If you're considering making the move to Houston, do not do it. It is next to impossible to get Homeowners Insurance here. I've gotten rejected multiple times and one quote is over $8k and requires inspection to confirm insurability. If you already live in Houston and have insurance, you may be grandfathered, but if not, good luck.
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Storm season is soon. You'll get the point. Be happy that you are 1.5 hr. away.
I got a million dollar house in Spring.
I’m an hour and half away from the beach yet I’m still in a “coastal” area
$1600/month
I moved to Houston and the only place available for rent was in this felon landlords rundown basement
Thanks Dude! You saved me. I will opt for EOI.
I love Houston and California both. You guys are babies. Get a life.
Now if you are caring for an elderly person that can't be readily moved, that's different.
You realize the COL adjustment works both ways, right? You're delusional if you think you will be pulling in the same salary in HOU as you are in SR. The company is not moving you to HOU to maintain the same cost.
OP is right. Please do not move here. We've had to many libtard Californians move here recently. Plus playing no state income tax is horrible. I hate seeing thousands of more dollars in my paycheck. STAY AWAY!
Insurance is readily available in Houston from a variety of insurers; no issue there at all. Prices run around $2-3/sq ft/year or so, depending on location/age/condition, etc. It is something to factor into your purchase along with property taxes but not a big deal. We miss the Pacific NW with 1% prop taxes and under $1/sq ft/yr insurance. At least in Texas you save 10% on income tax vs Calif so if you bring in total $200k you have $20k right there for prop tax and insurance. Not a big deal.
I never used an insurance agent until I moved to Texas. Finally used one recommended by people in the neighborhood and she saved us thousands. Home Insurance is with some company that only writes through agents. Auto and umbrella is with Progressive. Flood is all the same. Overall I'm at just over $6k per year for everything with 3 cars and a house in the woodlands.
Insurance rates are going up all over the country, Cal is no exception. No need to pick it apart based on that. You don't like Houston, we get it. Find something else to do, some place else to live. Go weave baskets and sell them on the beach on the West Coast.
Buh bye.
Here in Cinco Ranch / Katy, spending $9000 on insurance (home $550k and 2 old cars and the separate flood insurance ), up from $2500 in 2020. Home tax is also has been a pain but that came down to $6000.
Also you will need to get large SUV if you want to feel safe on our roads, nobody respects the smaller cars. Drivers on the I 10 and 45 are very aggressive and possessive of “their” space… seems to be attitude cascading down the generation since the Alamo incident.
Schools are okay and your family in the suburbs will be mostly happy during the school terms. Summer (may to ???) it is too hot to do anything outdoors, so summer activities may just be watching TV or watching a hurricane roll past. Do mentally plan to see your home destroyed every other year by some 1 in a 100 year flood or wind event - which brings me around to the original point : get insurance including + flood, ps. buy a place with a newish roof (replacement will set you back $30000) and make sure those aircon units are new too.
PSs set aside extra cash for summer power bills, windshield replacement , mosquito spray and your own lawn mower (suddenly my reliable cash only lawn service guy is awol).
Go talk to the people in LA that couldn’t get fire insurance.
@e5+1jrk5tv56
first I will say you assumptions are incorrect. My house is valued at $550,000 and I live in a beautiful neighborhood in Katy. Very low crime in Fort Bend county and not in a flood plain.
If your insurance is $4K per year then send me the name of your provider and I will get a price quote from your insurance provider. Thanks for the referral in advance. The insurance started out very reasonable when we purchased the house but has escalated this past year to over $8K per year. I was shocked when the new quote came in this January.
Looking forward to the name of your insurance provider so I can reduce my insurance rates.
It’s is hot. You somewhat get used to it. Great pool weather! Don’t use the Chevron insurance company. They were not competitive. Hey quoted me around $8 k for home insurance. I have never had a claim and my house is valued around 620k. Bundle your auto and home to get discounts. My bundle home insurance is $4500. I found cheaper auto but when I tried to split it up my home went over $6k and would have cost more trying to save on auto. Insurance stinks. It used to be way less. Now they want to not insure your roof or raise the deductible so high that you basically pay for anything not catastrophic.
We pay $4k per year for homeowners + umbrella ($1.3MM home). Not all rates are crazy.
That said, we did our diligence pre-purchase. We checked regional flooding, crime, and income heatmaps. Picked something that flagged well on all factors.
If you're paying $8k per month, you: (1) live in a ridiculous mansion, (2) didn't do your diligence on purchase, and/or (3) purchased several decades ago for pennies in today's dollar. Either way, I don't have a ton of sympathy for you
Wow! Thanks for heads up! I won’t
It’s cute that people still think diversity is a good thing and only cite the food. Let’s ignore the rampant crime, degradation of American culture, multilingual chaos, drain on social welfare programs, traffic/accidents, increase demand for services/housing, and a job market where our kids compete with foreigners (who are accustomed to a lower quality of life) for American careers.
I agree the cost of home owners insurance is very high. My house is not in a flood plain and has never had damage from any storms. In the past several years my insurance has risen to over $8,500 per year and i do not live in a million dollar house. But my understanding is the entire insurance industry has been raising rates across the country. The other factors that people mentioned are also important. In is more expensive to live close to Chevron office, so most people live an hour+ away and the traffic is horrible. Park and Ride buses help.
Of course the scenery is beautiful in Houston because the terrain is so flat you can see for many miles. But if you live in a nice area, your family can have a good life and you can pay all the bills and travel top work.
If you work for Chevron, the company is consolidating the workforce to Houston so you either move to Houston or get EOI'd.
I live and Houston and it is okay. Sure, it's ugly compared to many places, but most of the locals are kind hearted. Sadly, the traffic is the reason I may leave one day. The whole area is heading towards a massive gridlock.
I love Houston, love to hunt and fish, love the Tex-Mex food and diverse cultures.
No place is perfect, I too have lived throughout the US, including the Pacific Northwest.
Home is what you make out of it. If you have to have certain things, that's what vacations are for, or get a lake home, etc. to retire to.
If you think that your work location is going to be a vacation paradise, you've been spoiled and not much anyone can do for you.
Weird reason to not move to Houston. This would not crack the top 25 reasons.
Houston is ugly (as are most cities in the US), but some of the surrounding suburbs are very nice. The people are generally nice, the food is amazing, and the overall cost of living is good. That said, the humidity is brutal, insurance is high, and hurricanes and flooding are miserable. If you do move here, buy a smaller home (costs a lot to cool it), and get a generator. And if you’re outdoorsy, good luck. It’s doable but you can’t really do much outside between Noon and 7 PM. With all that being said, I’d make the move here again. It’s a good quality of life for those with a family (unless you’re a liberal, then you’ll be miserable).
You are thinking of Louisiana
Yeah, Houston su-ks. All of the ugliness of Los Angeles (traffic, urban sprawl, crime) and none of the good parts (weather and ocean).
I have lived all over the US, and Houston ranks very low on list. Its better than Midland, but that isn't saying much.
The majority of cities have zero natural beauty. If that's your primary driver then stay in California and keep your eyes focused on the sky vs. the squalor that is taking over the streets.
Houston is amazing. You must be a boomer.
Unfortunately I’m finding it very hard to get a home policy for my house here in the Bay Area as well
Houston generally has good people, lower home prices, good schools in the right neighborhoods, assume BBQ. It is also one of the ugliest cities with zero natural beauty, the strip mall capital of the world, thunderdome freeways, absolutely awful weather much of the year where going outside is barely tolerable, and the occasional hurricane and floods.
Ya there’s millions of reasons to not move to Houston, but insurance ain’t one of them…. Wanna try again? (Traffic, scorching summers, hurricanes…)
Not true, there are over 3 million living in Houston, you might have purchased a home in a special area [impacted in the past with flooding or hurricane or high winds]. Your home insurance can be as little as $2k