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Hi guys, sorry for the general questions. I have searched the forums and found a few posts but they are all from a few years ago.
I am looking to be relocated to Brenham (outside of Houston). I am a professional and will already have a job lined up. I currently live in the upper Midwest but am originally from NYC.
1. How is the school system in Brenham?
Are there private schools available if the public system is not up to par?
We also have two small children who will be entering elementary school soon. Currently they are enrolled in a Montessori school and we absolutely love it.
2. Are there homes with acreage in Brenham? Do people own homes on the Lake (sumerville)?
We are also looking for a home with acreage, we work very hard and when we are at home we like to relax, especially if we are in a small town and there isn't much to do. I see there is a lake (sumerville) not to far from Brenham, do people own homes there and commute into town?
3. How long does it really take to get to Houston / Austin for shopping?
We are family oriented people and are not looking for nightlife or anything, but is the trip down to Houston / Austin doable, say to load up on Costco groceries and things like that? Or with traffic does it take like 3 hours?
4. Is it feasible to live in the far west suburbs of Houston and commute to Brenham if its really not a place for families to live, or the school really suck bad?
5. Is the humidity that bad? Do people have pools?
I've heard horror stories about the humidity and heat, but where I live now we can't do much from November till April due to the winter (minus 30 deg below zero is normal), I know the summers are really hot, but NYC summers were hot and muggy too and it wasn't that bad. If we had a pool that might help on those hot muggy days.
My current town is about 100,000 people and small enough that people don't recognize me in the street, but big enough where we have most amenities. Definitely not like NYC, but we don't have the NYC crime and traffic either, plus the cost of living is lower. So I am not opposed to small towns but Brenham is about 15,000 people, correct? Does everyone know everyone when they pass by each other in Walmart or something?
Thanks in advance for the advice!
Last edited by bankingdom; 04-21-2016 at 03:02 PM..
Blue bell could use some decent help before they kill more people
If you google the directions, you could technically live in Katy and drive to Brenham. It is about 1 hour drive from katy mills. They keep building further and further out west so you could even move into the new subdivisions and might be less than 40 minutes commute.
Brenham as a small town/weekend destination is charming. For information on schools for full-time living, a good resource with Texas school rankings, statistics and raw data (!) all in one place is the Children at Risk website: School Rankings | CHILDREN AT RISK
I believe Lake Somerville does not have private waterfront lots. I could be wrong but I've heard this from different people over the years including our neighbors who have a weekend property there, not on the lake.
If you wanted to commute from the Houston exurbs, Cypress would be a better choice than Katy from a commute standpoint, plus Cypress tends to be more wooded and feel less cookie-cutter. (I'm referring generally to the older neighborhoods north of 290, dotted with horse farms.) Otherwise all of the Houston suburbs are essentially the same schools-wise, shopping-wise, restaurants-wise.
If you lived in Cypress your shopping needs would be pretty close at hand, even Costco (one at Willowbrook, I think one at Mueschke Rd is in the works?). It is certainly feasible to live there and work in Brenham.
Yes the humidity is that bad. You will want access to a pool, either your own private pool or a community pool.
Brenham is a pleasant town. The school system is decent. I would consider moving there in a heartbeat. But then again I prefer small town life.
Humidity is overblown. I don't care what anybody says. Yes it gets really unpleasant, but at 1pm you can still find a few brave souls jogging or doing street repair. Yes in the hottest part of the day... If you are in reasonably good health, you can sit under a tree in the middle of summer with no ill effects other than a lot of sweat. Try that in sub-zero cold.
Brenham is not small enough that you will know everybody everywhere you go, but yes it's likely you will run into a lot of acquaintances when you are in Wal-Mart.
I think Bellville is more of a bedroom community known for commuting to Katy. It may even have a better school system, but it is a really small town.
Brenham is a great small town. I grew up in Houston, but retired to Brenham a couple years ago. I still spend a day or two each week in Houston (still have our house), but spend most of my time in Brenham.
Schools are good, some are better than others. Private schools available if you want.
Brenham has about 15,000 full-time residents, and many more "weekenders". It's a very popular place for Houstonians to have second properties, whether it be small or large acreage. I don't think you get a lot of weekenders who simply have a house in the city proper (at least, I don't know any). But you get a lot who might buy a house on five acres, or (budget willing) 25 acres. Or more. Our first place here was 33 acres, bought in 2006. We now have 115 acres, and live about 10 miles northeast of the city proper (near Independence).
Yes, it's small enough you will run into friends & neighbors at the store. Large enough to have many amenities--hospital, Home Depot & Lowes, Spec's, Chili's and other national chains, and more. Country enough to have a Tractor Supply and a McCoys.
Brenham is in the country, so there are *plenty* of places with acreage, large & small. Some close to town (our first place, the 33 acres, was five minutes away), some a little farther. Just depends on where you want to live.
To get to NW Houston takes about 45 minutes. Our Houston home is in the Med Center, and it takes me 80-90 minutes door-to-door. The highway to Brenham is US-290, which is under (re-) construction. When complete in 2017, driving will be MUCH easier! Austin is about 1.5 hours farther west on 290. Not really a good commute. But easy to get to when you want.
Lake Somerville is about 30 minutes from downtown Brenham. If a lake is important to you, you can find property near there. I have a couple friends who love the lake and own boats. They have houses near, but not on, the lake. They just trailer over when they want to go boating.
I'll break up this too-long reply into a couple parts...
Humidity--the entire Gulf Coast is humid. Houston is humid, Brenham is humid, it's all humid. It's hot & sticky in the summer. It's a fact of life. It's why we air condition *everything* here. You kinda get used to it. The offset is the other eight months of the year are often quite pleasant (floods notwithstanding). But Brenham is not really much different from Houston as far as humidity. Brenham does get some nice breezes, that helps.
As far as commuting... if you want a small town feel, live in Brenham. Houston is close enough that if you need anything you can't get in Brenham, it's less than an hour away. Huge malls, huge medical complexes, huge anything... in less than an hour, you can be in Houston and its huge everythings.
However, if you really want a larger city setting, you could live in NW Houston, and commute to Brenham. I'm guessing that's not super common, only because most people that work here love to live here. But it's certainly doable.
Happy to answer any questions you might have.
Stuart F
Houston for 60 years, Brenham for ten. Love 'em both!
Give it a few decades and Houston will have expanded to encompass Brenham as just another far flung suburb. Buy a new construction home in Brenham, only 2 hours commute to downtown!
With no traffic, I've made it to Brenham from near the medical center in just over an hour. So Cypress is definitely doable as an alternative to Brenham.
Hi guys, sorry for the general questions. I have searched the forums and found a few posts but they are all from a few years ago.
I am looking to be relocated to Brenham (outside of Houston). I am a professional and will already have a job lined up. I currently live in the upper Midwest but am originally from NYC.
1. How is the school system in Brenham?
Are there private schools available if the public system is not up to par?
We also have two small children who will be entering elementary school soon. Currently they are enrolled in a Montessori school and we absolutely love it.
2. Are there homes with acreage in Brenham? Do people own homes on the Lake (sumerville)?
We are also looking for a home with acreage, we work very hard and when we are at home we like to relax, especially if we are in a small town and there isn't much to do. I see there is a lake (sumerville) not to far from Brenham, do people own homes there and commute into town?
3. How long does it really take to get to Houston / Austin for shopping?
We are family oriented people and are not looking for nightlife or anything, but is the trip down to Houston / Austin doable, say to load up on Costco groceries and things like that? Or with traffic does it take like 3 hours?
4. Is it feasible to live in the far west suburbs of Houston and commute to Brenham if its really not a place for families to live, or the school really suck bad?
5. Is the humidity that bad? Do people have pools?
I've heard horror stories about the humidity and heat, but where I live now we can't do much from November till April due to the winter (minus 30 deg below zero is normal), I know the summers are really hot, but NYC summers were hot and muggy too and it wasn't that bad. If we had a pool that might help on those hot muggy days.
My current town is about 100,000 people and small enough that people don't recognize me in the street, but big enough where we have most amenities. Definitely not like NYC, but we don't have the NYC crime and traffic either, plus the cost of living is lower. So I am not opposed to small towns but Brenham is about 15,000 people, correct? Does everyone know everyone when they pass by each other in Walmart or something?
Thanks in advance for the advice!
1. Have no idea
2. Yes - but acreage this close to Houston is expensive per acre.
3. An hour from my house in Brenham to My house in Houston. We never go during traffic times (we are weekenders in Brenham). It turns out the Costco closest to Brenham is also the one very near my Houston home so that would take about an hour if you insist on Costco. There is a Sams in Hockley though which is much closer. That said, if I lived full time in Brenham I wouldn't be a member of Costco or Sams - they have that big HEB in Brenham that is fabulous so I'd just go there. Also, for a lot of mall type shopping I'd go to the outlet stores that are at the intersection of the Grand Parkway and 290. I doubt I'd go into Houston proper for too much.
4. Yes - I think most folks would do the reverse of this though or live in the city where they work.
5. Yes but you get used to it - I'd take heat/humidity over snow any day. We don't have to shovel our heat. In Houston we have pools. My house in Brenham didn't have one so we just built a lake. It cost more to build a lake than to put in a pool but not THAT much more and the fishing is much better in the lake. :-) My kids are always in the water when we are there. There is a very nice public pool facility in Brenham (nice slides,etc) that is open in the summer if you don't have a pool in your home.
The schools in Brenham generally enjoy very good community support from all income groups. Some of the elementary schools have a better reputation than others - you can probably scout out that info. There are private school options as well. Some people REALLY prefer the "small town schools" over the suburban Houston schools which either tend to be "high pressure" or "high problem" or both. But different strokes for different folks! All in all, as small towns go, Brenham is very, very popular. It is an old German town and has a little different flavor from some of the other towns in Texas! GOOD LUCK!
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