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Let me echo the majority opinion and say 'don't do it'. The main reason is you seem unlikely to obtain employment that will make it worthwhile given the precariousness of your health and financial situations. It takes energy and skills to make a family move work and you should work on getting that first.
We know that realistically to make the move, it would take a few years before we'd even be there as we're doing our best to recover financially and as much as we can physically, which is limited. This isn't something we're going to be full on rushing at, either, but will take our time to consider everything and try to make a vacation trip over there to assist us in our decision.
We're afraid of getting worse here where we're living and end up totally stuck when it's somewhere we don't honestly enjoy. From what we're thinking, this area could be making it a lot worse, but that's a topic for another time.
For sure, moving is draining. My husband and I have moved 17 times within our 12 year marriage. One of those moves was clear across the country on the east coast, which would be about 1,300+ miles past Houston. Last time we drove through Houston there was Monster Jam traffic lol - that was a riot! All in all, we want to find a place where we're actually happy living and that would hopefully improve our quality of life.
As far as jobs, I don't think we would plunge into the Houston area and then start looking for work. We'd take that on and get jobs secured before moving over if at all possible (there's a lot of employers that are willing to do phone call/Zoom type interviews these days) so there wouldn't be any major surprises in that area.
My sister and her husband had to rebuild two of their homes in Katy Texas just outside Houston from Hurricane Harvey. It was a nightmare. They are still trying to recover from that I think was 2017. I watch the weather there. Also, Katy Texas is sinking about a foot a year (because of ground water -- they suck the groundwater out and use it and they are planning to transport water to that area instead in the future).
A lot of houses were damaged during Harvey and even though that should be disclosed I bet a lot are not. You could end up with all kinds of issues because the house was repaired (sort of).
Why would you want to move towards hurricanes and continual tornado watches. And, why in the world would you want to be close to the Gulf of Mexico on the shore where all the hurricanes come through? Houston has a lot of bugs and alligators (it's icky there). I lived there 9 months in the 80's and could not get out fast enough.
I really think that you should work on making your life work where you are at. After you have met that challenge then think about making a geographic move. Ideally you should visit several places before you make a move. I would not focus on being so disabled. Life does not get more ideal as you age. Focus on what you can do (do more of what you can and less of what you cannot).
Why would you want to move towards hurricanes and continual tornado watches. And, why in the world would you want to be close to the Gulf of Mexico on the shore where all the hurricanes come through? Houston has a lot of bugs and alligators (it's icky there).
The same reason why many people want to move to FL. (FL summer weather is far more violent and brutal than Houston.)
Besides, though I’m still fairly new to Houston, I’ve never heard of tornado watch (and I watch the weather forecast, down to the hourly basis, on the app because Houston weather can go from 42 to 79 in one day, from raining to sunny within an hour-exactly like today.) and while mosquitos can be the bane of existence in summer, never heard of or saw alligators.
About humidity: I lived in West Coast FL for one year. You can get immediately sweaty at 9 AM in your brand new home just by making coffee IF you don’t have the ac on.-the heat and the humidity there was unbearable. I grew up on the subtropical/tropical island so humidity isn’t new to me, even East Coast NYC where I lived for 15 yrs can get unpleasantly muggy and humid. After one year in FL my husband and I both adjusted to the humidity here easily, he even described it, and I quote: “dry heat”.
I for one like Houston’s weather. We have been to Dallas and Austin more than we can count, I noticed when it’s cold Dallas & Austin are always colder than Houston; when it’s hot Dallas and Austin have higher temperatures than Houston. And depending where you live in Greater Houston you get coastal breeze for a nice relief. And we have pretty nice amount of sun. Even when the forecast said “partly cloudy” it’s sunny with no cloud. (I get the kick out of it because it’s funny.)
OP: without knowing your background/history, are you able to work remotely and virtually? You mentioned you did customer service, will it allow you to work from home? I’m in the local mom group, many would post asking they are seeking “side hustle” or part time work they can do from home when their kids are still little…etc. I don’t remember exactly what but there were always people responding either they can help or so and so are hiring. (Providing they are not scams.)
My brother lives in Phoenix so I commiserate (in terms of heat). People complain about humidity a lot but I find dry heat (Las Vegas for instance.) often more draining. I personally happen to like Houston, we made the choice moving here because we already lived in the No.1 and No.2 cities in the country (won’t do No.3 because Chicago winter/wind is a deal breaker. I function better when it’s no below 65 degree.) so we picked the No.4 city and it’s not disappointing yet. (Husband wfh so we can literally live anywhere.)
It’s not my place to tell people you can or can’t move to a city. It’s brave and scary to move to a brand new city where you don’t know many people and have no social connection. The most pragmatic and realistic approach is to have the financial stability and do your homework. Come visit. Google the hell out of it and research research research. Secure the jobs before you move. (Even with that have enough saving in the bank even though you know you’ll start the new jobs once settled.) Join the Facebook local moving groups or moms groups, there are many people who are resourceful and knowledgeable. I was fortunate to have an older mom friend who introduced me to her realtor, from there on I was on the phone with him multiple times daily and flew here (from FL) many, many times at the very last minute to see the homes we intended to buy. I had to learn immediately what “100 flood plain” is, what “belt way 8” is and what different Houston neighborhoods/suburbs were, I studied FEMA score and how to read the house if it was ever flooded.-I was very fortunate to be in the position to do and the outcome was great for us with where we were in Houston. It definitely offers so much more than Phoenix. (So my brother said.)
In terms of hospitals. I recently went through some minor medical situation myself, and very pleasantly surprised at the quality of medical staff and treatment in Houston. I have two doctors pointing out the culprit that no doctor in NYC, Los Angeles, FL were able to see/spot/properly diagnose. They are minor, but they have been affecting my daily life so I’m very impressed with the doctors I met in Houston.
Can you tutor online? Can you design websites? Can you babysit at home? I knew a mom who did social media management/making reels (trust me she didn’t come from that background.) that paid $185/reel. Any income counts if/when you are committed in turning your life around and making a better life for your children.
Galveston is actually a pretty cool town, not Florida beach standard notwithstanding. Its history and architecture there are very fascinating.
I wish you best of luck in the moving and hopefully this helps.
1. Are there any good suburbs right outside of Houston? Like a 10-30 minutes drive to city?
30 minutes would not even take to the outskirts of Houston
2. How is the job market in Houston and it's surrounding areas?
If you are in engineering, manufacturing or medical - the job market is great
3. Any areas that are great for young families?
You would probably find what you are looking for in Clear Lake
4. How is the weather in Houston?
Hot as Haydes and 100% humidity for 10 months a year and the other two are freezing cold with 100% humidity. But no snow!!
5. How is the walkability in Houston and other surrounding areas?
Depends upon the inner-city neighborhood, but in general it is not walkable.
6. How is the crime rate?
It's bad but not nearly as bad as other cities its size.
7. Are there good hospitals?
World class hospitals.
8. Food cost?
Every chain store and restaurant is in Houston, plus many private stores and Houston is a Foodie city.
9. What does the illegal immigration look like here?
Not as bad a San Antonio but it is a giant city, so it does exist
10. Natural disasters?
Frequent HURRICANES!
11. Mold issues in homes?
Mold? You mean our indoor gardens? LOL - Yes, it is mold prone
1. Good Suburbs 10-30 minutes from Houston - that’s a huge range. 10 minutes, no. 30 minutes yes.
2. Job market - yes great job opportunities here right now. People are saying “it depends on what you do” which is true to a degree. But overall, there should be a healthy market for most career choices.
3. Good areas to raise a family - this basically lines up with your first question. 10, minutes and 30 minutes is a huge difference
4. Weather - “tolerate heat but don’t want to” - well this is for you to decide, not us. Yes, summers are very hot in the area. Seeing you lived in Florida, expect something similar.
5. Public transport- walkable areas - nope. Welcome to Texas where freeways are a way of life. There’s walkable communities where you can do all your every day activities. But walkable city/metro area is a hard no
6. Crime rate - Not the safest city. However in reference to your post, notice that about 95% of those “violence” posts are made by the same user and think of what that tells you. The answer is that there are bad parts you’ll probably want to avoid.
7. Good hospitals? - Yes
8. Food cost - low food costs. This may be the biggest check mark of them all
Edit: Before some **** mentions “Bidenflation”, I suppose OP is asking about Houston in respect to other parts of the US, which yes will be low
9. Illegal immigration - its abundant. How does that affect the job market depends on your job. Are you a construction worker? You’ll be affected. Are you a marketer, lawyer, engineer, software developer? Not so much
10. Natural disasters - well get a hurricane time to time. Tornado watches aren’t a big problem here. Flooding can be. You can avoid it being a problem by avoiding buying in places that are affected and if it’s pouring too hard staying at home
11. Mold issues in homes? - this I have no clue on
LOL, just stumbled across this post. I didn't know I was living in your head "Rent Free"
My sister and her husband had to rebuild two of their homes in Katy Texas just outside Houston from Hurricane Harvey. It was a nightmare. They are still trying to recover from that I think was 2017. I watch the weather there. Also, Katy Texas is sinking about a foot a year (because of ground water -- they suck the groundwater out and use it and they are planning to transport water to that area instead in the future).
A lot of houses were damaged during Harvey and even though that should be disclosed I bet a lot are not. You could end up with all kinds of issues because the house was repaired (sort of).
Why would you want to move towards hurricanes and continual tornado watches. And, why in the world would you want to be close to the Gulf of Mexico on the shore where all the hurricanes come through? Houston has a lot of bugs and alligators (it's icky there). I lived there 9 months in the 80's and could not get out fast enough.
I really think that you should work on making your life work where you are at. After you have met that challenge then think about making a geographic move. Ideally you should visit several places before you make a move. I would not focus on being so disabled. Life does not get more ideal as you age. Focus on what you can do (do more of what you can and less of what you cannot).
I'm sorry to hear that your sister and her husband are still recovering from their financial losses. A set back like that is never easy to recover from I do hope that they can continue to press forward and recover. That's never a fun thing to have happen.
Glad to know about the "sinking" in Katy. I know plenty of places have this problem. There's areas in Arizona that have this as a continuing problem because of old mining towns and things like that they get the occasional sink hole or or one day they're telling a whole neighborhood that it isn't safe and they've gotta get out of their homes. It can end up being a nightmare situation for those caught in it, for sure.
I hear that question from others here, too, "Ew, why would you want to move where they have hurricanes or tornadoes?" After all, a major natural disaster such as that here is incredibly rare. The question is legit.
Basically, my answer is that I need somewhere different. Many other places have their own weather events that may or may not be extreme. I know since we're looking to be closer to the ocean that hurricanes tend to come as a packaged deal with that. I guess it's a risk we're willing to take at this point.
Even if Houston has a lot of bugs, I honestly don't think the bug variety is all that much different than what we get here in Arizona.
I haven't heard of alligators there, but being so close to Louisiana and such - I can totally believe that and caution is always good to take. I will keep this in mind.
While we're doing our best to make things work here. We're not as bad as we have been before, but not as great as we'd like to be. I feel like this town and forcing things to work is trying to force a puzzle piece to fit into a puzzle in which it doesn't belong...all it does is get battered, bent, and roughed up around the eges.
I was born and raised here, been living in this area for well over 20 years. I have not seen any significant improvements. The complaints I have remain the same: not a lot of things for kids to do here, not a lot of activities for young families to do together, huge lack of job opportunities, incredibly difficult to make friends here (someone always knows someone that hates your guts and will let that be known), etc. etc. I have been hurt badly by people in this town and I have been in two abusive relationships with ex's. Thankfully one I don't have to worry about, but one of them works at a local grocery store (I can't simply avoid it, there are few stores here. I have seem them attempt to follow me, too. I bet they're ticked at me, though) and they made friends with a best friend of mine (and my friend knew about the abusive relationship I ended up being in with that individual so...good-bye to yet another friendship). Many of the previous years, we've been trying to avoid my husband's abusive family nearby and their shenanigans. I have to drive 2 hours away to see a specialist and sometimes to even get a simple test done because they simply don't offer it here.
The only home that we did buy ended up infested with mold and made our health conditions so much worse so we had to get out and there goes the place we could actually call 'home', but now we're making rent payments where we live now and mortgage payments on the old property still. Talk about upside down.
I'm tired of all the garbage. That's why I'd take hurricane territory over this.
You can't stick a salt water fish in a freshwater tank and expect it to thrive. My husband and I have been unable to thrive here, we need a different place. We've tried to make it work. We've been married over 10 years now and it still hasn't "worked out."
My husband wants to get near the ocean to hopefully increase his quality of life and perhaps increase his life span in the long run. He never wanted to stay here when we got married in the first place, but as an abuse victim - wanting to get far away made absolute sense. At this point, though, his providers keep dropping him and he's basically labeled "terminal". He's been given 2 years and little hope, and I want to do everything I can so that he can be there and we can grow old together, both see our kids grow up, etc. I think I'd feel guilty if he passed away and we hadn't tried absolutely everything we could.
If it's not going to end up being Texas, the next and closest resort he's pondering is moving to Mexico and to be honest, that makes me all sorts of nervous.
We do plan to visit places we're thinking about before we make a jump in that direction. That's always a good rule of thumb.
The same reason why many people want to move to FL. (FL summer weather is far more violent and brutal than Houston.)
Besides, though I’m still fairly new to Houston, I’ve never heard of tornado watch (and I watch the weather forecast, down to the hourly basis, on the app because Houston weather can go from 42 to 79 in one day, from raining to sunny within an hour-exactly like today.) and while mosquitos can be the bane of existence in summer, never heard of or saw alligators.
About humidity: I lived in West Coast FL for one year. You can get immediately sweaty at 9 AM in your brand new home just by making coffee IF you don’t have the ac on.-the heat and the humidity there was unbearable. I grew up on the subtropical/tropical island so humidity isn’t new to me, even East Coast NYC where I lived for 15 yrs can get unpleasantly muggy and humid. After one year in FL my husband and I both adjusted to the humidity here easily, he even described it, and I quote: “dry heat”.
I for one like Houston’s weather. We have been to Dallas and Austin more than we can count, I noticed when it’s cold Dallas & Austin are always colder than Houston; when it’s hot Dallas and Austin have higher temperatures than Houston. And depending where you live in Greater Houston you get coastal breeze for a nice relief. And we have pretty nice amount of sun. Even when the forecast said “partly cloudy” it’s sunny with no cloud. (I get the kick out of it because it’s funny.)
OP: without knowing your background/history, are you able to work remotely and virtually? You mentioned you did customer service, will it allow you to work from home? I’m in the local mom group, many would post asking they are seeking “side hustle” or part time work they can do from home when their kids are still little…etc. I don’t remember exactly what but there were always people responding either they can help or so and so are hiring. (Providing they are not scams.)
My brother lives in Phoenix so I commiserate (in terms of heat). People complain about humidity a lot but I find dry heat (Las Vegas for instance.) often more draining. I personally happen to like Houston, we made the choice moving here because we already lived in the No.1 and No.2 cities in the country (won’t do No.3 because Chicago winter/wind is a deal breaker. I function better when it’s no below 65 degree.) so we picked the No.4 city and it’s not disappointing yet. (Husband wfh so we can literally live anywhere.)
It’s not my place to tell people you can or can’t move to a city. It’s brave and scary to move to a brand new city where you don’t know many people and have no social connection. The most pragmatic and realistic approach is to have the financial stability and do your homework. Come visit. Google the hell out of it and research research research. Secure the jobs before you move. (Even with that have enough saving in the bank even though you know you’ll start the new jobs once settled.) Join the Facebook local moving groups or moms groups, there are many people who are resourceful and knowledgeable. I was fortunate to have an older mom friend who introduced me to her realtor, from there on I was on the phone with him multiple times daily and flew here (from FL) many, many times at the very last minute to see the homes we intended to buy. I had to learn immediately what “100 flood plain” is, what “belt way 8” is and what different Houston neighborhoods/suburbs were, I studied FEMA score and how to read the house if it was ever flooded.-I was very fortunate to be in the position to do and the outcome was great for us with where we were in Houston. It definitely offers so much more than Phoenix. (So my brother said.)
In terms of hospitals. I recently went through some minor medical situation myself, and very pleasantly surprised at the quality of medical staff and treatment in Houston. I have two doctors pointing out the culprit that no doctor in NYC, Los Angeles, FL were able to see/spot/properly diagnose. They are minor, but they have been affecting my daily life so I’m very impressed with the doctors I met in Houston.
Can you tutor online? Can you design websites? Can you babysit at home? I knew a mom who did social media management/making reels (trust me she didn’t come from that background.) that paid $185/reel. Any income counts if/when you are committed in turning your life around and making a better life for your children.
Galveston is actually a pretty cool town, not Florida beach standard notwithstanding. Its history and architecture there are very fascinating.
I wish you best of luck in the moving and hopefully this helps.
I'm glad that you were able to compare and contrast Houston from other areas around the US. That helps give me a bit of an idea.
I can totally believe that Houston has more things to do than Phoenix. That would make an awful lot of sense!
As far as my working situation goes, it is difficult to me to work virtually. Most jobs require "no background noise." I've tried applying to web chat jobs instead, but few out there I'm seeing are solely webchat as they usually do some form of outbound or inbound calling. My youngest is still at home with me during the day and while, she can be quiet for periods of time and play with her toys, it doesn't always last. She starts talking whenever I get on a phone call. I lost my last remote/work from home job because I could not keep up with the amount of work they wanted done each hour because every few minutes it was full of interruptions from the kids, which made it difficult.
A lot of side hustles I can't do - anything in which I have to drive is an automatic, "No." I don't have a driver's license due to medical issues. Whether I'll ever be able to get one or not remains to be seen.
I won't do babysitting because the liability would be far too high. Not many people want an epileptic watching their children. I'm not going to do that to others because if there was some big incident, it'd be trouble for me, more than likely.
A lot of the online tutoring I've been finding either requires a "quiet environment," or a higher education degree than I have. I did one website for a while, but couldn't do keep doing it because the kids would've been too noisy in the background or would've wanted to be on the webcam.
I can't say I know enough about website design to build a website. I have only done my own websites often from templates or using HTML or BB Code. Although, there are more programming languages that work better that I don't know.
I have heard a lot about social media management and such. I'm not quite certain how one gets into that, and nor am I certain all the skills that it takes to do social media management.
I'm sorry to hear that your sister and her husband are still recovering from their financial losses. A set back like that is never easy to recover from I do hope that they can continue to press forward and recover. That's never a fun thing to have happen.
Glad to know about the "sinking" in Katy. I know plenty of places have this problem. There's areas in Arizona that have this as a continuing problem because of old mining towns and things like that they get the occasional sink hole or or one day they're telling a whole neighborhood that it isn't safe and they've gotta get out of their homes. It can end up being a nightmare situation for those caught in it, for sure.
I hear that question from others here, too, "Ew, why would you want to move where they have hurricanes or tornadoes?" After all, a major natural disaster such as that here is incredibly rare. The question is legit.
Basically, my answer is that I need somewhere different. Many other places have their own weather events that may or may not be extreme. I know since we're looking to be closer to the ocean that hurricanes tend to come as a packaged deal with that. I guess it's a risk we're willing to take at this point.
Even if Houston has a lot of bugs, I honestly don't think the bug variety is all that much different than what we get here in Arizona.
I haven't heard of alligators there, but being so close to Louisiana and such - I can totally believe that and caution is always good to take. I will keep this in mind.
While we're doing our best to make things work here. We're not as bad as we have been before, but not as great as we'd like to be. I feel like this town and forcing things to work is trying to force a puzzle piece to fit into a puzzle in which it doesn't belong...all it does is get battered, bent, and roughed up around the eges.
I was born and raised here, been living in this area for well over 20 years. I have not seen any significant improvements. The complaints I have remain the same: not a lot of things for kids to do here, not a lot of activities for young families to do together, huge lack of job opportunities, incredibly difficult to make friends here (someone always knows someone that hates your guts and will let that be known), etc. etc. I have been hurt badly by people in this town and I have been in two abusive relationships with ex's. Thankfully one I don't have to worry about, but one of them works at a local grocery store (I can't simply avoid it, there are few stores here. I have seem them attempt to follow me, too. I bet they're ticked at me, though) and they made friends with a best friend of mine (and my friend knew about the abusive relationship I ended up being in with that individual so...good-bye to yet another friendship). Many of the previous years, we've been trying to avoid my husband's abusive family nearby and their shenanigans. I have to drive 2 hours away to see a specialist and sometimes to even get a simple test done because they simply don't offer it here.
The only home that we did buy ended up infested with mold and made our health conditions so much worse so we had to get out and there goes the place we could actually call 'home', but now we're making rent payments where we live now and mortgage payments on the old property still. Talk about upside down.
I'm tired of all the garbage. That's why I'd take hurricane territory over this.
You can't stick a salt water fish in a freshwater tank and expect it to thrive. My husband and I have been unable to thrive here, we need a different place. We've tried to make it work. We've been married over 10 years now and it still hasn't "worked out."
My husband wants to get near the ocean to hopefully increase his quality of life and perhaps increase his life span in the long run. He never wanted to stay here when we got married in the first place, but as an abuse victim - wanting to get far away made absolute sense. At this point, though, his providers keep dropping him and he's basically labeled "terminal". He's been given 2 years and little hope, and I want to do everything I can so that he can be there and we can grow old together, both see our kids grow up, etc. I think I'd feel guilty if he passed away and we hadn't tried absolutely everything we could.
If it's not going to end up being Texas, the next and closest resort he's pondering is moving to Mexico and to be honest, that makes me all sorts of nervous.
We do plan to visit places we're thinking about before we make a jump in that direction. That's always a good rule of thumb.
Thanks
I see. That makes more sense. The bad relationships alone is a reason to find a new place. If your husband will do better in humidity then that adds another reason (or maybe the primary reason actually).
I hope you are able to figure out where to go and how to eliminate the house you are still having to hold onto. If you go to Houston try to get on higher ground there And be aware that alligators are sometimes found strolling through neighborhoods. They have the Bayous down there and so they float all over the place.
My sister and BIL recovered financially (since he's been a total workhorse forever). They are still trying to get everything totally repaired, etc.
Where I live we have coyotes and bobcats and occasional mountain lions, etc. A whole bunch of squirrels and not a lot of bugs (a big plus for me).
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I do hope that they can continue to press forward and recover. That's never a fun thing to have happen. 
