Posted on 04/18/2002 10:10:10 AM PDT by CyberCowboy777
Rolling hills covered with bluebonnets now. Lots of Germans settled in this area in the mid 1800's because the countryside reminded them of Germany. Lots of small towns with plenty of atmosphere. Check out New Braunfels, Boerne, Marble Falls, maybe even as far north as Lampasas. Even though I live in Plano now, actually I prefer West Texas, Abilene, Lubbock, Amarillo etc. but I think you almost have to be raised there to like it, as I was.
FYI earlier question, Rockwall is just a couple of miles east of Dallas, if I remember right...
Victoria is now big enough to have their own airport and is serviced Southwest Air.
Corpus Christi is also a great place to live and raise a family. It is a coastal city and is a major stopping point for people needing the Ocean.
Your smaller towns are best if you are looking for acreage and are wanting to build your own home. You will be suprised how far your home budget will reach in these areas.
Fort Worth is still 400 miles from Corpus Christi and 220 from Houston. A large Texas map will put the scale in better perspective. It means nothing to us to drive 300+ miles to see someone or to do something special.
The towns just south of Houston are known for their flooding problems due to being only 15-50 feet above sea level. For some, this is their way of life that they would not trade for.
About 30 miles north of downtown.
I always love people dumping on Houston -- it's crowded, it's hot, it's humid, it's polluted, it's full of stupid Democrats, with Lee (period) P (period) Brown as Mayor.
Well, all that's true. I guess that's why Houston is one of the fastest growing metro area in the nation, currently number 4, and moving up on Chicago (#3) daily.
Housing is a bargain here -- well-made, 4-br, 2500 sq. ft. can be had for between $ 120 and 160 K, in a very nice neighborhood. Lots to do and see; Galveston (Gulf of Mexico) is only 50 miles south of downtown, although the beaches there suck. Space Center, Six Flags-Astroworld, new football (Texans) and baseball (Astros) stadiums, great museums and art galleries. Great Bar-B-Que, gulf seafood, and the best microbrew in America (St. Arnold's Brown Ale -- made here; go take the brewery tour every Saturday at 1 pm).
Yeah, it really bites here. Better go somewhere else. Like Cleveland.
Texas is a very diverse state. Northeast Texas is grassy with a lot of trees and vegetation--a Louisiana-like tropical climate. That holds true for everything East of Dallas, really. North of Dallas in the Lubbock/Amarillo areas it is very much like Kansas and Oklahoma--flat plains that go on forever. West of Ft Worth is desolate and beautiful. Midland and Odessa are like two settlements on Mars, just off the Interstate. They are the very definition of something in the middle of nowhere.
West of the Midland/Odessa area is empty and gorgeous until you get to El Paso. I haven't been to El Paso in many years but still have fond memories of the place. I loved living there.
You can't go wrong anywhere in Texas but if the heat/humidity combo bother you, stay away from everything east of Dallas. If heat bothers you, stay where you are!
One of the nicest places I have been in Texas is a little place outside of Austin called Round Rock.
The North side and the West side of Houston are the conservative strongholds. Conroe has lakes and pine forests. West is the Katy Prarie with fewer trees.
It's doubtful you want to live in Houston unless your job requires it. Geographically, it is a monstrous city. Literally, you could fit about eight or ten major US cities within its geographical boundaries. That doesn't even count Houston's unincorporated suburbs, which are large and numerous.
There is no mass transit, except for a rather lousy bus system, and the freeways are choked with traffic.
In Conroe, you can get the "country" experience, while still being near enough to Houston to enjoy its benefits when you want them. The biggest airport is on the north side, not too far from Conroe. The west side is really growing and you can get land cheap and enjoy the same benefits. I own a few acres about 50 miles southwest of Houston in a heavily-wooded area. I'll probably retire there in a few years.
The Houston area is very hot and humid in the summer. The rest of the year it's quite nice. There is a variety of climates to choose from in the state, from the Gulf to the high desert, from deep pine forests to oak-covered hills. There aren't any ski slopes, but there's just about everything else.
If you worked in Houston, it would be about an hour's drive - to GET you within an hour's drive of LAND. Houston would probably be off your list. But there are plenty of places you'd like.
Dallas is still my fave because of its cosmopolitain attitude and anything's-possible spirit. Lots of great communities in the Dallas suburbs, plus a lot of beltway areas are pretty much self-contained, business-wise, and within an easy hour of LAND.
The Texas Hill Country is quite beautiful with real hills and numerous lovely large lakes. This area of the state starts at Austin and goes north and west. In fact, if you drew a north-south line thru Austin, you'd have the perfect demarcation between the Black Plains (very flat, but lush) to the east and the Hill Country to the west/northwest/north. Lots of tech jobs in Austin if you want to draw a paycheck, OR a decent place to hang out yer own shingle. San Antonio is 90 miles to the southwest. It's a big city to be sure, but you'd have to be sure you'd feel comfortable with such a heavy Tex-Spanic influence. Just to the northeast side of San Antone on your drive in from Austin is the German-originated community of New Braunfels, pronounced by the locals as New Brawns-fulls. Still a lot of fine German folks there.
Corpus is a nice slice of heaven, but humid - hey, you won't get away from that until you get out in West Texas, where it's so dry that houses sprout evaporative coolers on their roofs instead of air-conditioners - and they actually work.
El Paso is a really cool place as border towns go, and there are some really fine amenities. And if you want land? LOTS of it available close to the city. OK, you can grow cactus on it, but it's LAND.
All in all, I'd guess that you'd have a fair shot at the kind of lifestyle you'd like in the fringes of Dallas-Ft. Worth. You can get land w/in an hour east of Dallas, west of Ft. Worth, or north or south of both these cities. And they're both very vibrant places. I'd make a couple of trips if I were you and scout out the situation.
And we haven't even touched upon the dozens of small communities scattered around the state where everyone WILL know your name and what brand of milk you buy and how much you bet on high school football games. There is a LOT of very real wealth concentrated in many parts of rural Texas where, if ya got it, you fer sure do NOT show it.
Michael
If you want land you'll need to get out of San Antonio though I'm sure it's the same as any other larger city. If you don't mind a commute there's Spring Branch, Bulverde, Blanco, Marble Falls (which is gorgeous though the falls were flooded by the Lower Colorado River Authority years ago for flood control downstream and for use by a power plant that's on the lake. The lake is beautiful and you're right at the edge of the Hill Country, some of the most picturesque land in Texas. Can you tell I loved it up there).
Austin is kind of strange. There's a great music / art / hippie scene there as well as a good technology base, but the combo of all of them togeather is kind of goofy.
I HATE EVERY SECOND I'M IN DALLAS AND HOUSTON.
Land north of Houston is acceptable (Conroe, Cleveland, etc.) Humble, pronounced Umble, where I'm from used to be great although they're making the Highway going (I-59) through it into a Mega Highway and the town has lost alot of it's charm. Main Street is still the same, but it deadends into the freeway. Once you get off of the freeway it's still very nice and if you ever visit the area, Atascasita is not another city but a chain of neighborhoods that actually is larger than Humble itself. If you go through Humble (via FM 1960) and across the bridge over Lake Houston into the Huffman area the land prices should come down though I haven't been there in years.
In the end I would recommend north of Houston or North of San Antonio (though land prices can be outrageous)
Hope this helps...
Æ
Also have family, multi-multi-multi millionaires who could live anywhere in the world who chose to settle waaaaaay down south in McAllen, and love it. (To each his own.) My beef with west Texas is that it is far too hot and far too dry. If you'll be gardening or wanting to do lots of outdoorsy stuff, I'd shoot for more temperate parts of the state, like those suggested above.
I don't intend to live in the city though. I'll commute an hour if I have to. I'm gonna get me a few dozen acres and a lil' ol' shack out in the middle of bumf*ck nowhere, out where I can go take a whiz off my front porch and there ain't nobody to call the cops for my indecent exposure and whatnot... ;)
M&M, you got any thoughts, bro? Talk to The Man, Cowboy. He knows what the deal with Dallas area is. Hook up with the lovely Miss Rika for some Houston info.
Sorry I couldn't get you closer to the coast but.....!! I was raised in the Houston area and I am not impressed with Galveston or their beaches. They are not like Miami Beach or Malibu, which is north of Santa Monica. Good luck.
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