Houston vs Dallas vs Austin Texas (El Paso, Fort Worth: hotels, home, neighborhoods)
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I would say stick with Houston. It has enough of everything you're looking for. If you get the urge to go to the beach it's with in 45 minutes away depending on which side of town you live on. I know the beach is not the best, but it still beats man made lakes. Houston all the way you want regret it.
Houston's economy is growing just as fast as Austins, but Houston's is far bigger/ more robust to begin with.
As for COL, Houston is cheaper than Austin.
so while they may be on par on rate of growth, they are not on the same ball-field in terms of actual numbers and COL.
Houston's GDP is about 5 times that of Austins. a 5% Increase for Houston may mean a 25% increase for Austin.
If Diversity is important to you, you may not be as impressed with it as younger white folks are.
Austin's nightlife left me wanting more. It certainly has a plethora of Live acts, but not very many that I am interested. Houston offers more in the way of having something for everyone. Dallas has more of that than Austin too.
Even subsets of subsets have it better in Houston. Take Gay clubs for example. While Austin has good ones, all are basically the same with different themes. In Houston there are Black Gay Clubs, Hispanic ones, there was even an Asian one, but dunno if it is still open. The variety in Houston just blows Austin away
I probably will be impressed with the diversity. I'm coming from Windsor CT. An extremely boring small town surbaban neighborhood. It's a nice neighborhood but going from that to living in Houston would satisfy my crave for excitement for a while.
Some say austin's nightlife is better and some day dallas or houston so its guess its just a matter of opinion.
I will most likely check out all 3 down in the future but defiantly check out austin and houston's in the near future.
What I'm interested in is that giant mall in Houston. I think its named the galleria.
I looked at a couple pictures of that...That just screams fun
Then on top of that you guys have 337 parks..
Here in the northeast are malls absolutely suck.
Me and my friends made the best out of it and still had good times...
Speaking of friends thats probably thee most important question I left out.
How easy is it to make friends in Houston? Are the people friendly?
I would say stick with Houston. It has enough of everything you're looking for. If you get the urge to go to the beach it's with in 45 minutes away depending on which side of town you live on. I know the beach is not the best, but it still beats man made lakes. Houston all the way you want regret it.
I think you and H town love are right. I'm sticking with Houston 100%. Ill be relocating in December to Houston then.
Some say austin's nightlife is better and some day dallas or houston so its guess its just a matter of opinion.
How easy is it to make friends in Houston? Are the people friendly?
Well which is best depends on what you are looking for, If you like live music Austin excels in that.
If you like Diversity of entertainment then Houston and DFW beats Austin there.
As for how easy it is to make friends, I dunno. I make friends easily wherever I go, so It was not hard to make friends when I lived in Austin.
Houston people are really friendly though.
In Houston I don't think any two of my innermost circle of friends in undergrad were of the same culture.
There was one from Ethiopia, One From Trinidad, one from Vietnam, One from India, One from Algeria, One from Lebanon, one from Congo, one with Columbian Heritage but I think grew up in Europe. I had lots of fun and learned so much from them.
I think you will it most if you come with an open mind and don't be afraid to say hi.
Well which is best depends on what you are looking for, If you like live music Austin excels in that.
If you like Diversity of entertainment then Houston and DFW beats Austin there.
As for how easy it is to make friends, I dunno. I make friends easily wherever I go, so It was not hard to make friends when I lived in Austin.
Houston people are really friendly though.
In Houston I don't think any two of my innermost circle of friends in undergrad were of the same culture.
There was one from Ethiopia, One From Trinidad, one from Vietnam, One from India, One from Algeria, One from Lebanon, one from Congo, one with Columbian Heritage but I think grew up in Europe. I had lots of fun and learned so much from them.
I think you will it most if you come with an open mind and don't be afraid to say hi.
I do have an openmind and I'm always willing to learn. I can't wait to get down there.
I'm pumped. I also did so more research and found out Houston has a pretty decent car scene.
This city is the perfect fit for me right now.
Diverse..
Good col
100x more things to do then where I live out now..
WAY MORE INTERESTING AND FUN then where I live at now..
and a good car scene. though I heard it died down a little but guys like me will bring it back..I can't wait.
Me and my friends made the best out of it and still had good times...
Speaking of friends thats probably thee most important question I left out.
How easy is it to make friends in Houston? Are the people friendly?
To be quite honest, Austin is the best place to make friends. The community there is very vibrant and the way the city revolves around downtown makes this very possible. It also depends on the things you're into. If you're a night owl and like to hang out a lot and make friends Austin is the best place. I'd say Houston would come second on this list. Only of course, Austin doesn't have plenty diversity... so its like 2 steps forward 1 step back for Austin. But really though, why I think Austin is easier to make friends is simply because there is a small town community feel to it. I hear Fort Worth is similar, but I'm not familiar with it so you might wanna check it out if you're in Dallas. Austin just caters to creative types in general. Musicians, actors, filmmakers, writers, techies, etc, etc... there is a tight-knit community in Austin for that that makes me say Austin is easier to make friends. There is just a different theme in Austin... many say it caters to white folks, but being hispanic myself I think that's a bit of a stretch.
The problem with Houston and Dallas is that it may not have better of everything but it does have a lot of everything that Texas offers in general. So this is why I say that it's very arbitrary when deciding what cities are best. Go check it out for yourself and see what suits your interest. One thing I'll say though, that you'll get the different vibes when going to Austin vs going to Houston or Dallas. Austin's vibrancy revolves again around downtown and you'll see how eclectic it is right away. Houston and Dallas, you'll need to have to do a bit of homework to check out where are the action is. It's a little tougher to find out where the cool spots are and how to get there. This is the major difference between Austin vs Houston or Dallas. Houston and Dallas compare more to Los Angeles. I'm not really sure what to compare Austin with. It's not urban but all the cool things to do aren't really that spread far apart and are relatively close to each other.
I disagree with the post above. Houstonians are much more friendly than people in Austin with half the pretension. Austin is known for their snobbish attitude properly termed Austitude.
Houston people are really down to earth, so much so that people in Dallas like to refer to Houstonians as country.
I also disagree with the notion that Austin has a small town feel. Austin used to feel like a college town, but it has gotten way too big. It does not feel like a small town and it outgrew the college town feel a while ago.
I disagree with the post above. Houstonians are much more friendly than people in Austin with half the pretension. Austin is known for their snobbish attitude properly termed Austitude.
Houston people are really down to earth, so much so that people in Dallas like to refer to Houstonians as country.
I also disagree with the notion that Austin has a small town feel. Austin used to feel like a college town, but it has gotten way too big. It does not feel like a small town and it outgrew the college town feel a while ago.
Who's to say who is friendlier is not what I'm contending. I'm simply saying that Austin community makes it much easier to make friends. The snobbish attitude is a myth and I very frankly have encountered more hostile people in Houston then in Austin. Houston has a big city feel to it and its very much the same attitudes you will find in about any other big city. Big city problems, big city crimes, big city hostilities. Like the time this person yelled at me because I didn't smile at him. You could say it was one single incident but it was not. Moving from both cities and living in them and being highly familiar of the two you realize the difference in people's attitudes and I think you are being a big disingenuous of the two cities.
Also about the whole "small town vibe": here's the thing, many people who try to knock off Austin not giving it its due credit say that its still a "small town". So whatever, I really don't care what to make of it... all I know is that you will not find the same vibes in Austin or Houston and only in Austin will you meet someone, then move to a big city like San Francisco and meet someone from Austin and find out that the two of you had the same friends.
I really don't think you've ever given Austin its fair credit and I'm not putting down any city. Just trying to give an unbiased opinion. Austin strives on the notion that the community is highly accepting and very welcoming. Without it, there is no such thing as Austin. It's the only reason why I prefer Austin over every other city in Texas. It's the people that make Austin, Austin.
That being said, again... Houston sure does have everything for everyone but it doesn't offer the best of everything, like the community in general. Those attributes are Austin's.
I disagree with the post above. Houstonians are much more friendly than people in Austin with half the pretension. Austin is known for their snobbish attitude properly termed Austitude.
Houston people are really down to earth, so much so that people in Dallas like to refer to Houstonians as country.
I also disagree with the notion that Austin has a small town feel. Austin used to feel like a college town, but it has gotten way too big. It does not feel like a small town and it outgrew the college town feel a while ago.
I also think that when you refer to this friendly atmosphere about Houston, you're only referring to your community in particular. That's why I think and I insist that its very difficult to base it off of some discussion on a city forum even though it is still helpful. The problem is that finding a friendly community as yourself might be due to personal interests, such as yourself how you've already suggested that its easy for you to make friends. But for an average person coming from a different place, Houston can give a bit of a struggle for someone to find their niche very much like San Francisco. (Mind you, I personally find more similarities between SF and Houston then Austin and SF as is mostly the comparison). A lot of things relate, from how far your work is to your home, to how far your favorite bars or places to hang out are. It can be a bit challenging finding all those things working in your favor as opposed to Austin.
It certainly is true that Austin isn't very "diverse" in race but the community itself is pretty tight-knit as I've said. Everything revolves around downtown and rarely, if anything happens, ever happens outside of the immediate surrounding neighborhoods in DT Austin. This is a huge factor in the way the dynamics of a City are formed. Houston doesn't have that benefit and neither does Dallas. The dynamics in Austin work the way they do because everything simply revolves around downtown. It is why an event like SXSW functions and can't even function as effectively in a city like Portland or Toronto, mind you.
It has nothing to do with who is friendlier or not, its just the way that city's infrastructure culminated with its political influence and vibrancy combine to create its uniqueness, thus making it easier to interact with people and make friends. It's the sole reason why Austin is what it is as opposed to the other TX cities.
Last edited by migol84; 07-31-2012 at 08:22 PM..
Reason: toronto, not vancouver
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