neojynx

I dont wish to throw the cat amongst... but hey why not.

I am due to move to the US (through my work), with the one proviso, I cant move to the NE of the US.

My work will always be at the end of a flight, be it east or west coast, north or south.

THEREFORE... I have sort of made a decision to move to Texas (nr Austin). My feelings are that TX is mid US and thus would be a good location for us to move to. We are also looking at the weather, cost of living, schooling for my 2 daughters (5 n 7), etc etc..

I would love comments from both Americans and non Americans on my choice of location..

I am sort of looking at (specifically) San Marcos, TX, it looks nice on the Interweb

I have looked at AZ (too expensive), UT (too mormon), OK (too many tornados), KS (too much wheat). etc etc.. the north is too damn cold btw...

I await any interesting replies.

thanks

- Garry

TruBrit

we have a few on here living in the 'hill country' area aka austin who will no doubt give you some insight but it's by far prettier than houston where i am.

good luck with the relo

anotherlimey

Texas is in the US?

Are you sure?

anotherlimey

Try this out: http://www.findyourspot.com/

Bill_S

I visited Austin a couple of times many years ago, and I liked it. I'd say it's a good choice for a place to live.

Other BE Texans probably will have specific recommendations. I want to ask about you and your family. Are you able to go with the flow in new or unfamiliar surroundings? If so, you'll do fine. There are plenty of expatriate Brits who have posted here complaining about lack of Heinz beans, lousy tea, no Marmite, etc. in the USA. If you or family are constantly comparing life in the USA to life in Britain, then you might be unhappy (check the Returning to the UK section for examples). If you're able to go native and live like Americans you'll love it.

Good luck.

neojynx

I just had a go at ww.findyourspot.com and weirdly enough, the town I have been looking at to move to (San Marcos, TX) was 5th. I guess I might have made a good decision. Will soon find out for sure tho.

Once again - thanks to TruBrit for the info...

all the best to all

- Garry

anotherlimey

Ahem!

neojynx

sri.. and to anotherlimey of course )

Bob

Why not the north east? winters aren't that bad in some parts, good flight connections, but then it depends on where you want to fly to and all that.

Welcome to BE though.

TruBrit

good job otherwise he'll keep sulking

fatbrit

If you're travelling a lot and all over the US, you need to be very near a major hub. PHX, DFW or ATL would be the obvious choices.

TimFountain

So I'll wade in then.... I have been coming to Austin for work since 1988 and moved here in 2002. First things, with the scale of things in the US, San Marcos might look close to Austin, but it is 30 miles from Downtown Austin, and in another timezone culturally, it is in the sticks and IMHO a bit run down! There's not a whole lot to do in do in San Marcos, the outlet mall is OK, but the Georgetown one is quickly catching up. It is closer to Austin Bergstrom Airport if you need to do a bit of plane spotting!

Seriously, Austin is great, very pretty and green with lots to do and see. Depending on who you choose to fly with, most of the time you will be going through a hub (DFW, ORG, ATL etc.) to get to anywhere else in the US. As with all things though, you must visit and see for yourself. We are subtropical so we get at least 2 seasons, hot and hotter. The summers here are brutal, and you end up not doing much outside for 3-4 months of the year. All this has been done before, this thread got some people going....

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=429408

PM me if you have any questions....

- Tim

PS if I have free reign and unlimited funds, I would choose San Diego or possible San Franisco.

Richardowen

Hey - welcome !

I moved to Austin 6 months ago from London (wife is Texan) and I'd definately recommend it. Austin in basically an island of democracy in a sea of republicanism here in Texas. It's the Music capital of the world and is very cool city to be in. There's loads to do here but I'd recommend actually living in Austin if you can. It depends what you prefer though - If you want to be in the middle of nowhere litterally you can find that no-problem in the hill-country, but that's a little remote for me and there's so much to do in Austin that it's good to be nearby - don't know much about San Marcos but I've heard it has a high hispanic population which is no bad thing but could be a little overwhelming... hablas espanol ?

Summers are HOT so be warned it does get and stay in the 100's for a lot of the summer and it's humid but it never gets dark at 3pm. You will get bitten by mosquitos and eat a lot of mexican food. As for not doing much outside for 3-4 months - well I'm not sure about that - perhaps not sitting in sun in your jeans between 10am and 2pm but there's loads to do day and night even when or even because its' hot - barton springs for example !

We just bought a house near to the old airport which is a good location as far as house prices and investment are concerned as there's a lot of money going into the area right now however it's not so good if you have kids as the local high school has a very bad reputation. It may just be our specific catchment area though ??? Fortunately OH is not with child yet so $200,000 for a 3 bed house with massive yard, pool and hot-tube just couldn't be passed up!

I'd stay away from the East-Central side in general if you can as it's historically been the ghetto area and try and avoid I-35 through downtown on your communte if you can as has a 3 hour rush-hour morning and night !

Other than that, it's a cool place to be, it used to be a real hippy commune vibe which is still present at the core ( hence the T-shirts and bumber stickers proclaiming "keep Austin weird" ) so if you're a true blue conservative then it probably won't suit you but if your a sensible educated liberal person who cares about the place you live and people around you it's a very good place to be.

see - http://www.keepaustinweird.com

If you have any specific question please message me and I'll be happy to give you my opinion or run it by OH for the local scoop ! I still don't understand "chicken fried steak" though !

Rich./
P.S. San Diego would also be on my list but California is MUCH more expensive with state tax and all !

lapin_windstar

How about Denver? I know you said that you thought it was too cold, but come on, you'd get fantastic scenery and four seasons, wouldn't you? where's the fun in sitting in Austin where it's too hot and humid for 1/4 of the year to step outside?

Perhaps more usefully - you might want to see if there's somewhere with a public transport system that's at least half-decent. You have kids and it would be a decade before they would be able to drive themselves anywhere (legally), even if that were desireable. If you end up in the middle of nowhere, you could end up spending hundreds/thousands of hours driving your kids around. But maybe you already do this so it wouldn't be a problem.

I've often idly considered college towns as somewhere that could be nice to live: you'd get decent bars, bookshops and it could hopefully be a bit more funky that the average town. Anyone here have any experience of Athens, GA, Berkeley, CA or any of the New England college towns?

BTW, this month's edition of Outside has the 30 best towns to live in for outdoor sports etc. Quite a few of the other mags have similar rankings.

jumping doris

Here in SW PA we get four really nice seasons. We always have snow but it's not that bad.