Posted on 06/10/2004 12:13:18 PM PDT by Rate_Determining_Step
OK.
Living in Seattle sucks. It's June 10th and the rest of the country is basking in warm spring weather and it's 51 degrees outside.
I wouldn't mind TX, but the wife says she can't stand the heat. Is it really that hot in TX? All of TX? Are there any semi-moderate places there?
Been looking at NH. I don't like snow, but I'll put up with it for 3-4 months, etc.
Looking for some FReepmail from natives on the really skinny on weather, crime, taxes, etc.
I took a survey and it said El Paso is the place for me. The closest I've been to Texas is Utah.
I like decent metro areas (love Manhattan). But, I want a house with a 2 or 3 car garage, etc.
It'll be nice to move out of an area where I'm up to my armpits in lefties!
Thanks,
I don't think you could find many homes in Houston suburbs that cost $100 per sq ft. You might pay as high as $75, if you throw in a swimming pool.
El Paso is nice - mountains, dry heat in the summer. It helps if you speak fluent Spanish. Don't be surprised if your car makes a one way trip to Mexico without you.
Houston - wet heat in the summer. Flooding can be a problem -study flood maps. Look in Fort Bend County.
Dallas - dry heat in the summer. Less than a week of snow/ice most years. Expect 30-60 days of 100 plus weather. Forget the yard - keep your house watered in the summer. Look in Collin county. If building new, consider a "safe room" for tornadoes.
If you can move anywhere, the hill country (west of Austin) is the best bet, followed by parts of east Texas.
As for the heat - you will have air conditioned housing, cars, shopping, and work.
Here I am promoting TX. I didn't know you were thinking Florida.
Go there now. They need every Republican vote they can get.
Leave tomorrow. Register to vote today.
The company VP visited Houston last year and rented a new Lexus.
Boof!
Would that be the Blue Mountains by any chance?
My mom said it was so hot in Texas....that the corn popped on the stalk, the horses saw it, thought it was snow...and froze to death.
And then you have to live through mud and black fly season before you get to summer.
Beautiful place, though, understand.
read post 17 LOL
I've lived in San Antonio pretty much all my life. Don't let those stories about the heat bother you. It's nothing like the heat of Phoenix. Plus, every evening, it gets into the 70s or at worse low 80s. If you can afford it, why don't you take a trip here and see how you like it. Of course, you can't really tell in just a couple of days.
I don't care for El Paso. I've only been there once, but it was so barren; west Texas is kind of desert-like. The rest of the state is fairly green.
The southern half of Texas has a lot of liberals, especially Austin. What do you do for a living? That might make a difference in which city you choose. If you need a lot of clients, you should stick to maybe Dallas or Houston. I've been told that San Antonio has a fairly low average income, but it is nice in that it has some small town qualities even though it is fairly populous. We have a good highway system, too; you can get to anywhere in about 20 minutes, 30 at the max.
ping make that 19
How about the Inland Empire? Northern Idaho was a welcome relief from the soggy liberal Seattle climate. Land is cheap, still, but things are startingto boom here.
If your wife doesn't like heat and you want to go to El Paso anyway.... seems you aren't taking the advice from the one who should matter.... why listen to us?
The winters are merely longer, not more extreme, in New Hampshire. We aren't near lots of water and that makes a big difference. Buy a snowblower if you want and have a short driveway. Your property taxes will pay for plowing the roads and they are good about plowing the roads. You won't miss work or anything from it. You can get a 4 wheel drive vehicle if you are really concerned (we have an SUV). I'm from Arkansas and really, it's no big deal. The summers peak at about 92 degrees. Mostly we have fall, winter, and spring with a few weeks of summer.
New Hampshire has a libertarian bent-- good fences make good neighbors. Texans would be more supportive of a constitutional amendment banning abortion, while New Hampshire would want the states to have total control over it, for example.
There are more Catholics per capita in New Hampshire than in Texas, I'd bet, but I don't know if you're Catholic.
If you like the outdoors, we have a huge edge over Texas as far as having access to beautiful natural areas. We have an all-GOP political slate-- including a great governor who will likely run for the WH in 2008 and our senior senator is the chair of Health Education Labor and Pensions-- Ted Kennedy's committee.
We have an Ivy League school-- Dartmouth. We have an incredibly staffed hospital that rivals only those in Boston in the Northeast-- Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (which has a great children's hospital-- CHAD-- and a great cancer hospital-- Norris Cotton Cancer Center, named for a famous GOP Senator, BTW).
We are the center of the presidential nominating universe. If you want to meet the 2008 GOP presidential candidates, you'll have your chance here-- even if Benson runs (since 2nd place is as important as first place). We have great campaign artifacts for you to look at in museums and we have The New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College and quadrennial presidential primary debates at either Dartmouth or UNH or both. As a GOP-leaning battleground state, we get plenty of attention after the nominee has been chosen. Why would a Republican waste time campaigning in the Lone Star State?
We have no sales tax and no income tax. We have town meetings, so you can claim the kind of local control over your life the Founders wanted and started. It's also cool to be around places that are so historic in age. We're centrally located-- just an hour or so from Canada (which lets leave the country in no time flat, but even in French-speaking Quebec you feel like you're just in some bizarro world in America where many don't speak English-- not like going to Mexico which seems foreign in every way), the Ocean (salt water taffy and beach babes rule), Boston-- so access to big city attractions, great skiing/snowboarding in Vermont (we have gold medal Winter Olympians in New Hampshire and Vermont). We have lots of maple syrup and moose.
I appreciate all the nuances of your areas! I really do. Keep these coming.
OK. Here's the low-down on Seattle. 3-4 months out of the year, it's unbeatable for weather. Mild and sunny. The bluest skys are in Seattle.
Housing is really spendy. I have a 3 bedroom house that I paid $82K for that's now worth 300-400K.
The east side of the sound is much more normal politically. Bellevue, Redmond, etc. Wealth is accepted there with a number of Ferraris, Porsches, etc. Here in the city, you hide your wealth.
It's also a huge metroplex. Seattle/Tacoma is one big city with some 1 million people. Streets are a nightmare. Lots of culture (restaurants, etc.).
I'm thinking Seattle is like San Francisco with slightly less expensive real estate and less history.
BTW, I love Washington, and lest these people believe you that it is always 51, we have had several days over 80 and many many more over seventy this spring. It just isn't like that every day, day after day, without change. Perfect.
Every place that is hot all the time also never has shade. I wouldn't leave here for anything!
I agree with you about Houston. Talk about a sprawling nasty city. Worse drivers in the world and constant traffic. We won't even talk about the crime there. UGLY is definitely the word for Houston.
I currently live in Houston and the weather is unbearably hot here. You get a reasonable break from the heat starting in October but that quickly comes to an end in May. You may think that 7 months of tolerable weather is good but in my opinion the heat of the other 5 completely offsets it. Plust you get no real seasonal changes here... not anything pretty that is. You go from hot hazy heat to muddy brown leaves to no leaves... spring can be nice but it quickly gives way to heat again.
BHS. Class of 89'. :)
I live in Gainesville, Florida, about 2 hrs from St. Aug. Four months of the year, this place is hot...110 heat index (because of the humidity). St Augustine (Ponte Vedra, specifically), on the other hand, is pretty decent. The ocean breezes seem to keep the summer heat in the bearable range.
The remaining 8 months of the year is absolutely beautiful. However, there are actually about 2 months where it is pretty cold. No snow, obviously, but this last winter, we had about 12 straight where the temparature was under 25. It warmed up to about 50-55 on those winter days, but with the bluest skies your eyes can imagine.
In Florida, if I had to choose: Vero Beach or Ormond Beach (on the east coast about half way down the state). Orlando is an hour's drive, Tampa 2 - 2 1/2, and about 4 hours from the best snorkeling/scuba in the world (Pennekamp Reef in Key Largo). My retirement fund is aimed squarely at either of these locales for my retirement.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.