Is Houston Texas a Good Place to Live? Pros and Cons to Consider

I'm pulling 10 random topics out of a box and telling you exactly what I love and hate about living in Houston, Texas. Some of these you probably haven't even thought about yet. I moved here from North Idaho in 2009, left for a few years, and came back for good during COVID. I've helped over 500 families relocate here, and I can tell you right now: Houston ain't for everybody.

But if you can handle the heat, the property taxes, and the mosquitoes, you're going to find affordable housing, incredible food, master-planned communities with amenities you didn't know existed, and some of the best people in the country. This is the real story, not the brochure version. Let's get into it.

Table of Contents

• Contractors: Easy to Find, Hard to Vet
• Utility Bills: The Most Confusing Part of Texas
• Property Taxes: They'll Eat You Alive
• Biting Bugs: Mosquitoes, Red Ants, and Webs Everywhere
• Southern People: The Best You'll Ever Meet
• Road Construction: The Only Season That Lasts Year-Round
• Proximity and Day Trips: Austin, San Antonio, Beaches, and Hill Country
• Big Costs: Why Houston Still Feels Like a Bargain
• Weather: I Love It (Yes, Really)
• Ready to Make the Move to Houston?

Contractors: Easy to Find, Hard to Vet

There are 85 million contractors in Houston. I'm exaggerating, but not by much. You can find somebody to do lawn maintenance, framing, windows, roofing, remodeling, kitchens, bathrooms, tile, whatever you need. The problem is quality control.

Here's what I've learned the hard way. You might find a guy who comes in and replaces your flooring in two days, and it's amazing. Then you mention you're thinking about redoing a bathroom, and he says, "Actually, I can take care of that for you." This is where it goes sideways. A lot of times they have a cousin or a friend who does tile, so they turn themselves into the general contractor and hire out these other guys. Sometimes this leads to really poor experiences and costs you a ton of money. It happened to me.

They're great at that one thing they do, and then they just kind of guess about the rest. That's where you start to have additional costs and headaches. The number one thing you can do when moving here is leverage your neighbors and anybody you know who's already here. Ask for pictures, reviews, and qualified references. I've had good luck with an app called Thumbtack for individual jobs. You can find specified contractors with reviews. But everybody around here can basically remodel an entire house, so they say.

Utility Bills: The Most Confusing Part of Texas

I hate this one. It's probably one of the most unexplainable things here in not only Houston but just Texas. The utility bills sometimes feel like they're just making numbers up.

Here in Kingwood , we were annexed by the city of Houston, so Houston is our water provider. I'm telling you right now, you can have a $100 a month water bill and the next month a $200 water bill. There's no usage on there, and if there is, it seems completely made up, especially when you call somebody.

The power companies are even weirder. You don't pay them directly. You pay a middleman. It's like they literally put the power in their truck, deliver it to your house, and then you pay that person. I don't know why they did it. I guess it's to deregulate it and have lower costs. Maybe it's true, but if you do not pick the right provider, you are going to pay a ton of money, especially in the summer months.

There's probably 10,000 different power providers. There's days and nights weekend programs, weekend programs, all these different programs. That's where you can really make a massive mistake. I work with Energy Ogre, and there's a code in the pinned comment and description to use it for free. It saved me thousands of dollars every year because do you really want to sit there and shop 10,000 different providers? It goes through, finds the cheapest ones based on your specific schedule. If you're gone every weekday from 8 AM to 5 PM, you want one of those programs where it's expensive during that window. You keep your AC high, and then nights and weekends are cheaper. I have three kids who think power is free and leave every door open in my house even in the middle of August. So I wanted the lowest kilowatt per hour program, and they find that.

Property Taxes: They'll Eat You Alive

Yes, there's no state income tax. We got to get the taxes from somewhere. I totally get it. But here's the issue with the taxes in Houston and all of Texas: it comes down to a desktop appraisal. I don't even know if there's anybody sitting behind the desk. It might be a couple farm animals hitting the keys, because one day your house is worth $300,000 and the next year it's worth $500,000.

Then you go and you fight that property tax and it takes you six months and you have to pay companies to do it. And they say, well, maybe it's worth $480,000. And you're like, if I listed this house today, I might be able to get $320,000 max for this thing. Where are you coming up with this extra $160,000? That's the problem I think they need to fix the most: this whole appraisal system that is off of God knows what. That is where your property taxes can double over the year.

After COVID, the past few years, it has really started to slowly decrease. There was a two- to three-year period there where it just seemed like it doubled every single year. Abbott has been talking about property taxes and these huge plans, and you get super excited, but he keeps talking about them. It's been three or four years. I don't know if anything's ever changed.

One other thing: when it comes to home insurance, they're slapping values onto your house. I ran into this where they put like a $400,000 additional cost even above my inflated property tax evaluation for my home insurance. So that doubled too. I had to go through a bunch of different processes and talk to people to go, guys, it's not worth this much. Because your property taxes and your insurance start to double or even triple, it's crazy what your price every single month goes up to.

Biting Bugs: Mosquitoes, Red Ants, and Webs Everywhere

I don't get messed with the biting bugs much. You know who does? My wife. I talk about those pesky mosquitoes all the time. Thermacells and the 55-round mosquito spray have really helped us out. I think Thermacell has been the best if you don't want to spray all the DEET on you. You just plug it in, or they have a little thing you can hook on your shirt now.

I've tried a lot of things. Thermacell is probably the best because my wife will get bit and get swollen face, swollen everywhere. So if you got red ants, mosquitoes, you got to watch out. The thing I don't like about the bugs here in Texas is all of the webs and the dirt and the stuff they leave behind. Your house is plastered with these mud things. Every time I clean my garage, all these webs, you go out there a week later and it's like you're walking into a Halloween haunted house. It's crazy what the bugs do down here. These things are some real human beings out there doing work in your garage, on the side of your house. There's some big bugs here in Texas.

Southern People: The Best You'll Ever Meet

If you don't like the South, you don't like Southern people, they don't like you either. But if you love them and you are good to them and you treat their states good, I'm telling you, you won't find better people in the world.

The number one thing when COVID was going down and it got a little crazy in the Northwest, my wife said, take me to Texas, Jackson. We'd come here from 2009 to 2012 when I was trying to become a journeyman lineman, which I ended up becoming. We fell in love with the people. There's nothing like it anywhere.

Over here in Houston, it is a melting pot. We've met a lot of people from Georgia, Florida, mostly from Louisiana. Them Louisiana people, they crazy, but I love every one of them. They make the best gumbos, cathead biscuits, crawfish boils, andouille sausages. I'm talking the best of the best. And they just like to have fun.

Our big thing was we like to be around people. We like going and hanging in people's backyards. We like to have entertainment, people, friends, all that. That's just how we are as Wilkies. I'm just kind of a glass half full guy all the time. Down here in the South, it's not only that, but when natural disasters happen, when huge rainstorms hit, you'll have 20 neighbors beating on your door seeing if you're okay.

I'll never forget the first one we went through. It's actually a freeze. You come to Texas to get warm and we have this crazy freeze, and my neighbor from across the street knew that we were new and came beating on the door. He's like, just making sure y'all are okay, man. I know you're new here. And I'm like, it's 28 degrees. This is like a warm day in the summer in Idaho. Hell yeah, we're good to go. But that's just how it is. Everybody helping. Get your babies over here. I got power. We'll get them in the bathtub. Anybody need food? Anybody need waters? We got it. People in the South, y'all rock.

Road Construction: The Only Season That Lasts Year-Round

Everybody asks me, what are the seasons like there? I say, well, there's only one season that sticks around year-round, 24/7, every single day for 500 years straight, and that is road construction. No matter where you go, it's like they literally just finish a two-lane road to a four-lane road, and then they tear it all down and turn it into a six-lane road. It never stops. There's road construction everywhere.

Even when there's not road construction, it feels like here in Houston they like to just put big trucks with a bunch of cones and block two or three lanes to do something. Usually there's not even guys out there painting lines or anything, but you're going to run into road construction. This place is growing, it's ever-changing, it's crazy.

The good news about the road construction: here in Houston it's flat, it's open, there's a lot of room to expand. Coming from North Idaho or even living in Oregon over in the Beaverton area, you have all those mountains and lakes and rivers. They can't expand. You got these really tight narrow roads and they can't really do anything about it. Here in Houston they're just always expanding, always getting bigger.

This is why probably the most important part of moving to Houston is reaching out to us, because you got to figure out where you can get within 15 to 30 minutes of your job. Fifteen is crazy, but 20, 30, maybe 40 minutes max because of the construction, because of the amount of traffic that you're going to run into.

The other thing about that is just new construction in the houses. It's everywhere you look. I've never had so many flat tires in my life. I think I had one in North Idaho growing up. I've had about 20 of them here. I'm getting expert level at plugging my tires because you see them all the time. Or you can actually go anywhere in Houston, you'll find these tire shops that are red and yellow typically with giant tractor tires that are painted. For $10 or $15 cash, they'll plug that tire, but you're gonna get a lot of nails and a lot of debris in your tires.

Proximity and Day Trips: Austin, San Antonio, Beaches, and Hill Country

One of the coolest parts about Houston is that you are a three- to four-hour drive from Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas. Not to mention you've got the entire Hill Country, everything in between San Antonio and Austin, which I think is the sneaky best, around the New Braunfels area. Anywhere around there you've got cold clear rivers to go swimming, all these swimming holes, parks. You've got a lot of stuff to do.

It's actually something that we as a family, not being from here and just being like I'm tired of people, we're experiencing everything. You know what the other great part is? An hour and a half south, you got Galveston. An hour and a half to the southeast, you have Crystal Beach, our personal favorite. We love Bolivar Peninsula. You can go down there to Margaritaville. You can drive your vehicles on the beach, four-wheelers, side-by-sides, golf carts. It is a life.

You don't think these things exist, that you can be in the middle of the forest, so many trees, green incredible. Out west, you hit the beautiful Hill Country where I'm telling you, the stars in the sky is bigger in Texas. And you head right south and you got incredible beaches that you can go swimming at. Oh, and don't forget, you can head right across the old state border there to Louisiana and hit the old slot machines if you want to do that too. Day trips, having so many things to do, can't beat it.

Big Costs: Why Houston Still Feels Like a Bargain

One of the main reasons a lot of people move to Houston: when you look at the big ticket items, they're just cheaper here. Yes, you talk to the locals and the $300,000 is absolutely asinine, and the $500,000 is just so expensive. And it's not because they can't afford it, it's because they grew up seeing it at $80,000 or $120,000. I totally understand.

But you guys all know we're coming from the Northeast, the Northwest, all these other states where $500,000 for a 3,000 square foot home, four or five bedroom with a movie theater , are you kidding me? It's a dream come true. Yes, your property taxes are more. Yes, your insurances can be more. But at the end of the day, you're getting so much more house for your money. I couldn't believe it when we got down here.

Here is the other part to that: there is no state income tax here in Texas. So when you weigh out your income and not getting that state income tax, and then you weigh out the cost of living, the houses, you can really save some money.

New Construction vs. Resale: The Property Tax Difference

If you are somebody who's truly trying to maximize budget, look at what your monthly payment is. You can get incredible deals on new construction homes, but sometimes those property tax rates can be anywhere from 2.5% to 3.6%, and 2.5% is probably unheard of except for certain areas when it comes to brand new.

If you really want to maximize that budget and go more resale, then you can get into some of these neighborhoods where they've already paid the property taxes down. That's how it works here in Texas, down to that 2.2%, 2%, 1.8%. Now you're getting that big home for less money, and your property tax percentage rate is way lower too.

You think you can do all of it by yourself. You're going to take seven days just to go through two different suburbs and not even see anything. But what about the tax rates? What about the flood maps? What about what areas are actually close to where you live, five areas that you didn't even know about? That is why you reach out to us. We have these conversations with you. We've helped hundreds and hundreds of people move here, and they all said the same thing: I should have called you guys earlier. That made it so much easier, so we didn't have to stress so much about just finding a spot that we probably wouldn't have even liked.

Weather: I Love It (Yes, Really)

Y'all know we gonna talk about how much we hate the weather, right? Nope. I love the weather down here. Well, there's hurricanes and it's so hot. If you don't like heat, don't move to Houston, Texas. It's probably the last thing that you should do on earth.

But I'm from North Idaho. It is winter for seven months out of the year. It just snowed in Idaho in the middle of June. Yeah, it happens there. It's just all perception. People ask me all the time, how do you deal with the heat, Jackson? I say, I grew up in North Idaho. It still gets 95 to 116 degrees in the summer there, and when it gets that hot, it's bone dry, and there are forest fires all around coming from Canada and Montana and California and Washington.

Look, it's just perception. It is gorgeous in North Idaho, but down here in Texas, eight, nine months out of the year I am wearing shorts and it is January. My kids are in the pool every single February because it's already 75 degrees. I love it. I love the heat. I love being outside. To me personally, this is the best. Six months out of the year, from October to May, you're just like, are you kidding me? Maybe getting down into the 40s, which actually kind of feels nice to put a hoodie on for a while, but really in that 50 to 70 range, maybe getting a little bit higher into the 80s on a crazy day, but it's not as humid during the winter months.

That was one of the big deciding factors for us. I was just tired of my kids being trapped inside, gobs and gobs of snow and feet and feet and feet of snow every year. They lose their gloves by Christmas time. It's just personal for me. I love the weather down here.

Hurricanes: Not as Scary as You Think

Yes, there's hurricanes. The one thing you'll learn about the weather down here, it's really just the rainstorms. The thunder, the lightning, it happens all the time. You don't think every day about hurricanes. You get big warnings about them, and that was one thing that was in my mind. I'm like, it's just gonna hurricane every single year and flood. Actually, when you get down here, I've been here for six years now, it's not something that you think about really ever. They got warnings, they do come in, and you're like, all right, we're prepared, we got everything we need, and if we got to vacate, we got to vacate. But I don't foresee that coming again.

It comes down to flood maps, comes down to certain areas. That's what our whole team is here for. We have a team that lives in every section of Houston. We will make sure that you find the perfect spot.

Ready to Make the Move to Houston?

We've helped over 500 families relocate to Houston, and they all said the same thing: I should have called you guys earlier. We have a team that lives in every section of Houston. We know the flood maps, the property tax rates, the commute times, and the neighborhoods you didn't even know existed.

Reach out to us at (832) 201-8518 or Houston@realagentnow.com. We work 24/7, nights, weekends, whenever you want. Let's get on a call and talk about what you're looking for. We'll make this transition so much easier on you.