Moving to Fredericksburg from Houston

Are you considering moving to Fredericksburg from Houston? Are you wondering what the lifestyle is like? How about the shopping? As someone who moved from the Galleria area of Houston to the Texas Hill Country, I thought I would share a few tips to help you understand if moving to the Fredericksburg, Texas, area is right for you.

Housing in the Texas Hill Country

If you are considering moving to Gillespie County or the surrounding area, you are going to have some choices to make when it comes to buying a home.

First of all, do you prefer living in the city limits or do you want to buy or build a home on acreage? In the city you will have city utilities. In the county, you will most likely have a well on your property for water and a septic system. The property may or may not come with deed restrictions.

Fredericksburg does have some very good home builders, but many have a wait list, so it would be good to interview several if you are considering building a home.

Internet is widely available in the city, but in the county, depending on the location, you will have several choices. Rural internet is often provided by line-of-site towers or satellite. Each property will have to be evaluated for which type of services is available.

Cell phone service is getting better all the time, but some carriers provide better service than others in certain areas. If you are looking at rural property, check your phone signal while on the showing.

Traffic

It’s not an issue, compared to Houston. You can forget adding more time to allow for “rush hour”. Main Street does get crowded on the weekends, and parking can be an issue, but the rest of the week, it is not usually a problem.

Shopping

While you won’t miss the Houston traffic, you may miss the variety of shopping. Fredericksburg has one HEB grocery store, one WalMart, one Walgreens, and plenty of local shops for most items you need. If you should need something you would expect to find at a “Big Box” retailer, you will have to plan a special trip.

Kerrville is only 30 minutes away. There you will find a Lowe’s and a Home Depot. Also they have an Office Max. For other big stores, such as Costco, Sam’s Club, Best Buy or a large shopping mall, you can drive to San Antonio.

Restaurants

For a small town in Texas, Fredericksburg does have a nice selection of restaurants. Plan on calling ahead for reservations at the finer dining establishments, especially on the weekends, because they can be crowded. You may be surprised at how few fast food choices are available.

Doctors and Hospital

Fredericksburg does have a good selection of doctors and a very nice hospital. For trauma or critical care, our local hospital will stabilize a patient and send them, often using Life Flight, to a hospital in Austin or San Antonio.

Local News

Unlike Houston, where you have a local newscast on television and a daily newspaper, in Fredericksburg, the local newspaper is published once a week. It’s a great way to keep up with what is going on in the community.

Services and Contractors

Fredericksburg does have a local contractors and services you can hire, however, because it is a small town, sometimes wait times are longer than you would expect in Houston. Don’t always expect same day service or an unlimited number of contractors to call should you need a repair.

Over all, the lifestyle change, at least for me and my family, has been a great experience, and while we still visit Houston, I couldn’t imagine going back to live there.

If you have any other questions, or would like to know more, feel free to call or email me.

Melanie