The summers are rough here so make sure you can bear hot and humid weather. We had a really mild winter this year so I'm thinking the summer will be sheer hell.

Real estate prices aren't bad (200-250k for a large house in the suburbs) because there's no space limitations here. They just keep building further and further out. Houston is actually the biggest city in the country in terms of area coverage. Speaking of which, count on driving a lot, which can be rough if you're from the NE where there's a <decent> MTA. The MTA here is a joke.

I live a block down from the galleria and housing prices around this area are high. Take a look at http://www.har.com to see about housing all around Houston.

Dunno about commuting in and out. I only use CAL space-a, if Kill Bill is around maybe he could fill you in on that. It's hard to get out of here a lot of times, but there's lots of flights out.