Jersey Village Area (Houston, Spring, Premont: best neighborhoods, for sale, crime)

[NC TEXAN]

My wife and I will be moving to Houston in a couple months and are looking for a house ($175,000-$240,000 range). I work from home and will be flying regularly (from Bush) and my wife will be working for Exxon either in Greenspoint ("Gunpoint", I know) or downtown. Though I don't have the work commute, I will be driving to Houston Racquet club in the memorial area quite a lot so I don't want to be too far away (30 min or less). As a result we are looking at a number of areas in the NW that are still close to Beltway 8 etc. A good compromise seemed to be the Jersey Village area. Can anyone tell me about shopping, dining, night life, etc. around that area other than your typical strip centers that I know are everywhere? Is crime pretty low? Also, does anyone have any other neighborhood ideas given our criteria? Thank you very much for any help!

[Mustang1]

Jersey Village is a reasonable drive to either Memorial City or Willowbrook malls and there are a bunch of restaurants within 10 minutes in any direction. It is an easy drive to the airport (20 min.). The only major concern I would say is 290 traffic so hopefully wifey gets to work in Greenspoint.

[Premont]

Jersey Village is a nice somewhat older neighborhood. If you take the beltway a little further north of 290, there's more recently built neighborhoods in the area. I don't live up there, but I've seen them on my way to the airport a few times. It's a good location because you can always take the tollway to 10 or Memorial or 59. You can use the feeter beside it as well if you don't want to spend the money.

[NC TEXAN]

Thanks for the comments so far. We will know in the next couple weeks where my wife will be....that will help.

Premont, Do you have any names for the areas or neighborhoods you mentioned?

Are there any of the newer mixed use developments in these areas (or even around Jersey Village)? They are really popular in Charlotte where we are coming from. We like having shopping, movies, and really nice restaurants in the same place. Thanks again.

[texas7]

Have a close friend who works for Exxon downtown - she is moving because the commute has gotten unbearable and she doesn't find the 249 Willowbrook area to be the best anymore as well and said she doesn't feel too safe at that mall. If you can afford it, you might look in West University or Memorial to shorten that commute and be closer to either location. She is looking at West University as well as in the Heights. She said those locations would be convenient for downtown or greenspoint (in case she has to move there). She said another of her coworkers lives in the Woodlands and the drive downtown is beating him up so he is also looking in the same areas as she is. Schools in Memorial or West University are good -- the Heights .... you'd probably want to use private schools.

Your price range is probably lower those neighborhoods have to offer unless you lived in a townhome or hi-rise. However, if your wife works at GP - you might want to look at Kingwood or Woodlands but if she ever got moved downtown it would be a drag. You might try the Spring area. A lot of it will depend on her location.

[tstone]

West U is very nice but is also one of the most expensive areas in town.

[Premont]

NC TEXAN, I remember reading a thread on here where someone was talking about just that area (northwest side near the tollway) and they were mentioning specific neighborhoods. It would take someone that lives up there to know the best neighborhoods. I just visually saw on my way to the airport some nice neighborhoods to the west of the toll road.

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by Premont

NC TEXAN, I remember reading a thread on here where someone was talking about just that area (northwest side near the tollway) and they were mentioning specific neighborhoods. It would take someone that lives up there to know the best neighborhoods. I just visually saw on my way to the airport some nice neighborhoods to the west of the toll road.

houses are old and run down. I checked this area (philippine st area) out a while ago and the age and residents are very similar to older cheaper homes in Alief. mostly folks with old pickups. maybe one for sale in every block has been flipped/modernized but the rest are just vacated and rotting

[Mustang1]

Check into the West Rd/(just outside) Beltway 8 area.

[modster]

It really depends. If you want a newer house and/or need good public schools then the suburban areas might be the best choice. Otherwise, you might look at some older homes closer in. This would give you better access to the city and still easy access to Greenspoint. Places like Garden Oaks, Candlelight Estates, The eastern portions of Oak Forest (mix of small older homes and larger new-builds), Lazybrook & Timbergrove Manor.

You might run these neighborhoods on HAR and see if anything comes up that meets your criteria.