For those of you who are already retired and decided to relo to BCS, what are some unexpected advantages and disadvantages of living in Aggieland?

For those of you who live in BCS, would you recommend it as a final retirement location decision?

FYI - class of 81, planning on retiring in 5 years, can pay cash for a $350K+ house when I sell in San Antonio. No kids, no family, just me and the Missus. We are considering Charlotte, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Denver, and San Antonio as other options. Just doing my homework for the year 2026 assuming the world is still intact. Thanks and GIg'em.

We moved to Bryan 2.5 years ago. So far we have really enjoyed it. It has been close to what we expected as far as amenities-good healthcare, restaurants and shopping. Driving in Bryan is definitely less stressful. Being in a smaller town has been good as far as finding community and new friends. Cost of living is better than where we moved from (Franklin, TN) except for property taxes, but that is just Texas. We built a new home in Greenbrier and have enjoyed living here.
There has been no real downside that we have seen, but it hasn't been what we expected.
We though we would move here, and go to every sports event on campus, and end spending a lot of time in College Station around the campus. Instead we rarely leave Bryan and rarely are anywhere close to campus. Covid is partially the cause of this, and also, wow, students are annoying in large groups. And they are everywhere.
So, tldr, enjoy Bryan, but just be ready for 18-22 year olds who don't pay attention.

Advantage - if you golf and can afford a club membership, we have 3 nice country clubs + 2 decent public courses.

Advantage - lots of nice neighborhoods throughout BCS though I'm not sure what $300K will get you in 5 years.

Advantage - plenty of neat independent restaurants and also plenty of chains. Good entertainment options though a Disadvantage to some is that we don't have the abundance of options like in Hou, DFW, and day SA-Aus. But an Advantage is that we're only 2-2.5 hours away w/o the big city crap.

Advantage - Aggie sports

Disadvantage - traffic in many parts of CS is horrible throughout semester daytime hours and many sports and other event weekends. Bryan doesn't have that same traffic problem.

Advantage - more banks, churches, and nail places per sq mile than almost any where, or is that a Disadvantage?

We retired here about 10 years ago. I'd be happy to talk to you about it if you want.

We retired here in 2012 and live in Austin's Colony in Bryan. Best thing for us about living here is family and friends love to visit, especially the grandkids.

diehard81 said:

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For those of you who are already retired and decided to relo to BCS, what are some unexpected advantages and disadvantages of living in Aggieland?

For those of you who live in BCS, would you recommend it as a final retirement location decision?

FYI - class of 81, planning on retiring in 5 years, can pay cash for a $350K+ house when I sell in San Antonio. No kids, no family, just me and the Missus. We are considering Charlotte, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Denver, and San Antonio as other options. Just doing my homework for the year 2026 assuming the world is still intact. Thanks and GIg'em.

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I retired recently, and my wife will retire in a year. We have lived in the B/CS area for almost 16 years, but are currently in the process of moving to Arizona. We have enjoyed our time in the B/CS area, but we find that there isn't much for us here. We like outdoor stuff such as hiking, camping, outdoor photography, etc., and there is so much more of that sort of thing in Arizona and the mountain west than here (indoor interests/hobbies we can do anywhere). Where we will be living it is desert (NOT Phoenix/the Valley - way too hot), but in 30 minutes we can be hiking or birding in the mountains. We can ski in the winter, yet not be in a place where one has to deal with left-over snow and ice for weeks at a time. Within a half-days drive there are seven national parks. No telling how many more in 7-8 hour drive. Also a huge number of National Monuments, state parks, BLM campsites, etc.. Santa Fe, Moab, Durango, Tucson, Flagstaff are all interesting cities that are easily accessible to us. Within 30-60 minutes of College Station, it's just more of the same stuff.

College Station has the advantage of being close to large cities that have all the urban stuff one could want, and C.S. itself has decent restaurants. Also has occasional interesting events at that very large university. But eating and watching the occasional A&M football game, shopping at Walmart and Target, and making the occasional trip to Houston or Austin or the coast isn't enough to keep us from moving away.

YMMV obviously, as your interests may well have nothing in common with ours.

C

Not retired, but travel for work. Can live anywhere. Chose College Station.

Pros
Love the access to Aggie games
Good food and enough of a selection
Nice community.
Traffic is great. (I realize others have said it's bad. I don't see it. Maybe I'm comparing it to places that have truly bad traffic)
A ton of Aggies in our family that live in Dallas/Houston/Austin and we get to be the hub several times a year. Love that.

Cons
It's not Salt Lake City.
Man I'd love to live anywhere between Park City, UT and Red Lodge, MT.

Retired MIL - moved to CS to be close to family last year. Also, just sold property in SATX. I am very happy here, but I fear $350 will not take you very far in the next few years unless you are on the outskirts (?). Start watching Zillow trends. My guess is that a 350k house here in 2025 is compatible with a 250k house near Sea World/HWY151 today, if that paints a picture (?). Maybe buy now and rent it out? I've noticed a shortage of family (non-student) homes around here. I'm no financial planner nor realtor. I can recommend an exceptional buyer agent when you are ready though.

PROs:
- It is in Texas.
- Remains a conservative-values community for the most part.
- >90% of your neighbors are awesome. I can't really speak to any A-Holes I've interacted with here, at least not on the internet.
- Growth. The town is growing rapidly just like SATX (think Alamo Ranch and west). I believe there is still a market for some smart start-ups around here or the right franchise if that is something you'd like to look at.
- The youthful vigor of the college population is contagious. For the most part, great kids hungry to achieve.
- Good healthcare all around town
- 3 x HEB (+1 Kroger) within 10 minutes
- Incredible and active churches with some of the most impressive music programs I have encountered
- After commuting for quite a while near military installations, the traffic here is a breeze to get around town
- 90 min to KIAH. The world is your oyster from there. SATX, AUS, and Corpus are do-able as well
- Although it might not matter in your case (but in your taxes though), the public schools here seem pretty impressive.
- Well-kept parks all over

AVG:
- Contracted services (lawn, plumbing, etc). Doesn't necessary strike me as cheap, and about 50/50 regarding showing up on schedule.
- Dept of Public Safety (DPS) still has a required misery-factor for Driver's License visits
- Decent municipal services (Elec, Gas, Water, sewer). Water seems a little more pricey that what I'm used to.


CONs:
- Suddenlink (Altice) has a monopoly on Broadband ISP. They are not as impressive as you may have been accustomed to in a more metropolitan area.
- I might be an outlier, but I've really struggled to receive a correct food order at a drive through or take out here.

Overall, we are VERY glad to be retired in College Station. I feel "home" here!

Sounds like you need to venture to downtown Bryan more often

I do miss the breweries around Austin but Savage brew lab just opened. Haven't been there yet but I hear great things from people I trust.

Blackwater draw is also fun for a chill night of hanging out.

User name checks out.

Sorry, somebody HAD to do it!

BwdAg said:

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True.

That is an area we have not gone to since things opened back up. Thanks for the reminder to check it out.

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Downtown Bryan is underrated. Maybe not a lot of places to go, but the ones that are there are worth visiting:

Proudest Monkey
Ronin ( my personal favorite place in BCS)
Blackwater Draw
RX Pizza
Mr G's
Harvest Coffee

I'm missing some but you get the idea.

Edit to add - I do miss Los Nortenos, though. That was my Friday lunch whilst in college. I got fat off that stuff. Lol.