pine mill ranch or cinco ranch bandera glen (Houston, Dallas: fit in, 2014)

[billu]

We are currently renting in Sugar Land and are looking to buy a 5 bedroom house in Katy, mainly due to good schools. Current options are a 5 bedroom Perry Home in Pine Mill Ranch (60 lot) and a a similar home with trendmaker in Cinco Ranch , bandera glen. Both have similar options and priced similar. Which is the better option in terms of the community- Pine Mill Ranch vs Cinco Ranch Bandera Glen (amenities, schools. tax rates, resale value etc), thanks a lot for your input

[LJSassy30]

Hi billu

I currently live in Pine Mill Ranch. Schools - I'm not sure where Bandera Glen will be zoned for elementary school after the summer holidays (currently this area in SW Katy is being rezoned), but PMR new elementary school opens Aug 2014. Junior High School will be Woodcreek Junior High & Tompkins High School for both communities.

Tax Rates here are 3.6, I have a feeling CRBG will be similar. The amenities in PMR are ok - there are little parks dotted about the community, splash pad and pool are good (when they are open), and it has tennis courts, which seem pretty quiet.

We have decided to build in Cardiff Ranch, which is right next to PMR. Smaller community, which we like, zoned to same schools (including the new elementary opening later this year), the typical pool, lake, park etc. It just has a really nice feel to it, and you defiantly seem to get a bit more "bang for your buck".

Good luck with your home search, hope I could help a little x

[johnsmith]

Cinco Ranch has the best value to re-sell, no doubt

[cinfos7]

I moved to Cinco Ranch in August, and I'm also looking for a home in Bandera Glen (Village/Perry). Pine Mill, Cardiff and Churchill Farms have a terrible reputation in the Cinco Ranch community. DO NOT waste your time. Many realtors have warned me that those neighborhoods come with a "different quality of people." When I first moved here, I began to look in Pine Mill as well, because I believed you could get a cheaper home, that was similar to one you'd find in Cinco Ranch. BUT the bad reputation isn't worth it. Don't bother with Cross Creek either. You cannot beat resale in Cinco Ranch. Many people don't want to move into Cinco Ranch Northwest though, because it's a little far from Cinco Ranch Southwest AND Cardiff,Pine and Churchill give it a cheaper feel. Cinco has way more amenities than Pine Mill. Seven Lakes is best high school, but almost all new construction is zoned to Tompkins. I hope by the time my kids go there it will rate as high as SLHS. The tax rates are pretty high out here. (3.6%) I moved from Dallas where they're only 2%. Good luck with your home search! I hope I was able to narrow done some of your options.

[Kiovo]

Of course the sounding neighborhoods would have a bad reputation to the Cinco Ranch community. People in CR are trying to protect their property values so they will put down other communities. Fact is, the homes are built just the same. Homes in CR are built by the same construction crews as PMR, Cardiff, Churchill, CC. CR is more established, has a lot of amenities, and has a good resell value. But that's nit to say things won't change in the next 10-20 years. These other neighborhoods are zoned to just as great schools, they come with amenities, and price point wise are similar to CR so I'm not sure where the comment "quality of people" come from.

FWIW, Cinco has to have 11+ pools because by the time they're done building, it'll have about 14,000 homes.

[NY2Katy]

"Different quality of people" lol
Oh brother here we go again...

[descovy]

Me thinks cinfos7 has run into some pretty crappy realtors. I actually live IN Cinco Ranch, but by the sound of it, I'm not worthy to live here according to cinfos7s "Realtor." Dang. My sincerest apologies to my neighbors for having to deal with my "Different quality of people" kind of family.

Back to the OP, we ran into this issue when building in '07. We chose Cinco Ranch. Our family was young and has taken full advantage of most of the pools and many of the parks. Taxes and HOA fees were close in range with the other communities. So we felt Cinco Ranch was the perfect package for us.

And hey... we're even open minded enough to hang with people from those other neighborhoods! lol!

[hbcu]

lord help us....I guess the 4-bedroom home, detached garage, all brick home I grew up in located in SW Houston zoned to schools whose best days past means I could fit into that description "Different quality of people" if I move to Cinco Ranch....

these "realtors" don't know what "Different quality of people" means if you hit them in the head with it. Alot of times the realtors are the ones who grew up in Houston but act ashamed of their past and act like it never existed...

How many older, non-black person ever admitted they grew up in South Park, Scott Terrace, Hiram Clarke, Kashmere Gardens, etc.?

They act like they never attended those areas

[LJSassy30]

Oh well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I would love to know what you mean by a "different quality of people", to be honest, I'm glad there is not a chance you will be my neighbour.

Another thing to remember is Cinco Ranch children will go to school (elementary, Junior High & High School) with the "less desirable" ones depending on where you buy.

Pine Mill Ranch, Cardiff, some of Cross Creek and Churchill all go to Tompkins High School - your children may make friends with these people, are you sure you are living/buying in the right place??

Oh, and Cinco many have a lot of great amenities, that can't be denied, but I've seen their pools in the summer, busy, busy, busy - I'd rather "lower myself" to a smaller community to actually have the space to enjoy it x

[DSL_PWR]

Originally Posted by cinfos7

I moved to Cinco Ranch in August, and I'm also looking for a home in Bandera Glen (Village/Perry). Pine Mill, Cardiff and Churchill Farms have a terrible reputation in the Cinco Ranch community. DO NOT waste your time. Many realtors have warned me that those neighborhoods come with a "different quality of people." When I first moved here, I began to look in Pine Mill as well, because I believed you could get a cheaper home, that was similar to one you'd find in Cinco Ranch. BUT the bad reputation isn't worth it. Don't bother with Cross Creek either. You cannot beat resale in Cinco Ranch. Many people don't want to move into Cinco Ranch Northwest though, because it's a little far from Cinco Ranch Southwest AND Cardiff,Pine and Churchill give it a cheaper feel. Cinco has way more amenities than Pine Mill. Seven Lakes is best high school, but almost all new construction is zoned to Tompkins. I hope by the time my kids go there it will rate as high as SLHS. The tax rates are pretty high out here. (3.6%) I moved from Dallas where they're only 2%. Good luck with your home search! I hope I was able to narrow done some of your options.

Your opinion is based on talking to how many realtors?

All the realtors that we spoke with said that entire area was a great place to look. It just depended on what type of house, lot, etc we were looking for and what we wanted to spend. We looked in all the areas over there. PMR, CCR, Cinco, CHF, Cardiff, CRNW and they all had similar homes and similar prices.

I am curious how my house or any houses in the area would give CRNW a "cheaper feel"? Funny thing is that I was driving around over there in CRNW the other day and the same brick crew that did my little house was bricking a house in there. Hmm, cheaper feel coming soon I guess..

You can't beat resale in the Houston area right now. Things have slowed but houses are still selling fairly quickly.