Opinions wanted! Used to live in Austin travelled to Houston often and been to Dallas a few times. They all have great things about them. Here's my pros and cons...and really nervous about the job markets in some of them.
Austin Pros:
Beautiful Hill Country
Medium sized, liberal town
Right in the middle for drives to HOU or DFW
Used to live there, familiarity is good
Austin Cons:
Not as many hospitals not sure what nursing market is like
Not as much to do as in larger cities (museums, etc)
Can be pricey for houses
Dry like the dessert
Dallas Pros:
Loved Plano area
The culture,shopping
The houses
Sports teams, museums,
Change of seasons as compared to rest of cities
Dallas Cons:
Tornadoes more prevalent
Houses can be pricey too
Crime rates
Houston Pros:
Love the heat
Great houses and affordable
Culture, museums,sports
Katy Mills,shopping,Ikea
Nursing market seems favorable
Great master planned communities
Houston Cons:
Heard about giant flying roaches(never saw them)
Crime rates
Anyone else confused now? Anyone have a favorite? Thanks for listening!
Those flying roaches are pretty much anywhere in TX with humidity. lol Its amazing what you can exterminate for tho. Like anywhere, take the good with the bad. I left TX due to heat, and fireants, mosquitos, and roaches. I'm in the mountains now, but there are spiders, different types of wildlife, and snakes. So it it everywhere. lol
Not as many hospitals not sure what nursing market is like
Not as much to do as in larger cities (museums, etc)
Can be pricey for houses
Dry like the dessert
I live in Round Rock, a suburb of Austin, and work in central Austin. LOVE IT!!! The nursing market here is great! Most hospitals are offering large sign on bonuses and relocation bonuses in all areas. There are always office positions to be had if that is what you are in to as well. There is tons to do here! Outdoors there is fishing, boating, hike/bike trails etc. There are many museums here too. The Andy Warhol exhibit just wrapped up downtown and there is also the LBJ Museum. We have our own Broadway production group as well as a ballet company and the UT symphony. Austin is also famous for being the Live Music Capitol of the World! We are also getting our own pro arena football team this year. Believe me it is not dry here! I am originally from West Texas, that is dry like the dessert. In Austin alone, we have Town Lake, Lake Austin, and Lake Travis. In Buda there is a large state park on the river. In San Marcos there are also parks on the river. And New Braunsville has Schliterbaun. The housing market here is also better than is has been in years! It is defiantly a buyers market! Traffic is not as bad as people make it out to be either, no worse than in any other large city. Every one of the places you listed has problems during rush hour. As far as crime rate goes, according to Texas statistics, Austin has the lowest crime rating of the three, with Dallas having the highest. And last, this is not just a college town! College Station is a college town, but Austin is not. Sure Austin has UT, but that is NOT the only thing that makes this city what it is!
Can you tell I love my city?! Feel free to PM if you have any questions I would love to help you out.:)
3 people going to the game. Coke always runs promos on their cans for tickets. 5 bucks per ticket. Ever been to Minutemaid stadium? good seats anywhere. The most I ever paid for a seat there was 35 bucks and it were 12 rows back from the dugout along first base. Cost for tickets total 15 bucks. Parking, if you are willing to walk about 3 blocks you can actaully get parking for 3.00 at the majority of the parking lots around there. Just gotta be willing to walk 3-5 city blocks. No big deal. Total so far 18.00 bucks. 2 kids age 11 and 8. They each can get a dog and they never drink a large drink themselves. They always end up leaving half of it. They share a drink. I get a dog and a drink and cost for 2 drinks 3 dogs is under 22 bucks. Thus the 40 bucks.
It can be done I have done it.
Dave
ps. after living here for over 22 years now i have never had a flying roach land on me and my house sure is NOT infested. I have seen about 3 roaches in the last 3 years in my house total and those were after a partiucularly bad storms.
Dplear...your PS made my day(about the roaches). I went to this website below a long time ago. Had a good laugh with this guys story and have had the picture of this sight stuck in my head since. Anyway, thanks for clarifying that issue!!!! Also, I can vouch for your Astros game. That's how my friend does it, that's how we got season passes to SeaWorld for cheap and had a summer full of SeaWorld adventures that merely cost us the gas to and from SanAntonio. I'm serious, for just $20 we had a family season pass for the summer that also offered special drink prices and food deals.
Anyway, here's that website with the roach story...
YUCK! I just read the guy's story posted by Nimbus... I was thinking of a job in Houston this summer that sounded awesome, but I can't STAND roaches!! I am the world's hugest roach-a-phobe you ever will meet. Any other bugs (other than the house centipede that invaded my dorm room the other day! http://www.uark.edu/depts/entomolo/museum/house_centipede.html )are OK, but roaches NO WAY. We had a couple of flying ones in our house one time and I could not stand it, and we have had some of the "scuttling" kind too, that get into the tiniest crevice and then pop out somewhere else later. UGHHH!!!!! I guess I will just have to go armed with Raid if I head to Houston this summer, cause I will be living in a cheap place and I am sure it will not be roach free! *shudders horrendously* (sorry I got on a real talking streak there!)
Can you tell I love my city?! Feel free to PM if you have any questions I would love to help you out.:) [/b]
I love your city too:D One of my brothers lives in Round Rock too. They other brother and my dad live in Bastrop. Truly a beautiful place to live. If I weren't tied down to where I live now the Austin area is definately where I would be.
Oh and roaches are everywhere:eek: We have the flying ones here in Louisiana too:(
When we lived in Austin we were in North Austin then Round Rock. If we moved back to Austin we would go to Round Rock but we have made a decision that when we go to Houston for our visit we will look specifically at Katy and The Woodlands. On the way in from Austin we would always take a drive in some areas of Katy. I don't know where for sure we were but it was somewhere right near the McDonald's with a playland off of I-10 just past Katy Mills, I think it is by Fry Rd. Cinco Ranch and Grand Lakes has our interest.
Can anyone tell me which hospitals are really aggressive in recruiting right now??? Which hospitals do I want to avoid right now???
The road you are talking about wioth the playland at McDonalds...right there on the feeder road is Mason Road. It looks like a busy road but it is a nice one to live off of. I actually live off of it. I am about a 1.5 miles south of the freeway. It is nothing but residential neighborhoods back here. Houses anywhere form 100-1.5 million. All depends upon what you want.
As for hospitals, ALL of them are actively recruiting. I can tell you that St. Catherines off of Fry road is a beautiful hospital and small only about 100 beds total but the pay there is a bit low. about low 20's./hr. It is part of the Christus chain. You want the high pay it will be in the medical center. That where I work. There are literally about 100+ hosptials on the Houston area...so what kind of nursing do ou want?
*shudders horrendously* (sorry I got on a real talking streak there!)
SnowymtnRN
452 Posts
Those flying roaches are pretty much anywhere in TX with humidity. lol Its amazing what you can exterminate for tho. Like anywhere, take the good with the bad. I left TX due to heat, and fireants, mosquitos, and roaches. I'm in the mountains now, but there are spiders, different types of wildlife, and snakes. So it it everywhere. lol