Yes, but now we're already comparing apples to oranges. Those suburban areas, with their huge commutes, aren't even remotely analogous to living in San Francisco.
For clarification, I love the fact that there are cheap suburbs outside of Houston. And I think for the vast majority of families here, they'd be much better off going out to such a suburb than blowing money they don't have on a small house in the Heights or Bellaire or West U. One of the great advantages of Houston over SF is that you have the option of getting affordable housing if you're willing to live out in suburbia.
I just think it's important to be clear that you're not going to replicate the SF city lifestyle in Houston for cheap. It's going to cost you a very considerable amount of money, though admittedly less than in SF. Downtown apartments in Houston are definitely cheaper than SF, though--my 1300 sq ft 2br apartment is $1950/month, and it is quite nice and in walking distance of my office. I could never buy a house in this area, though.
Cool, thanks for the link! I've been thinking of looking at other cities here in Texas like Austin and San Antonio. Like you I have no desire to move to the Bay Area, other than maybe the job scene. I've found Texas to be a really cool place overall, definitely under-appreciated.
You should come check out Geekdom. We hosted TechStars Cloud this year (and will for the foreseeable future). Lots of cool startups working here. My email is my profile if you ever make it out here.
Plus, our benefactor Graham Weston, one of the co-founders of Rackspace, just bought us our own building in downtown San Antonio. Right now we're in another office building he owns but this one will be entirely ours.
For clarification, I love the fact that there are cheap suburbs outside of Houston. And I think for the vast majority of families here, they'd be much better off going out to such a suburb than blowing money they don't have on a small house in the Heights or Bellaire or West U. One of the great advantages of Houston over SF is that you have the option of getting affordable housing if you're willing to live out in suburbia.
I just think it's important to be clear that you're not going to replicate the SF city lifestyle in Houston for cheap. It's going to cost you a very considerable amount of money, though admittedly less than in SF. Downtown apartments in Houston are definitely cheaper than SF, though--my 1300 sq ft 2br apartment is $1950/month, and it is quite nice and in walking distance of my office. I could never buy a house in this area, though.