The Woodlands Texas and the surrounding areas.

[xrayman]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I am reaching out to anyone who lives in The Woodlands or the surrounding area's. I would like to know the good, the bad and the ugly, because I am considering moving to the area.
Thanks a lot.

[richard200593]

I live in California now but lived in magnolia (about 20 mins) from the woodlands for years and my parents still live there. As far as the Houston area is concerned it's one of the best areas imo. If your not used to Houston heat or humidity it can be pretty rough. The woodlands is a great area And in the last couple years it has grown drastically and become very traffic heavy.

[Sir Nuke]

send a PM the mlee (one of the Mods here and one of the H-Town Camaro Club members) he lives in that area, he can give you the straight skinny on the area.

[JantzenOKC]

My brother just moved from the woodlands. He loved it. They live in Denver now and are actually thinking about moving back despite the traffic. I couldn't handle Houston traffic on a daily basis. But it doesn't seem to bother him.

[xrayman]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Sir Nuke I will PM Mlee to ask for more information,
Thanks again.

[Scalded Dog]

I moved from CA to Spring, TX (which borders the Woodlands). I'm an outdoorsy- type, pretty conservative, and figured that Texas would offer more "outdoors" and like- minded people than CA. I also liked the idea of no state income tax, and the always- spoken- of lower cost of living.

Holy crap. I spent three and a half years there. I learned that you can't really go outside, because every patch of land within 200 miles is either sealed- off private property, or is a swampy waterway. You don't swim in rivers or lakes or ponds, because they are infested with alligators, cottonmouths, and snapping turtles. Plus, it's too hot and humid for 360 days of of the year, and too damn cold the other five days. If you like mountains, fuggedaboutit! Not one bump on the horizon for hundreds of miles. If you like surf and blue ocean water, you won't find it (the Gulf is brownish seawater, with waves that compete with ripples for "most underwhelming").

And, as a conservative, I was WAY out of my element. My experience leads me to believe that the good ol' boy/ rancher/ country- type/ patriotic description of Texans is little more than a myth. Maybe random chance over those three and a half years led me to ONLY meet those who mock the flag, think guns are just scary (and have no place in a civilian's hands), and think that higher taxes are a GREAT way to solve all of society's woes, but, that's about all I met. My beliefs in personal freedom, self- reliance, smaller government, and so forth, were foreign to all who I met there.

And speaking of taxes: Sure, no personal income tax... a nice little perk. But, they say that "they'll get you ONE way or another," and damn if that's not the truth. Property taxes are through the roof. In my area, I ended up with a 6% tax rate... others in neighboring communities have it as high as 10%. Buy a $100,000 house (you can get a decent suburban house for that), and pay between $6k and $10k... just to the gov't, for the privilege of owning something.

Schools? I was not impressed. Our initiation was, at the beginning of the school year, my two kiddos (then grades three and four) were given a substantial list of supplies to purchase. Most items were personal items, but a lot of was reams and reams and reams of paper.... for the school. But, I dutifully filled the shopping list, and did so with quality, expensive items. When the kids brought it all to school, the school first took their cut, then all children were required to dump their piles of stuff into a giant heap in the middle of the room: at the command of "GO!" every kid dove into the pile to get the good stuff. My kids ended up with shit, after I spent $1000 on their school supplies. Oh, and this is the same school that spent $4000 apiece for these freakin' headset gadgets for non- English speaking parents to receive "translated" information when they attend the open houses... once per year. No idea how many headsets they had... but it WAS quite a few. That's really nice and all, but knowing that such a huge portion of the school budget went to cater to that contingent, but therefore FAILING to have the funds for a hundred (every week, we were shoveling more money to the school, because of endless notes and pleas to "help provide for our struggling school") other more worthwhile expenditures really rubbed me the wrong way.

My anecdotal citations of why the schools there were not impressive to me could go on all day long; it's the sum total of a thousand things like this that put a bad taste in my mouth.

Bottom line for me? I figured the grass would be greener in Texas, and I learned otherwise. I earned $10,000 LESS than I earned in CA (doing the same job, for the same company), and had a much higher cost of living in Texas (yep, that turned out to be myth, too... all told, Texas cost me more to live: Housing, food, insurance, utilities--- and taxes!--- came to a sum total much higher than I have ever paid in California). I came back to CA, tail between my legs, defeated after being laid off, losing my house to foreclosure, and having not been able play outside for three and a half years.

The grass is greener here, in CA, for me. There's a far more conservative environment here (yup... it's true), I earn more money, it costs less to live, and I can go outside and play! I have mountain ranges, oceans, and deserts. I can go to places where's there's not a human within 50 miles of me, and even to places where it's possible that no other white man has ever set foot. I can swim in lakes and rivers, and no giant reptiles are going to eat me.

The question was asked, and that's my opinion. I'm sure there are people who will be offended and indignant that Texas' fine reputation would be besmirched--- especially by a CALIFORNIAN!--- but, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

[xrayman]

@Scalded Dog, I appreciate your candidness, thank you for sharing your experience. I am sorry that it was a bad experience and I hope that you have been able to rebound. I could be moving their for what I hope would be a nice job opportunity. I have never lived in Texas, so that s why I am asking for feedback.

[Scalded Dog]

You are very welcome, Xrayman! Clearly, form other posts too, one can tell that some people love it, others not so much. Continuing to do your homework is the best thing you can do to make your decision, and asking on this site is one way to get a lot of different perspectives... good strategy on your part!

[pickwithaustin]

I came from California, where I lived for 20 years before moving to Texas. Cost of living here is incrediably less than in CA. Home prices and car insurance are the most noticable... but also gasoline, food, and taxes are far, far below what I was used to in California. Don't get me wrong, California is a bit of a paradise with ocean, mountains, and desert all an hour or two drive away in any direction... but in my honest opinion, it costs way too much to live in CA. I bought my home here for $70K. My parents home in California (they just passed away) is going to go on the market there for $1.2 million. My home here is not quite as nice as theirs there, but it's at least half as good. There's a great example, IMHO. I moved my family here for a much better paying job and opportunity and other than my visits back to CA to visit family, you could not drag me back unless prices equaled out. I raised three kids here (been here 18 years now) and have never had an issue on the children's well being. In California, I was not happy with the elementary school ISD my first son was in (was too bilingual oriented - I'd receive notes home from the school in Spanish only, which I could not read...).

I don't care for Houston. Too humid and too much traffic. Other than that, the Woodlands is one of the better spots there. I have friends who live in the Woodlands (I live over near Austin).

California weather is FAR better than here (hot, as mentioned by others), and the Mexican food in (Southern) California blows our "Tex-Mex" away.

I think a lot may depend upon situations and specific areas, perhaps. I'm not doubting the other comments here, but I just have experienced the opposite is all.

DEFINITELY BE READY FOR THE HEAT! If your home air conditioning breaks down in summer, you'll trade your soul for a repair man to get there QUICK.

[txferrari]

Originally Posted by Scalded Dog

I moved from CA to Spring, TX (which borders the Woodlands). I'm an outdoorsy- type, pretty conservative, and figured that Texas would offer more "outdoors" and like- minded people than CA. I also liked the idea of no state income tax, and the always- spoken- of lower cost of living.

Holy crap. I spent three and a half years there. I learned that you can't really go outside, because every patch of land within 200 miles is either sealed- off private property, or is a swampy waterway. You don't swim in rivers or lakes or ponds, because they are infested with alligators, cottonmouths, and snapping turtles. Plus, it's too hot and humid for 360 days of of the year, and too damn cold the other five days. If you like mountains, fuggedaboutit! Not one bump on the horizon for hundreds of miles. If you like surf and blue ocean water, you won't find it (the Gulf is brownish seawater, with waves that compete with ripples for "most underwhelming").

And, as a conservative, I was WAY out of my element. My experience leads me to believe that the good ol' boy/ rancher/ country- type/ patriotic description of Texans is little more than a myth. Maybe random chance over those three and a half years led me to ONLY meet those who mock the flag, think guns are just scary (and have no place in a civilian's hands), and think that higher taxes are a GREAT way to solve all of society's woes, but, that's about all I met. My beliefs in personal freedom, self- reliance, smaller government, and so forth, were foreign to all who I met there.

And speaking of taxes: Sure, no personal income tax... a nice little perk. But, they say that "they'll get you ONE way or another," and damn if that's not the truth. Property taxes are through the roof. In my area, I ended up with a 6% tax rate... others in neighboring communities have it as high as 10%. Buy a $100,000 house (you can get a decent suburban house for that), and pay between $6k and $10k... just to the gov't, for the privilege of owning something.

Schools? I was not impressed. Our initiation was, at the beginning of the school year, my two kiddos (then grades three and four) were given a substantial list of supplies to purchase. Most items were personal items, but a lot of was reams and reams and reams of paper.... for the school. But, I dutifully filled the shopping list, and did so with quality, expensive items. When the kids brought it all to school, the school first took their cut, then all children were required to dump their piles of stuff into a giant heap in the middle of the room: at the command of "GO!" every kid dove into the pile to get the good stuff. My kids ended up with shit, after I spent $1000 on their school supplies. Oh, and this is the same school that spent $4000 apiece for these freakin' headset gadgets for non- English speaking parents to receive "translated" information when they attend the open houses... once per year. No idea how many headsets they had... but it WAS quite a few. That's really nice and all, but knowing that such a huge portion of the school budget went to cater to that contingent, but therefore FAILING to have the funds for a hundred (every week, we were shoveling more money to the school, because of endless notes and pleas to "help provide for our struggling school") other more worthwhile expenditures really rubbed me the wrong way.

My anecdotal citations of why the schools there were not impressive to me could go on all day long; it's the sum total of a thousand things like this that put a bad taste in my mouth.

Bottom line for me? I figured the grass would be greener in Texas, and I learned otherwise. I earned $10,000 LESS than I earned in CA (doing the same job, for the same company), and had a much higher cost of living in Texas (yep, that turned out to be myth, too... all told, Texas cost me more to live: Housing, food, insurance, utilities--- and taxes!--- came to a sum total much higher than I have ever paid in California). I came back to CA, tail between my legs, defeated after being laid off, losing my house to foreclosure, and having not been able play outside for three and a half years.

The grass is greener here, in CA, for me. There's a far more conservative environment here (yup... it's true), I earn more money, it costs less to live, and I can go outside and play! I have mountain ranges, oceans, and deserts. I can go to places where's there's not a human within 50 miles of me, and even to places where it's possible that no other white man has ever set foot. I can swim in lakes and rivers, and no giant reptiles are going to eat me.

The question was asked, and that's my opinion. I'm sure there are people who will be offended and indignant that Texas' fine reputation would be besmirched--- especially by a CALIFORNIAN!--- but, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

Spring/Woodlands is Dem/Liberal territory. To the OP, move to Cinco Ranch. It's your only option, depending on where you work. I've been here my whole life and honestly to me, The Woodlands is overhyped and not near as nice as Cinco Ranch. But, that is just my opinion.

[xrayman]

Thanks a lot pickwithaustin.

[Sapper12b]

Personally I like the woodlands, the name describes the area well, lots of trees and wooded area. Great outdoor theater for lots of concerts and plenty of areas to go shopping, only downfall is that a lot of the businesses and locations are hidden behind those woods. Biggest and number one reason why I didn't move into that area is the traffic, HWY 45 is just horrible no matter if you go north or south. The city has expanded the highway system but it does bottle neck, which is the cause of the traffic. Most people that move down to Houston have a hard time adjusting to the humidity. Plus is that you kind still find large open lots of property out in the woodlands and build a house to your liking. Definitely find a different area that is closer to work, if you don't mind telling us the general area where you to intend maybe we can offer better suggestions.

[xrayman]

Thanks again everyone, I am in discussions with a employer that is located within the Woodlands. So I would want to live within the Woodlands or somewhere within a maximum of 45 minutes from it.
Thanks.

[pickwithaustin]

When I first moved to Texas from California, I rented for a year before buying a home. That's another consideration. Don't lock yourself in to an area until you've spent some time there. I ended up buying a home a block from the house I was renting, so I was lucky in the initial location choice.