Stay away from that one. Most of the stations in Houston appears to be in the UHF band except CBS, PBS and an NBC affiliate so you will probably have to consider an antenna that has good performance on UHF and Hi - VHF (7-13). The antenna in the attic might be VHF only and hence the poor results but if I were you I might check that first , maybe the "old" antenna is still worth it but the line feeder could even be the old plain twinlead not the coaxial we use now.

check www.tvfool.com or www.antennaweb.org for a list of TV stations viewable in your area. the plains outside of houston as you described your location is too broad for us to help you further.

Usually FTA SAT stores and Electronic stores carry several types of antennas, some are chineese clones. Talk to your local store and see what they have.