From DC to Houston (Bellaire, West: real estate, day cares, houses)

[MrsCamo]

Hi all

We are soon moving to Houston from DC (really Northern VA) due to my husband's job relocation. It looks like I may be able to stay with my DC-based company too, and work remotely, which is great. We have two little ones, will be 2.5 and 6 mos by the time we move.

We are looking to live inside the loop as DH works long hours and will work in Downtown, so 30 min or less commute. In particular have been looking online at Bellaire, West University, Montrose, and the Heights. We have some friends who currently live in the Heights and in Downtown, but neither have kids yet.

Schools are very important to us but we would prefer public. We anticipate living in Houston for the duration of elementary school for the oldest, so right now are only concerned with reliable elementary schools. My understanding is that means almost any part of Bellaire and West U, but only certain parts of the Heights and Montrose? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

We currently live in a semi-urban area just outside of DC, where we can walk 10 minutes to the Metro (there is no subway transit in Houston, correct?) as well as restaurants and shops. That said we have a detached house with a backyard and driveway. Is there a place like this in Houston?

We'll also be in search of full-time daycare for both kids. I was looking on the Texas Dept of Family and Protective Services website and only found licensed centers - are there no licensed home daycare options? I mean where there are a small group of kids in a person's home, not a nanny. We are considering center based but I prefer the experiences we've had with in-home.

About what price can we expect for different daycare options in the above areas? I've no doubt it will be cheaper than NoVA/DC, but can't find much on this elsewhere.

Thank you in advance for all the info you can provide! In the meantime I'll continue to look through some old threads.

[David Dollar]

All the elementary schools in The Heights are good.

[marksmu]

Originally Posted by David Dollar

All the elementary schools in The Heights are good.

Love elementary is not good. Its improving, but it is not good. I just moved out of the Heights because of the schools...private schools is expensive, and it was cheaper to buy a more expensive house in memorial and get good schools for me b/c I have or will have 3 kids.

Harvard elementary is a very good school in the Heights, but all of the middle schools, and High Schools in the Heights are terrible. Not just bad.

Finally as to daycare - there are more big daycares in Houston than home day cares...I think with home day care you do not need a license unless you keep more than 3 or 4 kids....so they are more word of mouth than anything else

Rates for daycare vary...I've got two kids in a very good daycare now with one on the way and it is expensive. I just got new rates this week for the next 12 months and they range from $1230/month for kindergarten to $1490 for infants....my monthly cost with all 3 in the same daycare for 1 year is going to be $3910/month.. OUCH!

[ej35401]

If you can afford to purchase the home you want in West U or Bellaire then go for it. I live in Oak Forest(610 North of Heights, 25 min to downtown) and it's public elementary is a good one. The houses are a bit more affordable compare to the areas you mentioned. We send our 2.5 yr old to Esperanza's off of Washington. I guess the rates for new kids are around $1300. If I was thinking home daycare I'd just hire a full time nanny. Seems easier to have someone come to your house who can also help with other chores. I think a nanny will cost you about the same as sending two off to a quality day school. If you want to be somewhere walking distance to shops and dining you'll maybe need to be near Rice Village. Houston isn't really designed to accommodate much family foot traffic. Also, HISD has a Magnet school program where you can apply to send your child to a school you aren't zoned for. So if you move to the heights you can apply to send your kid to Oak Forest, Memorial, or wherever. I think you can find sources for home day care by looking on care.com or posting on the neighborhood website/mommy group or Facebook page.

[Schumacher713]

What is your budget? Heights and Montrose are spotty as far as schools go. Parts of Oak Forest are the way to go. The part that is zoned to Oak Forest Elementary. Garden Oaks Elementary is not quite as good, but a nicer neighborhood. They are right next to eat other and a 10min commute. It will run you 500-1.4mil. You will need a realtor as the Houston housing market is really hot and there is little inventory. A house in Montrose/Heights zoned to a good school will start at 600K for an old small house. West U will start at 900K. Bellaire maybe 700ish. There are a few realtors that cover this forum that might give you some more solid numbers. Search on Houston Real estate, Houston homes, Houston Realtors - HAR.com Also, check out South Hampton though it is almost as expensive as West U.

[pastandfuture]

HISD (Houston Indepedent School District) covers all the areas you'ed mentioned in your original post, and has schools from awful to great. So the way is works in Houston is that you need to identify the excellent schools, and then search for a house in the neighborhood to which the schools are zoned. (The HISD website has maps of the attendance zones of all HISD schools so you can pinpoint on a street by street basis.)

I will get you started - Condit, Horn, Lovett, Kolter, Herod, Twain, Roberts, West U. These schools are in Bellaire, West U, and also in other nearby areas which have similar commutes to downtown like Meyerland and the various "Braeswood Place" subdivisions.

Also - It is true that there is an HISD magnet program - but please recall - applying to get into a different better school is not the equivalent of being accepted into that better school. If the school is indeed that important, it is safer to buy a house in the school's zone (and register your child early before the school year starts) than to gamble on getting into a magnet school.

Also, there has been some talk about the overcrowding at some very popular schools like West U elementary, and how that is to be relieved (there will come a point where they just can't cram in more kids or buildings). You may want to carefully investigate the future projections about a given school, seeing as it will be several years before your older child will start first grade.

You will get better answers if you state your housing budget and are more specific about your requirements (square footage of house, square footage of lot, no of bedrooms, no of baths, size of garage).

There is one surface metroline in Houston, running from around NRG (Reliant) Stadium to past downtown, and it is fine in its own way. But there is absolutely nothing comparable to the DC Metro system. There are buses and so forth but overall public transportation is not great.

Other posters have mentioned areas where there is some single-family residental near some retail. But these areas are limited, and there are many places that can be realistically accessed only by car. You will need cars.

[chris_ut]

You didn't mention budget but West U is great if you can afford it. Oak Forest is another good option.

[MrsCamo]

Thank you!

Our max budget is 800K and we're looking for 4BR, 2 BA, prob 2500sqft on a 5K+ sqft lot, though the lot is flexible. Any size garage would be nice, no garage in our current situation just a driveway. We have cars we just like to walk places too - to have the option - so we're okay to drive places. Not that we need to have 25 restaurants steps away but it'd be nice to have a 15min walk to a handful of amenities.

We will most certainly use a real estate agent, but have been looking on Redfin and HAR in the meantime. Fortunately or unfortunately we are used to the highly sought after/low inventory thing as it took us putting offers on 4 houses to finally get the one we are in now. 8, 10, 12 offers kind of thing.

[houston-nomad]

You are getting good advice here. There are lots of good elementary schools in and just outside the loop; the list above is good. The Heights has a nice neighborhoody feel, and there are bike paths and shops and restaurants within walking distance depending on where you are. Travis El and Harvard are both good schools there. Further south there's Wilson, which is a public Montessori, more in the Montrose area. I hear pretty good things about that one. Roberts is very good but that's a pricey zone. Twain would be probably be in your budget and that's a great neighborhood. Google "hisd school zone search" when you have a property address, and it will tell you what school it's zoned to.

[bu2]

With HAR.COM you can search on areas and the individual houses will list the schools (but they aren't always right).

West U is great, but you might have to compromise on what you want in the house. And there don't seem to be a lot of listings lately of the lower priced houses lately, so they may sell quickly. If you live close to the Rice Village, you will have 30-40 restaurants within short walking distance.