23 Year Old young professional deciding between SA vs Houston vs Dallas (San Antonio: homes, find a job)

[SA_Homeowner]

Originally Posted by Tonytime224

Hey all,

Im looking to move to texas but having trouble getting my head around san antonio, dallas, and houston. I know they're all different but ive been researching all day about it. Im a 23 year old male that does IT right now in Chicago. I want to relocate to texas because...

1. It's been my dream since i was a kid
2. Conservative values (im very conservative)
3. Southern culture/hospitality
4. Lower cost of living
5. Weather
6. Looking to make some friends and find a women i can settle down with. I dont mess around.
7. Sports atmosphere. Im a big football and basketball fan. I like to also train brazilian jiu jitsu.

Based off of what i told you what do you think would be best?

Heres what I heard:
1. Dallas is crowded and can be expensive
2. San Antonio is very Hispanic ( I dont mind hispanic i just also want there to be white culture too)
3. Dallas and houston have a traffic issue
4. Houston and dallas are great when it comes to tech jobs
5. All have good sports

I don't know if everything has been addressed, but wanted to comment on a few things.

I'm Hispanic, and Conservative, and only been in San Antonio for a little more than a year.


Here are my thoughts on San Antonio, but first want to address the Hispanic comment. Hispanic is a heritage, not a race. The US media does a really bad job of portraying what Latin / Hispanic means. I spent the greater part of 20 years in South Florida, and anyone who lives there would know that. But to the rest of the country, people think "Hispanic" means Mexican... basically. Mexicans are almost entirely of Native American descent. So what you think of as Hispanic, are Native Americans from Central America that were pillaged by the conquistadors.

For the rest of the Americas... Hispanics are mostly white. Kinda of just to lay it out there... Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, they are mostly white. Dominican Republic, they are Hispanics that are black. Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico, those are Hispanics that are mostly Native American.


But... back to your point, San Antonio (Saint Antonio) does have a heavy Mexican influence, but that's the entire history of San Antonio, really.


As far as San Antonio being Conservative, it really depends on where you live. Despite what the media may portray, most of the wealthy suburban areas are conservative. Places like Stone Oak and Encino Park have a predominantly conservative voter base.

As far as Texas is involved, they still make all the kids say the Pledge of Allegiance... unlike in Chicago where it's been deemed hate speech in public school there. For that matter, Texas has their own pledge, which the children are required to say (after the US pledge). Kind of strange to me, but far be it for me to question Texas values.


The cool younger places where you'll be interested in going is "The Pearl." Basically a large brewery who was bought out, and the entire complex is now a recreational / food / night club area. There's also down-town San Antonio, near the Riverwalk. There are probably other things, but I moved here in my late 30s... so I have no idea what kids do. Ask me about Miami and Fort Lauderdale, and I can tell you where all the people hang out.

In terms of weather and such, it is decidedly different than what you're used to in Chicago (I've lived there). Weather is totally different, and so is the foliage and animals. While you might have chipmunks and moles living in your yard up there, we have armadillos.

Weather is hot and humid, though no where near as humid as you might get in Louisiana or South Florida. Definitely hotter than Chicago. It does get cool... often in the 30s during the winter, but rare if it snows (it snowed this last winter).


The good news is... to some extent, San Antonio is still considered affordable, with most homes being around $250k for a 3/2 in a nice area. Best time to buy is in the dead of Winter, up through February. The homes during that time lose almost 15% of their value. Worst time to buy is in March and April as the home values are at their highest... again, 15% increase from Winter values).


Almost all the neighborhoods in Stone Oak are gated, and most of them are expensive, but unfortunately many of them cheaply built. The best VALUE is Encino Park. The homes are all typically built from 1983-2005. The older homes are actually of very high quality, particularly the ones made by Sitterle in that area. They may need a little bit of work, but most of the land / property growth has been in Encino Park as the older generation retires and moves away, and the younger Millennials come in and renovate (or pay someone to renovate, haha). What's nice about the homes in Encino Park versus the homes in Stone Oak is that the yards are bigger in Encino Park. Likewise, the homes are more established, so you have far more unique designs, wider floor plans, rather than simply having everything being built upwards. You have more 2,700 square foot homes that are single and 2-story, than Stone Oak which has the same square footage on a smaller footprint.

There are a lot of new homes being built in South-West San Antonio. They are all by KB Homes and some of the others. The homes are nice, and very well optioned usually... but they're built quickly, and on small lots. Because of the lot constraints, the homes all seem to emphasize the garage door as the forward-facing feature of the home. Basically... here's a huge garage with some fancy trim on it, and then off to the side is the front door. It's like you're inviting someone to a storage unit. Not my thing.


Regardless... there is a lot of IT down here. You have Rack Space, USAA, Federal agencies, a lot of military stuff... plenty down here.

[supfromthesite]

Originally Posted by Tonytime224

Hey all,

Im looking to move to texas but having trouble getting my head around san antonio, dallas, and houston. I know they're all different but ive been researching all day about it. Im a 23 year old male that does IT right now in Chicago. I want to relocate to texas because...

1. It's been my dream since i was a kid
2. Conservative values (im very conservative)
3. Southern culture/hospitality
4. Lower cost of living
5. Weather
6. Looking to make some friends and find a women i can settle down with. I dont mess around.
7. Sports atmosphere. Im a big football and basketball fan. I like to also train brazilian jiu jitsu.

Based off of what i told you what do you think would be best?

Heres what I heard:
1. Dallas is crowded and can be expensive
2. San Antonio is very Hispanic ( I dont mind hispanic i just also want there to be white culture too)
3. Dallas and houston have a traffic issue
4. Houston and dallas are great when it comes to tech jobs
5. All have good sports

Unless you live in Alamo heights I would avoid San Antonio, you will get along better in Houston or Dallas for sure.

Uptown dallas, maybe west Houston or west Austin should be good conservative havens.
San Antonio has some fine spots for families but there aren't too many good spots for young single whites.
Now if you are in a serious relationship or married and plan to have kids soon then you may like it.
San Antonio - Alamo heights, Boerne, stone oak, other than that random neighborhoods in the north with families that send their kids to private schools. Other than that, conservative whites have more or less been segregated from the rest of San Antonio (east, south, west, downtown)
Austin - west, rest of the area is very liberal or not too friendly to whites in general
Dallas - uptown or anywhere in north Dallas really

Poster above me gave some good advice too.

[DTXman34]

Originally Posted by supfromthesite

Unless you live in Alamo heights I would avoid San Antonio, you will get along better in Houston or Dallas for sure.

Uptown dallas, maybe west Houston or west Austin should be good conservative havens.
San Antonio has some fine spots for families but there aren't too many good spots for young single whites.
Now if you are in a serious relationship or married and plan to have kids soon then you may like it.
San Antonio - Alamo heights, Boerne, stone oak, other than that random neighborhoods in the north with families that send their kids to private schools. Other than that, conservative whites have more or less been segregated from the rest of San Antonio (east, south, west, downtown)
Austin - west, rest of the area is very liberal or not too friendly to whites in general
Dallas - uptown or anywhere in north Dallas really

Poster above me gave some good advice too.

Uptown Dallas isn't a conservative haven. It's young professional and affluent white, but not conservative. I've seen the election map of Uptown and it was definitely shaded in blue more-so than red. It sits right next door to very liberal Oak Lawn, which is the home of Dallas's LGBT population. North Dallas is another story. Can't believe I'm going to recommend this, but it sounds like the Shops at Legacy Plano would be more fitting for the OP than anywhere south of Mockingbird LN in Dallas.

[rynetwo]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

Have you been to any of these places? Or are you living in the dream that Texas is a dreamland for conservatives?

All three of those metro areas are more Democratic then that are Republican/conservative. You'll need to move out of many of the large metro areas to get away from the democratic feel off the urban areas.

Yes, the cost of living is lower, but not by much depending on where you're looking.

Weather, think Chicago summers plus twenty degrees. Friends and dating is what you put into it, what do you do like to do? The Jiu jitsu would be a good place to start.

Do you have savings to move? Or are you going to up and move without one?

You may want to ask this question in the main Texas forum to get the input from people all over.

Only the core counties are more democratic. The surrounding counties are still very red with the exception of Fort Bend.

If you look the voting for the whole metropolitan area Dallas and Houston are still red and San Antonio is barely blue and that depends on the election cycle.

[LocalPlanner]

Politically, a couple of the more traditionally conservative, heavily Republican-voting suburban counties have moved a little bit toward the center recently. Most notably, Collin County in North Texas and Fort Bend in the Houston area.

Montgomery County just north of Houston is the most famously conservative suburban county in Texas. It contains The Woodlands and has access to other job centers on the north side of Harris County (Houston).

Not sure about what kind of job you're exactly looking for, but based on your other descriptions, you should be looking in the Tarrant County suburbs outside Fort Worth, in addition to the other cities you listed. Tarrant County, in fact, is the only "big city" county in TX still considered mostly conservative.

[Rocko20]

Having been born and raised in San Antonio for most of my life, I'd give Dallas a try if I were to ever move back to Texas

[ClaraC]

Originally Posted by Azure110

Round Rock or somewhere in Williamson County would suit you well. I know it is near Austin but it is one of the most conservative areas of Texas and Dell Computer is very close by.

I completely agree. The Round Rock/Georgetown area is very conservative, and it's right next to Austin which has a booming IT industry.

And the Austin area, compared to the other places you're thinking of, is beautiful geographically. It's the foothills of the Texas Hill Country, and there are beautiful lakes and parks.

IMHO, Houston is unbearable in August, so you won't get the best idea of what it's like to live there if you visit then.

[rynetwo]

Originally Posted by ClaraC

I completely agree. The Round Rock/Georgetown area is very conservative, and it's right next to Austin which has a booming IT industry.

And the Austin area, compared to the other places you're thinking of, is beautiful geographically. It's the foothills of the Texas Hill Country, and there are beautiful lakes and parks.

IMHO, Houston is unbearable in August, so you won't get the best idea of what it's like to live there if you visit then.

Austin and San Antonio have the same geography and climate.

[ClaraC]

Originally Posted by rynetwo

Austin and San Antonio have the same geography and climate.

Yes. They do. But they are different cities, and Austin is a booming IT metropolis.

[SweethomeSanAntonio]

Originally Posted by ClaraC

Yes. They do. But they are different cities, and Austin is a booming IT metropolis.

San Antonio also has a multibillion dollar IT sector along with military, aerospace, biomedicine, healthcare, and energy-oil and gas sectors. Manufacturing is also a major industry in S.A.