Movers from New Orleans, LA to Houston, TX

Moving to Houston: What You Need to Know

Houston doesn't ease you in. It's the fourth-largest city in the country, a metro of 7.8 million people, and it's still growing - adding over 126,000 residents between mid-2024 and mid-2025 alone. The energy sector built it, but healthcare, aerospace, and technology keep it running. Coming from New Orleans, you'll find a city that shares your Gulf Coast DNA but operates at a completely different scale.

Popular Houston Neighborhoods

Houston's size means your neighborhood choice matters more than in most cities. Get it wrong and you're commuting an hour across a metro with no real public transit backbone. Get it right and you've got a pocket of the city that fits your life.

Urban professionals tend to land inside the Loop first. Downtown Houston packs high-rise living and walkable access to finance and energy employers into a median home price around $368,000. It's the most urban experience Houston offers, though you'll still need a car for most errands - and that surprises people coming from a walkable city like New Orleans. Midtown sits just south of downtown with a median rent around $1,400 for a one-bedroom, a dense bar and restaurant scene, and a younger demographic. Montrose earns its reputation through eclectic galleries, independent restaurants, and older bungalows sitting alongside newer townhomes - arguably the most culturally distinct pocket in the city, although gentrification has been pushing rents up steadily.

Families consistently gravitate toward the suburbs, where the value is hard to argue with. Sugar Land is a master-planned community southwest of the city with strong schools, low crime, and median home prices around $395,000. The tradeoff is a long commute into the energy corridor during peak hours. Katy delivers new construction in the $350,000 range with excellent school districts and easy freeway access, making it one of the fastest-growing suburban corridors in the metro. Spring, north of the city, brings home prices under $300,000 in newer communities with straightforward access to The Woodlands. Fair warning: suburban Houston is sprawling and expanding simultaneously, which means construction noise and shifting traffic patterns are facts of life in most of these zip codes - and that's before you account for the road widening projects that seem to run permanently on every major feeder road.

For those who want character over convenience, a few neighborhoods stand out. The Heights runs on historic bungalows, walkable streets, and a strong local food scene. The median home price around $575,000 reflects exactly how much demand that combination generates. The Woodlands, a resort-style master-planned community 30 miles north, draws families and outdoor enthusiasts with wooded trails, top-rated schools, and a median home price around $430,000. For high earners relocating from New Orleans' Garden District, River Oaks is the Houston equivalent - grand homes, tree-lined streets, and a median price point that starts well above $1 million.

Climate and Lifestyle

Houston and New Orleans share a humid subtropical climate, so the adjustment isn't dramatic. Both cities are hot, humid, and prone to heavy rain. But Houston's summers are longer and drier between storms, with July highs routinely hitting 95°F or above. Winters are mild - January averages around 63°F for a high, and freezes are rare but not unheard of. Honestly, Houston's version of summer tends to grind longer without the cultural rituals that make New Orleans heat feel bearable.

The lifestyle shift is more about scale than climate. Houston has 240+ miles of trails through Buffalo Bayou Park, kayaking on urban bayous, and a Museum District with 19 institutions. The food scene is genuinely diverse in a way that's hard to overstate - Tex-Mex, Vietnamese pho, and cuisines from dozens of countries across more than 10,000 restaurants. Professional sports cover every major league: Astros (MLB), Rockets (NBA), Texans (NFL), Dynamo (MLS). The city is big enough that you can spend years finding new corners of it.

Job Market and Economy

Houston's economy runs on five pillars: energy, healthcare, aerospace, port logistics, and an emerging technology sector. The energy industry remains dominant - ExxonMobil and Chevron both maintain major operations here, and the broader oil and gas ecosystem employs tens of thousands across the metro. Healthcare is the second engine, anchored by MD Anderson Cancer Center (roughly 22,000 employees) and Memorial Hermann Health System (around 30,000). NASA's Johnson Space Center drives aerospace and space technology growth. The Port of Houston ranks as the top U.S. port by cargo volume, supporting a large logistics and distribution workforce. Technology is expanding steadily too, with HP Inc. and a growing cluster of data centers and tech firms drawing Sun Belt migrants. Because the employment base spans multiple industries, Houston's economy absorbs downturns better than cities tied to a single sector.

Cost of Living

Houston's overall cost of living runs approximately 6-7% below the national average. Housing is the standout: median rent for a one-bedroom apartment sits around $1,230-$1,250 per month, and two-bedrooms average $1,480-$1,520. That's meaningfully below national medians of $1,517 and $1,897 respectively. Median home prices in the city proper are around $325,000-$421,000 depending on the source and neighborhood mix.

The tax picture is the biggest change coming from Louisiana. Texas has no state income tax. None. Louisiana's flat 3% rate means a household earning $80,000 was sending $2,400 a year to Baton Rouge. That stops the day you establish Texas residency. Property taxes are higher in Texas, with effective rates around 1.4-1.8% versus Louisiana's 0.56%, so homeowners need to factor that in. Sales tax is slightly lower in Texas on average (combined 8.2%) versus Louisiana's combined rate, which can exceed 10%.

The one cost that catches people off guard: summer utility bills. Air conditioning in Houston runs hard from June through September. Monthly electric bills of $300 or more are pretty common during peak heat. The annual average looks reasonable on paper. July does not.

If you need storage during your move, Star Van Lines runs facilities throughout Texas and across our network of 43 warehouse locations nationwide. Whether you're waiting on a closing date, downsizing before the move, or need short-term holding between your New Orleans departure and Houston arrival, we can coordinate storage as part of your move plan. And since we manage the storage directly through our own network - no consolidated shipment hand-offs to third parties - the same team that loads in New Orleans controls the chain until delivery in Houston.