Is business in Houston fading away? (Howe: taxes, live, young professionals)

[rvaccha]

Hi all,

I hope everyone is well! As you may know I am evaluating my relocation options between Boston and Houston.

Some of my friends told me that "Houston is a dying city, businesses are moving away"

Is that true? I thought Houston was the oil/gas/petroleum/energy capital of the world and had a very active port as well?

Are businesses moving away? What types of businesses are running the show these days?

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Thanks a lot,
Andy

[Kandy]

My husband's company just relocated their corporate head quarters to downtown Houston this past fall from the Bay area in CA. (It's an energy company.) That said, I haven't lived here long enough to notice any trends or see any big businesses leave. ~K~

[jfre81]

Houston has a reputation of being a center for the oil industry, which is generally thought of as dying. So hearing that from people who haven't been here would not surprise me.

They are probably also the ones who think there are no trees and only cactus and desert in SE Texas, because people assume that all of Texas looks like the backdrop of a John Wayne movie. This seems particularly prevalent in the Southeast - I lived in North Carolina for a year - the concepts of what Texas is in people's heads over there, it's pretty wild.

But yeah....Texas in general is friendly to big business and property is cheap. Houston has branched out from being an oil-boom town, because that bubble indeed burst awhile back.

[rvaccha]

Hey...thanks for the replies...how are the traditional businesses faring though? e.g. energy, oil, gas, offshore?

Are there any major aviation players (R+D, Mfr, Services)?

One of the reasons I am leaning towards Houston is because I want to explore business opportunities in fields such as offshore, energy, petroleums, but if they are leaving Houston, then thats a minus point for me!

Thanks,
Andy

[jfre81]

Oil's here....it's not booming, but there's been no mass exodus like all the abandoned factories in the Rust Belt. The refineries on the coast are looking for workers. They have had units down since the Hurricane Rita scare in 2005 at some plants. There is still work offshore too.

The Port of Houston is the busiest in the nation in terms of cargo moving through there - plenty of work there as well.

Everyone in Houston who wants to work has work, and you'll have an easier time making ends meet here than in New England. People here complain about taxes, and they have no idea what other people get to deal with...

[Texas Mack]

Some of my friends told me that "Houston is a dying city, businesses are moving away"

Is that true? I thought Houston was the oil/gas/petroleum/energy capital of the world and had a very active port as well?

Are businesses moving away? What types of businesses are running the show these days?

LOL! Hardly. The economy here is pretty good right now, better than the national average. The oil companies have had a very good couple of years. Additionally, the medical and biotechnical fields are expanding a great deal. Downtown Houston's Class A office vacancy rate is under 10%. The multitude of skylines in the city are expanding. The Houston metropolitan area has had the third highest nominal growth in the nation from 2000 - 2006.

And so on...

Seems you've been getting some really bad (and odd) information.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by Texas Mack

LOL! Hardly. The economy here is pretty good right now, better than the national average. The oil companies have had a very good couple of years. Additionally, the medical and biotechnical fields are expanding a great deal. Downtown Houston's Class A office vacancy rate is under 10%. The multitude of skylines in the city are expanding. The Houston metropolitan area has had the third highest nominal growth in the nation from 2000 - 2006.

And so on...

Seems you've been getting some really bad (and odd) information.

I can see how someone could come away thinking that after visiting here, say, 20 years ago when the city was reeling from the oil bust. They might assume the city and area continued declining, but from the 1990s onward things have picked up again. I think continuing to expand and upgrade the Port of Houston has been crucial, because it is the perfect location for the nation's primary port - virtually the same distance from Houston to both coasts and the Midwest.

[rvaccha]

Hi All,

Thanks once again. I am coming to Houston with a job as a management consultant, with a large consulting company based out of Boston.

However, over the next few years I would also like to explore some entrepreneurship/partnership activities with companies in the fields I have discussed.

I was honestly told, very recently, that "Houston is a dying city..." and the example given to me was of a large Oil major, I think Schlumberger who is shifting their base to the Middle East?

p.s. On a seperate note, how is Houston for a young single male professional? Is there a reasonable population of young professionals (late 20s/early 30s) in the inner loop?

Thanks friends,
Andy

[Visitor2007]

rvaccha, aren't you Indian? If so, are you refering to Indian young professionals only?

On a seperate note, I posted a post asking where the South American Latinas (Venezuela, Argentina, etc.) hang out and one Mod deleted it.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by rvaccha

Hi All,

Thanks once again. I am coming to Houston with a job as a management consultant, with a large consulting company based out of Boston.

However, over the next few years I would also like to explore some entrepreneurship/partnership activities with companies in the fields I have discussed.

I was honestly told, very recently, that "Houston is a dying city..." and the example given to me was of a large Oil major, I think Schlumberger who is shifting their base to the Middle East?

p.s. On a seperate note, how is Houston for a young single male professional? Is there a reasonable population of young professionals (late 20s/early 30s) in the inner loop?

Thanks friends,
Andy

List of companies in Houston - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Schlumberger's Wikipedia article as having its American headquarters in Houston and simply that they are building a regional HQ in Saudi Arabia...

I am 25, I'm a freelance journalist and I live just outside the loop on South Main near Reliant Stadium. There is stuff to do here, depending on what you like. You will need a car. There's traffic, but if you're in Boston you should be able to deal with it.