Wharton questions (Houston, Sugar Land, Rosenberg: buying a home, buying, homeschooling)

[Yoshesaid]

We are moving to the Houston area this summer. While initially we were looking in developments, we are considering buying a home with a few acres further out instead. I'm noticing a couple cute properties in Wharton with land. Am having a hard time finding info on the town and area (save for official information from their website). Any one here from Wharton or know the area well? Safe? Nice town center?

My husband will be commuting to Hobby, but only does so twice a week. (Drives to the airport, works 3-4 days, drives home.) With traffic, should that still be 90 minutes or under?

We are homeschooling, so I'm not concerned with the district, but is it an area with a lot of families?

Thanks for any info!! We're visiting Houston again next month, but I'd like to be as prepped as possible.

[979Texan]

Wharton is a small counmunity. There is no highly developed town center. Just a small town.

[124c41]

We lived in Ft. Bend Co., and had many occasions to travel to Wharton over the years. The town has a square with some restaurants, antique shops, and a few businesses. It has an HEB grocery store ( great place to shop ), and a Hospital which offers fairly good service. Like 979Texan said it is basically a small, farming community. As far as making it to Hobby in 90 minutes, I would have my doubts about that.

[Yoshesaid]

Small community is great -- that's what we're coming from and would like more of the same.

That stinks about Hobby though. My gps says 1 hr 25 min, but I'm assuming there's a lot of traffic coming from that way (or every way).

[chris_ut]

Does he have to drive in during rush hour? If not 1.5 hours should be plenty of time.

[timtemtym]

Even with Rush Hour, 59 isn't too bad until you get to Kirkwood or Dairy-Ashford. I used to take it from Rosenberg in rush hour and bail off at Dairy-Ashford. If it wasn't too bad, I'd go to Kirkwood to exit. The beltway traffic is bad going North towards the energy corridor in the morning. So if he is heading east towards Hobby, it's not too bad. So I wouldn't say the commute would be too far off from the regular time estimates.

[Yoshesaid]

Well... he's a reserve pilot, so he never knows when he's going in. Rarely rush hour. Like I said, he only has to do the commute round trip once a week. But the rule is he has to be within 2 hours of Hobby. Sounds like he might be ok.

[KatieKennedy]

Wharton is an old fashioned Texas county seat town with a court house in the middle of the town square. I drive out there from Houston for court on occasion. It usually takes me over an hour to get there from Southwest Houston going against the traffic. For your husband's commute, you might want to consider Rosenberg or Richmond which would be a bit closer in but still have the rural feel. There are several restaurants in town near the square, and there is a junior college in town also. The surrounding area is primarily rural.

[War Beagle]

Given his limited commute, Wharton would be a good, quiet place to live. Just plan on doing your major shopping in Rosenberg and Sugar Land though.

[DJboutit]

Check out Needville it is a lot closer and has a nice small town feel