moving to north side of houston (The Woodlands, Pearland: houses, neighborhoods, buy)

[JenniferRobertson]

My husband and myself along with our 2 kids - almost 3 and 1.5 yrs - are moving to houston in the next couple of months. My husband will be working downtown. One of the main reasons for us moving to Houston is to be closer to family and with that being said, my parents live in Summerwood.

I am really struggling with where we should look. I don't want my husband with a horrible commute but with our budget ($350ish - no more than $400k), the houses I'm seeing in the loop and just outside of 610 (Oak Forest, etc) just don't seem real feasible for our family.

I think our best bet might be Fall Creek but I've heard some concerns over the schools that they are zoned to (maybe just the high school so we'd have some time to figure that out?). My parents keep talking up The Groves but I've heard traffic on West Lake Houston is brutal during rush hours and with multiple new neighborhoods going in, I only see that getting worse. Our realtor sent us a few neighborhoods farther north off of 59 in Porter but again - seems so far from downtown.

The Champions area looks nice but without great highway access. The house my husband loves is south of 1960 which I've read isn't great re: schools and resale. Is that true - the house is in Greenwood Forest? The price of the house would allow us to use private schools if we needed to but I would want to make sure we could sell the house if we had to.

Any other options we're missing? Should we look south and east of town? Pearland? That would still be somewhat convenient to my parents. We're open to older homes if the budget allows for us to do some upgrades / remodeling.

Thanks so much!

[kickingprop]

Depending on where in downtown he works, most of the major suburbs have the park and ride as an option. I have many friends who use it from Cypress, The Woodlands, and Katy and all love it. That could expand your options a bit potentially.

[chris_ut]

Kingwood

[DejaBlue]

Can you not afford Summerwood? It's big enough to where you're not living next door to your parents.

That just seems the most logical They're priced the same and so is Eagle Springs. All 3 are similar except I agree that Fall Creek being inside the Beltway will depreciate faster closer to Aldine/HISD.

[JenniferRobertson]

We could afford Summerwood - I just didn't know if there was much difference between that and Fall Creek except that Fall Creek would probably cut off 15 or so mins each way off of a commute to downtown.

[JenniferRobertson]

We like Kingwood - I just didn't know about the commute. I was hoping he'd be able to keep it close to 30 mins but maybe that's just not possible. He works about a mile away from our house currently in KC so I think anything is going to be a shock to our system :/

[DejaBlue]

You and every other soul in moving to Houston. You're going to have to accept the fact that rush hour is no longer 30 minutes unless you live in the Loop and even that's unpredictable. He's looking at 45-an hour no doubt.

If people act stupid and cause an accident or a vehicle stalls then longer.

30 minutes is without traffic. If he works between 7:30-9 he's looking at more than 30 minutes no matter what maps tell you. They don't account for the texters, slow drivers and idiots.

An hour is so common place here it's the next 30 minutes. You barely notice it after a few years. Getting to work in 45 minutes is like "Yes!!!" 30 minutes isn't realistic if you're that far from downtown with the amount of cars on the road.

[chris_ut]

Originally Posted by JenniferRobertson

We like Kingwood - I just didn't know about the commute. I was hoping he'd be able to keep it close to 30 mins but maybe that's just not possible. He works about a mile away from our house currently in KC so I think anything is going to be a shock to our system :/

He can take the Park and Ride bus if he works normal hours, they take the HOT lane so usually avoid the worst traffic but going to be 45 minutes versus 30. Only way to guarantee a short commute is like you said Inner Loop/Oak Forest areas that will stretch your budget.

[xiabelle]

We just bought in Cypresswood and while Klein ISD is good, you do NOT want to live south of 1960. Greenwood Forest is out. If you buy in Klein, stay north of Cypress Creek and out of the Klein Forest attendance zones. In your range, you could get into some houses zone to the good schools. There's a park and ride on Kuykendahl (I drive past it every day on the way to work... just I don't work downtown. ) Commute is not even 30 minutes for me (Upper Kirby) during the summer and I have flexible hours. An hour is pretty standard. If you can shift work schedules a bit earlier it helps a lot.

Pearland is nice but there is not a bus into downtown from there. And the commute can be really ugly getting into downtown because 288 majorly backs up.

[BCEagles01]

EZ Tag. Hardy Toll Road.

Get you downtown quick.