It's 95 degrees with 90% humidity the rest of the year. The city is one giant suburb - you have to drive 30 minutes just to take a piss. You'll probably get a DWI within the first 6 months of living there. On the plus side, if you have kids, the public schools there are pretty good. And you can buy a 4/2 3000 sq ft home for $250k.
Never been to Houston, just heard lots of good things about it from some friends who have family down there. The cramped space is a HUGE factor in why we want to move. My house is barely 1500 sqft and it costs close to $600k. It would be worth more but I don't have a private driveway (extremely annoying). It's currently 15 degrees right now and has been in single and teens all week. We've both been cold and miserable so finding out a place averages in the 70s through out the winter is pretty amazing to me. I'm gonna do a lil more research on Sugarland (this can't be the real name), since it seems to be the overwhelming consensus
I love Houston because I was raised there and my family lives there, but its too damn humid during the summer, too many mosquitoes and there is really nothing to do. I've lived in Grand Prairie (20miles west of Dallas) for the past here years and I love it. Great schools, great neighborhoods, no humidity, minutes from Joe Pool Lake, six flags, hurricane harbor, cowgirls stadium ( for non cowgirl events of course) Rangers ballpark, and many parks and events in Dallas, Irving, Arlington, Grand Prairie and Fortworth. I live in high hawk...great neighborhood. I have several Asian neighbors and there is an Asian market 5 minutes away (love pho)...there is also a nice outlet mall minutes from my house.
http://www.sugarlandtx.gov/ for 600K...you could get a 4000-5000 sq feet house with 4-5 bedrooms in a nice community...and you probably would have a 3 car garage...in NY all u did was pay for property value...but other than that...living in the city is total $hit...and definitely not for a young family imho...
The Dallas/Fort Worth area doesn't really have a "Chinatown". For those who say "what about Richardson?", that would be a sorry excuse. Houston has the most bustling Chinatown in Texas. The Asian population compared to DFW is about the same, but the Chinatown off of Bellaire is awesome. Great place for food, groceries, etc. Another reason not move to Dallas is the mentality there. Dallasites in my opinon, are very fake. Consider the term $40,000 millionaire and you've pretty much described a Dallasite.
Where the H is everyone getting that the dude needs $600k?!?!? With 300K you can get a good large home in a nice established area like the Woodlands, Spring, or even Spring Branch area. The biggest factor for driving up the cost of the home where you will purchase will be based more than likely on how good the local middle and high schools are, in comparison to the rest of the district and city. If you do not have kids yet and are planning on this, don't forget to check the schools out, or drive through the night in the part of the city where you're thinking of purchasing.
lol...no...im just stating with the same amount of money that he spend on a 1500sqft gig in NYC...he would live quite lavishly here...lol...thats all...
I say Bellaire. I'm moving from Bellaire back to the Westhiemer/SW area. Its funny, my wife wants to move to New York after our schooling is done. Anyway, Bellaire has probably the best elementary schools in Htown, itsa rich person school for sure, so I always feel outta place picking up my boys. But your 600k lifestyle should fit right in. The housing for that price range will be ridiculous nice. If not Bellaire I would say Sugarland. As for Asians, I have seen enough of them as everyone says anywhere, honestly but I hear they are more on Bellaire street outside the loop.
You can get a big place in a good area (Woodlands, Sugar Land, etc) for ~$200K if you're patient buying and willing to do some TLC. If/when I buy, that will be the price I'll look to stay around.
I hate sugarland (there is this weird lack of color in the signs there, that drives me nuts), but if you are looking for an Asian community that is probably the best place to go. Anything that is zoned to Clements high school should be nice. I personally love the Woodlands. There are lots of trees up there, that to me makes it feel cooler in the brutal summer months. The biggest thing to me: figure out where you are going to work and look for a place close to there. Commutes can be brutal here. Also your budget may be 600K in New York but wages are lower here than there so I would probably look well under that.
There is plenty to do in Houston...dont believe the people that tell you otherwise. It's the 4th largest city in the nation, of course it will have tons to do.
We live 20 minutes from manhattan and have been there about 5 times in 5 years so we are ok with not having anything to do. In fact I think 2 of those times was when I showed some out of town friends around. The humiditiy that bad? That might be a dealbreaker
Except buy a bottle of liquor on Sundays. WTF is wrong with this State? ...and Hotballa, unless you plan on living or working outside what deference does the humidity make? Grow a pair because in Texas we do it different than those Yanks.
The humidity is that bad in July/August. If you and your family can travel during those months, or go visit family back in NY, you'll be fine. It's so humid that just going down the driveway to check the mail, you'll feel sticky and sweaty by the time you make it back inside. We have pretty nice weather 8 months out of the year, but those summer months are insane. Also, 200-250k is really all you need to get a nice place in Sugar Land. There's asians everywhere too.
Honestly there's really good suburbs all around town. Sugarland, Woodlands, Kingwood, Cy-Fair, Katy, River Oaks area It just depends on what you want. I agree that you should just look at where you are working and pick based on that. There's really not way too much variation in the suburbs. They are all pretty nice. An add on to that point, I wouldn't worry about schooling either as most of the big suburbs have high powered suburban elite schools that are much better than your average "city" school. Some examples: Cy-Fair and Katy ISD are just good in general across the board The Woodlands/Conroe ISD has Woodlands HS Humble ISD has Kingwood HS/Kingwood Park HS/Atascosita HS Klein ISD has good schools in Klein and Klein Oaks. Klein Collins is pretty good too Hell even Houston ISD has Bellaire high school... There are also Asians everywhere and you should be satisfied with the Asian population in pretty much any big suburb around Houston. That is unless you want to be only around Asians in which case you'd have to be a bit more picky.
