so what is living in san antonio like?

vash · vash's Garage

a good friend is moving himself, and his entire family there. he works for Nummi, and is taking a transfer to san antonio (enter sniper comment here). besides the humidity, is it nice there? my buddy grew up here, after immigrating from vietnam. pretty sheltered. he is selling his big house here, and is looking at McMansions there. he is blown away by what he can buy for $300k. i visited a girlfriend there, while she was going to law school,..but i dont remember much.

mattdavis11 · 02-14-2010, 08:47 AM

The entire state is heaven.

vash · vash's Garage

errr..i grew up in el paso. that isnt heaven.

well, maybe it's heaven's armpit.

onlycafe · 02-14-2010, 09:02 AM

tell him that the alamo has no basement.

tcar · 02-14-2010, 09:02 AM

Compared to Houston and El Paso, it's heaven on earth.

Beautiful city, Riverwalk, Texas Hill Country. Not too large. Humidity is not terrible.

Hugh R · 02-14-2010, 09:11 AM

The Riverwalk is great, even the swarms of watermocassins in the water.

mossguy · 02-14-2010, 09:21 AM

We have lived there on three different occasions of about two years each. A very nice city, although I understand that it has gotten huge. The people are great. Can't say the same about the weather. Too hot and humid most of the time, for me.

Best,
Tom

RWebb · RWebb's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh R

The Riverwalk is great, even the swarms of watermocassins in the water.

free food!

The Riverwalk is more commercial now than some like, but it - and the whole 'corridor' thru the hill country to Austin really IS like heaven compared to the rest of the state (Big Bend excepted).

If you want hell then go 'visit' the Llano Estacado (Staked Plains) - an area so nasty & ugly that the Indians even avoided it.

* And I say that even tho I LIKE deserts.

ForBell · 02-14-2010, 10:17 AM

vash has 7 threads going. quick, someone rush over there & give him a hug - i think he's lonely.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

You get used to the summer heat and humidity. It FEELS like summer.

02-14-2010, 11:48 AM

habla espanol?

Pretty laid back atmosphere. Very hot summers. Some awesome Mexican food.

VaSteve · 02-14-2010, 12:17 PM

Is it really that humid?

I might be spending some significant time down there this summer. Might need to set up a Pelican gathering.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Not as bad as Houston. More than Dallas. It is a very nice city.

Erakad · Erakad's Garage

Humidity isn't so bad Oct-May, but Jun thru the summer the heat and humidity combine to make it uncomfortable. However, isn't that why AC was invented? Last time I lived there, my SC was my daily driver...and no AC, fortunately the commute was only 6 miles. Overall, I like SAT and wouldn't mind living there again; it reminds me of San Diego (sans ocean) in the 70s-80s, before it was Los Angelized. The winters are awesome, the Hill Country beautiful, food great, etc. I lived last on the north side in Schertz (nice city), and with normal traffic could be just about anywhere in the city in 20-30 min.

slow&rusty · 02-14-2010, 03:22 PM

Having recently moved to Houston and visited San Antonio a fair bit, I wish I was living in San Antonio (sorry guys!) to be honest. A great City that has charm.

Yasin

VaSteve · 02-14-2010, 04:07 PM

Maybe you all haven't seen humidity like DC to compare it to.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by slow&rusty

Having recently moved to Houston and visited San Antonio a fair bit, I wish I was living in San Antonio (sorry guys!) to be honest. A great City that has charm.

Yasin

Fair point. If you have a job, or something there, it is great place.

Erakad · Erakad's Garage

Quote:

Maybe you all haven't seen humidity like DC to compare it to.

I lived in both and honestly felt the humidity during a South Texas summer was worse. With that said, I actually think the summer heat and humidity in Tokyo is worse.

Joeaksa · 02-14-2010, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattdavis11

The entire state is heaven.

Not sure I would go that far...

San Antonio is a nice place and I would move there in a heartbeat if a really, really good job popped up there.

Have lived in Dallas (Grapevine, Flower Mound, Carrollton), El Paso and Corpus/Padre areas and my family is from Clarksville/Sulphur Springs area.

There are worse places than Texas (like SFO!) but all in all its a reasonable place to live and nice people for the most part.

74-911 · 02-14-2010, 07:22 PM

We lived in SA from 1968 to 2004. It's a great place to live, we just reached the point in life where we didn't want to live in a large city. It has exploded in growth the past 10 years or so. It's population was a bit over 500K when we moved there, the metro area is now pushing 2 mil. or more. The traffic is getting pretty bad, particularly on the northern sides of town.
It can get really hot and humid in the summer but winters are generally pretty mild with the occasional freeze as the northers move through.
I think the big problem SA will eventually have (as will much of TX and elsewhere) is water. They were on pretty strict controls on lawn watering, etc this past year when we were in a pretty serious drought. The water situation is feast or famine on a year to year basis, either droughts or floods but tending more and more to drought.

As your friend has found out, 300K will buy you a really nice house and the overall cost of living is relatively cheap. No state income tax, high sales tax (8.25% or so) and property/school taxes can add up. TX also has about the most expensive homeowner insurance in the country.