United States · North America
Moving to Houston
Houston quick facts
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North America
Economy
World Bank · 2025Religion
% of populationCIA World Factbook / national censuses
Cost of living in Houston
Can you move to United States?
Pick your passport to see whether you can enter United States — and what it takes to stay.
Entry rules come from github.com/imorte/passport-index-data, updated 17 February 2026. They change without notice — confirm with the official immigration service before booking.
Getting set up in United States
Status, Social Security number and a Texas ID
There is no post-arrival registration step in the US: your I-94 record is your status, and the 'admit until' date on it governs your stay rather than the expiry printed in your visa. The first-weeks work is a Social Security number if you are work-authorised, or an ITIN if you are not, because payroll, banking and credit all key off one. Texas then gives a comfortable 90 days for the driver licence — the most generous window of any large state here.
Read the full step-by-step guideNinety days, five countries that skip the tests, and driving in high water
You may drive on a valid foreign licence for up to 90 days after becoming a Texas resident. If your licence is from France, Germany, South Korea, the UAE or Taiwan, Texas waives both the knowledge and the skills exam. The specifically Houston part of driving is water: underpasses and feeder roads flood fast and most flood deaths in this region happen in vehicles. The toll network is extensive and entirely electronic, so a transponder is a first-week purchase.
Read the full step-by-step guideOpening an account, building credit, and insuring what the bank will not
Federal rules let a bank identify a non-US person by passport number and country of issuance, so you do not have to wait for a Social Security number to open an account. The credit problem is the standard American one — no file scores worse than a bad file — and in Houston it bites immediately on car finance, because there is no realistic transit alternative. The specifically local addition is that flood cover is not part of any ordinary policy and has a 30-day waiting period.
Read the full step-by-step guideThe largest medical complex on earth, in the state with the biggest coverage gap
Houston contains the Texas Medical Center — the largest medical complex in the world by employment, with MD Anderson, Texas Children's and Houston Methodist inside it — and sits in the state with the highest uninsured rate in America. Both facts are true at once. Employer coverage is the normal route and is close to essential; without it, the federal marketplace is the fallback, and Harris Health is the county safety net that newcomers rarely know exists.
Read the full step-by-step guideA US number with no credit history, and staying connected when the grid fails
The US has no SIM registration requirement at all: numbers are not tied to identity documents, so a prepaid SIM or eSIM works the moment you insert it. The only friction is postpaid contracts, which run a credit check you cannot pass on arrival. What matters locally is that Houston loses power for days at a time after major storms, so a battery bank, a car charger and enrolment in the county's emergency alert system are part of getting connected here.
Read the full step-by-step guideNo income tax, MUD taxes nobody mentions, and the exemption you must claim
Texas levies no personal income tax and no city income tax, so a Houston tax return is one federal filing and nothing else — the simplest in this US set. What replaces the revenue is property tax at combined effective rates typically around 2.0–2.4%, plus 8.25% sales tax. The Houston-specific complication is the municipal utility district: much of the suburban growth sits inside MUDs that levy their own tax to repay water and drainage bonds, and that levy is invisible on a listing.
Read the full step-by-step guideEach guide has verified costs, timelines, required documents, and the non-obvious gotchas — sourced from official government pages. Last verified August 2026.
Essential English phrases
Reading a list isn’t learning it. Globe Quest turns these into a trainer — hear each phrase spoken, drill them with spaced repetition, and get scored as you say them out loud.
What to know before you go
Houston has no zoning, and deed restrictions are what actually protect you
CriticalIt is the only major US city without zoning. What can be built next to a house is governed by private deed restrictions recorded against the subdivision, by Chapter 42 of the city code covering lot sizes and setbacks, and by nothing else. A townhouse block, an ice house or a self-storage unit can appear beside a bungalow entirely lawfully. Before committing to an address, find out whether the subdivision has active deed restrictions and a functioning civic association enforcing them — and note that the City of Houston's legal department will enforce private deed restrictions, which is unusual and is a direct consequence of having no zoning.
Flood risk is the single most consequential thing about a Houston address
CriticalTexas Property Code § 92.0135, in force since 1 January 2022, requires a landlord to give you a separate written document at or before signing, stating whether the dwelling sits in a 100-year floodplain and — if the landlord knows of it — whether the dwelling has flooded at least once in the previous five years. If they fail to give it and you then suffer substantial loss to your possessions in a flood, you may terminate the lease by written notice within 30 days of the loss. Read it, then check the address yourself on the Harris County Flood Education Mapping Tool and on FEMA's map. Crucially, most homes flooded by Hurricane Harvey were outside the 100-year floodplain — so 'not in a flood zone' is a statement about insurance pricing, not about safety.
Standard insurance does not cover flood, and renters need their own policy
CriticalFlood is excluded from every ordinary homeowner and renter policy in the United States. Cover comes from the National Flood Insurance Program or the private market, and there is normally a 30-day waiting period before a new policy takes effect — so buying one as a storm approaches does not work. If you rent, your landlord's policy covers the building and nothing of yours; a contents flood policy is cheap and almost nobody new to the city buys one.
No state income tax, but property tax around 2.0–2.4% pays for it
CriticalTexas levies no personal income tax at all. Property tax replaces it, assessed by the Harris County Appraisal District and levied by a stack of overlapping jurisdictions — county, city, school district, community college, hospital district and often a municipal utility district on top in the suburbs. MUD taxes in the outer subdivisions can add a full percentage point and newcomers comparing headline city rates miss them entirely. If you buy, file the homestead exemption in your first year; the school-district portion rose to $140,000 after November 2025 and it is free to claim.
Hurricane season runs June to November and the power goes out
ImportantBeyond the storm itself, the recurring Houston problem is multi-day power loss in 35°C heat — the May 2024 derecho and Hurricane Beryl that July both left large parts of the city without electricity for over a week. Build a genuine kit: water, a battery or petrol generator if you can, a plan for medication that needs refrigeration, and a decision in advance about where you would go. Ask any prospective landlord what happened at that property in 2024.
It is the most ethnically diverse large city in America, and the food shows it
Good to knowNo single group is a majority in Harris County and more than 145 languages are spoken here. The practical effect is that the food is extraordinary and specific — Vietnamese along Bellaire, Nigerian and Ethiopian in south-west Houston, Salvadoran in Gulfton, and a Gulf Coast seafood tradition that is its own thing. Newcomers who stay inside the Loop miss most of it; the best eating is in strip malls twenty minutes out.
Top industries & employers
Energy — upstream, trading and services
ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Occidental, Halliburton, SLB, Baker Hughes, Phillips 66
Houston is the operational and engineering centre of the global oil and gas industry, and Chevron's announced relocation of its corporate headquarters from California consolidated that further.
Petrochemicals & refining
LyondellBasell, Dow, Shell Chemicals, INEOS, Marathon
The Houston Ship Channel is the largest petrochemical complex in the Americas, and the plants along it are the reason the region's air quality and hurricane preparedness are political questions.
Healthcare & biomedical research
MD Anderson, Texas Children's, Houston Methodist, Memorial Hermann, Baylor College of Medicine, TMC Helix Park
The Texas Medical Center is the largest medical complex in the world by employment, with around 120,000 people working across roughly two square miles.
Aerospace & space
NASA Johnson Space Center, Axiom Space, Intuitive Machines, Collins Aerospace, Boeing
Johnson Space Center runs human spaceflight operations and mission control, and a commercial cluster has grown around Clear Lake — Axiom is building a commercial space station from here.
Ports, logistics & trade
Port Houston, BNSF, Union Pacific, Kirby Corporation, CMA CGM
Port Houston consistently ranks first in the United States for foreign waterborne tonnage, and the Ship Channel's economic footprint reaches far beyond the city.
Energy transition & industrial technology
NextEra, Fervo Energy, Baker Hughes hydrogen, Air Liquide, Emerson, HPE
The same engineering base is being redeployed into hydrogen, carbon capture and geothermal — Houston's claim to be the energy transition capital is contested but not empty.
Where to go in Houston
The Museum District & the Menil Collection
Culture · Inside the Loop, south of downtown
Nineteen museums within a mile and a half, an unusual number of them free, plus the Menil's campus of small galleries in a residential neighbourhood.
Local tip: The Menil is free, always, and the Rothko Chapel next to it is a non-denominational room with fourteen Rothko paintings — sit for twenty minutes rather than walking through. The Museum of Fine Arts is free on Thursdays.
Buffalo Bayou Park
Nature · West of downtown
160 acres of restored bayou parkland with trails, kayak launches and the Waugh Bridge bat colony, running right up to the skyline.
Local tip: The bats emerge from under the Waugh Drive bridge at dusk, year-round, and almost nobody outside the city knows they are there. The park is designed to flood — it does, regularly, and it is the clearest physical lesson in how the city works.
Asiatown — Bellaire Boulevard
Food · South-west Houston, outside the Loop
Six miles of Vietnamese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean and Malaysian restaurants, bakeries and supermarkets in strip malls.
Local tip: This is where Houston actually eats. Hong Kong City Mall and the Vietnamese bakeries around Beechnut are the anchors, and almost nothing here has a website. Go hungry, on a Sunday, and follow the queues.
Space Center Houston & Johnson Space Center
Landmark · Clear Lake, 40 minutes south-east
The visitor centre for NASA's human spaceflight headquarters, with a Saturn V lying on its side in a purpose-built hall.
Local tip: The tram tour to the historic Apollo mission control room is the reason to come and it sells out — book the timed add-on rather than assuming you can add it on the day.
Montrose & the Heights
Neighborhood · Inside the Loop
The two neighbourhoods that carry most of Houston's bar, restaurant and independent retail life, one bohemian and one bungalow-lined.
Local tip: The Heights has a genuine quirk: parts of it are legally dry, a hangover from a 1912 prohibition ordinance that restaurants work around with private-club memberships. It is not a joke and it does affect where you can buy a bottle of wine.
The Buffalo Bayou Cistern
Hidden gemLandmark · Buffalo Bayou Park, west of downtown
An abandoned 1926 underground drinking-water reservoir — 87,000 square feet of columns under eight inches of still water, with a 17-second echo.
Local tip: It was slated for demolition, rediscovered in 2010 and is now open for timed tours and sound installations. It is twenty minutes from downtown, holds about forty people at a time, and is the single most surprising thing in the city. Book ahead; walk-ups rarely get in.
Emergency numbers in Houston
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