Clear Lake vs. Pearland vs. Friendswood (Houston, Sugar Land: for sale, renting, crime)

[Topaz]

I've read a bunch of old posts but any current feedback would be fabulous.

I am pursuing a job at University of Houston (downtown) and I have a second interview this week. If I land the job, my family will likely move at the end of this school year. I am seeking feedback about neighborhoods to explore.

My husband's job is in Clear Lake and he goes to Hobby almost every week, occasionally IAH.

We want to spend around $200K and bank all of one salary rather than spend a lot of money on a home.

We love living in New Territory in Sugar Land and I will be extremely sad to leave it. I'd like to find something similar as there are reasonably priced homes here zoned to excellent schools. My children are young so elementary and middle schools are a top concern. We also care about things like safety, community pools, splash parks, playgrounds, and walking trails.

I also love the zoning and organization in Sugar Land...are there affordable communities that are at all similar if we move east (Clear Lake, Pearland, Friendswood, somewhere else?).

One other consideration is that we are extremely involved with our church, which is in the Museum District. Some weekends we go there 3 times in one weekend and we would participate in even more activities if the commute was better.

This feels like a puzzle where I'm trying to make all the pieces fit!

[tstone]

Maybe look at the neighborhoods along Clear Lake City Blvd. Pricing is about $100 per sq ft on a mid-1990s home. It's cheaper the older you get, and farther south you go (obviously).

On good days, it takes me about 15 minutes to Hobby, 20 mins to the downtown destinations exit, and 30 mins to the museums & galleria. The farther south you go, the longer your drive obviously.

Shouldn't have any worries about the schools. Each neighborhood should have a pool & playground. There are walking/jogging/biking trails around the entire area, many which are shaded by big oak trees (Space Center Blvd).

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

[texas7]

I would choose in this order if it were me 1. Clear Lake, 2. Friendswood and 3. Pearland. You might find things in the arts for your kids to get involved with TAACL (The Arts Alliance of Clear Lake) and nature stuff at Home : Armand Bayou Nature Center (Armand Bayou Nature Center), plus all the usual school things. The area that tstone mentions isn't a bad commute at all.

[Topaz]

Originally Posted by texas7

I would choose in this order if it were me 1. Clear Lake, 2. Friendswood and 3. Pearland.

Can you please say more about what factors influenced your rankings? Is it the art and nature activities that caused Clear Lake to be first? Any particular reason that Pearland was third?

[Timnwendy]

I rank Pearland above the other too, for the needs you explicitly expressed. I live on the west side of Pearland at the 518/288 corridor and it's only 15 minutes from downtown or Hobby. It's about 25-30 minutes from Clear Lake. The west side of Pearland has some very nice subdivisions like Silverlake, Shadow Creek Ranch, and Southern Trails (where I live, and recommend). Those communities have good schools and crime is quite low. You can also find homes for sale in all those subdivisions at the price range you specified.

Clear Lake and Friendswood are nice, too, but they are much further from the downtown area than west Pearland. Living in Friendswood can especially be tricky, as many parts of it do not have quick accessibility to a major highway.

I used to live in Clear Lake before I moved to west Pearland, so I know both areas. They are both nice, but I am really glad I came to west Pearland. Oh, another consideration should be proximity to the coastline - we weathered the recent hurricane much better in west Pearland than either Clear Lake or Friendswood, which are about 15 miles closer to the water.

[tstone]

Some thoughts:

I can tell you from all the driving around I did, that Clear Lake & Friendswood weathered the storm just as well as any other place in the area, except for the immediate coastline. We were just in an evacuation zone, while Pearland was not. And $200k doesn't get waterfront property there, which is the OP's budget, so that point is moot. We've actually sprung back faster with repairs than many inland areas.

It's true about Friendswood not having quick access to the freeway. When you get deeper in towards Alvin, there are no freeways near. If you live in the heart of Pearland, the same is true. Or if you live close to the Armand Bayou in Clear Lake, ditto. However you can find a nice place with quick freeway access in all 3 areas if you simply do your research.

Silverlake has a bit of a ghetto element in their back yard. To be fair, Clear Lake has a barrio/illegal element too. And Friendswood is a 90+ % white town. So consider that, if it's an issue.

Clear Lake is going to be the least 'generic' suburb of the 3. Pre-Ike there were enough activities there to keep a 30-something happy w/o having to go into the city core. (There is also UHCL & lots of students in the community.) Things are for the most part normal, but the waterfront areas are still in repair.

[Topaz]

Originally Posted by tstone

Some thoughts:

I can tell you from all the driving around I did, that Clear Lake & Friendswood weathered the storm just as well as any other place in the area, except for the immediate coastline. We were just in an evacuation zone, while Pearland was not. And $200k doesn't get waterfront property there, which is the OP's budget, so that point is moot. We've actually sprung back faster with repairs than many inland areas.

And Sugar Land did worse than we expected. In New Territory, we were without power for 7 days. My husband's coworkers in Clear Lake and Friendswood had power restored before we did. And several of our Sugar Land neighbors had severe wind damage (with one collapsed roof from combined wind and rain) while people we know in Clear Lake and Friendswood had no damage.

So we've stopped thinking it is worth the horrendous commute to escape potential hurricane damage.

I'm going to be crying about Whole Foods, though...

[tstone]

I stayed in Sugar Land to ride out the storm, but the damage was just as bad as Clear Lake. Mostly fences, with a few roofs. I had family in old Clear Lake that never lost power. And by Ellington, we only lost power for 1 day. The area (the map I gave you in a PM) was fine with Ike's Cat 4 storm surge. If we get a Cat-5 Indian super typhoon, different story, but then everything would be blown down like sticks anyway.

Whole Foods, yeah....... the Randalls on Clear Lake City @ Space Center needs to turn into that. It would be located in a perfect place for it, near the money. That Randalls is way too expensive anyway. Otherwise I wouldn't hold your breath since there's essentially no room for one, unless you're talking about the exurbs like Bay Colony, which likely wouldn't support such a store.

[Topaz]

Originally Posted by tstone

Whole Foods, yeah....... the Randalls on Clear Lake City @ Space Center needs to turn into that. It would be located in a perfect place for it, near the money. That Randalls is way too expensive anyway. Otherwise I wouldn't hold your breath since there's essentially no room for one, unless you're talking about the exurbs like Bay Colony, which likely wouldn't support such a store.

I'm definitely not holding my breath. Whole Foods isn't doing that well...their flagship store project at Post Oak is delayed and if they open any new stores in Houston at all, it will be the Uptown one. I go to the Sugar Land store so often now, they know my name, so I will definitely miss it. I guess I will be doing field trips after work to grocery shop at one of the downtown locations. People keep telling me the Kirby location is so crowded you can't even get parking, though, so I'm not sure how fun this will be. I may have to start ordering my daughter's foods online - we did that for Halloween candy and it worked out fine (she has severe food allergies).

My next research will be to figure out which Bay Area grocery store at least carries organic food items. I like to buy food where I recognize the ingredients.

[movingtohouston]

Well I will pipe up since I live in Friendswood sort of. We are actually renting in the county portion of Friendswood not the city proper. If I were to rank it I would put, Friendswood, Clear Lake and then Pearland. Traffic from Pearland to Clear Lake area is horrendous. Especially if you drive down 518. I do most of my shopping in the Clear Lake area, there is everything you need close to the mall or off the feeders on 45. The library in Clear Lake is great, tons of nice parks close by. If you are looking for fresh produce(not organic) there is a vegtable farm in Alvin about 20 minutes from here.

The area around where I live and where some of my family lives in Clear Lake fared very well during the hurricane. Minor roof and fence damage. Unfortunately we were without power for over two weeks. My Aunt in ClearLake actually never lost power (she was lucky).

We have been very happy here. Good luck with your house hunt.