Sell me your town!

[pbwalker]

It's been something on the back burner for the wife and I for a year or so, and I figure I would solicit some feedback!

We've been in San Antonio now for just about 6 years, and was in Corpus prior (for about 2 years). We've grown by two in that time (a beautiful 21 month old, and a 1 month old...both grisl). We're looking to get out of the city in a few years, but want to stay in Texas. The only thing is, I don't know where to look!

We're open to all over Texas, except for anything south of 90 from where we are. I've only seen Houston, Dallas, Wichita Falls (cities themselves) and a few small towns in the Hill Country and around SAT.

We're looking for a smaller town, but with some of the conveniences that a city provides. I've lived in NYC and in towns as small as 13,000...so my idea of a small town may vary. . I'm sure they still exist somewhere! Far enough to be "out in the country" but close enough to be able to "run to the store for diapers" at 2am. You know...a place like Fayetville TX, but closer to a big city.

We figure that over the next few years, we'll explore these places and get a better of understanding of what this great country, Texas, has to offer!

So...why do you like where you are? What places have you visited that could fit this need?

[CrimsonSoul]

Well if you're looking for small town the city I grew up in, West Columbia, fits that discription. The city itself has one grocery store (HEB) and one everything store (wal-mart, but it doesn't sell food). there is a super wal-mart, kroger, a mall, etc. about 30 minutes away and a lot of country around 100+ acres of which belongs to my family with 40 belonging to my dad, it's where I shoot at. Anyway. nice little down, but it does have its bad neighborhoods like they all do.

[TxRVer]

I'd try to sell you on Red Oak, but the city government has ideas of making Red Oak the largest town in Ellis County. I don't want to see that kind of growth since it's the right size now. We have a Brookshire's in town and a 24hr CVS pharmacy. There are Wal-marts all around us in Waxahachie, Lancaster, and DeSoto. Downtown Dallas is only 20 minutes away. I just hope the local government is wrong about growing so much.

[jimlongley]

I live in Allen TX, which is projected to build out to a little over 100,000 eventually. We are bordered by Plano, McKinney, Fairview, Lucas, Parker, and Murphy. The areas to the immediate east of us, including parts of Fairview, Lucas, and Parker, and further north and east of Lake Lavon, offer a mix of suburban, semi-rural, and rural amenities, with pretty quick access to Plano, Frisco, and Dallas, besides all of what Allen, McKinney and Fairview have to offer.

It's a nice place to live, but we need more places to shoot.

[Oldgringo]

We live in Rusk (Pop 3,500 + 1500 in the prisons) which sure ain't going anywhere.

We're surrounded by some of the best fishin' in the state, Shreveport is 100 miles to the east, Houston is 170 miles south and Dallas is 150 miles west. Major shopping is done in either Tyler or Lufkin, 50 miles north or south. There's a Super Wal-Mart in Jacksonville, which just voted to go semi-wet 15 miles north of here. Oh, I almost forgot, the nearest whiskey store is either in Cuney or Palestine, each about 30 miles away.

The good news about Rusk is that "livin' is cheap and easy". The bad news about Rusk is that "livin' is cheap and easy". Rush hour is when 4 autos and a school bus arrive at our traffic light at the same time.

[The Annoyed Man]

Have you taken a look at Grapevine and the surrounding area? Grapevine is not that small of a town (approx. 50,000), but it does well at trying to maintain a small town feel. The local city government is extremely well run. The high school (you have kids) has been repeatedly listed in the top 100-150 high schools in the nation academically, which is pretty darn good. The rest of the school district is reflective of that. It is located commuting distance to both Fort Worth and Dallas, so depending on what your trade is, there are lots of employment opportunities.

I'm a member of the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce, and I can tell you that we have an active and friendly business community. And from what I've seen of other surrounding chambers of commerce, they are all pretty active too. The crime rate in Grapevine is pretty low. There is a Baylor hospital in town; there's plenty of nearby shopping; the streets are kept very clean; the town is located on the shores of Grapevine Lake, and it is close enough to either Dallas or Fort Worth that anything else you might need is not that far away. There's just a whole lot to recommend this area.

50,000 may be bigger than what you're looking for. But if it isn't, there are a lot of good reasons to check it out. I moved here from Pasadena California, which is three times the size of Grapevine population-wise, so this seems like a smaller town to me. And I spent almost a year looking at homes for sale online before moving. Grapevine hadn't even occurred to me until a friend back there who was born and raised in this area suggested it to me. He said that if I liked the feel of South Pasadena (I did), that I would like Grapevine. I spent the first 2 or 3 months that I lived in Texas living out of a hotel room by myself near my work. I spent the weekends looking at homes for sale in Grapevine and I fell in love with the place. When I flew my wife out here to look at homes with me, she fell in love with it too. When we finally engaged a realtor, we never looked any further than this town. I really, really like it here.

[joe817]

pbwalker, you pose an interesting question.....one that is difficult to answer, but here goes.

There are many towns & cities that fit your criteria. In my travels in Texas, here are the one's I think I'd like to live in. These are in no particular order of preference:
Kerrville
Fredericksburg
Gainesville(prolly my favorite)
Tyler
Nacogdoches
Georgetown
Waco

I'm partial to Gainesville because my Grandmother lived there, and I love the climate, town amenities, etc. The others were towns we passed through and spent the night. They are small enough to get out of town in a very short time and be in the country but offer amenities that you'd find in a big city.

I think that any town that you take an interest in, there will be someone who can offer counter arguments against moving there. It's just human nature.

I used a website, epodunk when I worked at the North Texas Council of Governments that has some very useful info on demographics, statistics, climatology, etc which you may find useful:

http://www.epodunk.com/communities_tx.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good luck on your search!

[UpTheIrons]

Seguin likely doesn't fit some of your criteria (we sorta "straddle" Hwy 90, and at 25,000 I don't think anyone would say we're a "small" town), but we do fit the big-city-conveniences-nearby one. Nearly everything we'd ever need is within an hour - SAT, Austin, San Marcos - and all the attendant cultural/fun/food experiences that they have to offer. Plus, Wal-Mart is "just around the corner" from my house, and the hospital is literally across the street.

My hometown of Giddings might be a place to look. Population ~5000, an hour east of Austin, and the new high school should be about paid for by the time you get there (if your time-frame doesn't change). Plus, there are huge tracts of land so you can set up that long-range rifle range that we all want in our back yards.

Wimberly get a lot of attention, too, but I've heard people's nightmares of trying to get anywhere when there's a big rain coming through. Kinda like most of SAT's low water crossings - so you should be right at home!

[budroux2w]

I 2nd Grapevine. ANYTHING you need is just a moment away. Lake Grapevine is not as busy as some of the other area lakes. You can get to any terminal at DFW airport in about 5-10 minutes which is great. The community is VERY friendly and Main street is a blast with family friendly events almost monthly.

[RPB]

towns as small as 13,000?

LOL that's a big city compared to Burnet (pop. 2,000 or so)
You can go to the bank, post office, Walgreens, pay utilities, and grocery shop at HEB and get back home before a TV commercial is over. Good Seton Hospital here, with helicopter service to Austin if needed.

Marble Falls, Georgetown and Austin/Round Rock/Cedar Park aren't that far away if you want to visit bigger cities too, so WalMart, Academy etc etc etc aren't that far.
Pretty peaceful around Burnet still, mostly younger kids up to high school age and retired folks 50 and older, but quite a few in their 30s working folks. Not much crime either.

Just up 281 from San Antonio, if you miss a restaurant there, 2 hours is all it takes.

Dunno your hobbies, but lots of highland lakes and parks to do whatever in/on, and all are LCRA managed, so carrying is no problem.

House prices aren't outragious either .... yet. (But it's becoming a popular area, more young people moving here and building bigger expensive housing, so my property value is going up)

Short hop to Leander to ride the Metro train to Austin, so the area will grow after Leander area gets more full, but safe/small town/still out in the country for more years, because Liberty Hill (hwy 29 at 183) and Bertram will take time to fill up first.

And, we had ammo when Austin/San Antonio didn't

[J.R.@A&M]

College Station is a nice place to live and raise a family. It's not too big, but has a lot of services for it's size. Good public school system, and lots of extra-curricular things for moms/kids to pursue. It is close enough to Houston for day trips and Austin/San Antonio/DFW are all within about three hours. The biggest downside would be the 48,000 college students who drive around while texting. But after living in McAllen, we were used to bad drivers.

[TxD]

Friendswood, cause you're only 15 minutes from PSC
and that's all I've got to say about that .

[SQLGeek]

Bearing in mind I haven't seen much of Texas outside of the Houston area, we found a nice small town feel in the Richmond-Rosenberg area of Ft Bend County. We are closing on a house in a newer subdivision that is just far enough out to be borderline rural but close enough to plenty of shopping, entertainment, etc and close enough for me to commute to work in Houston. The zipcode is 77469 if you're interested at all.

[Purplehood]

When I was at your stage of the child-rearing life, I was too darn broke to consider moving from one town to another. I need your lifestyle!

[TexasGal]

My input is the DFW Metroplex vs East Texas:
I was born in Fort Worth and live near there now. In 52 years, I have seen the area change a lot to say the least.

I know what I am about to say may sound negative, but I figure you want to hear if an area has some drawbacks. There is a significant problem with traffic congestion in some areas especially during rush hours. If you don't have to negotiate the roads at that time, then that may not be an issue for you.

The recent natural gas drilling in the DFW metroplex is adding significantly to our air pollution problem and heavy truck traffic on our roads. I've been told there are 2000+ wells in Tarrant County alone and they are not stopping drilling of new wells anytime soon. There has been a lot of questions lately of just how much bad chemical pollution the wells are putting out of things like Benzene. I used to be able to see clearly into the distance all during the year, but in recent years there is a haze of ozone that hangs over the entire metroplex area from June to September with many if not most days of level orange air quality.

I like the conveniences, but I miss the quieter, more friendly, and cleaner town of my youth, so we want to move. I've been checking out East Texas for quite a while. I like the smaller to medium sized towns there. It is so different from other parts of Texas. The area gets more rain so it is more lush and green. I like the pine trees and rolling landscape. Some areas are hilly and covered with oak and pine and meadows--downright beautiful. I've met lots of friendly people there too. Check out Canton, Tyler, and other towns nearby. Tyler is fairly large and has just about anything you need. The price of land is better in East Texas than just about anywhere else that isn't desert. If you like big trees, green landscapes, and land enough for privacy, check it out. The DFW metroplex has suburbs that are nice with conveniences. I live in one, but I don't care for the amount of traffic or the increasing air pollution. Hope this helps. Good luck on your search! Please post what you think as you check out various places.