IL -> Houston TX need some information

So I plan on moving out of this garbage state I am in now and ending up near Houston. I am looking to be in a similar situation as I am in now meaning, I live about 45 minutes to an hour from Chicago. I am looking to be the same distance in time north of Houston. My issues are I can look up names of towns all day long but not know if they are nice places or not, I am not looking to live in the ghetto. So my first question would be if anyone knows of places that fit that bill, I would be at first looking for an apartment.

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Moving forward my plan is to get land thus why I am looking to be far enough from the city to get 50 acres or more. My field of work is software engineering, if I can manage to find a job outside the city I will but if not it will be a commute I will have to make.

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Any insight would be great! I want to move around April of next year.