ideas for job searching and neighborhoods in Houston (Tomball, Wells: condo, houses)

[javabean777]

My spouse is considering transferring to Houston for her job (we could go about anywhere, but Houston's made it to the top of the contendor list from the San Francisco area). We have two kids 7 and 10 and would like to put them in good schools.

My problem is my job - mainly, I don't have any idea where to start looking. I currently work for a bank and would like to continue with this. Does anyone know who the major banks are in the Houston area that I should check out? It would help if you could tell me where they are in relation to the good houses.

Also, from reading through a few past threads, there seems to be some contention about at what price point one can find a good neighborhood with a quality school district. Up here, a 1144 sq ft 3 br house is about $600k to 900k range. We live in a condo and need more space, but cannot afford to upgrade to a house where we currently live... From online searches, there seem to be a TON of well-maintained homes in the $150-$190k range in Houston that are nearly three times as big as our current home. That seems appealing, as we could probably afford for her to have our next child. Can we honestly get a good neighborhood and schools for that price? If not, what should we expect to pay for a 1700+ sq ft 3-4 br house? Any specific developments or suburbs?

From doing online research about the Houston schools, some things I think will be important to us are low free-lunch rate, high graduation rate and good test scores. I hope that doesn't come across as elitist - we just want as much status quo as possible for our 2rd grader and 4th grader.

Sorry this is so long! Any help you could provide is appreciated.

[EasilyAmused]

Yes you can find all that, mostly about 30 miles from the city core. That can translate if a hefty commute should you choose to work in the city. But being in banking I think you could probably work near the burb you live in.

In Houston and close to downtown, for really good public schools and saftey, you pay through the nose just like San Fran, but not quite as steep.

[SkyeAnjel]

Klein ISD, or Tomball ISD or Cy-fair ISD would be fine for you. Great suburbs, great schools and a whole lotta banks! Library , parks, churches, movie theatres, skating rinks, restaraunts, and all kinds of kid stuff to do out here.

[SkyeAnjel]

As for banks, Wells Fargo, Chase and Bank of America are some big ones out here.

[texas7]

You can find a home in your range all over the area. Houston is very spread out - might be good to figure out where your work location will be and find a good burb with the shortest commute. There are nice areas with good school districts on all sides of town - you just have to know where to look. WHere is your work location?