Please help re: where to live

[Poltracker]

Well, you might find a house to rent in Jersey Village area. That would be a good place to start. Unless you are here and can check out the neighborhoods yourself, it will be real hard to find something close in for that price range. There are places out there, it just takes time to find them. You might also check Shepherd Forest, though I'm not sure of the current pricing there right now. It was in your range when I was househunting a short while back just too long a drive for me to the east side where I work.

[Canine*Castle]

Totally off subject but I noticed your user name. Since you don't have children, is one of your pets names Tani? I have a dear friend named Tani and she doesn't think there is another Tani in the whole world. If there is, I'm going to tell her even if it's a pet.

[daisybear]

As an earlier post said, it's probably best to rent. We rented for a year when we moved and it was great. It takes a while to get a true feel for Houston and where you want to be. It was huge for us to experience the different neighborhoods and traffic before committing.

Check HAR.com for rentals in the Heights/Timbergrove (77008, 77009), Montrose area (77006, 77019) and Rice Military areas. You could also try near Westpark (77081, I think) at 610/59. There is a wonderful, big dog park right there so even if you had an apartment/townhome you could exercise the dogs.
Look around Rice University too and pick up their student newspaper. You can often find rent houses around there for a "student price". It's a very nice area.

[tanisandtobysmom]

Originally Posted by Canine*Castle

Totally off subject but I noticed your user name. Since you don't have children, is one of your pets names Tani? I have a dear friend named Tani and she doesn't think there is another Tani in the whole world. If there is, I'm going to tell her even if it's a pet.

Actually, my dog's name is Tanis. My ex-husband named him after a character in a book (his full name is Tanthalas, I think he told me its from Dungeons and Dragons? I was not happy when I found that out!) But I do call him Tanny as a nickname!

[rasta empress]

Tanthalas was a half elf-half human character in the dragonlance series. Its been a while since I've read that series but they were enjoyable.

*retreats back into geekdom*

[Watchful]

Oak Forest might be an interesting area to rent for a while - should be a super-easy commute based on where you say you will be.

Quite a few smaller houses - so that would help on the $$ - and it might prove family friendly enough for you to buy into later...it is not suburban - it is Houston ISD but some of the elementary schools have strong support AFAIK.

[Bike4Life]

Houston is not place to buy a house immediately. There are too many choices to decide.

[tennis368fan]

From the information I found, I agree on what a previous poster suggested in regards to the Jersey Village area. The schools there are good, though not as good as those in Cinco Ranch in Katy. For a shorter commute, it seems to be worth the slight sacrifice in school standing. On top of that, a commuter rail service is planned to run through the area, allowing easy access to central Houston in the near future.

On the MLS, there are exisiting homes in the area that can be had in your price range, though you should expect to pay 10-20K more, at least 8K more, for a more highly rated elementary school. Of course, the home will likely be newer also.

[Canine*Castle]

Originally Posted by tanisandtobysmom

Actually, my dog's name is Tanis. My ex-husband named him after a character in a book (his full name is Tanthalas, I think he told me its from Dungeons and Dragons? I was not happy when I found that out!) But I do call him Tanny as a nickname!

Too cute, a Tanny boy.

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by rasta empress

tanthalas was a half elf-half human character in the dragonlance series. Its been a while since i've read that series but they were enjoyable.

*retreats back into geekdom*

nerd!!!