Pearland vs. Sugar Land (Houston, Missouri City: lease, house, where to buy)

[NY to LA]

Thank you Donnie,

Actually w cant buy a house right away as we donno anything yet abt Texas, so we'll rent for a year or so to explore different locations and decide where to buy. It's getting really confusing to choose where to start right now, but i will keep searching in all the proposed areas and hopefully will find something nice soon.
We too are moving for a job and we couldn't find it in NY, I loved NY so much, especially upstate. I didn't like LA but I am trying to move to Houston with a positive attitude in order to be happy as we'll probably stay there for a while.

Thanks again for your feedback, I try to keep all points of view in my mind till I can check it for myself and know how it feels.

[nana053]

Originally Posted by Dionne7

Hi,

Parts of Pearland are not part of Pearland. It is in the county. Southwyck is one of them, so you cannot vote in city elections or enjoy discounts for activities offered in Pearland Parks and Recreational services. The amenities like the swimming pool is ok. Nothing to brag about. I am hoping it is true there will be a full service library opening on the westside. It seems I have been hearing this for a long time, but the issue of a shortage of funds keeps coming up.

Depends on which part of Southwyck. I am in the part already annexed and do vote in Pearland. We get all the discounts offered by Parks and Rec as well.

The funds for the library storefront have been approved by both the city and the county. I am the secretary of the Friends of the Pearland Westside Library. We have been working on getting this done for 6 years now. It took us 2.5 years to get the little substation. Note that the substation is doing more volume than any other Brazoria County library and that is without a collection of its own. The substation opened on June 9, 2010.

Brazoria County approves funds for Pearland

Agreement for Westside Library funding reached - Your Houston News: News

Pearland West Side - Storefront Library

The Friends Website is:
Friends of Pearland Westside Library

If you really want this library, now is the time to put your money where your mouth is and donate to the friends group to help fund the collection.

[txstate]

Pearland + Sugar Land = Missouri City

[Tanguero45]

One thing to be very aware of is the Blue Ridge landfill that forms a boundary on the west side of Pearland at Almeda Road (hwy 521). I'm looking to buy a house in Pearland but plan to stay well away from that. The traffic on 288 at rush hours are truly disgusting but I do not know what you consider to be acceptable so I would recommend heading north into Houston from Pearland along 288 starting from Broadway during a work day. This will give you a better idea of what to expect.

Have you considered renting in the Heights? This area is to the north of the Med District, but you can get to it without resorting to the highways and it is a very green area with easy access also to Memorial park and the arboretum and it also has its own system of hiking trails as well as a very well maintained community park maintained by the residents.The commute to the med district would be via Studemont/Montrose (fairly reasonable as far as congestion is concerned), and is also a main artery for the food and art scene. There is also easy access to the Museum district, Hermann Park and easy access to downtown on the weekend (Houston has an amazing and lightly populated downtown on the weekends). I actually rent in the Heights and have been very happy to do so...

[NY to LA]

Thank you Tanguero35,

Can you please give me a zip code in the heights to look at? I hope Houston will change how I look at downtowns after living in congested LA and NY.

[Tanguero45]

The zip code is 77007. For the wee ones, Harvard Elementary is excellent, but I do not have direct knowledge. The traffic does move quickly here so that will be a blessing.

I would recommend staying out of downtown as far as living in it. The weekends are great for a visit and shopping, but I do not know about the schools.

[hbcu]

again...the landfill is a moot issue, no one complained in the 70s and 80s about the landfills all up and down almeda...it's a problem now as people not used to the area with "dream homes" think negatively about them

[Dionne7]

Originally Posted by NY to LA

Thank you Donnie,

Actually w cant buy a house right away as we donno anything yet abt Texas, so we'll rent for a year or so to explore different locations and decide where to buy. It's getting really confusing to choose where to start right now, but i will keep searching in all the proposed areas and hopefully will find something nice soon.
We too are moving for a job and we couldn't find it in NY, I loved NY so much, especially upstate. I didn't like LA but I am trying to move to Houston with a positive attitude in order to be happy as we'll probably stay there for a while.

Thanks again for your feedback, I try to keep all points of view in my mind till I can check it for myself and know how it feels.

I am guilty of looking for advice from the boards before I moved here. Sugarland was a big deal of places to move to and there were warnings about not moving into certain zipcodes in Missouri City (next town over). This one was pretty weird because where I am from this was unheard of. You either move into a good town or not. More than likely a nice town comes with a good system, but you have to pay more property taxes for those good schools. In Texas you may move into a nice neighborhood, but it does not guarantee a good system because people do not want to pay more taxes. People tend to look for whether a school has low income students, gang violence, or failing students, but without all of this, the school system can still be below par, and it is in Texas. There are many options either homeschool or private. Private is more affordable in Texas than back east, but you have to be careful because many of the teachers are not certified. And they open up private schools like supermarkets in Texas. Many people who have lived only here and no where else have nothing to compare it to, so they may think it is fine (public school system). I didn't buy right away in Texas either. You are doing the right thing by renting and getting to know the area. It is quite different from back east. Native Texans have a culture in of itself. I think people view themselves more Texan than Americans here if I may be so bold to say this.

[Dionne7]

Originally Posted by txstate

Pearland + Sugar Land = Missouri City

I'm curious what this means?

[Dionne7]

Originally Posted by nana053

Depends on which part of Southwyck. I am in the part already annexed and do vote in Pearland. We get all the discounts offered by Parks and Rec as well.

The funds for the library storefront have been approved by both the city and the county. I am the secretary of the Friends of the Pearland Westside Library. We have been working on getting this done for 6 years now. It took us 2.5 years to get the little substation. Note that the substation is doing more volume than any other Brazoria County library and that is without a collection of its own. The substation opened on June 9, 2010.

Brazoria County approves funds for Pearland

Agreement for Westside Library funding reached - Your Houston News: News

Pearland West Side - Storefront Library

The Friends Website is:
Friends of Pearland Westside Library

If you really want this library, now is the time to put your money where your mouth is and donate to the friends group to help fund the collection.

Thanks for the information, but it appears based on what I have read in the links that there is no guarantee it will be opened in 2013. It all depends on how much funding comes in.