Friendswood / League City Real Estate: Seeking Input from Locals (Houston: 2015, apartments)

[LC583]

Hi,

My husband and I recently moved into an apartment near Friendswood and we would like to purchase a home when our lease is up in Feb. 2015.

About us: Married with toddler son. He is a Dr. and clinical social worker, honorably discharged Navy man. I have a M.S. in Psych. and am a stay at home mom. We would like to spend under 200k. We are fairly easy going people who appreciate nature and enjoy an active family life. Our home is kind of our sanctuary, so we are putting much consideration into this decision.

I would love to hear input from locals about homeownership in the area. Any tips or advice?? We want to live in this area long-term and raise our family here.

I would really like to learn about flooding and hurricanes. It seems like people dont really worry about that; do you just purchase insurance and forget about it? I havent lived here long enough to witness flooding...what areas are flood prone? Would you purchase a house that has flooded in the past? How do you know if a house has flooded?

Also, are there areas or subdivisions that I should be concered about regarding safety and schools.

What are the main differences between Friendswood ISD, Clear Creek ISD, Pearland ISD, Dickinson ISD, and Alvin ISD? Are there certain schools I should try to avoid? Or schools I should try to live near?

Thank you!

[colcat]

Friendswood ISD is probably the best (or one of the best) school districts in the Houston area. It is much, much smaller that most other districts. I personally prefer Friendswood over all the other ones you mentioned. The only issue with your question is your budget. Friendwood real estate is higher and $200,000 won't get you much. Clear Creek is also good,. That would be my second choice.

[marksmu]

Friendswood would be the best choice. Friendswood is very quiet, very safe, and has excellent schools. The only problem is that it is a very tight budget on $200K. It can be done - I will close on a nice place for a client of mine next week right at that $200K line. If you can get your budget to $250K or $280K, there is a dramatic increase in the quantity and quality of homes availabile for you.

$200K and below will be older homes, in more flood prone areas, most will need updating. At $250K you are getting an older home, not in the flood plain that is partially updated. At $280K there are quite a few older homes that are not in flood plain, that have been recently updated.

Hurricanes come and go every 20 or so years...unless you are in a flood plain, its just wind, which you generally do not worry about too much. You run from the water, you shelter from the wind. Houses in the flood plain also have substantially higher insurance rates...so much so that you could buy more house in a different area, for the same monthly payment after insurance.

Originally Posted by LC583

Hi,

My husband and I recently moved into an apartment near Friendswood and we would like to purchase a home when our lease is up in Feb. 2015.

About us: Married with toddler son. He is a Dr. and clinical social worker, honorably discharged Navy man. I have a M.S. in Psych. and am a stay at home mom. We would like to spend under 200k. We are fairly easy going people who appreciate nature and enjoy an active family life. Our home is kind of our sanctuary, so we are putting much consideration into this decision.

I would love to hear input from locals about homeownership in the area. Any tips or advice?? We want to live in this area long-term and raise our family here.

I would really like to learn about flooding and hurricanes. It seems like people dont really worry about that; do you just purchase insurance and forget about it? I havent lived here long enough to witness flooding...what areas are flood prone? Would you purchase a house that has flooded in the past? How do you know if a house has flooded?

Also, are there areas or subdivisions that I should be concered about regarding safety and schools.

What are the main differences between Friendswood ISD, Clear Creek ISD, Pearland ISD, Dickinson ISD, and Alvin ISD? Are there certain schools I should try to avoid? Or schools I should try to live near?

Thank you!

[LC583]

It seems (for around 200K) we would get a very modest older home in Friendswood ISD, a little bit newer and nicer home in Clear Creek ISD, or get a brand new home in Dickinson ISD, Pearland ISD, Pasedena ISD, or Alvin ISD. I am just wondering if people really believe Friendswood ISD is worth it?? My husband is convinced we must neverleave Friendswood. Haha. But, I am trying to find positives about Clear Creek ISD or Pearland ISD.... any thoughts?? When our son starts school, I don't want him to feel like we are the "poor" people in Friendswood because we don't live in a mansion subdivision...

[ekatiel]

Originally Posted by LC583

It seems (for around 200K) we would get a very modest older home in Friendswood ISD, a little bit newer and nicer home in Clear Creek ISD, or get a brand new home in Dickinson ISD, Pearland ISD, Pasedena ISD, or Alvin ISD. I am just wondering if people really believe Friendswood ISD is worth it?? My husband is convinced we must neverleave Friendswood. Haha. But, I am trying to find positives about Clear Creek ISD or Pearland ISD.... any thoughts?? When our son starts school, I don't want him to feel like we are the "poor" people in Friendswood because we don't live in a mansion subdivision...

I think Friendswood is "worth it"-- That's why I live here . In all seriousness, I would rank FISD at the top of the districts you listed, followed closely by CCISD (but NOT ALL CCISD schools are great, and in your budget, if your'e finding something "newer and nicer" in CCISD, you probably aren't looking at the great CCISD schools). Pearland ranks under CCISD for me, and the others I would stay out of. Obviously, other people think Friendswood is worth the price increase because the market seems to support the higher prices. Friendswood has more of a small town feel than the other places you're looking. There is some teasing that goes on in school if your child doesn't live in one of the desirable neighborhoods here (some kids call Sun Meadow "Sun Ghetto")-- homes in Sun Meadow can go for over $200K, though. Hardly a ghetto. Friendswood has a huge focus on character education, though, so that kind of talk is strongly discouraged. When my kids start to feel like we don't have as much as their friends, I try to bring them back to reality by serving those who are REALLY less fortunate. My kids are young, but this approach has worked so far. You will find that it's mostly the kids with uppity attitudes-- the parents are often super nice. If the parents find out that the kids are being snobby, they will reprimand them. Overall, people are really down to earth here, even if they are wealthy. I hope this answers your questions.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by LC583

It seems (for around 200K) we would get a very modest older home in Friendswood ISD, a little bit newer and nicer home in Clear Creek ISD, or get a brand new home in Dickinson ISD, Pearland ISD, Pasedena ISD, or Alvin ISD. I am just wondering if people really believe Friendswood ISD is worth it?? My husband is convinced we must neverleave Friendswood. Haha. But, I am trying to find positives about Clear Creek ISD or Pearland ISD.... any thoughts?? When our son starts school, I don't want him to feel like we are the "poor" people in Friendswood because we don't live in a mansion subdivision...

There is a lot of overlap between Friendswood and Clear Lake City (Houston) on pricing per sq ft, but the key factor is most of Friendswood is newer but amenities can be lacking. For example look at most of the area zoned to Brookwood Elem/Clear Lake HS + even the "Bay" neighborhoods zoned to Clear Brook HS. For that price/sf you can get something of similar size in Friendswood but 10-20 (or more) years newer, and in many cases, more sq ft.

[abbybaby]

Friendswood is definitely worth it. You cannot beat the schools. We did consider clear Creek isd because when we were buying everything in friendswood was basically selling the day it was listed. But we finally found a house.

I wouldn't even consider alvin, dickinson or Pearland isd.

[LC583]

Thank you for all the great responses. I sincerely appreciate all of your honest feedback. Looks like we will focus on staying in Friendswood. We have loved living there the past 2 months, but we were curious about the other areas too. For a family/education centered life, it seems like the perfect fit. We are renting right now, maybe we will hold off on home ownership until I go back to work so we can invest more into finding a nice property. Thank you again!

[FourFiftyFour]

Do not even consider Alvin (I grew up there and parents still live there), there's nothing there pretty much, so you are stuck driving 30 minutes each way to do most things. AISD is not the best school district (it is "ok")

Alvin has very few restaurants (mostly fast food or texmex), the tiniest HEB ever, a Walmart and Kroger. Not much to it.

[Houston parent]

A good area to look is the west side of League City along the south side of 518 (between I-45 and the Friendswood city limits). That area has relatively high elevations compared to the rest of League City (the terrain generally slopes down to the south but also to the north of 518 as you approach the creek). I-45 itself would also act as a barrier to extreme potential storm surges that might come up through Clear Lake in the event of a direct hit by a monster hurricane. The city has flood plain maps on their website if you dig around. Also, you will find no apartments in that area, along with some very solid schools.