Best place to live for an IT Pro with kids? (Houston: apartments, to rent)

[nolaron]

We are very, very seriously considering moving to Houston this summer. We have 2 small kids in elementary so schools are extremely important. However, I'm trying to look into what areas would be best for IT jobs. I have O&G experience, so I would hope to get a job in the energy corridor. Other than that, are most of the major IT positions spread out or is there a particular area I should look to be close to?

[Vicman]

Determine your workplace first, and then choose where you will live. H-town is a big place.

[nolaron]

Originally Posted by Vicman

Determine your workplace first, and then choose where you will live. H-town is a big place.

Certainly. We have visited and fell in love. I was just hoping there is some IT hub that I had not heard about or discovered yet.

Regardless of employment, are there any neighborhoods or areas that would be good for a family in the areas between 8 and 610? I can't remember what you guys call that.. the outer loop? We have crossed off inside the loop for various reasons, primarily affordable homes. We have a ~200k budget.

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by nolaron

Certainly. We have visited and fell in love. I was just hoping there is some IT hub that I had not heard about or discovered yet.

Regardless of employment, are there any neighborhoods or areas that would be good for a family in the areas between 8 and 610? I can't remember what you guys call that.. the outer loop? We have crossed off inside the loop for various reasons, primarily affordable homes. We have a ~200k budget.

To the southwest Meyerland, Willow Meadows, and Willowbend are good choices. However it may be tough to find a 200K home in those areas!

[Panda_Puck]

Originally Posted by nolaron

Certainly. We have visited and fell in love. I was just hoping there is some IT hub that I had not heard about or discovered yet.

Regardless of employment, are there any neighborhoods or areas that would be good for a family in the areas between 8 and 610? I can't remember what you guys call that.. the outer loop? We have crossed off inside the loop for various reasons, primarily affordable homes. We have a ~200k budget.

As far as i know, there is nothing like an "IT hub" in Houston. Sure there is energy corridor but that is where several O&G companies are (not necessarily IT). There are O&G companies all over Houston. I work in IT department for an O&G company and my office is in Galleria. Some of my friend who work in IT are in downtown and others in sugarland or woodlands.

Unless you plan to work from home, my suggestion would be first find your place of employment and then search for house. On another note, 200K may not get you much these days, home prices have gone us substantially.

Thanks,

[sonic0boom]

~200K housing budget and good schools limit your choices quite a bit. If you had a job in the Energy Corridor, I'd say the Katy area based on that criteria. You won't get anything with that criteria closer than that, i think. But unless you like traffic, i wouldn't suggest you buy anything unless you knew where you would be working. You are probably better off renting until you have things figured out.

[RedOrDead_YNWA]

200k isn't going to get much between 610 and Beltway 8, whatever you get would most likely not be in the greatest area for your family. Bump it up to say 270k and you'll have many more options. If bumping it up isn't an option, then you'll be further out definitely outside Beltway 8, possibly outside Highway 6, before you find a decent area around 200k.

There is no single tech hub in Houston, one thing Houston is famous for is having "multiple downtowns" and on top of that some of the suburbs have their own business area clusters. So as others have said, find the job, then pick where you'll live in correlation to that job, and understand that if you ever leave this job your new job may be on the complete other side of town and commute could increase dramatically. Or move here and rent in a decently central/affordable area like Westchase, or the closest/safest of the suburbs like Sugar Land, and give yourself a year or more to figure out where in Houston suits you long term.

[nolaron]

Thanks all for the very valuable feedback. I actually do expect the budget to be bumped up to 250-270 as I am currently basing the initial budget off of my existing salary and living expenses in NOLA. We are in a very expensive suburb of NOLA where the taxes are high and the COL in general is high. IT salaries here are low and the opportunities are also thin. When we went to Houston we were blown away at how cheap everything was in general. Once we started looking into home prices and salary information we were just sold on making the move.

It's funny to hear you guys say 200k won't get you much in some of the suburb areas we have been looking (Pearland, Katy, Sugar Land) because 200k here will barely get you a house that's move in ready. The houses we see over in these areas for this price are mansions to us that would cost 300-500k here. I guess it's all a matter of perspective! Home prices, schools and the COL is all what has driven us away from here.

We certainly plan to rent initially. I'm working with head hunters now to try to find employment. We just plan the future so ideally we want to try to rent in an area we expect to live in, once of course we know where I'll be working. I'm trying to land a position with a large company. I'm not the type to job hop (2 employers in my 12 year career) so I expect and hope to be in my next position for years to come.

[sonic0boom]

Originally Posted by nolaron

It's funny to hear you guys say 200k won't get you much in some of the suburb areas we have been looking (Pearland, Katy, Sugar Land)

You can certainly do better in one of those places on 200K but not necessarily inside Beltway 8 and still with good schools. You can also certainly get many opinions of what constitutes good schools .... But i would definitely say that increasing your budget to 275-300K will get you in to the "nicer" area of those suburbs with what are generally considered the better schools.

[shanv3]

Originally Posted by nolaron

Thanks all for the very valuable feedback. I actually do expect the budget to be bumped up to 250-270 as I am currently basing the initial budget off of my existing salary and living expenses in NOLA. We are in a very expensive suburb of NOLA where the taxes are high and the COL in general is high. IT salaries here are low and the opportunities are also thin. When we went to Houston we were blown away at how cheap everything was in general. Once we started looking into home prices and salary information we were just sold on making the move.

It's funny to hear you guys say 200k won't get you much in some of the suburb areas we have been looking (Pearland, Katy, Sugar Land) because 200k here will barely get you a house that's move in ready. The houses we see over in these areas for this price are mansions to us that would cost 300-500k here. I guess it's all a matter of perspective! Home prices, schools and the COL is all what has driven us away from here.

We certainly plan to rent initially. I'm working with head hunters now to try to find employment. We just plan the future so ideally we want to try to rent in an area we expect to live in, once of course we know where I'll be working. I'm trying to land a position with a large company. I'm not the type to job hop (2 employers in my 12 year career) so I expect and hope to be in my next position for years to come.

You can get for 200k, but that will remind you of being in the poorer parts of LA.

Job market is good and picking up. But dont land without a job though. Talk to guys like TEK, Addison,Robert Half etc to get a feel for the market. They heavily recruit for big O&G companies. If you land a job and move here, you can take care of the rest pretty easily.

You can rent in spring branch or around Eldridge, Hwy6,Briar forest .THey have decent elementary schools and rent. There are lots of new apartments with deals and that will help you easily scout Sugarland and Katy areas.