot of short cuts but you will catch a ton of lights. I will say this...the riding is the best (in my opinion) around SA. You have hill country just outside of town with lots of twist, turns and of course hilsl. The Houston VMOA comes up here twice a year to ride. (Bandera to be exact). The weather is ridable all year which is nice. 300 days of sunshine on average.

I'm always looking to ride with other VMAXers....drop me a line if you head this way.

Cheers
Darren

Everybody that lives there rags on the traffic. I think they're all nuts. I mean it's a city, so yeah there's congestion and yeah there are stop lights, but when most people in cities bitch about traffic that's not what they're talking about. The infrastructure and roads are setup so much better than NY, Chicago, or even the more modern LA. You guys just don't know how you good you have it down there. Average commute in and out of downtown Chicago is 45-60 minutes... that's on a good day. I've been all over and around SA and the only time it took me an hour to get anywhere was when there were two accidents one ramp apart.

The only thing about the way it's setup is that everything is sort of setup around the inner and outer rings. It's tough to get anywhere without taking the highway or a frontage road along the highway. That problem goes away as soon as you get away from the city though.

I guess I had the wrong people show me the ropes of Austin when I was out that way. Sounds like my impression of that city is pretty much dead wrong.

I love basements and snow too much to want to move to Texas. The dead heat of August is a bit much, and the whole state being pretty much solid rock makes basements hard if not outright impossible to come by. Snow's a fine trade for those in this neckbeard's opinion. Neither of those should give somebody coming from Florida much pause though.

 

[mvrk10256]

I made a few corrections. I hope you dont mind.

Texas is divided among it's 4 major cities.

1. San Antonio is Hispanic. More of a tropical than desert climate, the city is surrounded by a double ring of often double decked 8 lane expressways. Getting in and out of the city on a commute takes like 40 minutes. San Antonio has the best traffic cause it has way less people. A nice place to take the lady for a day but not worth living in unless you are Hispanic and wish to have that culture around you (not judging just a fact).

2. Houston is the better oil and gas working city if that's the industry you're going for. All of Texas gets the oil business rep, but Houston is mainly where it comes from. Most of your work in this field will be found there. It's ungodly humid and as an industrial city it sort of smells... traffic in and out of it is fine until you hit the city exit ramps, on which you'll double or triple your commute just be sitting there parked. Traffic is terrible, crazy religious people, and urban sprawl like you wouldnt believe. Definitely the least favorite of the bunch.

3. Dallas. Eh... information industry mecca, but somewhat boring and due to the cost saving design of almost exclusively brown and black buildings it sort of looks like a skyline shaped turd. Dallas is where you live when your god is the $$. Literally everything culturally revolves around how much paper you have in your pocket, where you live, how big your wife's diamonds are, if your Mercedes is the newest/most expensive. Can have some nice suburbs, but boring.

4. Austin. This is the place to be. The culture here is great, the traffic not so much. Home to those that work in Dallas but don't want to live there. Generally viewed as one of the best places to live in the state, but it's awesome.. King of the Hill takes place in an Austin suburb and from what I gather it's about as spot on as comedy cartoons can get. Except that place is called Georgetown/Roundrock. Austin has a north area but no real suburbs, the farther cities are boring and boony.

However unless your talking Miami or that area, Austin is going to be infinitly better, fallowed by dallas IMHO. Houston is the shittiest of the bunch but if you want to work for Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, ect this is where you gotta be.

BTW if you have to live in the South, Texas is where its at.

Maksim

Source: Have lived in Dallas and Austin for school, and currently getting money offers from some of those companies so I have been researching.

 

[dekberg]

I'm sure there is a difference between SA and Chicago. I've never lived in Chicago but I know it's notorius for bad traffic. Not sure how long it's been since you were here but it is quickly outgrowing the road network around it. A friend of mine lived here for 6 years, left in 08 and now is back. He said he can't believe how much the city has grown and how much worse traffic has got since he left. I think the thing that gets me here is 75% of the people here don't know how to drive. They don't know how to merge, change lanes, or even exit roads the right way. I'm in the Army and lived in 7 differend states...this one ranks top 2 for terrible drivers. Maybe it's part roads and part drivers but I hate the traffic in any big city especially SA. Just rambling now....Botton line: All big city traffic sucks in one way or another.

Cheers,
Darren

Everybody that lives there rags on the traffic. I think they're all nuts. I mean it's a city, so yeah there's congestion and yeah there are stop lights, but when most people in cities bitch about traffic that's not what they're talking about. The infrastructure and roads are setup so much better than NY, Chicago, or even the more modern LA. You guys just don't know how you good you have it down there. Average commute in and out of downtown Chicago is 45-60 minutes... that's on a good day. I've been all over and around SA and the only time it took me an hour to get anywhere was when there were two accidents one ramp apart.

The only thing about the way it's setup is that everything is sort of setup around the inner and outer rings. It's tough to get anywhere without taking the highway or a frontage road along the highway. That problem goes away as soon as you get away from the city though.

I guess I had the wrong people show me the ropes of Austin when I was out that way. Sounds like my impression of that city is pretty much dead wrong.

I love basements and snow too much to want to move to Texas. The dead heat of August is a bit much, and the whole state being pretty much solid rock makes basements hard if not outright impossible to come by. Snow's a fine trade for those in this neckbeard's opinion. Neither of those should give somebody coming from Florida much pause though.

 

[ninjaneer]

Ninjaneer, what are you moving to Austin for?

let me answer like this: first why we want to leave florida. second, why are we targetting texas and finally why we want to replant our roots in austin.

so why no more florida
after living in the floridian panhandle from '79 to '92 and then in central florida up until now, i've about had it. the engineering firm that i've been loyal to for 17 years finally gave me a reason to leave. plus i'm over the whole engineering thing and am ready to retire from the egos and politics so that i can chase the american dream of operating my own business. my wife, who has only ever lived in cfl is ready for something different as well. with the influx of people moving to the state, we had hoped that the social environment would benefit. however, all it has brought is an over-population of brain-dead snowbirds and overly-stressed tourons. the floridian culture, mentality, day-to-day living, and sense of community isn't advancing the way we had hoped and in some ways we see the life elements stagnantly deteriorating. the wife's love of horses has exhausted all of the stables surrounding the area in pursuit of a suitable balance of quality vs cost and social club vs training grounds. the only place she has been able to find in florida that somewhat agrees with her is ocala, but although the area is the rural environment that we crave, it's missing the metropolitan influences that we embrace. i wouldn't complain if we moved north back to my childhood stomping grounds, but that would be moving backwards and the wife would go nuts. we wouldn't mind moving south, but it's way too overpopulated and, my apologies to all y'all south floridians, the social makeup is way too plastic and shallow. the southern gulf side is just an extension of the panhandle and the northwest is the keys cladded in flannel and coke.

so i've divulged about 15% of what i believe is wrong with the state and if you pour me a couple shots of tequila, i'll reveal the remaining 85, but i'll also tell you what i love about florida. it's all i've ever known. i love the swamps and bayous that i stomped through as a youngin. i love the tropical island influences and the year-round riding weather. but i absolutely refuse to foreshadow myself on my deathbed having only ever lived in florida.

so why Texas
the wife and i have had the itch to move for half a decade now. we absolutely love the weather, culture, the mentality, the educational and financial opportunities, and people of southern california, but after a few visits and deep reflection, we came to the conclusion to nix a move to high taxes, overpriced cost-of-living, over-population, 2-hour commutes, frigid beaches, unfavorable equestrian orientations, and most of all earthquakes (i'll take a hurricane any time). we also absolutely love the communal atmosphere, and rich mix of domestic and imported metropolitan urbanites and ruralians that we experienced visiting friends in the northwestern territories. but despite the desire for four seasons, we have beach-weather-loving, beach-sand-hating syndrome, and absolutely hate sub-60-degree weather and enjoy sunshine way too much. anything north of the mason-dixon is out of the question. any SEC member other than florida is outta the question as well, not because of the conference rivalry, but because of the state mentalities. anything north of texas is "too in the middle". i have childhood and college friends who live in texas, absolutely love it, can't find any reason to move, and sincerely believe that our future is bright there. the wife and i both have co-workers who either moved from Texas and damn the day that they did, or have praised the day they moved back. it's the heart of the country. my research has shown me that texas has the big-name companies that my software engineering background can grow in and support the transition into my entrepreneurial stage. with the technology, energy services and banking industries growing, the 3 major markets in texas (dallas, austin and houston), have all been voted in the top 10 best cities for companies and professionals to work and conduct business. my wife will flourish in the industries such as healthcare and life sciences that are growing sectors in the texan economy. just like florida, texas has no state income tax. wages are similar to florida, but a brief analysis showed me the cost of living is lower--food, rent, healthcare and utilities are lower. of particular interest for me is that the state's less regulation would allow me to start and run a business with less money. texan real estate is less expensive when compared to other states. texas has low unemployment rates. texas is projected to have economic growth that will exceed the us average. it is an economic leader in the us, with businesses in the petrochemical, aerospace, agriculture and computer industries. texas has the herds of cattle, the beautiful horses, and ranch lifestyle that my wife adores. texas has towns and cities that shut down to watch the local high school football game on friday nights; and has ocean beaches, deserts, lakes and rivers, mountains and prairies, and modern cities. its plethora of outdoor activities surpass what is available in florida. what i still have to come to terms with is the educational ranking which is confused with contradictory claims based on skewed, biased, and normalized absolutes.

so why Austin?
after a great friend of mine moved there and reported back with "dude, what are you waiting for?", i began my research. i've asked forum members, visting austinites at bars and restaurants, and austinian friends of friends and all of them in one way or another vouche and validate the lists after lists of rankings that depict austin as one of fastest growing, recession-resistant economies that tops the field in job and business opportunities, cultural makeup, outdoor lifestyle, family-orientation, health-mindfulness, proponent of the arts and entertainment, affordability, and quality of life. Here are a few links:
http://www.regentpg.com/why-austin.php
http://www.austintechsource.com/cms/austin/Why-Move-To-Austin
http://www.realtyaustin.com/blog/10-reasons-why-20-somethings-move-to-austin.html
http://www.austinrealestatehomesblog.com/austin-relocation-guide/why-move-to-austin/

Lastly and most important of all--the Circuit of the Americas, which now caters to the Formula-1 and MotoGP fans unk::clapping::eusa_dance:

the wife and i are so committed that we cancelled our plans to vacation in the dominican republic this summer, so that we can spend a week or two in austin to scope it out first hand.