Decided on Cinco Ranch

[MaddieClaire]

Originally Posted by BigEasy

I am not sure how far but if you go to the Cinco Ranch website, cincoranch.com, click the location link, you will find drive times listed. These are peak drive times so keep that in mind.

As far as basements go, not sure but I did not see any. If you want swimming pools there are 7 to choose from in the community, with a new one open for '08.

Thats all I know, have fun!!!

Bigeasy

Thanks again!
We're definitely going to tour Cinco Ranch - I could live there very easily.

[truelies]

I also very interested in buying a house in Falcon Ranch at cinco. Looks like everything is ok here, but no swimming pool and cheap house price.

I wonder that the price is too cheap, will this cause a lot of not welcome people move in here and make it not safety and devalue the house? thank you!

[professorsenator]

Originally Posted by MaddieClaire

One more question if you don't mind my asking - are basements available, also swimming pools?

Texas houses generally do not have basements. Most all houses built after WWII are built on concrete slabs. Many pre-war homes are built pier and beam.

Conventional wisdom is that frequent flooding makes basements impractical in Texas, but this is not entirely true--basements are not included in homes built in parts of the state that do not flood (the Texas Hill Country, for example).

In fact, its largely a cost issue. It is much cheaper to build a house on a concrete slab rather than digging out and walling off a basement. Of course, this means that houses in Texas will typically have less overall space than houses in other parts of the country (a house in, say, Colorado with 2500 sq.ft. may have an additional 1000 sq.ft. unfinished basement. Not so in TX). This also explains to some extent why housing is cheaper in TX. You pay less than in some parts of the country, but without a basement you're also getting less.

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by professorsenator

Texas houses generally do not have basements. Most all houses built after WWII are built on concrete slabs. Many pre-war homes are built pier and beam.

Conventional wisdom is that frequent flooding makes basements impractical in Texas, but this is not entirely true--basements are not included in homes built in parts of the state that do not flood (the Texas Hill Country, for example).

In fact, its largely a cost issue. It is much cheaper to build a house on a concrete slab rather than digging out and walling off a basement. Of course, this means that houses in Texas will typically have less overall space than houses in other parts of the country (a house in, say, Colorado with 2500 sq.ft. may have an additional 1000 sq.ft. unfinished basement. Not so in TX). This also explains to some extent why housing is cheaper in TX. You pay less than in some parts of the country, but without a basement you're also getting less.

interesting, i thought they add up unfinished basement space with the overall sq footage

[mikeyyc]

Originally Posted by Wysiwyg

interesting, i thought they add up unfinished basement space with the overall sq footage

No, usually square footage of listings is everything that is above grade.

[Supermac34]

Well, in Houston, basements are rare due to the water table. Your basement would leak constantly. In fact, most stuff underground in Houston is regulated with pumps (example: tram at IAH, downtown tunnels)

In the Hill Country, basements aren't worth the cost of blasting out the solid rock.

[professorsenator]

Originally Posted by Supermac34

Well, in Houston, basements are rare due to the water table. Your basement would leak constantly

The water table is not at 8-10 feet--the depth of a typical home basement--in Houston (i.e one cannot dig down 8-10 feet in Houston and hit well water). The conventional wisdom about basements in Houston is that torrential rainfalls would make them prone to flooding. This is an oft-told narrative in Houston that is repeated so much that its is universally accepted as fact, even though there is evidence to suggest it is not true. Not all of Houston floods, for example. And basements can be designed and built in wet areas to not flood (basement flooding is mostly about exterior grading and proper drainage). Other cities in the state (Dallas and San Antonio, for example) don't have the same problem with rains as Houston. Nor do they have a ubiquitous problem of rock ledges (a la the Texas Hill Country) that some suggest as a reason for the lack of basements. And yet there are no basements in homes in these cities, either.

Basements are not expected by Texas buyers, and they are thus not included in Texas homes. This lowers the cost of housing, but it makes meaningful comparisons of houses in Texas to those in other states tricky since basements add substantial space (and, hence, value) to a house.

[Claudia Navarro]

True and now with the Holidays is a good time to get a nice get together in the block, look at the website cincoranchconnects.com and I would send some nice christmas cards to the neighbors too.

I have a 7yr old child and I get to know the parents on my neighbor because of her friends at school. So we also help eachother when we need some babysitter too