Soaring home prices put a dent in Houston's reputation for affordability (Sugar Land: for sale, appliances)

[ToyYot]

Originally Posted by fnh

Sure, add Stratford. I only used JV is an example, and I'm sure there are others even on the eastern side. Besides, I know Stratford has changed tremendously and it was not a high-scoring school until very recently. People seem to forget that buyers vaulted over 77079 for the Katy schools until just the past few years.

And, can you buy a nice home near Stratford for $300K any longer?

No, you didn't. You just found yet another convoluted way of trashing 77079. Well done.

[Oildog]

Originally Posted by jerbear30

Well, to start with my child is not white. After that, I don't know where to go with your comment. I don't think parents should consider keeping their kids in schools based on race at all. That's stupid and pig-headed. The problem with HISD is not its ethnic diversity, it is the fact that the schools don't produce very many good students. This is obviously tied up with the fact that whites have most of the resources and those resources are generally spent on whites, but for this very reason I'd say it is more of a class issue. When HISD spends all its big bucks on selective admissions schools and forgets about the forgotten, it just perpetuates this kind of problem for all parents, even those who can't afford to move in order to get their kids out of the crappy schools to which they've been assigned.

I know a number of teachers in East side schools that would beg to differ.

What is spent "on whites" is different because the needs of many "non whites" are not the same. Sounds like you advocate more funds going to poorer schools to be used to raise the disadvantaged. (Which is a whole different thread than Houston being affordable).

[hbcu]

There is space inside the loop... but like some have already said...everyone wants to crowd in 3 to 4 areas which created demand and crazy prices....

These "newbies" ain't gonna pay to live in 3rd ward (South of OST), South Park, Sunnyside, 5th ward, Pleasantville, etc.

basically, they're the reason the prices go up...and HISD does spend more on Lamar, Bellaire, etc. as those are high-income areas HISD has and they want to attract and keep those few white students that attend there

It's no secret why Westside was built, why Reagan got a makeover even though Booker T needed it first

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by Oildog

And people that own their property.

You sound like another bitter guy that recently left the area...always complaining about parks and development...

I'm just bitter that I have three little kids and a stay at home mom and she has to drive God knows how many miles to take them to a public park.
Not just that... but then I have to hear people complaining that kids are playing in the street.

Sorry for the off-topic

[fnh]

Originally Posted by ToyYot

No, you didn't. You just found yet another convoluted way of trashing 77079. Well done.

ToyYot, why is it trashing when I point out the plain fact that Stratford was until quite recently not considered a good school? The same thing that happened west in 77079 is happening to varying degrees in other directions, too - north, south, SW, NW, NE, SE. Why can't Stratford be an example of successfully invigorating a mediocre school without 'magnet'-izing, one that is possible in other parts of town? How short the memories are here... or possibly my perspective is skewed since my family has been in the Houston area for 40 years now?

The point of the thread is that Houston is now supposedly becoming unaffordable. It isn't! It is still wildly affordable compared to other major cities where anything under half a million is snatched up instantly by buyers eager to be near the city, schools be darned. The Chronicle has an article up right now on the neighborhoods with the highest appreciation. I'll bet that most people on this forum would warn interested inquirers away from them anyway (the crime! the wretched schools!) but those neighborhoods are exactly where people should be putting their money if they are principally concerned about appreciation. Seriously, some of them have had almost 300% appreciation in the last two years? Can I have read that correctly?

Now I know many are not concerned with appreciation *only* but as I pointed out above, in Houston you can find affordable neighborhoods that are in no way blighted AND that are zoned to fine schools, but if you mention them posters will still steer people toward trendier areas that are already expensive and then complain about unaffordability. That's just nuts, but so be it, lol.

[ToyYot]

So three years ago Stratford was ghetto? Whatever...

[EasilyAmused]

Stratford's zoning was never, ever ghetto. There are some apartment complexes that are still iffy, but the single family and non-renting community would have never, ever been considered ghetto.

Stratford has never been considered a poor school. Wilchester and Memorial better? Yes... The glitch of the crash affected Stratford for a whole 10 years..big whoop. It came back, most never did. God lord, the consistent vitriol from a poster I assume you, Toyot,are responding to is gross. I blocked them months ago, but they still show up in quotes from time to time.

[lipbalm]

Originally Posted by Black Jack22

Prices never stay low in any region forever.

Population increases causes prices to go up but this is excellent news if you're a real estate investor.

Inflation will also cause homes to increase in cities all over year after year.

Houston is still more affordable than many cities but even the most affordable places cannot escape the forces of population growth and inflation due to the continuous printing of the U.S. by the Federal Reserve.

The question shouldn't be how are you going to escape rising prices but what are you going to DO in your own financial life to prepare yourself for rising prices.

Disposable income is going to continue to drop due to inflation.

Don't agree with everything he preaches but think he has some good points. Sovereign Man – Internationalization for Personal Liberty and Financial Prosperity

[fnh]

(Stratford was indeed only a two star "acceptable" school just two or three years ago. I didn't say it was ghetto, here or before. It is curious to me that similarly rated schools elicit warnings and concern, while certain schools get a pass. People clearly did overlook far west Houston in favor of Katy until just the last decade when it started to fill back in toward Houston. That is simply history, why does it offend you so much?)

I again aver that Houston is extremely affordable if you don't have the mentality requiring the trendiest areas pumped, for example, here on this forum. You can click on the census data right here on C-D and search by income or educational attainment or whatever is important to you. You can drill down to the neighborhood level and compare on points and see that there are equivalent neighborhoods outside the handful of neighborhoods consistently hyped. If you have kids, you should consider buying in a cheaper neighborhood close to your job and sending them private if you just can't tolerate the local school (which is probably nowhere near as bad as people here say). The premium you will pay in upfront home cost + taxes + any interest you might pay to be zoned to the most popular schools is simply not worth it in our view, especially in TX. We bought a home originally zoned to an 'undesirable' middle school for a fraction of what we can afford and send the kids private even though now we have a 'better' public option. Our home and neighborhood combo in a trendier part of town (same distance to downtown where DH works) would easily cost four times as much, the difference in taxes alone would pay tuition. So it is a choice, and when people complain that Houston is becoming unaffordable I say balderdash! Never mind being able to buy a home close to downtown for under half a million, you can still get one in Houston for the price of a car.

[DejaBlue]

Originally Posted by jerbear30

Well, to start with my child is not white. After that, I don't know where to go with your comment. I don't think parents should consider keeping their kids in schools based on race at all. That's stupid and pig-headed. The problem with HISD is not its ethnic diversity, it is the fact that the schools don't produce very many good students. This is obviously tied up with the fact that whites have most of the resources and those resources are generally spent on whites, but for this very reason I'd say it is more of a class issue. When HISD spends all its big bucks on selective admissions schools and forgets about the forgotten, it just perpetuates this kind of problem for all parents, even those who can't afford to move in order to get their kids out of the crappy schools to which they've been assigned.

This. That and it's too big a district for only a few schools to be good o0utside of the vanguard/magnet ones. It's as if when it comes to budgeting 80% of HISD schools get no money while it's all divided amongs the ones with the most parents with MD behind their name and white or the magnet schools. It's sad and ridiculous when you have people stressing over being in HISD and trying to get into the magnet schools. It's too big with too many schools for people to be hustling to move and get into only like 5-6 schools. What? WestU, the how many magnets? 3-4 and Lamar and Bellaire.

And even so people don't say it but the school can have the right numbers but your cute little Maddie will still be Julia Stiles in Save the Last Dance there and parents don't want that. Smart kids passing the test but still economically disavantaged heavily

Originally Posted by fnh

henders, jerbear's family is majority Hispanic which he's been very open about, so don't lay on the white guilt. He has also been renting in the 'better' half of Spring Branch to be zoned to 'excellent' schools and has found they are not worth the price. Excepting the selective magnets, the 'better' scoring schools are driven primarily by catering to an exclusively privileged demographic. Otherwise, there is nothing special about those schools.

Not completely. It's not like those schoools are only one people. The magnets are still majority Hispanic but with the test numbers and prestege parents ignore that and are getting a little Wanda Holloway like wanting their kids in the magnets or the vanguard or whatever. Not everyone can get in and people get crazy when desperate and parents sound on the beginning of desperate.