Possible move to Houston, Work Downtown, Have Children looking for areas to move w/ decent commute & good for kids (Pearland: fit in, low crime)

[scrina]

We maybe transferred to Houston this summer. My husband will work in downtown Houston - looking at a map it looks like it is near the Crowne Plaza Hotel near Jefferson & Smith Street - off 45.

We have 2 children 10 and 8. We have them in catholic schools now and would like to continue that in Houston. House price range $300-$400 K.

I would love some local feedback on what realistic commute times are and what areas are best for families with younger children.

Thanks so much for any information.

[City Love]

Well, you have several options.

1. Move to a townhome near downtown and have a 10 minute commute to work. Kids will go private, so public schools don't matter much. Townhome will be approx 2000-2500 sq ft.
2. Move to an area like the Heights, Oak Forest, Westbury, maybe Meyerland etc. Slightly inside and outside the loop, 15-20 minute commute, depending where you choose to live. Could be more.
3. Pick a suburb, like Katy, Sugarland, Pearland, Kingwood, even some of Memorial West etc. Have a much bigger house with commute times during peak traffic hours of 40 minutes to 1.5 hours. Off peak of 20-30 minutes. 4000 sq ft home.

These are just estimates.

[emirate25]

If you decide to live in the suburbs, I would say 1.5 to 2 hours to commute from the door of your house, to your work building. On Fridays, 40 minutes to 1 hour.

I would heavily recommend to live as closest possible to your job.

[City Love]

Originally Posted by emirate25

If you decide to live in the suburbs, I would say 1.5 to 2 hours to commute from the door of your house, to your work building. On Fridays, 40 minutes to 1 hour.

I would heavily recommend to live as closest possible to your job.

Working flexible hours also helps the situation. For instance going in at 9 and leaving at 6. Or 7 to 4.

[chris_ut]

Originally Posted by emirate25

If you decide to live in the suburbs, I would say 1.5 to 2 hours to commute from the door of your house, to your work building. On Fridays, 40 minutes to 1 hour.

I would heavily recommend to live as closest possible to your job.

Not true. You could easily commute to that spot from Humble or Kingwood in less than 1.5 hours. It is 45 minutes in traffic from where I live in Kingwood near the highway to there. Maybe an hour if you live in the back of Kingwood.

[EasilyAmused]

25 minutes from the western parts of Memorial, 77079. But finding homes in that price range is getting harder weekly, if it's not on a corner of a busy street, or backs to commercial or is zoned out of Spring Branch Schools.

You could look for areas in West houston in 77077. Certain area are zoned to very good schools.
Catholic schools within 5 miles of both above areas.

Other than that, I agree on Kingwood, Oak Forest, Meyerland (being the closest in) and Garden Oaks.

[DJboutit]

Willow Meadows Willowbend Meyerland Westbury & Maplewood area on the southwest side just outside the loop is a really easy comute to downtown. These neighborhoods are really nice low crime close to every thing & fit in your price range

[tstone]

Originally Posted by chris_ut

Not true. You could easily commute to that spot from Humble or Kingwood in less than 1.5 hours. It is 45 minutes in traffic from where I live in Kingwood near the highway to there. Maybe an hour if you live in the back of Kingwood.

Over-exaggerations in here is becoming the norm. Burbs that hug the beltway, 1.5-2 hrs round trip is pretty usual (excluding 290).

$400k, something near Memorial is where I'd go. There are a few dozen in 77079 according to

www.har.com

and they look pretty darn nice, too.

[EasilyAmused]

Originally Posted by tstone

Over-exaggerations in here is becoming the norm. Burbs that hug the beltway, 1.5-2 hrs round trip is pretty usual.

$400k, something near Memorial is where I'd go. There are a few dozen in 77079 according to

www.har.com

and they look pretty darn nice, too.

There are several dozen under 400k in 77079. You just need to look at their location and see if they are actually zoned to Spring Branch schools.Many far west are zoned to HISD or Katy ISD. Once you do that you go from several dozen to about a dozen that aren't in an undesirable location in the neighborhood... or smallish in a good location. There's a great one on Kellywood in Nottingham forest, but it's 2000sf. But since they want Catholic, Fleetwood and Barkers could work, but that does push your time over 30 minutes. Highway 6 is a major slow down area on I-10.

Thornwood has some good value, but it's zoned to two different districts, so you have to watch that for property value.

[houston-nomad]

The Heights is a great neighborhood, very close to downtown. You can get in at that budget though probably for a smallish house or a larger new-construction townhouse.

You might want to hone in on some schools you like to narrow down your choices. I can recommend St. Catherine's Montessori, off the south loop (610). Very near Willowbend/Willow Meadows/Westbury/Maplewood.