Cost of Living in Houston

Prices are creeping up, not cheap to live here anymore. We used to have Obamacare, but all is hollowed out, now the foodstamps will be phased out too, which will not be good for crime / looting / safety.

Nathan is highly Regarded. Except a T instead of a g.

whoever talkin about toronto compared to houston stfu bro you live in canada

@K O houston has lower COL and higher wages than toronto. It also has Rice Univ, which is better than all universities in toronto

there is also more hatred towards Chinese people in toronto due to Chinese investment in real estate, which has driven up toronto real estate prices.

Also, other canadians that moved to texas have stated than texans are nicer than people in toronto lol

To the commenter below. Houston doesn't have an unhealthy worship of right-wing politics; it's a blue city - don't apply Texas statements to one city. You're also making other sweeping generalizations with no data to back your bias.

I agree that you make a couple points, but going over the top with unfounded claims is just hard to read.

I've lived in the Houston area my whole life and I get why people don't like it. However no one is talking about the fact that Galveston is about a thousand times worse than Houston could ever be. I know that it's spread out I know it takes forever to travel from one point to another and there's basically no public transport to help you. Imagine that except on an island with more crime. I will never deny that Houston is a hell of a city to try to survive in but if it ever gets as bad as Galveston I'll leave the country.

I am from a third world country and Houston honestly reminded me of home, and that is NOT a good thing. There is so much poverty, rundown buildings, homeless people, gang violence, and jobs that don't even pay living wages. The public transportation is somehow even worse than in my home country, the roads are bumpy and full of potholes, and the city is poorly organized and everything highly spread out. Last year I left Houston for Boston, and I do not regret that decision one bit. Really, Houston is a perfect example of what a first world city shouldn't be.

I didn't leave a third world country to go to a third world city like Houston.

The idea that Houston's economy is among the strongest is overrated. GDP per capita is either stagnant or declining. It's only recently that a few tech companies have expanded operations in Houston, so Houston is behind in that regard. The local economy is still at the mercy of Big Oil, even if there has been some diversification in the last 30 years. And the relatively lower cost of living doesn't necessarily mean better living standards, as Houston's income inequality is on par with New York and the San Francisco Bay Area, two areas that are notoriously expensive. Loads of people still struggle to make ends meet.

I wonder why people think Texas is a safe state, when Houston is pretty dangerous. The Houston murder rate may be lower than Chicago, but it is higher than New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and Boston, not to mention a myriad of cities in the rest of the developed world. Also, robbery and car theft are rampant; the rate of these crimes are not even low in affluent parts of the city. And the road rage shootings are ridiculous. Does anyone remember when a toddler was in hospital because a motorist shot at a car with fireworks in it, and the little boy was inside the said car? Unfortunately, events like this aren't rare in Houston, and are all but treated as a fact of life.

Liberal and progressive place, are you kidding me? Aside from the lack of protections for the LGBTQ community (which every major city has already without a problem), it's still seemingly acceptable to wave the Confederate flag here in 2021. I think I saw the battle flag a few times this past year (on the road and in the store) when getting groceries. Conservative evangelical beliefs rule the way of life here. You still cannot buy liquor on Sunday. There are no radio stations for classical music or eclectic music, but there are several Christian radio stations all over the dial, both in English and Spanish. KTRH (home of Rush Limbaugh, Michael Berry, and Sean Hannity) is a wildly popular radio station, while the local NPR station (KUHF) is low in the ratings. Joel Osteen is still revered by large swaths of the population. And it's not like the residents of Alief, Sharpstown, Acres Homes, Energy Corridor, and Greenspoint are "liberal", given that they are still conservative when it comes to LGBTQ rights and reproductive rights. In fact, there are lots of Donald Trump supporters in Alief and Sharpstown (yes, it's true, look at a voting precinct map). Oh, and there's no train of any kind to IAH or any of the populous, "fast-growing" suburbs.

Seriously, it's going to take more than Cajun pho to fix all of this.