Other than just wanting to build a cool solar home, I've found no reason to do so in Texas. I reside in both Dallas and Chicago based on business and I see some benefits in both towns. I have a large rental unit in both towns based upon finding some excellent space, locations and deals. It took a while to get used to the weather oddities (softball sized hail has a season in Dallas), but all in all it hasn't been too bad. Traffic tie ups in Dallas are worse than Chicago by the way. Even during Chicago's construction phase. I found the largest challenge has been adjusting to the pace of the public. Chicago is all hustle in comparison.
If you think D is bad, Drive down 45 to H town and see what you find. A while back with traffic it took me 2.5 hours to go 100 miles to houston.
My brother is relocating to Houston for his job. I drove down once. It will be some time before I do that again.
if you think thats bad... try driving over to Austin and you will see some real traffic!! and for no good reason as Austin is not a "city" imo... just overcrowded non-sense....
LA still takes the traffic title. Seattle getting up there too. I know about the Houston/ Dallas traffic as well. One reason I was looking at Corpus. That, and being on the water of course. Corpus is a funky town though (Which I like). Any of you guys have an opinion of the place? Jay
Just caught your post.. My family and I have lived in The Woodlands for going on three years. We were in Houston for the seven before that. The Woodlands is a master-planned community, about 80,000 strong right now. It covers about 27,000 acres. The median income is right around $110k per year, very high considering the cost of living here. You can get a lot of home here for the money, with the going rate starting around $93-98 per square foot. Single family homes dominates the construction, but they are building condos and townhomes along our new waterway, up near the town center part of The Woodlands. Property, school, and other taxes and such are high (2.5-3%), but we don't have a state income tax. Sales tax runs around 8.25%. I may be a little off on the numbers, but they're ballpark. Gas, food, etc. runs about the same here as elsewhere. Insurance is a little higher than some places, due to the possibility of a hurricane. But we don't have earthquakes or wildfires to worry about. Flooding is a very localized issue here in The Woodlands, as opposed to a general problem in the greater Houston area. It's hotter than hell in the summer, but you can't go anywhere that doesn't have air conditioning. Likely you'd be more comfortable here in August than some places in the northeast. We have an abundance of mosquitoes though. Our winters our great. No snow and we rarely drop below 30 deg F. I wear shorts year-round. The golf in The Woodlands, and Houston in general, is supposed to be great (not quite Florida's level). But I can't vouch for that personally since I don't golf. The Woodlands is a GREAT place if you have children or are planning to have children. That was our driving force in relocating out here from Houston. The public schools are top-notch, private schools abound, the neighborhoods are setup for kids playing, and you can't throw a rock without hitting a park, playground, or small lake. If you don't have kids there's a lot more here than there was just 2-3 years ago, but it's not going to compare to Chicago. Houston doesn't compare to Chicago for a young single type. We did get about 60-70mph winds from Rita. Some folks here did evacuate, but the majority were just passing through from Houston, Galveston, etc. I-45 was jammed packed for a day or two. Rita turned and weakened a bit. We could have seen 90-100mph here at my house. There is still a chance we become a part of Houston. We can't be annexed until 2014 or so. Talks are in place now to determine future governance. If you have any more question fire away.
My wife and I were raised in The Woodlands. Both our parents still live there. We moved down to the Heights (we both work downtown) but are thinking about building a new house in The Woodlands in the next 2-3 years. Also go here for more info. http://www.thewoodlands.com/
p.s Where else can you get a 5,000 sqft custom home on a beautiful golf course for under a mil? http://www.woodlandscustomsales.com/70 W Ambassador/70 W Ambassador fp-pic.htm http://www.woodlandscustomsales.com/42 Player Green/42 Player Green fp-pic.htm
I trade from the Hill Country. FWIW-our guv and legislators are looking to significantly lower property taxes in a special session that starts today. Guv wants to cut max property tax rate from $1.5/100 to $0.9/100 by increasing business taxes, adding $1 to the cigarrette tax, and using some of the state's 8.4 billion surplus. DS ps-the past few special sessions called to do this failed to do anything. Should be different this time as the courts have ruled that the current tax system used to fund public education (ie-high property taxes) is unconstitutional and set a deadline to correct this flaw. story: http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=159848