Help! Spring vs Katy? (Houston, Sugar Land: public schools, gated, income)

[ASandraA]

Originally Posted by Meyerland

Both are good areas in your budget. I know there are more sketchy parts of Spring, but it has been built out longer. South Katy is booming and resale will be stronger there over Spring.

You really could live in Bellaire, West U, Meyerland, West Memorial, or Spring Valley with your budget. The burbs do have much higher property taxes than Houston FYI.

If you want trees, the only place in Katy to find them is East of 99 and South of I10. Green Trails, Cinco Ranch are two great neighborhoods there with trees.

Spring is more of a forested area comparably, but schools can be hit or miss. Katy schools south of I10 are all excellent in your budget.

I personally moved from Katy into Houston because we hated my husbands commute. We also like being close to everything. I can drive 12-15 minutes and be at the zoo or a museum. I can get to the Galleria in 15 minutes. But, that's just my 2 cents.

Good luck!

Thank you Meyerland! I appreciate your 2 cents. It has made me reconsider things. . . After thinking about your post for several days I've realized that your decision to move into Houston made sense to me. I'm wondering if you could recommend some safe areas with good schools there? Schools are our top priority as we have four kids. We like going to the zoo/museum & I would like to attend church at Lakewood. Would this be an area with higher property taxes? Our budget is around $700K but we'd go lower if we needed to pay for private school. What are your thoughts? Thanks!

[Meyerland]

I also wanted to add that you can find a home in Meyerland for 450-600,000. The ones zoned to Kolter Elementary are the ones you want. Great schools in a neighborhood with trees. You will probably have to do renovations to update the home, as the renovated ones get bought quickly.

You should be able to get a good deal on the home buying now, because the listings are a bit stale. (Been on the market awhile.) There was a tremendous rush on homes this summer and values shot up, with multiple offers on houses in this area.

In fact, there was a rush to get homes in most nice neighborhoods in the entire Houston area.

Good luck!

[usernameusername]

I know this is 7 years late but for anyone reading this thread, no, Spring isn't a ghetto at all, there are parts of Houston which are way worse, I've been East of I-45 and it's definitely not a bad place. It's not really family friendly since Spring ISD is pretty bad but however if you can attend a private school then it's alright. West of I-45 are some really nice and affluent neighborhoods like Gleannloch Farms. A small part of Spring is also in Montgomery County and zoned to Conroe ISD. Oak Ridge High School and Grand Oaks High School are mediocre but far better than Spring ISD. There's also a small part zoned to College Park High School and The Woodlands High School, that part of Spring is also very good and middle class. Personally I'd rather look for houses in The Woodlands, it's an upper middle class master planned city and the public schools there are some of the best in the Houston area. The Woodlands ranks as the second best place to live in the United States and it has a lot of trees, I'd recommend to buy houses that were built in 1999 or newer I'm not informed enough on Katy, it's also one of the best Houston suburbs. You can't go wrong with The Woodlands or Katy. Spring can be a good place to live too but it requires some research to find out which parts are family friendly and which ones aren't.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by usernameusername

I know this is 7 years late but for anyone reading this thread, no, Spring isn't a ghetto at all, there are parts of Houston which are way worse, I've been East of I-45 and it's definitely not a bad place. It's not really family friendly since Spring ISD is pretty bad but however if you can attend a private school then it's alright. West of I-45 are some really nice and affluent neighborhoods like Gleannloch Farms. A small part of Spring is also in Montgomery County and zoned to Conroe ISD. Oak Ridge High School and Grand Oaks High School are mediocre but far better than Spring ISD. There's also a small part zoned to College Park High School and The Woodlands High School, that part of Spring is also very good and middle class. Personally I'd rather look for houses in The Woodlands, it's an upper middle class master planned city and the public schools there are some of the best in the Houston area. The Woodlands ranks as the second best place to live in the United States and it has a lot of trees, I'd recommend to buy houses that were built in 1999 or newer I'm not informed enough on Katy, it's also one of the best Houston suburbs. You can't go wrong with The Woodlands or Katy. Spring can be a good place to live too but it requires some research to find out which parts are family friendly and which ones aren't.

Spring for the most part is dumpy. The only nice area of Spring is The Woodlands on the Harris County side, near the ExxonMobil campus.

50 miles away, Katy is in a much different situation. I would avoid anything along S. Fry Rd along the edge of the Barker Reservoir, since that was where much of the devastation during Harvey happened in my neighborhood. You have Cinco Ranch West/SW and Seven Meadows west of 99 along with the newer developments in the north.

The older portions of S. Katy, like Cimarron, are aging and the floorplans/size/architecture is not appealing to the modern homebuyer. But it's a good place for a starter home. North Katy (east of 99, north of I-10) only gets sketchy as it gets closer to Cypress (Clay Road). It blends in with South Cypress (either side of FM 529).

Katy ISD has very good schools--definitely in the affluent master-planned communities. I would say that the resources are shared equally with the rest of the district, so anywhere in KISD is a safe bet especially if you move up later on.

[fbf2006]

Spring covers such a large area that I think it's unfair to call most of it dumpy. There's Spring in Montgomery County (also Conroe ISD) that seems generally fine with lovely master-planned communities. There's Spring (sometimes called Klein, closer to 249 in Klein ISD) that is nice (Gleannloch Farms, Memorial Northwest and so on). There's also Spring near the Exxon Campus (also in Klein ISD) and maybe a little in Tomball ISD).

[NigerianNightmare]

As someone who's lived in Katy my whole life, can someone explain these areas and tell me if my general perception of them is off or right on the money. I don't go to Spring much so I don't know what people mean when they say Spring, obviously their's the general area, but what about the outlying zip codes etcetera.

77373- seems the most synonymous with Spring. It seems solidly middle class, similar to the Northern portion of South Katy East of 99(Taylor HS/Memorial Parkway/Nottingham/Green Trails/Cimarron) or Old Katy(Katy City Limits).

77388- Reminds me of North Katy a bit, including both east and west of 99, some parts are a bit ruralish looking especially heading towards The Woodlands.

77090- North Katy/Bear Creek area not the hood but iffy for sure. The apartments probably make the area worse than it actually is.

77073- Seems to be poorer than the rest of Spring, not quite Alief (If we are keeping the Katy comparisons going) but definitely struggling in some way.

77386- Is this Spring, it's like The Woodland's cousin, it isn't as nice but, it's across the highway and seems to follow that Sugar Land/The Woodlands/Cinco Ranch forumula

77338- West of Cypresswood Drive- close to the airport seems semi-rural cause it's sorta behind the airport.

77389- Basically The Woodlands, directly borders it to the south, looks significantly more rural, it's the part of Spring I used to visit the most because of the proximity of Burroughs Park and 99 going through it.

My view overall on the area is that the only troublesome looking areas are 77090 and 77073 mostly because they directly border Greenspoint (A.K.A Gunspoint, and with no highway border, sure their's massive spillover), and with no massive master-planned community, i'm sure for every nice looking neighborhood in the area a starter home community borders it making it less stratified than Katy, were Cinco Ranch spurred a bunch of near endless stream of Copycats into Fulshear and Richmond.

But Spring especially the 77389/77386/77388 zip codes mentioned which contain 110,000 people (15,000-20,000 folk in 77389 live in The Woodlands), which is comparable to South Katy, albeit smaller by about 60,000 people in income. 77373 which is the only area that get's highlighted as Spring when you look it up seems very middle class-lower middle class.

Now the poorest part of Katy is nowhere as poor as say 77090 which puts up numbers similar to Alief albeit it doesn't look like it from the neighborhoods. But outside of the 22 Southern zip codes the 4 Northern ones seem fine and even if you think Spring ISD and Aldine ISD especially are trash, the 3 far northern zips are zoned to Klein and Conroe respectively.

[fbf2006]

I don't believe 77090 and 77073 are considered Spring.
Aside from The Woodlands which I know/hear is technically Spring, when people say Spring, it seems to me they are referring to Klein (77379), 77388, 77389 (west of 45, north of 99, south of the woodlands, near Exxon), 77386 (east of 45, north and south of 99), 77373 (Old Town Spring area).

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by fbf2006

I don't believe 77090 and 77073 are considered Spring.
Aside from The Woodlands which I know/hear is technically Spring, when people say Spring, it seems to me they are referring to Klein (77379), 77388, 77389 (west of 45, north of 99, south of the woodlands, near Exxon), 77386 (east of 45, north and south of 99), 77373 (Old Town Spring area).

Well, 77090 and 77073 are in Spring ISD.

[fbf2006]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

Well, 77090 and 77073 are in Spring ISD.

I hear you. If these areas were incorporated, we won't be having these discussions every time lol.

[usernameusername]

Originally Posted by usernameusername

I know this is 7 years late but for anyone reading this thread, no, Spring isn't a ghetto at all, there are parts of Houston which are way worse, I've been East of I-45 and it's definitely not a bad place. It's not really family friendly since Spring ISD is pretty bad but however if you can attend a private school then it's alright. West of I-45 are some really nice and affluent neighborhoods like Gleannloch Farms. A small part of Spring is also in Montgomery County and zoned to Conroe ISD. Oak Ridge High School and Grand Oaks High School are mediocre but far better than Spring ISD. There's also a small part zoned to College Park High School and The Woodlands High School, that part of Spring is also very good and middle class. Personally I'd rather look for houses in The Woodlands, it's an upper middle class master planned city and the public schools there are some of the best in the Houston area. The Woodlands ranks as the second best place to live in the United States and it has a lot of trees, I'd recommend to buy houses that were built in 1999 or newer I'm not informed enough on Katy, it's also one of the best Houston suburbs. You can't go wrong with The Woodlands or Katy. Spring can be a good place to live too but it requires some research to find out which parts are family friendly and which ones aren't.

Correction: Anything west of I-45 in Harris County is not Spring, Klein is a separate unincorporated suburb which has Spring addresses but isn't Spring. If Klein was part of Spring, Spring would have a population of 280,000, which would be ridiculous to say.
I've heard other people on the thread say The Woodlands is part of Spring, which isn't the case, although some parts of Spring are zoned to schools in The Woodlands.
With all of this taken into account, the only good places in Spring are the ones in Montgomery County, which isn't officially Spring either however that area doesn't have any name and has Spring addresses. There are also a few good communities in the original Harris County part such as Spring Lakes, Northgate Crossing, Greengate, and Cypresswood Lake. They don't have good public schools but if schools weren't a factor they'd be good areas.