Airline Pilot Central Forums - DEN and IAH base (living) comparisons

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The problem with much of Texas is that the land owners have found that leasing the land to hunters is profitable. High fence places aren’t really that common, but finding a rancher that will let you hunt without spending big money is extremely hard if you haven’t grown up in that small town. You could always drop $400,000 for a 100 acre place to hunt between Houston and Dallas, but that’s not exactly reasonable.

Being that this is a thread about living in base and I don’t even know if the original post hunts, I don’t know if this even applies. You can’t go wrong with either base. Personally, if I had to live in base I’d pick the same two. I have too many toys that wouldn’t work out near Chicago or in California, and I really don’t care for the northeast. As a new hire you won’t be able to bid the widebody flying in any base for longer than if based on the coast. My advice would be to pick what you think the best base for your family would be and bid for it. When you get it simply rent a house for a year to see how you like living there while researching what area you really like, or if that base is even where you want to be. You can’t ski in Houston, and fishing all year in Denver could be unpleasant.

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Originally Posted by crxpilot (Post 2714060)

Better than any of those bubble gum real estate articles out there. Good on you, Sir! 😀

He forgot love bugs.

Hate love bugs? Denver.

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Originally Posted by Airhoss (Post 2713777)

The only area in Colorado that is liberal is Denver, Boulder, Ft Collins and a few tiny blue dots around the ski towns. The rest of the state is solid red. The problem is that the majority of the population are in those districts and they out vote the rest of the state.

Once you get 10 miles out of any of those above mentioned areas Colorado is a very conservative state.

I do enjoy Texas, most of the entire state except Houston. There is a definite cost of living advantage to Texas. And a huge outdoors activities advantage to Colorado.

As far as hunting goes, there is some spectacular hunting to be done in Texas. But the quality stuff is all pay to play. Colorado has vast tracks of very good public hunting land.

Houston has way better variety, seniority and career progression. Denver is the fastest growing domicile at the moment.

Harris County, which includes Houston, is increasingly Blue voting as evidenced by the latest midterms. A Denver liberal moving to Houston / Harris County won’t feel like a fish out of water as far as all that goes.

Didn’t mean to take the thread off road. Both places are a great. You just need to decide which items are most important and move there. I just tried to provide as objective info as I could since I’ve lived in both places for 20+ years each.

Denver has a better Zoo which is great for the novice hunters.

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Originally Posted by ufgatorpilot (Post 2714128)

He forgot love bugs.

Hate love bugs? Denver.

Very true!! I did forget to mention that! August-Sept is awful with those little things.

The area around the training hotel in downtown Denver (where I am typing this) is full of "free-range" riff raff. Unfortunately the city hasn't decided the herd needs to be thinned yet.

Then again one of the training hotels in IAH where I spent a wonderful 5 months 5 years ago wasn't a lot better, plus I got a bonus of having my car broken into in the parking lot.

Hunting opportunities in IAH vs Denver? I kind of feel like the quarry in both places.

Thank you for the replies.

Regarding school districts around Houston, from the little I've read online the best are Katy, Tomball (The Woodlands) and Friendswood (Galveston County).

Did I leave out any?

I grew up in Houston. I don’t even like trips that layover there anymore. Denver is a better city hands down.

Property taxes in Texas are killer. A recent captain I flew with who commutes from Texas asked me how brutal California taxes were. Turns out that I paid less in CA State Income Tax than he paid in Texas Property Tax. I told him he should move to CA to save on taxes.

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Originally Posted by planesandhockey (Post 2715006)

Take a look at HAR.com if you want to research housing in Houston. The Woodlands might not be for everyone, but it is a pretty safe bet when you have kids and school to concern yourself with while still being reasonably close to the airport. It’s no accident that so many pilots live there. Yes you will have high property taxes. You will also have a high homeowners insurance premium compared to what you are likely used to. Still, it arguably offers more bang for the buck than our other hubs. You might like it there, you might not. In that respect Houston is just like anyplace else.