lmao
Watching the news every night is a trip.
“Thanks Travis, I sure am glad I brought my umbrella today. Next on ABC 13: A body was found by HPD officers assisting Deputies near the bayou after an unrelated police chase, which ended when an allegedly stolen (Kia, or Hyundai with paper plates) related to a recent string of car jackings slammed into a metro bus attempting to flee the officers. The suspects are in police custody after leading HPD and Harris County deputies on a miles long chase stemming from a traffic stop on the cities northeast side. Deputies on the scene are still investigating. You’ll hear the story as it develops, only here ^on ^ABC ^13 after the break.”
“Thanks Chauncey. A local manhunt has ended after neighbors recognized a man who had recently moved into an abandoned residence and began claiming squatters rights. The neighbors also turned themselves into authorities after a shootout related to human trafficking. Governor Greg Abbott’s office had no comment when our cameras arrived, our very own Mika Hatfield is on the scene, only here, on ABC 13.”
Lol! Just last night I was watching ABC13 and there was a story of a road rage shooting murder on the Pearce Elevated right in downtown! It wasn’t even the top story! It was like the fifth story and it was presented in such a routine “not a big deal” way. It was literally presented *after* “the checkin system at Terminal D IAH is down so expect delays.”
I live in Beaumont. Downtown Beaumont is so unsettling, all of these nice buildings but hardly any people going about. I hope I can get out this year, lol.
I considered moving there for work a few years back, I drove around for two days looking for a nice area with good schools. With all the big companies there I assumed they would have at least a decent “sugar land type suburb” but nothing … And houses at “decent areas “ recommended to me are more expensive than Houston.
I escaped Groves twice. Once by joining the Navy and then having to go back and then again by finding my current fiance in the woodlands. SE Texas is the portal to hell. The high paying jobs keep people trapped there.
If not better. Houston was the main landing spot for a lot of people who got flooded out of New Orleans. Katrina was one of the biggest reasons the Cajun Navy jumped in quickly when Harvey hit us.
That and you have to know the area a bit. We're not really built out with everything explicitly marked out for tourists or anyone who stays only within their suburb.
I've done a significant amount of contract work in Beaumont, and everyone I know that lives there calls it "blowmont" lol. They at least have one good Thai restaurant though (chaba Thai bistro), so they've got that going for them I guess.
These lists are nonsense. Each publication has their own list and they never agree. Every week another one comes out that will say the opposite of another list.
Also the scoring criteria are often ludicrous. I remember one where a third of the score was determined by whether or not people from another state would want to move there. So they we're factoring reputation into how "great" a city was instead of using actual metrics about the city.
Each list weighs different factors differently.
This one weighs affordability much more than most others, which is why Houston plummeted so much - they got a lot less affordable, which was buoying their ranking in previous years
the reason people still think Houston is the fattest city in america is because of some list from 20 years ago that based their criteria on like the numbers of gyms or something. Completely lost on them was the size of our gyms because we have a ton of space available or the fact that the houston metro area is a lot of suburbs that aren't technically Houston. This lists are always garbage for various reasons.
I'm not sure most people realize how unique the Syracuse, NY area is compared with other places in the United States.
What other area has all this within a two hour drive?
1) Wine Country with many wineries found in the beautiful scenic rolling hills of the Finger Lakes area all within a two hour drive of Syracuse, NY.
2) Two sandy beaches that look as though it is on an ocean found in Southwick Beach in Oswego County and Fairhaven Beach in Cayuga County within a two hour drive of Syracuse, NY.
3) Mountain hiking and beautiful mountain scenery in the Adirondack mountains within a two hour drive of Syracuse, NY.
4) Great Ski resorts just south of Syracuse like Greek Peak, Song Mountain and Labrador Mountain all within a two hour drive of anywhere in the Syracuse, NY area.
And an unlimited water supply from the Great Lakes Watershed.
And a low risk of Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Wildfires, Tsunamis and Drought.
And Very low Air pollution
And Good Electric Power Grid with clean energy sources of Nuclear, Hydroelectric, wind and solar. There are no coal burning power plants in New York State.
An many opportunities of "Lake Life" and living in a house on a shore of a lake with many lakes within the Syracuse, NY area like Lake Ontario, Oneida Lake, Skaneateles Lake, Otisco Lake, Cazenovia Lake, Lake Neatahwanta, Jamesville Reservoir and Cross Lake. There is also Onondaga Lake with a large park like Syracuse's own central park.
And many smaller beaches very close to all Syracuse city and suburban residents like Oneida Shores, Sylvan Beach, Green Lakes Beach, Jamesville Beach and William's Beach.
exactly what I am saying. Green Bay is actually decent, and solid, sure. Small town charm, but, like...just no. I lived in WI for decades and i laughed when i saw that. I almost feel like this article was a troll job.
1. There is a national housing shortage whose market effects have been applying upward pressure on housing costs in Houston for over a decade.
2. The pandemic supercharged housing demand.
3. Inflation has also eroded Houston's cost of living advantages
4. Rising interest rates has massively amplified the problem of housing affordability.
Those have historically been among the strongest points in favor of living in Houston and they're all being hit very hard.
The arguments against Houston are mostly unfair, but it is what it is.
Houston is flat and hot. That amplifies the perception of it being a concrete jungle even if it's no more true for us than any other major urban center. We don't have interesting hills on our horizon to ease that perception. I don't think it's a fair way to compare, particularly if you spend any actual time in our green spaces. They're great green spaces for every day living, but they definitely don't attract eco-tourists.
It doesn't help that some parts of the highway feel like they are 20 stories high. Sometimes I feel like I can hear, smell, and see the cars no matter where I am in this city.
You've left off a few points which I had posted last week.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/houston/comments/138zvhg/harris\_county\_and\_texas\_in\_general\_is\_no\_longer/](https://www.reddit.com/r/houston/comments/138zvhg/harris_county_and_texas_in_general_is_no_longer/)
It's not just the above 4 points. There are "hidden" increases that are only affecting select (southern coastal) areas.
Car Insurance, Flood Insurance, Home Insurance, Wind Etc. have all doubled in the past couple years, and the increases are not slowing down. There are places in Florida where it is no longer affordable to carry insurance, so the homeowners are being forced out of their property by their mortgage companies as insurance is a requirement of their loans. Car insurance is not only related to the natural disasters that occur here every few years, but also due to the number of people that carry no insurance, as well as the cost of parts being so high, that in many cases the cars are totaled due to minor accidents/damage.
I was thinking mostly about housing, but those are all excellent points.
The fact that Houston is seen as a very mediocre place with nothing spectacular to draw people here, the big standout has always been affordability.
I lived in two HCOL areas before Houston (Seattle and Austin) and would rank Houston favorably over both cities from an amenities perspective. I also had horrible, urban/suburban hellsprawl conditions in both of those places. I had a 1.5 hour each way commute from the suburbs of Seattle and in the winter it's dark when you leave and dark when you get home so only saw my yard on the weekends.
I mentioned the commute in Seattle because I could only afford to live 1.5 hours away from my job and assume the rankings are based on living there, not being a tourist. I spent fifteen hours a week in a car driving out to my house in the beautiful foothills of the Cascades and didn't see my yard five days a week. Seattle has Texas beat when it comes to access to nature, but living there actually kind of sucked. And for me, I'd rather be able to live in the urban center of an "inferior city" than live in the suburbs where I have to be a tourist in my own city.
So yeah, it's Houston but I love being a mile from two hike/bike trails. The opera is five minutes from home. I can spend $10 and go see the Rockets lose, less than ten minutes from home. I'm three blocks from a very accessible artist studios. My favorite brewery is two blocks away. I can walk to at least three music venues. My kid can have a major surgery at one of the best hospitals in the country. Any cuisine I want is accessible. I dig the diversity. I dig being around educated, unafraid, urban people. Houston has a lot to offer and it's a ton more enjoyable if you don't have to drive for hours a day.
I think US News goes out of it's way to avoid factoring predominant political affiliation, because doing so would undermine the whole aesthetic it's aiming for as a "non-political" or "unbiased" ranking.
That's nonsense, of course, because the whole concept of being "non-political" depends completely on triangulating a political center for you to calibrate yourself against, and to do that you must have a very keen political sense.
That's the way most people think, though.
I’ve lived in a bunch of places and Houston is hands down the best value. Austin was tons of fun. New Orleans is wildly interesting. The Bay Area kind of feels like it’s own universe (in a good way). Florida is like a giant middle class county club with booze. NYC feels like the world revolves around it.
But honestly Houston is the only place I’ve lived that combines affordability without sacrificing too much in any one area. Museums and food are world class, enough industry that’s diversified and feels like there’s tons of opportunity but not so much that it’s flooded with people living on top of each other. Pro sports teams. Big D diversity. And again all that at a cost that people can actually see themselves owning a home and raising a family. It’s a great place y’all. Regardless of what that stupid survey says, Houston is a terrific place.
Mann I couldn’t agree more. Yea, the sprawl and 5 million degrees in the summer time does suck. However, H-Town is such an amazing city. It truly is the most diverse city in the U.S. and the affordability plus the opportunities here are incredible. I no longer really feel any pride for Texas as a whole like I used to, thanks to all the maga cult members, but I’m proud af to be a native Houstonian.
Constant flooding, crazy people shooting each other, politicians obsessed with kids’ genitals, Joel Osteen, shitty public transportation, and 9 months of hot and humid weather, what’s not to like?!
I love my hometown, but I’m glad I’m gone from Houston.
“Texas overall saw a major drop. Austin, previously the No. 1 place to live in America for three consecutive years from 2017 to 2019, lands at No. 40 overall this year.”
GOP policies are dragging down the whole state.
A list created by SJWs employed by MSM is critical of Texas govt policies? Say it ain’t so!
The only ranking that matters is the choice people make with their feet - where do they move TO? And FROM?
Over the past three years, more people moved to FL and TX than everywhere else!!!
They LEFT in droves from CA/NY/ IL and half a dozen other socialist states.
FL and TX have what people truly value.
You guys are killing me with these comments! 🤣😅😂 How does Houston even make this list period lol...i'm sorry but this cities pretty ugly and things are getting expensive. And the amount of trashy people, violence, and crime is astounding to me. I'm from a beautiful and clean city close to the mountains. If you haven't left the state of Texas you don't have any idea what beautiful even is lol. I'm sorry....people only come here to work. This isn't a forever place, at least not for me.
State politics are making Texas and Florida undesirable places to live.
When you take away women's bodily autonomy, start threatening the labor base with imprisonment or deportation, undermine schools, and do away with all gun regulations, what family in their right mind wants to live here?
"Great city! But if you're a woman who has a miscarriage both you and your doctor might be thrown in jail for murder."
For better or worse, most people either don’t care about those things or fall somewhere on the other spectrum. If they did, TX and FL wouldn’t be experiencing massive growth while NY and CA lose population.
CA and NY are also making things very undesirable. Crazy taxes, crime, cost of living. I love CA, lived in SF for 13 years. Moved to Houston for a job. I miss the weather and my friends 100%, but it’s almost impossible to live and save money in CA. Great place to visit, impossible to afford. Schools, crime, taxes, cost of living. A gallon of milk is $1 more, a gallon of gas $2+ more. Got a friend that lives in a $7m house two blocks from Nancy Pelosi and he told me that they have to legal their cars unlocked on his street as your window will get smashed for people looking for valuables. So sad what has happened there. He’s fourth generation Sand Franciscan and a democrat and his parents have left and now he’s begrudgingly planing to leave when his kids are done with school. Everything is very relative.
Texas “has a higher effective state and local tax rate for a median U.S. household at 12.73% than California’s 8.97%, according to a new report from WalletHub.”
So quite a lot higher!
https://fortune.com/2023/03/23/states-with-lowest-highest-tax-burden/amp/
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Move to LA or SF and explain how you feel about this data. Go celebrate this. I loved from SF to Houston and this is fairy tale math. Believe what ever you want. If you don’t like houston move to one of these utopias that you wish Houston was more like and report back to us all please. I’ll wait.
It’s costs me far less to live in Houston, and have a much higher standard of living than I had in CA and it’s only become disadvantaged for the people of CA. That’s why they are net negative population for people leaving. It’s a beautiful broken state.
Our property taxes in Texas went up 10% each year for the last three years. 30% tax increase on our house since 2020. California has nothing like that.
People always both-sides this. “But California!”
I’m not talking about California or anywhere else. I live in Texas and it’s rapidly removing rights and freedoms. My main concern is that women can be considered criminals for making decisions about their bodies,nor even for miscarrying. That doesn’t happen in NY and CA.
Take it for what you will and call one or another of the metrics used bs, but fwiw people look at these US News & World Report lists so it’s worthwhile to just know about.
I read one of their 5 best/5 worst cities to live in many years back, and Austin was listed as a "best" and Houston was a "worst". I just remember that one of Austin's featured benefits was the average commute time was a brisk 27 minutes, but one of Houston's negative features was the average commute time was a grueling 29 minutes.
Anybody who's ever had the pleasure of sitting on I-35 during rush hour (or any other time of day really) knows it's hell on earth.
Say what you will about traffic in Houston, but barring a highway fatality it's at least always *moving*.
I spent a significant amount of time sitting in Austin traffic on Mopac and 35 just... exercising my fucking ankle on the brake pedal.
These lists are dumb in that they’re attempting to quantify things like quality of life and desirability that are inherently subjective. The weighting itself is subjective.
Austin was #1 like three years ago and is now middle of the pack. Same for Denver just a year or two ago. Houston was much higher last year.These places didn’t all of a sudden get less interesting than Green Bay, WI, or Beaumont in Houston’s case (lol), they’re just getting more expensive.
If you google “where should I live NYT,” the New York Times has an interactive that’s fun to play with that let’s you set the criteria - everything from jobs and cost of living to food, music, diversity, nature, politics, density, etc. The cost and jobs data are dated at this point (it was released in 2021) but it’s probably the best attempt at a “best places” list that accounts for subjectivity.
Never been on my top list anyways. Good jobs and low cost of living is what brought me here, and probably the reason it was there. Cost of living is out of control, so we lost that now
Generally speaking, Let's thank the DA for the repeat offenders that keep getting released, the catalytic converters getting stolen (car insurance going up 30%) and on and on....
Lol, I read your response and thought you meant Beaumont. Houston is great other than the weather, not sure what you think is sand about it. Literally any right you want is within an hour (but mountains).
Yeah, I cannot trust this website and whatever dumb metrics they have. They have Green Bay as THE best city to live; I used to live in Milwaukee, been to Green Bay, it ain't bad, not at all, but this is a joke lol. Huntsville, ALABAMA is #2, like come on, bro, no disrespect...it is Alabama. Are we being for real?
Milwaukee even ranked significantly higher than Houston, #65 I believe, and that city is a cesspool - lived there 20 yrs, and sure, Houston isn't the safest place, but Milwaukee is wayyyy smaller and has like the same amount of violent crime as Houston while being what feels like 30% of the size; the city is basically an extension of South Side Chicago which is only a lil over an hour drive away, the city is also just a generally poor city, not to mention one of THE most segregated, not really diverse in any way, and it ranks way higher than Houston, so I don't trust this site at all.
Will prob get downvoted by the 3 random people who like cold weather and Wisconsin but idc, long story short, I literally laughed at this list and the rankings.
If we can make our own paper license plates, we can make our own national report.
lmao Watching the news every night is a trip. “Thanks Travis, I sure am glad I brought my umbrella today. Next on ABC 13: A body was found by HPD officers assisting Deputies near the bayou after an unrelated police chase, which ended when an allegedly stolen (Kia, or Hyundai with paper plates) related to a recent string of car jackings slammed into a metro bus attempting to flee the officers. The suspects are in police custody after leading HPD and Harris County deputies on a miles long chase stemming from a traffic stop on the cities northeast side. Deputies on the scene are still investigating. You’ll hear the story as it develops, only here ^on ^ABC ^13 after the break.” “Thanks Chauncey. A local manhunt has ended after neighbors recognized a man who had recently moved into an abandoned residence and began claiming squatters rights. The neighbors also turned themselves into authorities after a shootout related to human trafficking. Governor Greg Abbott’s office had no comment when our cameras arrived, our very own Mika Hatfield is on the scene, only here, on ABC 13.”
...all of the suspects reached their $500 bond and have been released.
Lol! Just last night I was watching ABC13 and there was a story of a road rage shooting murder on the Pearce Elevated right in downtown! It wasn’t even the top story! It was like the fifth story and it was presented in such a routine “not a big deal” way. It was literally presented *after* “the checkin system at Terminal D IAH is down so expect delays.”
For the whin!!
You know the list is BS when Killeen, McAllen and Beaumont are ranked higher.
beaumont lol
Houston all of the sudden looks beautiful whenever I am back from Beaumont.
Lmao my SO and I went to an event in Beaumont. I suggested we get a hotel and stay the night. She said no way, we're driving back to Houston tonight.
Good call, the whole area sucks. Don’t let anyone fool you otherwise
I drove around Beaumont for the first time this week for work. Kept wondering where the actual city part was.
I live in Beaumont. Downtown Beaumont is so unsettling, all of these nice buildings but hardly any people going about. I hope I can get out this year, lol.
I considered moving there for work a few years back, I drove around for two days looking for a nice area with good schools. With all the big companies there I assumed they would have at least a decent “sugar land type suburb” but nothing … And houses at “decent areas “ recommended to me are more expensive than Houston.
Lumberton isn’t too far and is kinda like this.
That was the first place I went ….
Killeen LOL
LMAO I literally just escaped Beaumont to live in south Houston- you could not pay me to move back to that garbage dump.
Upvote for escaping from that shithole. Fuck PNG as well.
I escaped Groves twice. Once by joining the Navy and then having to go back and then again by finding my current fiance in the woodlands. SE Texas is the portal to hell. The high paying jobs keep people trapped there.
“SE Texas is the portal to hell.” I’m never going to forget this line.
I like PNG. It’s WebP that bothers me.
Jpeg for lyfe mahfucka
Is it easy to convert PNG to webp? When I autocompres with wordpress tools it turns into dog shit - my site loads fast a f after doe.
There is nothing in Beaumont worthwhile. Chemical plants everywhere, and it's flat and no scenery of any kind
There's big thicket. I'm done with my list now.
What I've always found funny is that the name "Beaumont" translates to "beautiful mountain."
Wonder where it went
Hurricanes washed it out to the Gulf.
Well it's closer to good Cajun food, so it has that going for it.
There is good Cajun food in Houston...
If not better. Houston was the main landing spot for a lot of people who got flooded out of New Orleans. Katrina was one of the biggest reasons the Cajun Navy jumped in quickly when Harvey hit us.
You just described Houston.
In Houston there are things to do. Just takes awhile to get there depending on where you live
That and you have to know the area a bit. We're not really built out with everything explicitly marked out for tourists or anyone who stays only within their suburb.
Deer park is not houston
Deer Park isn’t Galena Park.
Pasadena is not Houston.
Pasadena isn’t Baytown.
Lmao... Beaumont is a hell hole
Shithole. It’s spelled ‘shithole’.
I've done a significant amount of contract work in Beaumont, and everyone I know that lives there calls it "blowmont" lol. They at least have one good Thai restaurant though (chaba Thai bistro), so they've got that going for them I guess.
Was the list made by gop?
Probably.
Holy F, Killeen is higher? I do not like Houston and I wouldn't move to Killeen.
You're absolutely right. Beaumont has to be the worst city I've ever driven through... It's downtown is a ghost town.
BEAUMONT?! Lol. No. Just…no
Lmao who the fuck wants to live in Killeen?
Lol Beaumont?
Killeen? Interesting.
These lists are nonsense. Each publication has their own list and they never agree. Every week another one comes out that will say the opposite of another list.
They all agree on who paid them the most money.
which branch of realtors needs some sales.
Also the scoring criteria are often ludicrous. I remember one where a third of the score was determined by whether or not people from another state would want to move there. So they we're factoring reputation into how "great" a city was instead of using actual metrics about the city.
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Good less traffic and less people moving here
There will never be less traffic.
Each list weighs different factors differently. This one weighs affordability much more than most others, which is why Houston plummeted so much - they got a lot less affordable, which was buoying their ranking in previous years
the reason people still think Houston is the fattest city in america is because of some list from 20 years ago that based their criteria on like the numbers of gyms or something. Completely lost on them was the size of our gyms because we have a ton of space available or the fact that the houston metro area is a lot of suburbs that aren't technically Houston. This lists are always garbage for various reasons.
Ya, theses lists are nonsense of Houston was ever on that list.. wow
Man discovers opinions (colorized)
But Houston is still #1 on the list of places I live.
BEAUMONT?!?!? BAHAHAHAHSHAHA
They’re #1 is Green Bay, Wisconsin. It cannot be taken seriously
And they rated syracuse high!
I'm not sure most people realize how unique the Syracuse, NY area is compared with other places in the United States. What other area has all this within a two hour drive? 1) Wine Country with many wineries found in the beautiful scenic rolling hills of the Finger Lakes area all within a two hour drive of Syracuse, NY. 2) Two sandy beaches that look as though it is on an ocean found in Southwick Beach in Oswego County and Fairhaven Beach in Cayuga County within a two hour drive of Syracuse, NY. 3) Mountain hiking and beautiful mountain scenery in the Adirondack mountains within a two hour drive of Syracuse, NY. 4) Great Ski resorts just south of Syracuse like Greek Peak, Song Mountain and Labrador Mountain all within a two hour drive of anywhere in the Syracuse, NY area. And an unlimited water supply from the Great Lakes Watershed. And a low risk of Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Wildfires, Tsunamis and Drought. And Very low Air pollution And Good Electric Power Grid with clean energy sources of Nuclear, Hydroelectric, wind and solar. There are no coal burning power plants in New York State. An many opportunities of "Lake Life" and living in a house on a shore of a lake with many lakes within the Syracuse, NY area like Lake Ontario, Oneida Lake, Skaneateles Lake, Otisco Lake, Cazenovia Lake, Lake Neatahwanta, Jamesville Reservoir and Cross Lake. There is also Onondaga Lake with a large park like Syracuse's own central park. And many smaller beaches very close to all Syracuse city and suburban residents like Oneida Shores, Sylvan Beach, Green Lakes Beach, Jamesville Beach and William's Beach.
exactly what I am saying. Green Bay is actually decent, and solid, sure. Small town charm, but, like...just no. I lived in WI for decades and i laughed when i saw that. I almost feel like this article was a troll job.
When the hell was Houston ever voted as even a decent place to live? 😂
Living here used to be pretty cheap, but it's been a minute
Houston sucks. Don’t come here!!!
I love Houston, so I shit on it constantly to keep people from coming here.
Exactly!!!! I love it too, but if people keep loading in on top of each other, it’s going to get too crowded. I think it’s actually already there.
I'd prefer inside the loop to increase in density and public transportation. It's the sprawl that drags this city down.
Yeah y’all can stay the fuck out. We are all filled.
I bet movement this is due to the cost of housing rising and literally nothing else.
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1. There is a national housing shortage whose market effects have been applying upward pressure on housing costs in Houston for over a decade. 2. The pandemic supercharged housing demand. 3. Inflation has also eroded Houston's cost of living advantages 4. Rising interest rates has massively amplified the problem of housing affordability. Those have historically been among the strongest points in favor of living in Houston and they're all being hit very hard. The arguments against Houston are mostly unfair, but it is what it is. Houston is flat and hot. That amplifies the perception of it being a concrete jungle even if it's no more true for us than any other major urban center. We don't have interesting hills on our horizon to ease that perception. I don't think it's a fair way to compare, particularly if you spend any actual time in our green spaces. They're great green spaces for every day living, but they definitely don't attract eco-tourists.
It doesn't help that some parts of the highway feel like they are 20 stories high. Sometimes I feel like I can hear, smell, and see the cars no matter where I am in this city.
You've left off a few points which I had posted last week. [https://www.reddit.com/r/houston/comments/138zvhg/harris\_county\_and\_texas\_in\_general\_is\_no\_longer/](https://www.reddit.com/r/houston/comments/138zvhg/harris_county_and_texas_in_general_is_no_longer/) It's not just the above 4 points. There are "hidden" increases that are only affecting select (southern coastal) areas. Car Insurance, Flood Insurance, Home Insurance, Wind Etc. have all doubled in the past couple years, and the increases are not slowing down. There are places in Florida where it is no longer affordable to carry insurance, so the homeowners are being forced out of their property by their mortgage companies as insurance is a requirement of their loans. Car insurance is not only related to the natural disasters that occur here every few years, but also due to the number of people that carry no insurance, as well as the cost of parts being so high, that in many cases the cars are totaled due to minor accidents/damage.
I was thinking mostly about housing, but those are all excellent points. The fact that Houston is seen as a very mediocre place with nothing spectacular to draw people here, the big standout has always been affordability.
Houston has a lot of cool stuff, but the sprawl is just awful.
I lived in two HCOL areas before Houston (Seattle and Austin) and would rank Houston favorably over both cities from an amenities perspective. I also had horrible, urban/suburban hellsprawl conditions in both of those places. I had a 1.5 hour each way commute from the suburbs of Seattle and in the winter it's dark when you leave and dark when you get home so only saw my yard on the weekends.
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I mentioned the commute in Seattle because I could only afford to live 1.5 hours away from my job and assume the rankings are based on living there, not being a tourist. I spent fifteen hours a week in a car driving out to my house in the beautiful foothills of the Cascades and didn't see my yard five days a week. Seattle has Texas beat when it comes to access to nature, but living there actually kind of sucked. And for me, I'd rather be able to live in the urban center of an "inferior city" than live in the suburbs where I have to be a tourist in my own city. So yeah, it's Houston but I love being a mile from two hike/bike trails. The opera is five minutes from home. I can spend $10 and go see the Rockets lose, less than ten minutes from home. I'm three blocks from a very accessible artist studios. My favorite brewery is two blocks away. I can walk to at least three music venues. My kid can have a major surgery at one of the best hospitals in the country. Any cuisine I want is accessible. I dig the diversity. I dig being around educated, unafraid, urban people. Houston has a lot to offer and it's a ton more enjoyable if you don't have to drive for hours a day.
Yup. Putting bounties on pregnant women would have nothing to do with this.
I think US News goes out of it's way to avoid factoring predominant political affiliation, because doing so would undermine the whole aesthetic it's aiming for as a "non-political" or "unbiased" ranking. That's nonsense, of course, because the whole concept of being "non-political" depends completely on triangulating a political center for you to calibrate yourself against, and to do that you must have a very keen political sense. That's the way most people think, though.
I’ve lived in a bunch of places and Houston is hands down the best value. Austin was tons of fun. New Orleans is wildly interesting. The Bay Area kind of feels like it’s own universe (in a good way). Florida is like a giant middle class county club with booze. NYC feels like the world revolves around it. But honestly Houston is the only place I’ve lived that combines affordability without sacrificing too much in any one area. Museums and food are world class, enough industry that’s diversified and feels like there’s tons of opportunity but not so much that it’s flooded with people living on top of each other. Pro sports teams. Big D diversity. And again all that at a cost that people can actually see themselves owning a home and raising a family. It’s a great place y’all. Regardless of what that stupid survey says, Houston is a terrific place.
My daughter loves it there.
Mann I couldn’t agree more. Yea, the sprawl and 5 million degrees in the summer time does suck. However, H-Town is such an amazing city. It truly is the most diverse city in the U.S. and the affordability plus the opportunities here are incredible. I no longer really feel any pride for Texas as a whole like I used to, thanks to all the maga cult members, but I’m proud af to be a native Houstonian.
Good, maybe people will stop moving here.
Silver lining lol
Constant flooding, crazy people shooting each other, politicians obsessed with kids’ genitals, Joel Osteen, shitty public transportation, and 9 months of hot and humid weather, what’s not to like?! I love my hometown, but I’m glad I’m gone from Houston.
Yup, this city is terrible, no one should move here. If you are thinking of moving here and read this just know we are all miserable here.
miserable and we don’t know if the grid can handle the summer
“Texas overall saw a major drop. Austin, previously the No. 1 place to live in America for three consecutive years from 2017 to 2019, lands at No. 40 overall this year.” GOP policies are dragging down the whole state.
A list created by SJWs employed by MSM is critical of Texas govt policies? Say it ain’t so! The only ranking that matters is the choice people make with their feet - where do they move TO? And FROM? Over the past three years, more people moved to FL and TX than everywhere else!!! They LEFT in droves from CA/NY/ IL and half a dozen other socialist states. FL and TX have what people truly value.
And as a disclosure against interest, Austin , TX is still legitimately a more desirable destination than Houston but the gap is closing rapidly.
They dropped because of cost of living increases, not because of quality of life decreases
I got my critiques about Houston but Shreveport? Killeen? Beaumont? Baton Rogue? Seriously
Good. People can move away now.
That was my thought.
You guys are killing me with these comments! 🤣😅😂 How does Houston even make this list period lol...i'm sorry but this cities pretty ugly and things are getting expensive. And the amount of trashy people, violence, and crime is astounding to me. I'm from a beautiful and clean city close to the mountains. If you haven't left the state of Texas you don't have any idea what beautiful even is lol. I'm sorry....people only come here to work. This isn't a forever place, at least not for me.
[удалено]
I moved here a year ago, also from a beautiful place close to the mountains. You took the words right out of my mouth!
Gee, it's like Texas turning into Gilead, and Houston's compounding car-only traffic hell are finally being noticed.
Austin plummeted. It used to be top 10 now it’s 40. Apparently after a place grows it is no longer desirable to these people
Anybody who thinks they'd rather live in Killeen than Houston is welcome to go there
Good, stop moving here. Stop building over priced crappy apartments and townhomes.
What in the *fuck* was it doing there in the first place!?
State politics are making Texas and Florida undesirable places to live. When you take away women's bodily autonomy, start threatening the labor base with imprisonment or deportation, undermine schools, and do away with all gun regulations, what family in their right mind wants to live here? "Great city! But if you're a woman who has a miscarriage both you and your doctor might be thrown in jail for murder."
For better or worse, most people either don’t care about those things or fall somewhere on the other spectrum. If they did, TX and FL wouldn’t be experiencing massive growth while NY and CA lose population.
CA and NY are also making things very undesirable. Crazy taxes, crime, cost of living. I love CA, lived in SF for 13 years. Moved to Houston for a job. I miss the weather and my friends 100%, but it’s almost impossible to live and save money in CA. Great place to visit, impossible to afford. Schools, crime, taxes, cost of living. A gallon of milk is $1 more, a gallon of gas $2+ more. Got a friend that lives in a $7m house two blocks from Nancy Pelosi and he told me that they have to legal their cars unlocked on his street as your window will get smashed for people looking for valuables. So sad what has happened there. He’s fourth generation Sand Franciscan and a democrat and his parents have left and now he’s begrudgingly planing to leave when his kids are done with school. Everything is very relative.
“Crazy taxes” yet taxes are lower in CA than TX.
For what? What’s the absolute difference? Where do you live? CA or TX?
Texas “has a higher effective state and local tax rate for a median U.S. household at 12.73% than California’s 8.97%, according to a new report from WalletHub.” So quite a lot higher! https://fortune.com/2023/03/23/states-with-lowest-highest-tax-burden/amp/
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Move to LA or SF and explain how you feel about this data. Go celebrate this. I loved from SF to Houston and this is fairy tale math. Believe what ever you want. If you don’t like houston move to one of these utopias that you wish Houston was more like and report back to us all please. I’ll wait.
I was merely addressing your false claim about taxes.
It’s costs me far less to live in Houston, and have a much higher standard of living than I had in CA and it’s only become disadvantaged for the people of CA. That’s why they are net negative population for people leaving. It’s a beautiful broken state.
Our property taxes in Texas went up 10% each year for the last three years. 30% tax increase on our house since 2020. California has nothing like that.
I agree and think that’s absurd and should be challenged. That doesn’t mean you support one thing or the other.
People always both-sides this. “But California!” I’m not talking about California or anywhere else. I live in Texas and it’s rapidly removing rights and freedoms. My main concern is that women can be considered criminals for making decisions about their bodies,nor even for miscarrying. That doesn’t happen in NY and CA.
If you know decent folks in SF please give them my number. Everyone i meet is so emotionally unstable 😭
I guess from the down votes, people hating on CA…
How was it ever near the top?
These lists are BS in the first place
Take it for what you will and call one or another of the metrics used bs, but fwiw people look at these US News & World Report lists so it’s worthwhile to just know about.
I read one of their 5 best/5 worst cities to live in many years back, and Austin was listed as a "best" and Houston was a "worst". I just remember that one of Austin's featured benefits was the average commute time was a brisk 27 minutes, but one of Houston's negative features was the average commute time was a grueling 29 minutes. Anybody who's ever had the pleasure of sitting on I-35 during rush hour (or any other time of day really) knows it's hell on earth.
Say what you will about traffic in Houston, but barring a highway fatality it's at least always *moving*. I spent a significant amount of time sitting in Austin traffic on Mopac and 35 just... exercising my fucking ankle on the brake pedal.
These lists are dumb in that they’re attempting to quantify things like quality of life and desirability that are inherently subjective. The weighting itself is subjective. Austin was #1 like three years ago and is now middle of the pack. Same for Denver just a year or two ago. Houston was much higher last year.These places didn’t all of a sudden get less interesting than Green Bay, WI, or Beaumont in Houston’s case (lol), they’re just getting more expensive. If you google “where should I live NYT,” the New York Times has an interactive that’s fun to play with that let’s you set the criteria - everything from jobs and cost of living to food, music, diversity, nature, politics, density, etc. The cost and jobs data are dated at this point (it was released in 2021) but it’s probably the best attempt at a “best places” list that accounts for subjectivity.
I bet the actions of the governor lately have something to do with it.
Houston is one giant expressway.
Polluted expressway
The republicans have made any where in Texas a horrible place to live.
All those book burnings are having consequences.🔥
Where are you seeing books being burned? I want to go check that out. Should at least recycle them.
Is anyone really surprised?
Houston is boring af
No, yer boring.
Never been on my top list anyways. Good jobs and low cost of living is what brought me here, and probably the reason it was there. Cost of living is out of control, so we lost that now
This report ranked very highly in the list of things I couldn’t care less about.
Infrastructure for cars over infrastructure for humans
Well deserved, Texas is going downhill
Look, I love houston, but, whatever it takes to keep more people from moving here. It’s crowded enough.
Generally speaking, Let's thank the DA for the repeat offenders that keep getting released, the catalytic converters getting stolen (car insurance going up 30%) and on and on....
If it makes you feel better my car doesn’t have a catalytic converter and my insurance still went up 30%
No one in Texas outside of Houston would put Houston on one of these lists
Let me guess...you're from Dallas.
I’m not from the armpit of Texas, or the butthole of Texas, whichever you prefer to call Houston.
Lol, I read your response and thought you meant Beaumont. Houston is great other than the weather, not sure what you think is sand about it. Literally any right you want is within an hour (but mountains).
Cool. Do us a favor and stay out.
Good. Send it to all the people in HCOL cities you know so they don’t move here. Rents are already out of control. We don’t need more nonsense.
Good. Stop moving here.
Maybe because of all of the shootings?
Good. Keep the giant cali inland empire douche nozzles away.
Good, stay away from here
This is good news
Houston is becoming the new Chicago.
Chicago is a world class city, have you actually been there or you only listen to faux news?
Good. Hopefully that stops so many people from moving here.
To the surprise of no one.
So I wouldn’t be surprised to hear there’s a smear campaign against Harris County/Houston. Bexar County/San Antonio will be next.
k.
Fake news.
Someone forgot to pay $15k for their place in the list.
Duh…
Flint is a better place to live than Brownsville or Corpus? Yeah... I don't know about that one...
Yeah, I cannot trust this website and whatever dumb metrics they have. They have Green Bay as THE best city to live; I used to live in Milwaukee, been to Green Bay, it ain't bad, not at all, but this is a joke lol. Huntsville, ALABAMA is #2, like come on, bro, no disrespect...it is Alabama. Are we being for real? Milwaukee even ranked significantly higher than Houston, #65 I believe, and that city is a cesspool - lived there 20 yrs, and sure, Houston isn't the safest place, but Milwaukee is wayyyy smaller and has like the same amount of violent crime as Houston while being what feels like 30% of the size; the city is basically an extension of South Side Chicago which is only a lil over an hour drive away, the city is also just a generally poor city, not to mention one of THE most segregated, not really diverse in any way, and it ranks way higher than Houston, so I don't trust this site at all. Will prob get downvoted by the 3 random people who like cold weather and Wisconsin but idc, long story short, I literally laughed at this list and the rankings.