Why aren't more retiring in Houston?

[Texas Proud]

The MOB's shows can sometimes be hilarious, but they are never your standard halftime act.

I am sure some Rice alum can give some better examples... but I remember two about the MOB...

One was at Texas A&M... you have to have a shaft stuck somewhere to go there... and the MOB did their moving "T"... so some student group with swords were going to 'attack' them after the game... they had to send buses in to get the band out...

The other was WAY back when my mom went to University of Houston (late 60s or early 70s).... it seemed that there was one band who though there were 'good' (not UH)... and they did their program first.... the MOB copied them right after their performance.... no practice at all... kind of put them in their place... at least IMO...

 

[Alan]

We visited some folks in the Woodlands. Really nice area. Lots of shopping and we loved the way it was laid out. Housing prices were incredible on the affordability scale.

Our first stay in the area was for 2 years while I worked in Clear Lake which was a very nice place but hugely busy. While I was in The Woodlands I only worked 3 miles away so it was perfect. Our son works there still. He moved into our apartment and pays us rent so he is keeping the place ready for us. He is only 2 miles from work.

 

[Rustic23]

I went to high school with William Marsh Rice the third. He applied to Rice.... did not get in! Note: Rice was started and endowed by William Marsh Rice the first.

 

[volga]

If I had to pick a city in Texas to retire in, it would be Corpus Christi. Great fishing, great beaches nearby, very reasonable cost of living, and though hot as heck at least the gulf breeze comes in from the water. My next choice would be San Antonio, which is really the same as retiring in Mexico but without the cheap overhead, but still not bad. Houston is so hot and wet and crowded and hyper red neck...unless you are in the oil Bidness few would choose that place.

 

[Htown Harry]

Forbes ranks Houston #4

For what it's worth (not much), last week Forbes magazine posted their list of top 10 most affordable places to retire. Their universe of "places" is limited to big cities:

"To find the best areas in the U.S. for a sustainable and exciting second act, we ranked the 40 largest Census-defined metropolitan statistical areas and looked at cost of living factors like housing affordability and inflationary pressures."
​

Houston ranked 4th, behind Columbus, Dallas, and Minneapolis:

"No. 4 Houston, Texas

Forbes.com’s Best Place to Buy a Home is, not surprisingly, a great place to retire. With tax revenues flowing from the oil and alternative energy industries centered there and a bustling tech scene, retirees won’t need to worry that they are settling into a place on the slide. Throw in affordable housing and sunny weather, and Houston is a great place to begin again."
​

Story: America's Most Affordable Places to Retire - Forbes.com

 

[two4theroad]

IKE

Ike? or others of his ilk........
Really I live in Corpus Christi and every time there is a storm in the Gulf of Mexico I rethink our decision to stay here after retirement. It is great for fishing, beach activities and absolutely no snow removal problems, ever! If I had it to do over, I would live far enough from the coast to never have to board up windows, stock up on canned goods, take pictures of every nook and cranny of the house for insurance purposes, and would never have to hear the word "Evacuate" again.
2fer

 

[unclemick]

1974 - 2005. New Orleans over Lake Ponchartrain fishing/vacation area outside the levee - always did the drill.

Katrina.

North side of Kansas City. Missouri side of the river. On a hill. A big hill.

May fortune smile on you. At least we got thirty good years.

heh heh heh - so far one ice storm and all the tornado's have missed. .

 

[pedorrero]

Well, for the weekend of 9/13-9/14, I can certainly understand why

 

[Orchidflower]

After over 20 years innercity Houston--and numerous hurricane warnings--the worst I have ever seen is trees uprooted bringing damage, shingles off roofs, some windows broken in downtown buildings. Bad stuff, but not necessarily life threatening.
HOWEVER, it's the rain, rain and more rain that follows the hurricanes that really does the worst damage with all the flooding it brings to the area. Loss of homes, loss of cars and so forth really slows the city down alot for awhile. Tolerable, but no fun at all.
Houston is pretty flat, so you can't really find hills to live on much either.
My advice is to get flood insurance for your home and autos immediately when you get there. Had a friend who didn't, and she had to have her entire home torn down after a hurricane (all the contractors were busy for months with the one in 2001). That's what I mean about no fun at all.

 

[2B]

I'm still here but my electricity was out about 12 hours. Cable and internet was out slightly longer.

I had not real damage from the strorm but I'm a good 50+ miles from the coast. I'm in Katy. I was up from 1 am on due to the noise.

Definitely not a good retirement location.

 

[Goonie]

I'm still here......

Glad to hear ya made it through OK!

 

[Dawg52]

I'm still here but my electricity was out about 12 hours. Cable and internet was out slightly longer.

I had not real damage from the strorm but I'm a good 50+ miles from the coast. I'm in Katy. I was up from 1 am on due to the noise.

Definitely not a good retirement location.

Consider yourself lucky. My electricity was out for a week due to Katrina. And I'm 180 miles from the coast. That is amazing you got it back that soon.

 

[2B]

Consider yourself lucky. My electricity was out for a week due to Katrina. And I'm 180 miles from the coast. That is amazing you got it back that soon.

I've heard that the fastest way to get your power back is to live next to a hospital. The second fastest is next to a government official. I'm about a mile from a hospical and there is a minor official in my neighborhood. I talked with him out on the street yesterday morning and he had already been involved in surveying the town for damage. He said there wasn't much but a lot of people had lost power. He said that we had lost power because a tree fell over and knocked down the power line. He was going to call the police to make sure they knew how easy it would be to get us all back up and running.

The power was on in 2 hours. Did he speed things up? I don't know.

After emergency facilities, they prioritize areas based on the ease of restoring power and how many people are impacted. That's been pounded home several times on TV. We are a decent sized area and it was an easy fix. So if I lived 10 miles from my nearest neighbor and the power line to me was totally wiped out, I'd probably be waiting 3 week.

 

[jj]

Glad you made it through 2B.

I am in Austin but DH stayed behind just north of Houston to weather the storm. He has no power or land-line phone. He is thinking of closing up the house and driving to Austin later today.

Does anyone know if FM1488 in Mongomery County is passable, across to 290? There is nothing on the news about the outlying areas, I just thought maybe someone on the forum might be out that way and with power....

Thanks!

 

[LOL!]

...
Does anyone know if FM1488 in Mongomery County is passable, across to 290? There is nothing on the news about the outlying areas, I just thought maybe someone on the forum might be out that way and with power....

Thanks!

As I responded to the same inquiry elsewhere: I believe 1488 is passable along its entire length. I drove about 5 miles of it today.

 

[2B]

Now I'll be tacky.....

What's this going to do to the Houston housing market? When Katrina hit, home prices in Baton Rouge went up almost overnight by 50%. People were knocking on doors and making offers.

I would have a hard time justifying not selling my house if I could get a nice windfall. I'm ready to downsize anyway.

Anyone want to retire in Houston?

 

[W2R]

Now I'll be tacky.....

What's this going to do to the Houston housing market? When Katrina hit, home prices in Baton Rouge went up almost overnight by 50%. People were knocking on doors and making offers.

I would have a hard time justifying not selling my house if I could get a nice windfall. I'm ready to downsize anyway.

Anyone want to retire in Houston?

Home prices in BR did go up considerably almost overnight, since many who lived in New Orleans wanted a place to stay while they rebuilt their homes and their lives. Many jobs moved to BR for a year or even permanently at that time. Speculators bought there and in the historic and somewhat expensive (and dry) Uptown section of New Orleans, which drove the price up there as well.

My median priced home is located in a good (but not historic) close in suburb inside the New Orleans levee system, and did not flood or sustain any roof damage due to Katrina. In 2006 I might have been able to get as much as 5% more for it than before Katrina, but after 2006 prices went down. A real estate professional told me a month ago that presently, homes in my neighborhood generally could not be expected to go for more than their pre-Katrina selling prices. Hope this helps.

 

[LOL!]

Now I'll be tacky.....

What's this going to do to the Houston housing market? When Katrina hit, home prices in Baton Rouge went up almost overnight by 50%. People were knocking on doors and making offers.

I would have a hard time justifying not selling my house if I could get a nice windfall. I'm ready to downsize anyway.

Anyone want to retire in Houston?

The hurricane will do nothing to Houston homes prices because as far as I can tell, very few homes were damaged and/or flooded. Such a widespread area was affected that folks will not really move. Indeed, they do not need to move.

 

[Nords]

Anyone want to retire in Houston?

I'd do it to get away from the Hawaii hurricane threat but... uhm... never mind.

I wonder if USAA is still selling homeowner's insurance in the Gulf states. Or maybe they're just hunkered down in their San Antonio bunker trying to figure out what the heck they're going to say in their annual Subscriber's Savings Account letter...

 

[REWahoo]

I wonder if USAA is still selling homeowner's insurance in the Gulf states. Or maybe they're just hunkered down in their San Antonio bunker trying to figure out what the heck they're going to say in their annual Subscriber's Savings Account letter...

My policy is up for renewal next month (talk about lousy timing). My guess is they will keep writing policies but go for a major rate increase.

 

[Nords]

My policy is up for renewal next month (talk about lousy timing). My guess is they will keep writing policies but go for a major rate increase.

Maybe they could take their rate increase from your SSA distribution...

Armed Forces Insurance, with most of their clients in the southeast, has been declining for years. If we raise our deductibles much higher we'll practically be self-insured against all but total destruction. I wonder how this hurricane season has treated their cashflow statement and their liabilities.

 

[2B]

My policy is up for renewal next month (talk about lousy timing). My guess is they will keep writing policies but go for a major rate increase.

I don't remember all of the details but Texas has a provision that uses "10 years of events" to calculate rates. That's going to hit pretty hard when it comes through next year.

Katrina got Texas to separate "wind storm" (guess what that is) from normal homeowner's insurance. There was a semi-arbitrary line drawn along the coast to differentiate where separate "wind storm" insurance was required. These were reinsured through multiple world wide insurance groups. State Farm uses Lloyds of London.

This separate policy didn't lower the normal home insurance but it cost as much or more than the other policy. It wasn't unusual to get hit with an extra $1,500 or $2,000 in cost to live along the coast.

Until 2 years ago, DW and I had a house about 100 feet from the magic line. Fortunately, we were on the right side of it. That line may get redrawn soon. I think our old house was flooded based on TV pictures I've seen but I didn't see our exact property.

 

[REWahoo]

Maybe they could take their rate increase from your SSA distribution...

You're assuming there will be something left to distribute after paying Ike losses?

A USAA spokesperson said on the local news last night their claims call volume had gone from the typical 3,000 per day to over 12,000 per day...

 

[Leonidas]

What's this going to do to the Houston housing market? When Katrina hit, home prices in Baton Rouge went up almost overnight by 50%. People were knocking on doors and making offers.

That will be interesting to see. Katrina was a different kind of event though and I'm not sure we will see anything like the mass exodus they saw in NOLA. Some folks won't be able to go back, but there will be people who will give up that beachfront living. One of my neighbors moved here from Jamaica Beach after Rita, "too exposed" he said. "I love it down there, and one day I might have a weekend house back there. But as an only home? No way."

 

[Nords]

OK, now we've heard from LOL, 2B, Htown Harry, and Leonidas.

Who else is on the Houston roll call? Any major damage?