The Woodlands and Spring (Houston, Dallas: low income, real estate, custom home)

[jaylivg]

Hi , we're relocating from Chicago area , and finally we found area that we want to live in . When we just got here 2 weeks ago we were looking around Katy area because of the good school ( which is very important for us , i have a 7 years old ) , but then we found out it's too much of a commute for my husband who works in Conroe ( once a week going to The Galleria since his main office is there ) .

So , after today we decided we like to live in The Woodlands , the area is beautiful , but there are houses that we really like in Spring and Conroe area . My question is .. which area has a best school between those two ?? Which one have a better resell value too ? Oh and budget is about $300k


Thanks for your help !

[Dopo]

I could be wrong... but I believe Spring is better than Conroe.
Keep in mind, Spring feels more like an "area of Houston" and Conroe feels like you are in a small town somewhere in Texas.

[crone]

Call Spring ISD. There will be a lot of construction of new houses within the coming months due to the Exxon Mobile relocation. Find out what their long range plans are.

Conroe schools are mostly better than Spring's for the foreseeable future.
HAR.com has school data, as does school digger.

As for resell, look for schools that have a smaller low income demographic. It is hard to sell a house zoned to school that is majority low income.

Also check out the northern parts of Klein ISD. Conroe is better, but houses maybe cheaper in Klein.

[a_guerrajr]

West side of 45, or West Spring belongs to Klein ISD, which has very good schools. Spring ISD is not doing so well right now. Conroe ISD isn't bad either, however Klein has held it's reputation for a while.

I recently bought a home in Spring. 300K around that area can buy you a really nice home.
Spring is growing, and still has a lot of tree's and open land. It does have certain chunks with a lot of shopping and services.

What kind of neighborhood are you looking to live in?

Conroe has a few master planned communities that are nice. Mostly the west side too, the east side is trailers from what i've seen.

ALso if your husband ever changes jobs, conroe will be way out there.

[Watchful]

It can be very confusing - there are houses that have a Spring PO box and a Conroe school district location. The postal route means next to nothing, but of course the school zone matters a lot!

[EasilyAmused]

You should probably check out Montgomery and Montgomery ISD. I've been acquainted with several families that moved out of The Woodlands for that area. They are happier with the school district and the housing prices.

Any evening he has to come back from the Galleria, he should just stay in town have a dinner and leave closer to 7:30. It's a lot less stressful that way. 6-7 years ago it was 90 minutes from the middle of The Woodlands to San Felipe Post area in the morning, leaving at 6:30 am. The nights were bad, but I joined a gym down there and got my workout done after work then drove home. It was still close to an hour.

[Supermac34]

In that "middle" area around Spring and the Woodlands, you'll want to be in the Klein district, however avoid any schools that feed into Klein Forest. Klein High School is the Tier 1 school in the district. Most neighborhoods (but not all) in 77379 on www.har.com feed into Klein, Klein Oak, or Klein Collins, all great schools (but Klein High is the best).

For 300K in that area you can actually get an older custom home instead of a tract home.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Spring (Klein ISD) can get him to the Galleria a little faster than the Woodlands.

The Woodlands has higher rated schools, but you have to like the Master Planned Community feel, which always struck me as a little Stepford Wives esque (hey, just personal opinion). Klein has various suburban neighborhoods developed around small commercial centers (intersections of FM 1960, Kuykendahl, Stuebner Airline and Louetta, with FM 2920 up and coming). The Klein district is good, but there's more variation because its not insulated within the MPC like The Woodlands is (basically you'll have lower income people unlike The Woodlands).

I grew up in Spring Creek Oaks, and really nice '80s and '90s developed neighborhood in the heart of Spring/Klein that has many custom houses right in your price range.

Champions area is considered the primo area in Spring Klein with lots of older custom houses. Be extra careful of buying in Memorial Northwest because of the poor construction of the mansions that look like a deal on paper. If you have questions about any particular neighborhood, let us know and someone on here will be able to answer.

[crone]

I got news for you. Supermac 34. The best high school in Klein, ain't all that good.

Their child is 7.

Montgomery is good.

A friend used to brag that her commute from the Woodlands was only 45 minutes to get to work south of the Galleria. When pressed about the time it took to get out of the Woodlands, the total was 1 1/2 hours.

We located in Champions due to DH working in the Woodlands 2 days a week and Jersey Village 2 days a week and Dallas one day. It was a good decision. You can get a great well maintained and constructed older house. My neighbor also works in Conroe. The commute was not too bad. They moved to Spring Creek Oaks to get into Klein high school attendance zone. Private school tuition for high school would have been cheaper than the real estate commission.