For the Houston bashers . .
 

Yep!

Great article, Rich - thanks for posting! We love living in Houston - great museums, restaurants, theater, sports, close to the water - good stuff.

Living in a planned development is not everyone's cup of tea.

I grew up in extreme humidity. Don't care to live in it as adult.

Judging from the comments, not everyone agrees.

Does everyone agree with everything?????

Temps and humidity in Houston are almost exactly the same as NOLA . .

That's not a good recommendation Rich! :) That said, I love it when I get back to FL and feel the humidity. My skin loves it too.

I have a friend who grew up in Palos Verdes. They were transferred to Houston about 15 years ago and refuse to leave. He's even left his company rather than accept the necessary transfer away. Another couple who worked for the past couple of decades in DC and who could have gone anywhere, chose Houston to retire and are thrilled with their new lifestyle. They must be doing something right there!

Here's that list:

No. 1: Houston

No. 2: Raleigh

No. 3: Omaha

No. 4: Boise

No. 5: Colorado Springs

No. 6: Austin

No. 7: Fayettville

No. 8: Sacramento

No. 9: Des Moines

No. 10: Provo

No offense, but frankly aside from Houston and Austin, the cities on this list aren't exactly known for their food, entertainment or nightlife opportunities. Really.... just one city east of the Mississippi?

I'm hoping the humidity will help keep me looking young!

Keeps me looking like a teenager . .

Aer living in Jakarta for a few years, Houston seems downright dry!!

should say . . "After living in Jakarta . . "

My guess is the cost of living issue was the reason for 1 city east of the Mississippi.

My in-laws retired and built a house on a lake no. of Houston. It's wooded and beautiful.

People complain about the heat and humidity, but I won't when I move there (I plan to in a few yrs). Try living where the cold weather end in July and starts again by September! Here in Wisconsin this month has been 49% colder than last year in May. YUCK!

Cost of living can't explain the western bent. Sacramento made the list and it scores super-high on the cola index.

Atlanta, Birmingham, Toledo and Terre Haute are all pretty low on the cola index, as are plenty of other places east of the Mississippi.

I don't understand the western focus of the list either, but it must have something to do with the emphasis on income and job growth in the criteria, because I guess that's where most of the growth is. In places that have room to grow. But call me crazy, I don't see lots of new college grads rushing to the excitement of Omaha and Provo.

Living in Houston -- been there, done that, got the t-shirt but it sweat soaked before I got to the airport. I didn't live in a very nice area though in the early 80's, but got the chance to see the origins of places like the Woodlands. Neither my neighborhood nor the giant upscale planned community were my cup of tea, but I don't recall a lot of what seemed like in between type housing. It was long ago though. And I know Houston does have it's positives like all cities (I just couldn't afford them then, haha)

My question is more from the Houston of 25+ yrs ago but did they ever start *zoning* in the city limits so that grey steel pipeyards and industrial lots weren't mixed in with residential and schools and such? I thought that was an interesting, but in the end, not-so-successful aspect of Houston's growth. Always suspected that was the reason for the massive planned communities - well controlled land buffers against some of the realities of Houston.

Love Houston and so glad DH spent a year there, living near Rice. We both could have stayed on. San Antonio is okay but really not us--I'll take Houston any day and happy we get back to visit as often as we do.

As a New Orleans gal - moving to Houston 9 years ago was difficult, but necessary. My DH (a Yankee who now calls New Orleans home) was not happy about it either. After 2 years in Houston we left and have spent the last 7 years living overseas.

Now, we are getting ready to move back to Houston. Are we thrilled about it? No - would much rather be in NOLA! BUT......after 7 years in 3rd world countries - we're looking for the conveniences of the US and Houston just happens to be the place we need to land! It will be fine until the kids graduate (3 more years) - after that, we're hoping to go back overseas.

AnnMarie, Rice is a really beautiful area. We love San Antonio too, but whenever we visit, we still like to come home to a bigger city.

One thing I admire about Houston is how much they have concentrated on the infrastructure in the last 20 years or so. When I was a kid, and we would go to the theater, downtown would be completely empty when you would come out of the theater. Now downtown is vibrant with great restaurants, clubs, the beginning of the rail line, beautiful new stadiums, and the new multimillion dollar park, Discovery Green - nice to see all the positive changes.

volcanogirl, we'll move back to Maryland sometime within the next 10 months or so having lived in San Antonio nearly 20 years... I will forever be grateful we came to know Houston so well because it feels like home to us, reminds us of "home"... in particular the humidity, lol. Will sorely miss our weekend jaunts.