are you familiar with Corpus Christi real estate? my mom sister live there. yeah, it can be pretty affordable, about the same as living in another big city, cept slightly cheaper imo. Enviroment…that depends where you live, it can be good & great on some parts of town & of course there are the lower end houses.Padre Island is very nice, Lots of jobs , hardly ever gets cold.The city is really expanding in the south side of town (plenty of resturants, new apts and a hospital) If you travel down SPID (south padre island drive) there are lots of resturants and the mall. Cole park (near the bayfront) just got a brand new skate park and there’s a nice stretch of track if you like to go running, jogging, biking or whatever. for more visit luxury-oceanfront-properties.com