Good places to live in Texas

I've lived in Texas all my life, in 3 places. Beaumont for 18 years, College Station currently for 2.5, and my parents live in Montgomery/Conroe for 2.5 years as well so I've spent a good portion of time in both CS and Montgomery.

People talk a lot of crap on Beaumont as it features a lot of poverty in 3 of the 4 portions of city (north, south, and east sides), however there are nice parts in the west side and it's not all bad. It's more of a "homey" feeling city, especially if you grew up there.

I won't recommend College Station at all as there are so many stupid college student drivers. I feel like I'm gonna end up in a wreck that isn't my fault nearly every time I drive.

I won't really recommend Montgomery either unless you like long drives. We have a nice house in a nice new neighborhood but it takes 10 minutes to get to the gas station and 20 minutes to get to the nearest grocery store. Not ideal, in my opinion. The Woodlands are nearby which is kinda cool, but doesn't make the drive necessarily worth it.

These three areas that I'm familiar with are damn hot/humid though, and hopefully your AC works well in your Jeep if you're considering anything remotely southeast or southern. I'd suggest somewhere more north in Texas like Arlington or Dallas or something. Tyler is a nice area.

Whatever you choose, it's the (in my opinion) greatest state!
 
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My mom lived in Longview for 5 yrs and really liked it. We visited once, don't kid yourself, it was humid as hell there, especially being from CA.
 
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Austin and the hill country is where i'd recommend.

I personally would live in the hill country (everything west and north west of Austin), it just feels more like "Texas" to me. Cedar trees galore, shrubs everywhere you look, and constant up and down, up and down.

As well, you cannot beat the southern feel of Texas. Just an amazing place to live.
 
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I'm waiting for them to secede from the union, then I'll be right behind ya. :)

Seriously, If I ever leave here, Austin (or thereabout) is likely to be my destination. I have friends in Converse (San Antonio) and Freeport (Galveston) so I'd take a look around those too.
 
Once you pick a town, you're only part way there. Now it's time to think about the local choices; flooding, erosion/land slides, distance to shopping, traffic access, traffic patterns, air quality, nearby industry, airports, train traffic, infrastructure, taxes, overhead transmission lines, lot layout, and my biggest pet peeve - ambient noise. Choosing wisely can be the difference between paradise and hell.
 
RaymondT said:
Once you pick a town, you're only part way there. Now it's time to think about the local choices; flooding, erosion/land slides, distance to shopping, traffic access, traffic patterns, air quality, nearby industry, airports, train traffic, infrastructure, taxes, overhead transmission lines, lot layout, and my biggest pet peeve - ambient noise. Choosing wisely can be the difference between paradise and hell.
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Absolutely spot on. There are a hell of a lot of other things to consider. I did a expansive comparison of all the things mentioned above before settling on Eastern Oregon. Taxes, air quality and traffic played a MAJOR factor in our choice.

We looked seriously at the Carson City, Gardnerville, Mindon area of Nevada. Had a lot going for it but Nevada is starting to really feel the economic crunch and I am afraid their trend of raising ancillary taxes is going to get worse.

Is the East side of Oregon to cold? This years snow is extremely unusual for around here.
 
RaymondT said:
Once you pick a town, you're only part way there. Now it's time to think about the local choices; flooding, erosion/land slides, distance to shopping, traffic access, traffic patterns, air quality, nearby industry, airports, train traffic, infrastructure, taxes, overhead transmission lines, lot layout, and my biggest pet peeve - ambient noise. Choosing wisely can be the difference between paradise and hell.
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Totally agree. And these are all things I'm looking at as well. Property tax, traffic, weather patterns, etc. Obviously I can't find some place in my price range that is perfect all around, but I'll try and find something as close to it as I can get.
 
Stinger said:
Absolutely spot on. There are a hell of a lot of other things to consider. I did a expansive comparison of all the things mentioned above before settling on Eastern Oregon. Taxes, air quality and traffic played a MAJOR factor in our choice.

We looked seriously at the Carson City, Gardnerville, Mindon area of Nevada. Had a lot going for it but Nevada is starting to really feel the economic crunch and I am afraid their trend of raising ancillary taxes is going to get worse.

Is the East side of Oregon to cold? This years snow is extremely unusual for around here.
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I'll tell you what, I've always wanted to live in the area of Oregon you're in. I've liked that are since I was a little kid, and the weather there (except for the snow you're currently getting) is really great. However, it's gotten so far out of my price range that it isn't even feasible. Once upon a time it was affordable, but not anymore.
 
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If you'd like to live in an area where you could experience all 4 seasons in the same workweek, may I suggest Nashville. Nashville is the IT city right now... nearly 100 new residents moving in each day. With that comes cost. Housing cost has skyrocketed. I live about 25 minutes outside of downtown and would need to go just a little further to get what your looking for here. Weather isn't the best... hot summers and cold winters. We have a saying that I'm sure others do as well.. "if you don't like the weather in TN, wait a couple hours". 10 days ago we had snow on the ground and today it's 70 and sunny.
 
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FF_Jeep said:
If you'd like to live in an area where you could experience all 4 seasons in the same workweek, may I suggest Nashville. Nashville is the IT city right now... nearly 100 new residents moving in each day. With that comes cost. Housing cost has skyrocketed. I live about 25 minutes outside of downtown and would need to go just a little further to get what your looking for here. Weather isn't the best... hot summers and cold winters. We have a saying that I'm sure others do as well.. "if you don't like the weather in TN, wait a couple hours". 10 days ago we had snow on the ground and today it's 70 and sunny.
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My wife was looking at Nashville the other night and commenting on how expensive it was. I told her it must be a hot ticket right now, because all of the houses we were seeing there were way more than what we wanted to spend (or could spend for that matter).
 
If you like the Austin area move to North Austin. Leander, Cedar Park, Round Rock. They are all about an hour drive away from Hiddenfalls adventure park, the only place close to go wheeling at. It is growing, so I think now would be a good time to buy a house. Its quiet, family friendly and there is a good amount of things to do in Austin. Houses are nice here. I grew up in this area and I would not mind staying in this area and when my time comes raise a family.

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There is also a lot of computer jobs in the area and more buisness's are moving to Austin to set up shop. Dell is here, Facebook, Samsung, Apple, etc.

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The area I grew up in was Leander/Cedar Park right on the line. The school districts in the area are really good, have great teachers and lots of extra curricular activities. If you look into the area and have questions just send me a message. Im a local and can give you honest feedback.

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Chris said:
My wife was looking at Nashville the other night and commenting on how expensive it was. I told her it must be a hot ticket right now, because all of the houses we were seeing there were way more than what we wanted to spend (or could spend for that matter).
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If it Nashville comes back into the conversation, check out the Smyrna/Murfreesboro area south of town or Mt Juliet/Lebanon east of town.
 
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Blackoutt said:
The area I grew up in was Leander/Cedar Park right on the line. The school districts in the area are really good, have great teachers and lots of extra curricular activities. If you look into the area and have questions just send me a message. Im a local and can give you honest feedback.

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Will do for sure! We're a ways off from moving, but we're trying to narrow it down incase we do!

FF_Jeep said:
If it Nashville comes back into the conversation, check out the Smyrna/Murfreesboro area south of town or Mt Juliet/Lebanon east of town.
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I'll tell her to look at that area anyways. She's obsessed with looking at houses on Zillow as it is!
 
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Chris just come on down to this small town of Dayton Texas. It's gets hot and humid but it's a short drive to Beaumont or Houston. Plenty of black gumbo mud down here. No snow to drive on.


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I'm taking all of these cities and putting them into Zillow... The wife and I are doing that to see what kind of houses we can get for the money down there.
 
Chris said:
Good suggestions, looking at those two (as well as Longview) as we speak. Seems like they're close enough to DFW that if we needed to go to the city, we wouldn't be too far away.



I'm afraid we'd be wiped out by a hurricane!
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Chandler is less than 20 minutes from Tyler great schools and churches
 
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You might want to consider an area like Santa Fe NM, my wife and I have spent a lot of time there over the years and that was one area that was on our list. There is no serious heat in the summer, typically in the 80"s with low humidity, traffic is far from overwhelming, and it's not prone to natural disasters. The down side, it does snow in the winter but the temps do not get cold like you are experiencing now. After a snowfall it warms up nicely and the snow does not hang around. Home prices are not cheap but 250K is doable.
 
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