Houstonculture & etiquette

It 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.

Texas 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.

Flood 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.

Texas 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.

Beyond 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.

No 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.