I will soon be graduating with my MBA. I plan on relocating to Dallas or Houston. Which city is the best?

Question

I will soon be graduating with my MBA. I plan on relocating to Dallas or Houston. Which city is the best?

Answer 1

If you want to work in the oil or energy industry, of course go to Houston.  If you want to work in real estate or banking, then Dallas is the place.  My son's gf just graduated Univ of Houston a year ago with a bachelor's in business, and she is working at an oil company starting at $55,000.  Oh, yeah, the brand new house she bought 1600 sf with 2br/2bath was $85,000.  

I live in Houston and would not move to Dallas on a bet.  They are total snobs up there. Houston is for individualists, so if you want to conform to the 3-piece-suit mentality, you should go to Dallas.

Answer 2

Depending on what industry you are going into after graduating and what type of city environment you prefer makes a difference on your choice. Jools is correct about Dallas being home to alot more companies. Telcom, Banking, Finance, Insurance is big here. Houston has Oil/Gas, Environmental and International connections. Both cities have their good & bad (I have lived in both).  Houston has its humidity, Dallas has less. Both have crime ridden areas, but both have nice suburbs & infrastructure. Dallas has a light rail system, Houston doesnt....which makes commuting easier with gas prices. Housing prices depend on where you live in either city. Social wise, Houston is more conservative with a touch of 'good o' boy' demeanor. Dallas is a bit more metropolitan, not all 'snobs'.  Both cities have major airlines that are based there. (Continental-Houston, AA-Dallas)

Basically, depending on your lifestyle and what you like to do & where you will be working will feed into your decision.  

Do some research and find what is best for you :-)

Answer 3

Since I LIVE in Dallas... I would have to say that Dallas is a better choice. Dallas has alot more to offer, workwise as well as lifestyle... "Big D" lol but there's definitely bigger companies up here. If you wanna live near the nasty yucky beach of Galveston...then go to Houston.

Answer 4

I grew up in Houston, then moved to Dallas for college, and never left.  

Dallas is a lot cleaner.  There doesn't seem to be that choking smog always hanging in the air, like in Houston.  

Dallas is a lot dryer than Houston.  If you have asthma, or long hair, you might want to consider Dallas.  As superficial as it sounds, all my life, in Houston, I thought I had terrible hair.  I cursed my genes.  Then once I moved to Dallas, all of a sudden I had gorgeous hair!  The humidity is so high in Houston that even though the temps are lower, you just feel sweaty all the time.

Houston has a lot of refineries, so it smells bad a lot of the time.  It just was a really stinky place to live.

The traffic in Dallas isn't so bad as Houston.

Dallas people are much more superficial than Houston people...kind of like the plastic surgery capital of the South.  

The airports in Dallas are more convenient, and more centrally-located than the airports in Houston.

As far as expenses, both cities are about the same.  Dallas has more to do if you have visitors come into town.

Last I checked, Dallas had the highest crime rate per capita in the nation.  Although they've since stated they've been reporting crimes incorrectly, but there is crime.

Wages are about the same, but there's a lot more opportunity in Dallas.  You've got the whole Metroplex, and it is like one big city, not like 20 small cities, so you have a lot more choices.  Also, a lot of companies are moving to DFW, analysts say that we are not going to get hit as bad in the recession as everyone else, because companies are still coming here in droves.

Hope that helps!

Answer 5

I live near the Dallas/Fort Worth area and it is great. If you have to move to a big city, I would say Dallas, but there are a lot more places outside of Dallas that are much better.