Looking at possibly moving to Mcallen. What is it like? I have a wife and 2 young kids. Wife was born and raised in Austin and I was raised in Houston. Are there very many people looking to go to the valley?

I love The Valley. I grew up down there, have spent the last three years in Austin and can't wait to move back down there sometime in the fall. That being said..

1.) It's hot, ungodly hot.
2.) Everybody's mexican, even those who ain't.
3.) It's in your best interest to learn spanish.
4.) Prepare for sill A$$ drivers.
5.) IT IS HOT!
6.) Be prepared to profit. There are mountains of money to be made.

I was born and raised in the Valley and I couldn't wait to leave. I think most people would agree that the Valley used to be a great place, but not anymore. The only 2 things it has going for it are hunting and fishing, well those and the Mexican food. Other than that, it is the suck compared to Austin and Houston and I hate Houston.

McAllen is not Austin. You can actually drive somewhere without getting rear ended. McAllen is not Houston. You can breathe the air most of the time. It is definitely hot but so is Houston and even though the humidity is high it doesn't hold a candlestick to Houston.

Schools are as good as AISD and HISD but not as good as Round Rock or Conroe. I know folks that moved out of the valley and couldn't wait to get back and the opposite is true. It'll be what you make out of it.

I agree with Wildag08.

I was born and raised in the RGV. Its hot! Besides that its really starting to develop well and there is lots of opportunity. It is very different though and very Hispanic. It has a kind of isolated feel compared to the rest of Texas.

Think 3rd world country full of people who don't give a rats a$$ about their property or anyone else's, and that sums up about 80% of the valley. The other 20% is bearable at best.

I lived there for eleven years, which was ten years, eleven months and twenty-nine days too long.

If you offered me $500k/yr to move back, I wouldn't even consider it.

But, as folks above have said, there are some people who love it down there.

[This message has been edited by OldAg92 (edited 5/11/2011 8:50a).]

The RGV is about 40% complete in its journey to become Northern Mexico. It used to be a pretty cool and interesting place to live, IMO it is not anymore. It is still intersting, but not cool, no pun intended, anymore.

With the attractions and fun that Mexico used to offer basicall being off the table there is not as much to do, see, or experience in the area as there once was.

I might get flamed for this, but the school systems are being over run with folks from Mexico. If there were a good dual language program in place that would be fine, but there is not and thus the systems are not coping well and the quality of education is dropping.

No matter what anyone says or what you see, it is a very, very poor area when truly compared to many parts of the US.

All in all it is what you make of it, but it has surely lost most of what charm it once had.

Thanks for all the advice...and keep it coming.

There seems to be a lot of mixed feelings about the valley, on here and with friends I have spoken with. If this opportunity does present itself, it will be a tough decision to make.

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It is definitely hot but so is Houston and even though the humidity is high it doesn't hold a candlestick to Houston.

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Out of curiosity, I looked up average temps and humidity in McAllen and Houston. McAllen has average highs of nearly 5 degrees more than Houston. The humidity is almost the exact same: 77.1% in Houston vs 77% in McAllen.
http://www.city-data.com/top2/c485.html

http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/compare/USTX0854?sfld1=McAllen,%20TX&sfld2=Houston,%20TX,%20US&clocid1=USTX0854&clocid2=USTX0617

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I think most people would agree that the Valley used to be a great place, but not anymore.

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I never thought it was nice, even as a kid. Hell, I even thought San Antonio was nice when I would visit as a kid because of what I was comparing it.

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I lived there for eleven years, which was ten years, eleven months and twenty-nine days too long.

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I did 18 years. You got off easy.

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If you offered me $500k/yr to move back, I wouldn't even consider it.

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My wife and I agreed on $1 million/year, but for a maximum of 6 months.


[This message has been edited by proudaggie02 (edited 5/11/2011 9:59a).]

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If this opportunity does present itself, it will be a tough decision to make.

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My advice is to go down there for 3-4 days and see if you like it.

I'd spend about a week in McAllen/Mission/Edinburg area and see if you can handle it. I wouldn't spend much time on the beach because you wouldn't get a real feel for what the Valley is. See if you can handle the rude people, bad service, bad driving, horrible education, corrupt politics beyond what most have encountered, complete lack of respect for anyone and anything, mediocrity for everything, and most people being ok with the Valley turning into Mexico. The Valley is poverty stricken, uneducated and doesn’t care if others advance. They Valley would be great if you could get rid of the majority of the people.

My family has been in the Valley since the early 1900’s when all the land party’s were moving from the Mid-West, and have lived within about a 2 mile radius for almost 100 years. I do not know how my parents and other family do it, but I guess if you are around it all the time, you don’t notice that it has gotten progressively worse. I lived there until I went to A&M, graduated in 05 and moved back to the Valley for a job and lived there about 2 years. I moved away only to have to move back for about 2 months in 2010 for a work related issue. I could not handle it anymore. From 2005 to 2007 was ok, but 2010, the place had completely changed. I love the beach, the hunting, and the family farm/ranch, but that isn’t enough to get me to move back.

As for weather, it is hot, but where isn't it hot in Texas? Summer starts in May and goes until October. Most days are around 95-105 degrees with high humidity and the wind blowing 20-30 mph. Winter is very mild and a lot of Thanksgiving's and Christmas' were spent in shorts.

In terms of weather the wind in the valley makes things bearable. When you get those few odd days, every once in an while, where you get no wind and or a low breeze coming out of the southwest it is an absolute roaster.

Houston seems more humid because of the wind or lack thereof. The valley is every bit as humid as Houston and parts of east Texas, you just have a strong breeze 75% of the time.

The thing about the Valley is that it is very third world like in the sense that if you are one of the landed gentry and or have a lot of money it is absolutely fabulous and was even better when Mexico was accesible. But if you are middle to lower middle class it is rough and getting rougher to have any quality of life there.

You would think crime in the Valley would be bad, but it is not. It is safe and there are quite a few advantages to it, but those advantages depend on your perspective.

I moved there/here just shy of 30 years ago and for a kid that had spent most of his life in Mexico City it was fantabulous in terms of the freedoms and absence of big city problems. We were able to keep many of the things from home that we were spoiled by, like maids, good food, and a nice lifestyle.

But as the Valley grew much of the original and or inherent culture has been lost and it is now not quite a big city nor quite a rural area and throw in all the complacent illegals that are happy living terribly in the Valley and too afraid to chase the big time up north and you have what it is.

To me, even SPI/PI has really lost a lot of it's charm. Congested like a mofo during peak times. Lots of crap and fewer and fewer locals willing to stay around.

Bottom line is that the Valley is still pretty cool if you are wealthy and depending on your likes and dislikes it will be what you make of it.

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Bottom line is that the Valley is still pretty cool if you are wealthy and depending on your likes and dislikes it will be what you make of it.

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I have these friends that lived here in McAllen for about five years. The husband got a good job offer in New Orleans and they moved. They stayed for only one year and said that New Orleans was the biggest sewer that they had ever seen and they couldn't stand it and moved back to McAllen.

The one major agreement that I have with dsvogel05 is that you should come down for a while and see how you like it. I have lived in the Edinburg/McAllen area for more than 50 years and it seems pretty good to me. (I did like living in San Antonio one time.)

Oh yeah: I don't speak Spanish very well and I am definitely not rich.

It is a culture shock and you have have to be ready for that. If you are used to "normal" life in a big city, then this is the complete opposite.

Are there good private schools in McAllen?

I believe that there are some private middle schools and elementary schools. When it comes to high schools there aren't any. It is too expensive to have private schools with the lack of people interested. I believe that there are private (Catholic) high schools in Brownsville.

You might consider SciTech and MedHi in Mercedes like private schools. They bus kids from McAllen. They are an unusual hybrid school district with their own taxing district that includes much of the valley but since it is tax supported it doesn't cost to go there.

McAllen has a separate International Baccualaurate(sp?) high school that is part of the district located in town. You have to qualify to get in.

I too have been born and raised in the valley and I live in McAllen now. I'm going to have to agree with everybody here in the valley is what you make it to be. Both sides of my wife and my family live here, and its nice to have them around. That aspect of it is especially true now that I have a new son. The cost of living is relatively low and housing is pretty cheap. I really enjoy outdoor activities and there is lots of things to do outdoors here also. SPI is also a little over an hour away and makes for nice weekend trips in the summer. I have also felt safe the majority of the time.

Downsides - It seems like the valley is becoming more and more like little Mexico in that everybody from Mexico is moving here and bringing all of the weird "quirks" with them. They can also be EXTREMELY rude and act like everything is entitled to them. Weekends are especially bad - don't even try to go to someplace like the mall in McAllen, unless you want to leave PISSED OFF and never wanting to step foot back in there again.

I have known quite a bit of people who have moved here and have not lived here prior and have grown to really enjoy it. The Aggie group down here is pretty strong and we tend to have quite a few activities throughout the year to get young Aggies involved.

Would you mind disclosing what type of work is bringing you down here? The valley has TONS of potential but it always seems like it is hamstrung by incompetent idiots with their head stuck in the sand.

The Lutheran Church in McAllen has a private school. I went to Science Academy in Mercedes, made college seem pretty easy. When I graduated from Sci-Tech, we were 8th in the nation and are normally in the top 5-10 for best high schools in Texas. Med-Hi is kind of a joke now, but it use to be good.

South Texas ISD is not what it used to be, but it is better than the alternative. When I was in school, we would have kids come from South Padre Island to La Joya. They have a tax base that covers 3 counties so they are able to do quite a bit. Sci-Tech used to be real involved with Rice, don't know if it is anymore.

There is the IDEA Academy that is supposed to be pretty good. They do things the old fashioned way. If you don't do your home work x amount of times, you get kicked out of school and they believe in corporal punishment.

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When I graduated from Sci-Tech, we were 8th in the nation

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i graduated from there in 04. you?

I graduated from McAllen Memorial, and back then we were #1 in pregnant students and one year we even had the most on campus drug busts in the state.

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Parts of it look like Reynosa (in Mexico) with their bright pink paint jobs.

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Easy there Chief, my house in PI is bright pink and I love it. Should have seen my old Gringo neighbors when I painted that SOB. Priceless.

Walter, I graduated in 01, my aunt (Mrs. Warrington) is the IPC teacher.

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I graduated from McAllen Memorial, and back then we were #1 in pregnant students and one year we even had the most on campus drug busts in the state.

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RGV strikes again.

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Out of curiosity, I looked up average temps and humidity in McAllen and Houston. McAllen has average highs of nearly 5 degrees more than Houston. The humidity is almost the exact same: 77.1% in Houston vs 77% in McAllen.
http://www.city-data.com/top2/c485.html

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You're ignoring the wind. The constant SE breeze during the summer saves us. I will say it's cooler down here during the dog days (if the wind is blowing) than it is up in Missouri. Up there the humidity is almost as high with zero wind and crazy attacking gnats.

I've worked here since 1995 after growing up here between '78 and '87 and I agree that things have certainly changed for the worst in the last few years. The valley is still one of the brighter spots economically in the nation however the Mexico factor has made things not quite as nice as they used to be.

We moved to NE McAllen to get into Gonzales elementary back in 2002.

According to Federal guidelines in 2006:

Gonzales Elementary in McAllen is the only school (any level) in the valley where less than 50% of the students are from households defined as economically disadvantaged.


Texas average is 45.1% of students come from economically disadvantaged homes.

Brownsville ISD: 90.9 percent are economically disadvantaged, and nearly all the students, 97.3 percent, classify as a traditionally under-represented minority group.

Edcouch/Elsa: 85.1% economically disadvantaged. 98 percent Mexican-American and almost 1/2 of them are classified as migrants. Whoa.

Donna: 90 percent are economicalley disadvantaged

Point Isabel ISD: 84.5 % Economically Disadvantaged, yet considered "property wealthy" and has to give a good portion of it's money back to the state. Very unique situation.

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i graduated from there in 04. you?

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I went to Sci-Tech from 96-98. HATED it. Ended up transferring to Harlingen South and loved it. The only thing I really remember from Sci-Tech was Mr. Bolte(sp?). I think I heard somewhere that he passed away though. He had a voice that sounded like he smoked 3 packs a day. I also remember the really goofy comp. sci teacher Mr. Wood. That was an odd man.

Mr. Wood is still crazy, but from what my aunt has told me, the principal has told him to knock it off in terms of hanging out with students like he used to. I never had Bolte, but I remember him. I liked all of the Tech teachers and Mr. Lamas the biology teacher was top notch.

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You're ignoring the wind. The constant SE breeze during the summer saves us.

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From what I remember, it was always worse weather-wise in the Valley when I would visit from Houston. They were both still horrible, but I remember my wife (Houston native) complaining extra about the heat in the valley. I visited last April and was not that far from heat exhaustion after riding 18 holes of golf. As a comparison, I routinely walk 27-36 holes/week in Colorado.

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Are there good private schools in McAllen?

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Have you ever been to the valley? If not, I say make a trip ASAP.... unless the money is ridiculous, my guess is you'll quickly forget about the valley.

coming from austin and/or houston, you'll likely be disappointed. your choices for activities, food, people to hang out with, etc. will be drastically reduced.

i'm from the valley...i could take it down there (if i were to relocate) b/c i know what i'm getting into. but my wife (from houston) would probably commit suicide.

When I was principal at Morris Jr. High back in the mid-80's (before the two newest Middle Schools were built), it was 15% Economically Disadvantaged. What was even more interesting was that the economically Disadvantaged kids scored higher than the non-ED kids in some areas!



[This message has been edited by oldvalleyrat (edited 5/13/2011 2:23p).]

Free lunch for everyone. My kids have been in the public school system 8 years now and I have yet to pay for a lunch.

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What was even more interesting was that the economically Disadvantaged kids scored higher than the non-ED kids in some areas!

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while the inverse can said about other areas....amirite?




IMHO...do not move to the rgv. most of us here hate it and would move if the opportunity was right. i'd miss my family and the friendships i've created...i would not miss the "valley" culture or the mexican nationals. the weather is nice. bearable most days. as a whole, valley folks are dumb with a few bright spots now and then. but as most have said, you make of it what you want. i'm originally from here and couldn't wait to get out, got out and the job brought me back. i'll be here a while longer depending on the economy and opportunity. overall, it's been an ok experience moving back but as another poster said, i'm from here and knew what i was getting myself into. it's interesting to see the folks you went to high school that never left still hanging out together and letting no one new into their "clique", just like high school used to be.....

PJ,

At least in McAllen, it is free lunch for everyone. The district used to give free lunch for just those that qualified (about 85%). But it became apparent to the business folks that it cost more to hire staff to keep track of all the paperwork than to just give free lunch to everyone. (Basically a cost cutting measure).


strawberryshortcake

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while the inverse can said about other areas....amirite?

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I am not sure of the meaning of your question....Obviously if I said some areas were higher then other areas were lower.