Aussie wanting to move to tyler area (Houston, Dallas: for sale, apartments)

[Aaron97]

Hi guys, my name is Aaron, I am 17 (18 in May). And I want to move to Texas, most likely the Tyler area.
I would prefer to live in a rural or semi-rural area and am also wanting to be a civil engineer. How are jobs for civil engineers in this area? What is the cost of living like, compared to Sydney, Australia?
I am Caucasian (if that matters?). I have researched about Tyler and have found the city has a TXDOT department there?
House wise, I would want a 3000 Square foot + log home with at least 5 acres. It would also be great if it was close to a lake.
I would be most likely going on a holiday there, early next year.
I am wondering whether the Tyler area (or 30 minutes radius).
If I like this area, I would be applying for an E3 Visa, when I finish my Bachelors degree?
Your help and opinions are much appreciated.
If there is anything else, I should ask or know, can you please say so?

[quietthings]

Originally Posted by Aaron97

Hi guys, my name is Aaron, I am 17 (18 in May). And I want to move to Texas, most likely the Tyler area.

I would prefer to live in a rural or semi-rural area and am also wanting to be a civil engineer. How are jobs for civil engineers in this area? What is the cost of living like, compared to Sydney, Australia? I am Caucasian (if that matters?). I have researched about Tyler and have found the city has a TXDOT department there? - TXDOT actually has two facilities here. The main office is on W Front Street in central Tyler and there is also some sort of engineering office on 155 S heading southwest out of town. Outside of this all I can say is that there are a number of engineering companies in Tyler. Can't really comment on the engineering job market as a whole.

House wise, I would want a 3000 Square foot + log home with at least 5 acres. It would also be great if it was close to a lake. - There are a number of lakes in the Tyler area. The two most popular are Lake Tyler southeast of town and Lake Palestine to the southwest. There is also Lake Bellwood but it is in the city and there isn't much available land surrounding it. As for your housing requirements you would probably be able to find something along those lines but I'm not sure you'd find it for the price you gave if you're looking near the lakes I mentioned.

I would be most likely going on a holiday there, early next year.
I am wondering whether the Tyler area (or 30 minutes radius).
If I like this area, I would be applying for an E3 Visa, when I finish my Bachelors degree?
Your help and opinions are much appreciated.
If there is anything else, I should ask or know, can you please say so? - Where do you plan on living and working while you earn your bachelor's degree?

See responses above in bold.

[Aaron97]

Price is not really to much of a concern.
The limit would probably be around $800,000.
The average house price, where I live is around $800,000.
I'm not sure as to whether I should get my degree here in Australia or over there.
If I get it over there, I assume it would be easier to get a visa and possibly easier to get a job?
Thanks for your help. It is much appreciated.

[Mark Senior]

As you can look at many of my posts, I really like Tyler. My favorite place for it's size, and for what all it offers for it's size plus trees, flowers, forests etc. Now Austin is my larger favorite city. But it is really congested.

Question is why Tyler or Texas when it appears you have options for many other areas of the the US?

[Aaron97]

Some of the reasons for wanting to move to this area includes;
Similar weather to where I live now.
Slower paced lifestyle/ rural/ semi rural area
Can still get everything I need and is close to both Dallas and Louisiana.
Low cost of living (good bang for buck).
More lenient laws in regards to firearms, vehicles etc.
culture
Nice area ( pine woods)
These are some of the reasons as to why I want to move to this area.

[Aaron97]

Are these ideas of the area realistic?
If at all possible can you please list and or give me some ideas as to areas which are similar to the Tyler area?
All your help, opinions and replies are much welcomed and appreciated.

[Mark Senior]

Yes, welcome to the area. Sounds reasonable to me.

Contact me directly with any question. As you can see by all my posts, Tyler information is a hobby of mine. I try not to be too biased.

[annieskid25]

I'm a Texan born and bred . I moved to Ok a year ago, and the wind is driving me crazy, but this is a temporary move until I can get back to Texas. I love the state, but am also considering Arkansas, another beautiful state with the climate I love, and rivers, trees and lakes, as well as mountains. We've driven across Texas in almost every direction, I grew up in Arlington, Marshall, and moved to Nacogdoches, the oldest town in Texas. There are three Texas towns who claim to be the oldest town in Texas, but Nacogdoches is an amazing town an hour away from Tyler. Edom is another town 11 miles from Tyler airport that I like, but can't find any houses for sale or apartments for rent in the town of 300 people and it doesn't even have a post office of its own. The job market in Nacogdoches is good, and it's close to Lufkin, a town that has been growing from a midsized city to a major city due to an active recruitment of major businesses, with a major interstate coming through the area in the next ten years. I've lived in Lufkin and most of the towns surrounding it for ten years or more, and the highway has been worked on for many of those years. Tyler is a place we visit often but still deciding whether I want to live
there. Hudson has the best school in the Lufkin area, and the best tasting water. Lufkin has ten or more towns surrounding it, Wells, Huntington, Diboll, Central, and others, and its easy to find a house in this area, with Nacogdoches as a sister city. Nac is a college town, with Stephen F Austin in the center of town,and a pretty amazing place to live. Lufkin has a Junior college, Angelina College, and Austin Tx is by far the coolest state in Texas, as well as the weirdest. San Antonio is another place I'm considering, with its famous River Walk a place I enjoy. Dallas and Houston have the best job markets, I have daughters in a small Dallas suburb (Garland) people I love and have known all my life in Arlington, which is much bigger than when I was a kid, and know a ton of people who have left Arlington because of the traffic there and Dallas, Nacogdoches has some really nice houses at better prices than Tyler, I will never choose to live in. I prefer older houses and have ended up with two houses in Nacogdoches, in Central Heights school district, the school is a much sought after destination, but the lunch there leaves much to be desired. Coffee drinkers we know and love choose Kinfolks Restaurant and old timers spend many hours gathered there, sassy waitresses that know you, and my Mom, Alligator Annie eats breakfast there every day, for the atmosphere, and orders the usual, which the waitresses know unless they're new. Lufkin sounds more like the kind of place you're describing as Tyler, I'm afraid. Don't get me wrong, Tyler is a really nice place. but the one hour drive from Nacogdoches to Tyler is considered no mans land, the middle of nowhere, with only a few souls brave enough to live there. Check the population count in the towns outside of Tyler and the towns outside of Lufkin before you move there. Tyler has the post office, and airport. Check for the nearest SS office as well, and Tyler and Lufkin both have the closest one, since the three in Nacogdoches closed. The towns around Tyler, many are too small to even have an actual name, meaning there are few houses unless you choose to buy land and build one. If you ever plan to have kids, check the schools, as this becomes very important when you actually have kids. Have to close, cell phone will not stop ringing today, but hope this helps.

[Danimarie]

I agree that you should consider where you will live carefully. Don't set your sites only on Tyler. Bigger cities in TX will provide many more opportunities for jobs. Jobs are hard to come by in this economy. Your house budget means you can pretty much go anywhere. I would get my degree here unless you can get it for free or cheaper in Australia - (assuming that means anything to you) and just take the qualification tests here? My husband is a Civil 3D CAD manager(Civil engineering) for the city of Austin. He has a Mechanical Engineering degree from Romania, but it isn't recognized here although their degrees there are actually harder to obtain and they study a year longer. The city of Austin did decide to give him some credit for it, but he can't be an engineer here unless he takes some qualifications stuff that costs money and since he ended up working in a different specialization from the degree, I think he even would have had to go back to school for a while and the slight pay raise and time invested would not have been worth it to us. Anyway, research it carefully.

I would rent before you buy, so you can be sure you are happy with your choice on where you will be living. And since you are very young, you just don't know how you will feel about things in a few years. I think it's actually better to buy a home once you get married, but to each their own. If you buy a home, don't expect to sell it again very easily. The housing market isn't that great. So, if you decided to move again, it could take a while to sell and you could lose money on it. I don't know how rich you or your parents are, but just saying.

[Aaron97]

Yeah, i guess each area has their own pros and cons.
So other areas to look at include;
Nacogdoches
Lufkin
So basically just the East Texas/ Piney woods region?
If i wanted to get a feel for what it is like to live here, how long should i stay here for?
What should i do?
Should i even consider the outer areas of Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth etc?
Should i even consider other states, and if so which ones?
Thanks for your help it is much appreciated.