Aging Houston suburbs (150-250K). Perspectives? (Sugar Land, Spring: roughest, high schools, taxes)

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by Jamaraa

Most of Alief and spring are decent locations??

Alief is much closer to the Inner Loop than Sugar Land and the rest of the other suburbs will ever be. BW-8/SHT provides easy access from Alief to Bush IAH (and now that the South Belt has been built, Hobby as well) and I-69/US-59 is the fast route to Downtown and The Galleria/Greenway. Lots of employers are in offices along the freeway--the Southwest Freeway is now the equivalent of The 134 in the Burbank Media Center (suburbanized Hollywood) with all major TV stations within a mile of the highway.

The shopping may suck for now, but once Sharpstown and Alief start becoming trendy it will be like The Heights. Those late 70's-80's strip malls along Bissonnet and Beechnut may one day be home to trendy restaurants and stores.

[Jamaraa]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

Alief is much closer to the Inner Loop than Sugar Land and the rest of the other suburbs will ever be. BW-8/SHT provides easy access from Alief to Bush IAH (and now that the South Belt has been built, Hobby as well) and I-69/US-59 is the fast route to Downtown and The Galleria/Greenway. Lots of employers are in offices along the freeway--the Southwest Freeway is now the equivalent of The 134 in the Burbank Media Center (suburbanized Hollywood) with all major TV stations within a mile of the highway.

The shopping may suck for now, but once Sharpstown and Alief start becoming trendy it will be like The Heights. Those late 70's-80's strip malls along Bissonnet and Beechnut may one day be home to trendy restaurants and stores.

I lived in Alief for the first 15 years of my life. You don’t need to teach me a lesson on Alief’s geographic location.

Sharpstown is much closer to the Inner Loop than Alief will ever be, yet Sharpstown still has a run down/ghetto feel to it despite some gentrification in recent years. Sharpstown won’t get any better than this, there are way too many low income/Sec 8 apartments in the area. Alief is even worse.

Your last paragraph made me lol.

Sharpstown and Alief will never be “trendy” areas, ever. There is absolutely no way you can compare Alief/Sharpstown to the Heights or Montrose. They are completely different opposite worlds apart from each other. The mere thought is ridiculous.

Alief/Sharpstown might be trendy for fresh-off-the-boat immigrants and that’s about it.

[jd433]

Boy homes in Houston must be brand N-E-W. If you put this title on most other cities forums they would probably laugh. 1970's is considered aging? Is this serious? The cities in the northern US have much older housing stock. Up there 1970's housing would be considered fairly nice and newer especially when the homes were more spacious and had 2 car garages by that time. Try putting this title on the Providence Rhode Island forum where many homes were built in the 1880's or Philly where there was a housing boom in the 1920's
The vast majority of homes in the united states (about 68%) were built before 1980. So I guess the majority of Americans live in aging homes. Now, how about Europe? One thing that really helps Houston homes is that many of them have brick siding.

[Ghost Town]

Originally Posted by jd433

Boy homes in Houston must be brand N-E-W. If you put this title on most other cities forums they would probably laugh. 1970's is considered aging? Is this serious? The cities in the northern US have much older housing stock. Up there 1970's housing would be considered fairly nice and newer especially when the homes were more spacious and had 2 car garages by that time. Try putting this title on the Providence Rhode Island forum where many homes were built in the 1880's or Philly where there was a housing boom in the 1920's
The vast majority of homes in the united states (about 68%) were built before 1980. So I guess the majority of Americans live in aging homes.

Well this is true, but you know local mentality here: only new construction. Last week my coworker said that he lives in an old house (2003). I live in early 1990s house - that's the oldest among my coworkers. Everyone I hear talks only about new or 10 years old max.

[jd433]

Ya, maybe we should go hang flyers out in the heights, midtown, Eado, WEST UNIVERSITY PLACE, RIVER OAKS, Bellaire, etc, etc. etc. Let them know that they need to move way, way, waaaaaaay out to Fulshear, Brookshire, Rosenberg, Conroe, Porter and now even yes even....... DAYTON!!! That way they can get a NEW HOUSE because their aging house is just not as good. You just wait, all those mcmansions way out there in the exurbs. Yes the ones with a 3.5% tax rate and 1100/yr HOA. Check back in a few years and see if it really was better to get a new house.
BTW, I have sold a few new homes lately and I was not impressed. I do not see the value. I have seen many "Aging" homes that were nicely remodeled and were much nicer than those new homes. You should remodel your home at least every 28 1/2 years minimum. If you maintain it properly it will last a lifetime. The reason why people probably don't like older homes is because most people do not maintain their home. Heck some don't even clean their home. There is an old saying that "Cleanliness is next to godliness" Well I've seen homes where "Cleanliness" is next to impossible.



QUOTE=Ghost Town;55983466]Well this is true, but you know local mentality here: only new construction. Last week my coworker said that he lives in an old house (2003). I live in early 1990s house - that's the oldest among my coworkers. Everyone I hear talks only about new or 10 years old max.[/quote]

[Jamaraa]

Originally Posted by Ghost Town

Well this is true, but you know local mentality here: only new construction. Last week my coworker said that he lives in an old house (2003). I live in early 1990s house - that's the oldest among my coworkers. Everyone I hear talks only about new or 10 years old max.

Your coworker is an idiot if he seriously considers 2003 to be old.

It’s like saying a 16 year old is an old man.

Most Houstonians aren’t in a rat race to live in the “newest” house, this mentality is more common among suburbanites living in places like Katy, Fulshear, Sugar Land, etc.

[Corridor Chick]

Originally Posted by timtemtym

Actually, Alief was built to be a solid, middle and upper income area.

When I started teaching there in 03, there were still lots of teachers around from when it was a white, suburban district. Apparently from 1985-1990 there was a mass switch over in the socio-economic status of the majority of students. They had some crazy stories from those days! A lot of them had lived in the area for decades but sold their homes and left in the late 80s when it quickly slid from a quiet suburban area to a much different population.

I grew up in Clear Lake and there were quite a few unfinished neighborhoods around. Bay Colony, for example, where 646 hits I-45. They had streets laid out and several homes built, but it came to a halt with the crash. I'm not sure if those old houses are still there. I know the new developers redid the streets in the 2000s when it was redeveloped. Meadowgreen in Clear Lake was the last neighborhood built before the crash and then all the Bay neighborhoods came in with the resurgence in the 90s. Lots of Katy, Bear Creek, Copperfield, have similar areas that ground to a halt then came back later.

Alief had golf courses and lots of amenities. One of the golf courses turned into a landfill which pretty much exemplifies the area. I don't know if it will ever really come back. Los Angeles has lots of areas like this that boomed in the 50's-60's and have been left to rot for decades. Lots of the San Fernando Valley is like this along with south side cities like Paramount/Bellflower/Carson.

I went to high school in Fort Bend in the late 80s, and some of my classmates had gone to elementary and Junior high in Alief, so yes, I guess the change in the area started in the 80s. Some of them moved to Mission Bend. I don't think even back then I would have called it an upper-middle area, though. I remember noticing how tiny some of the houses on Beechnut seemed. And even though that area has declined as well, I still wouldn't say it's as bad as parts of Alief and north of Westheimer with complex after complex.

I used to drive down Dairy Ashford as part of my daily commute. Learned later that Hackberry Park (DA at Beechnut) was a golf course once upon a time. That totally explained the undulations on the walking trail that I had noticed.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by Corridor Chick

I went to high school in Fort Bend in the late 80s, and some of my classmates had gone to elementary and Junior high in Alief, so yes, I guess the change in the area started in the 80s. Some of them moved to Mission Bend. I don't think even back then I would have called it an upper-middle area, though. I remember noticing how tiny some of the houses on Beechnut seemed. And even though that area has declined as well, I still wouldn't say it's as bad as parts of Alief and north of Westheimer with complex after complex.

I used to drive down Dairy Ashford as part of my daily commute. Learned later that Hackberry Park (DA at Beechnut) was a golf course once upon a time. That totally explained the undulations on the walking trail that I had noticed.

The Bissonnet corridor in Alief has actual, authentic blight. The Westheimer corridor has a lot of moderately priced apartments and working-class residents, plus an excess of retail space (much of which should never have been built), but it's not blighted. I live just off Briar Forest and have no fear going anywhere north of Westpark any time of day. Bissonnet, however, I'd think twice about going to after dark.

[Jamaraa]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

The Bissonnet corridor in Alief has actual, authentic blight. The Westheimer corridor has a lot of moderately priced apartments and working-class residents, plus an excess of retail space (much of which should never have been built), but it's not blighted. I live just off Briar Forest and have no fear going anywhere north of Westpark any time of day. Bissonnet, however, I'd think twice about going to after dark.

North of Westpark Drive or Tollway? I’m assuming Tollway.

Westpark Drive west of the beltway is a bit north of the Tollway

[Jamaraa]

Originally Posted by Corridor Chick

I went to high school in Fort Bend in the late 80s, and some of my classmates had gone to elementary and Junior high in Alief, so yes, I guess the change in the area started in the 80s. Some of them moved to Mission Bend. I don't think even back then I would have called it an upper-middle area, though. I remember noticing how tiny some of the houses on Beechnut seemed. And even though that area has declined as well, I still wouldn't say it's as bad as parts of Alief and north of Westheimer with complex after complex.

I used to drive down Dairy Ashford as part of my daily commute. Learned later that Hackberry Park (DA at Beechnut) was a golf course once upon a time. That totally explained the undulations on the walking trail that I had noticed.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the apartment complexes north of Westheimer. As a previous poster already mentioned, I too wouldn’t have any problems going anywhere north of Westpark Tollway any time of the day.