Moving to Texas, Help! (Houston, San Antonio: to rent, homes, transfer to)

[andrew4]

We are a homeschooling family of 6. We have two college aged, one is going into Psychology, and the other Culinary. The two youngest will be in 7th and 11th grade come this October. Our jobs are home based, so we can move any where. My problem is trying to find an area for everyone to be happy. I'm looking for an active homeschool group for our two boys, a college that both girls can transfer too, we love snow and are enormous Christmas buffs, some place that is walkable if possible, we just want some air, and are tired of being in the car all the time, where we live now, we have to drive to every where. Social and friendly, an easy place to find jobs for our 3 eldest. We would like to be close to Kendalia or Washington, no more than 2 hours. Any suggestions, comments, and such would be greatly appreciated.

Walkable is not necessary if that makes it easier.

[supfromthesite]

You won't find much snow but sounds like you want something in the hill country. If snow is a must maybe up in the panhandle.

[ChristieP]

Kendalia is a tiny little town in the Hill Country. There is no town named Washington, but there is a Washington County (county seat is Brenham) in SE Texas.

What kind of housing are you looking for? What's your budget? Buying or renting?

Make sure that you understand how Texas residency works for your college students. They cannot enroll as students for a year after moving here, or they will have to pay out-of-state tuition.

[ashbeeigh]

Texas is a HUGE state. You need to narrow down a few areas and then narrow down your search. Kendalia is close to San Antonio. Washington (county?) is where Brenham is. I’d consider that central Texas, not south east. But that’s just me. Maybe research your wants and go from there. You’re not going to get a white Christmas in either area. If you live northwest of Kendalia (which is the middle of nowhere) you’ll be within a 24 hour drive of Colorado. I know lots of people that do that drive in the summer to get away from the heat and in the winter to get the snow.

[Arkay66]

For your college students, the Culinary institute of America has a campus in San Antonio. Pretty much any university has a Psych department, and San Antonio has about 20 universities and colleges of various sizes and specialties.

The Hill Country has a pretty robust home school tradition going. Don't know about the rest of Texas.

The only "Washington" in Texas is the county, and the historic Washington on the Brazos, which is just outside Bryan-College Station (home of Texas A&M), over in East Texas. Washington on the Brazos is about ½ hour from Brenham. Brenham is about a 3 hour drive from San Antonio.

Kendalia is definitely in the Hill Country. Kendalia is 2 ½ hours driving time from Brenham, but that does not count the time it takes to get through Austin. If you go a different route, it's about 3 hours driving time. Kendalia is about 1 ¼ hours drive from San Antonio.

[andrew4]

Originally Posted by supfromthesite

You won't find much snow but sounds like you want something in the hill country. If snow is a must maybe up in the panhandle.

Thank you! I did a quick read and saw that Amarillo, Lubbock, and El Paso get snow. I thought Lubbock may be a good fit for us, but I did a bit of research on here, and some said there's not much to do there. I have put on my list Sugar Land, Fredericksburg, Grapevine, Johnson City.... though they are further South. We may have to just forgo the snow. As long as the weather is better than being hot all year long, like we have in Florida, we'll be happy.

[andrew4]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

Kendalia is a tiny little town in the Hill Country. There is no town named Washington, but there is a Washington County (county seat is Brenham) in SE Texas.

What kind of housing are you looking for? What's your budget? Buying or renting?

Make sure that you understand how Texas residency works for your college students. They cannot enroll as students for a year after moving here, or they will have to pay out-of-state tuition.

Hi ChristieP! This is the other area we are trying to be close too.... Washington, TX 77880. We are looking to rent first. I have jotted down Amarillo, El Paso, Lubbock, Grapevine, Fredericksburg, Sugar Land.

Thank you for the college info, I'll put that on the list.

[andrew4]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

Texas is a HUGE state. You need to narrow down a few areas and then narrow down your search. Kendalia is close to San Antonio. Washington (county?) is where Brenham is. I’d consider that central Texas, not south east. But that’s just me. Maybe research your wants and go from there. You’re not going to get a white Christmas in either area. If you live northwest of Kendalia (which is the middle of nowhere) you’ll be within a 24 hour drive of Colorado. I know lots of people that do that drive in the summer to get away from the heat and in the winter to get the snow.

Hi Ashbeeigh, I discovered that El Paso, Amarillo, and Lubbock get snow, not sure if it's every year. Unfortunately, they are not close to those two areas, I spoke of. So, I'm thinking.... we suck it up, and take the drive. Or look at the other areas I have on my list. Sugar Land, Fredericksburg, Grapevine, Johnson City, Big Spring. I saw that Lubbock didn't have much to do, and that San Antonio wasn't nice, dirty and polluted. I've been trying to read through threads. Thank you for your input!

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by andrew4

Hi Ashbeeigh, I discovered that El Paso, Amarillo, and Lubbock get snow, not sure if it's every year. Unfortunately, they are not close to those two areas, I spoke of. So, I'm thinking.... we suck it up, and take the drive. Or look at the other areas I have on my list. Sugar Land, Fredericksburg, Grapevine, Johnson City, Big Spring. I saw that Lubbock didn't have much to do, and that San Antonio wasn't nice, dirty and polluted. I've been trying to read through threads. Thank you for your input!

Im going to disagree about San Antonio being dirty. I grew up there. If you want to be near Kendalia San Antonio will be your closest metro. I won’t drag this into an argument but do a bit more research before using such strong words. Have you been to any of these places before or have you decided to move to Texas because of the things you’ve heard about it like “it’s conservative, the economy is good, Kendalia is pretty, Brenham has great ice cream...” the only one of those that cannot de disputed is that Brenham has good ice cream.

I’ll also add that you will not escape the Florida heat anywhere in Texas. You’ll need to move north of Oklahoma and towards Colorado to avoid humid heat regularly, and even then I’d say many of the plaines states deal with humid hot summers too.

[Arkay66]

If you're trying to avoid Florida-like humidity, Sugar Land is not for you. It's a suburb of Houston, which has humidity as bad or worse than Florida.

The zip code you specified is a general post office across the road from the Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Park, in Washington County. County seat is Brenham. In Texas, we have a lot of rural areas where the villages all lost their post offices in favor of a generic one sort of centrally located, hence the name Washington, TX. There's not really a town there, just a post office and a few other buildings. It's in a humid part of Texas.

Kendalia is far less humid than Washington County, and way more humid than Amarillo, Lubbock, or El Paso. As for things to do, Lubbock is home to Texas Tech University. West Texas A&M is just south of Amarillo. There are all kinds of things to do in both cities, if you know where to look, and if you keep in mind that they are way, way far out in the country. Things to do are mostly of a rural bent, not big city kinds of stuff.

Heat happens. But the farther north and northwest you are in Texas, the less humid, so the heat's easier to tolerate. And when you're in the semi-arid and arid regions, the temps are lovely as soon as the sun sets, if not outright nippy.

Since you really don't know what you need in Texas, you need to schedule visits to several locations. Find out for yourself what's likely to suit you. Suggest you visit in August and in January, to get the extremes. Then you'll appreciate the rest of the time...