Clear Lake vs. Pearland vs. Friendswood (Houston, Sugar Land: days on market, home, neighborhood)

[texas7]

Just as area info, Deer Park is sandwiched in-between Pasadena and La Porte and city limits border the petrochemical plants of 225. Most people who move there move about 5 miles or more away from that area on the opposite side of the city. But residents who live there seem to like and there are nice homes and nice neighborhoods but it would be nothing like what you are looking for so I wouldn't even suggest that you look there. I would stick with the 3 areas you have in mind.

[jfre81]

Your husband's job is in Clear Lake? This makes it easy.

Friendswood, like it was mentioned, is not very accessible to the freeways, and where you would get on 45 it gets rather congested. Especially that godforsaken FM 2351 exit. On 288 you have similar problems in Pearland at 518. Right there around Silverlake you have a bunch of development where there was hardly anything 10 years ago, and it wasn't planned very well. (Sometimes no zoning is better than bad zoning.) All of the traffic from those shopping lots has to go out onto 518 to get either to 288 or into "old town" Pearland. It used to not be very bad, but now it's up there with the places I avoid at all costs. Highway 35 in Pearland gets slow a lot too. I experienced that when I was living in Alvin and going up there, and that was almost seven years ago. Pearland has become a great place to be if you like traffic congestion, which I thought was part of why people moved out of the city. The one thing good to say is that 288 will bring you close to the Museum District, but you can get there just fine on 45 from Clear Lake and either taking 610 (South Loop) west or going up to 59. But really, your husband working in Clear Lake makes this pretty much a no-brainer.

Originally Posted by tstone

'Clear Lake' is still part of Houston and there isn't zoning, though it's mostly suburban style housing & strip malls.

Well, sort of. This is where it's probably good to clarify that while Houston has no city-wide zoning, that on the local level, HOAs and such have their own covenants that have the effect of zoning in a limited area. Clear Lake was built as a master planned community before it was ever part of the City of Houston, which it wasn't until ca. 1980s - those local restrictions didn't go away when it was annexed. So it's a little different from elsewhere in Houston where there are no such agreements. You have that elsewhere in the city proper too, in places like Southampton of Ashby high rise infamy. Some of these also existed before annexation. There are a lot of places that are "City of Houston" that were not in the city limits, say, 40 years ago.

[Topaz]

So does all of Friendswood have a bit of a rural or country feel? We drove around there today and I was surprised at the vibe. It felt like a small town, which I know some people would love but my husband and I had a difficult time picturing ourselves there. We drove around Clear Lake as well. I was comparing stuff too much to our current neighborhood so I wasn't feeling all that happy by the end of the day. Next I am going to check out Pearland, especially the part that texas7 says looks like Sugar Land (he didn't mean that as a compliment but we've loved living in Sugar Land).

[ClearLakeHouston]

I moved to clear lake half a year ago. So far we all like here very much. Nice neighborhood and convenient location. There is no traffic at all from clear lake city blvd to freeway. The main reason we choose to live in clear lake is that the schools are very good here so the house value won't drop here.
This is very important. My vote will be clear lake, friendswood and pear land.

[Timnwendy]

Originally Posted by Topaz

Next I am going to check out Pearland, especially the part that texas7 says looks like Sugar Land (he didn't mean that as a compliment but we've loved living in Sugar Land).

When you look at Pearland, keep in mind there is a distinct and fairly noticeable difference between east Pearland and west Pearland. The west part of Pearland, along the Hwy 888 corridor, is the part most similar to Sugarland. The east side of Pearland is older and more established. Both sides of town are good places to live.

If you want the best access to downtown, Hobby, or the NASA area, I suggest the west side of Pearland. That part has easy access to Hwy 288, Airport Blvd (for Hobby), and the Sam Houston tollway - which gives you a quicker route over to I-45 south, to get to Clear Lake.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by Topaz

So does all of Friendswood have a bit of a rural or country feel?

I'd call that a bit of a stretch - then again, I don't feel like anything that close to Houston can really be "rural" anymore. It's too built up. Maybe 30 years ago. When I think of "rural" I'm expecting to see a lot more wide open space than I see in Friendswood. I guess I could understand thinking that coming from Sugar Land, sort of.

[Topaz]

Originally Posted by jfre81

I'd call that a bit of a stretch - then again, I don't feel like anything that close to Houston can really be "rural" anymore. It's too built up. Maybe 30 years ago. When I think of "rural" I'm expecting to see a lot more wide open space than I see in Friendswood. I guess I could understand thinking that coming from Sugar Land, sort of.

Well, I'm originally from Los Angeles.

[tstone]

The Friendswood part close to Alvin is somewhat rural to me. Perhaps 'exurban isolation' describes it better.

[Topaz]

I drove to the west part of Pearland today and texas7 is right, it does resemble Sugar Land, which I liked. Traffic was unbelievably bad but I liked the Silverlake area, anyway. Silverlake Elementary is rated "Exemplary" and houses are affordable, although the zip code 77584 seems to have a fair number of foreclosures, especially in nearby Shadow Creek Ranch.

When driving back to Sugar Land, somehow I missed the exit for the Beltway and ended up in downtown Houston - it seemed like an easy drive from Pearland, at least in the middle of the day.

Pearland seems to have a bad rep. At church yesterday someone said to me, "You can't move to Pearland!" People who have lived in Houston or the Houston metro area for awhile seem to associate Pearland with high crime, mediocre schools, falling house values, and terrible traffic. So it is a bit confusing because I rather liked some of the neighborhoods I saw.

[usc619]

Originally Posted by Topaz

I drove to the west part of Pearland today and texas7 is right, it does resemble Sugar Land, which I liked. Traffic was unbelievably bad but I liked the Silverlake area, anyway. Silverlake Elementary is rated "Exemplary" and houses are affordable, although the zip code 77584 seems to have a fair number of foreclosures, especially in nearby Shadow Creek Ranch.

When driving back to Sugar Land, somehow I missed the exit for the Beltway and ended up in downtown Houston - it seemed like an easy drive from Pearland, at least in the middle of the day.

Pearland seems to have a bad rep. At church yesterday someone said to me, "You can't move to Pearland!" People who have lived in Houston or the Houston metro area for awhile seem to associate Pearland with high crime, mediocre schools, falling house values, and terrible traffic. So it is a bit confusing because I rather liked some of the neighborhoods I saw.

Pearland just has more minorities than the other areas you named, simple as that. I think it's a great place IMHO