I am a nurse at Texas Childrens Hospital. I have over 18 years exp and make over 100k a year there. They start brand new nurses with no exp at a bit over 23. plus change per hour. I work with a couple of nurses that have about 4 years exp making abit over 55k a year. The cost of living in Houston isamong some of the lowest in the country. Dallas is way higher. You can buy a 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bath 2 car garage 2200+ sq foot houme for under 150k. That is on Katy, which is a suburb west of Houston that also has some of the best schools in the state. The traffic here is actually not really that bad. I have every thing I need on the west side for shopping and entertainment. I litterally have with 10 miles of me 3 major shopping malls 5 or 6 multiplex theaters, within 5 blocks of my house I have 3 grocery stores, with in 5 miles I have 2 super walmarts and sams as well as gas stations everywhere. (2.40/GAL) When I gotoworkin the medical center which is 32 miles away it takes me 35minutes in the morning and coming home takes me about 45 minutes. Not really that bad of a commute.
Dallas on the other hand SUCKS for traffic. I have sat not moving there for over an hour because of an accident, They have a serious lack of freeways that you can by pass areas unlike houston, where you are never very far from as freeway. The weather also sucks in dallas. Hot in the summer and snows in the winter with ice storms every once in a while. In Houston it is hot in the summer and mild in the winter.
Chose Houston
Dave