commute to beaumont area (Houston, Baytown: homes, neighborhoods, to buy) - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

sf8921 · 07-13-2008, 03:08 PM

My husband will be considering a job in the Beaumont area. We currently live in Iowa and would be relocting to TX. My husband is from the Houston area originally but has been gone for over 20 yrs. We would like to live in a 'burb with good schools as we are used to that here. We are a bi-racial couple with biracial children ages 16,12 & 11. Need to know if anyone could discuss if a commute to the Beaumont area is do-able from Houston and if so, where would be a good place to live for good schools and fairly diverse neighborhoods. We will be looking to spend $200,000-$300,000. Any help would be appreciated!

tstone · 07-13-2008, 03:45 PM

I am doing a 2 year assignment w/ my company and I commute to Port Arthur every M-F. I come from Houston zip 77062 (Clear Lake area) and everything you are looking for in a suburb & your price range is right here. FYI homes are about $100/sq ft.

The commute is do-able but it is exactly 180 miles roundtrip. It takes me about 1:15-1:20 each way (1:30+ on Friday afternoons), but I set the cruise @ 80-85 mph the entire trip. The drive can take a lot out of you at times. The rainfall between here and there can be absolutely brutal, and I've seen a waterspout nearly form. There is a disproportionately large amount of 18 wheeler traffic 24/7 on that stretch of I-10. For 8-9 miles around Anahauc there is heavy construction and very narrow lanes w/o pullover areas. They better be paying superbly, or you'd have to be partially insane to do this drive. If I had kids and wasn't 30 years young, I wouldn't be doing this.

You can send me a direct msg if you wish and I'll try to answer any questions you may have.

texas7 · 07-13-2008, 04:07 PM

I work downtown and have a co-worker who commuted to Houston FROM Beaumont for many years (her husband worked in Beaumont) - she said she didn't mind it but that has been about 5 years ago.

rick.grau · 07-13-2008, 04:11 PM

There is a lot of new construction and acreage-type properties in the Mont Belvieu/Barbers Hill area off of I-10. I think Barbers Hill ISD is the school district. That area puts you at maybe 40-45 minutes to Beaumont and 30-35 minutes to downtown Houston. Might be a good compromise but research the school district, I don't know much about it.
Basically, I'm talking about the area near the existing Grand Parkway (99) and the plannned Grand Parkway. Might be a good investment to buy now - I'm thinking there will be a lot of growth in that area over the next ten years.

tstone · 07-13-2008, 04:28 PM

Baytown-Mont Belvieu-Cove (anything considered outer east side) all have a bit of a Deep-South, blue-collar element to them. Enough of one to turn me off to those areas. However if you're comfortable with that, $300k will buy you a 4500 sq ft McMansion out there that you'll have a hell of a time trying to sell.

HTownNearNative · 07-13-2008, 05:27 PM

As much as I hate to say this but the Beaumont area is not an area that I'd consider to be open minded enough to diversity. Definitely not the smaller towns near Beaumont.

sf8921 · 07-13-2008, 05:35 PM

Yeah, i am kind of turned off by too much of that as well. Even though we live in Iowa, Des Moines is fairly open and as "progressive" as you get here. We would like as much of that as possible. I dont think that we would be happy in a more "deep south" type of area if we can avoid it. In addition, my oldest son is a football player and wrestler. We are having a hard time finding good schools that offer both sports that are within a decent driving distance. Seems like most of the schools that offer all of that are in the western part of the city or suburbs. Thanks for your post-it is really hard to know true driving time by purely google maps, etc. Do you think it is a much longer commute if you come from the west side and does time of day (say 6 am/6pm) help in commute time? Thanks again!

starkeshia · 07-13-2008, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sf8921

We are having a hard time finding good schools that offer both sports that are within a decent driving distance.

Are you going to pack up and move to a different school district when the next child in line has a thing for band and basketball?

I'd say you're insane to even think about commuting between Beaumont and Houston.

Poltracker · 07-13-2008, 06:31 PM

Actually, Barbers Hill school district has quite a good rating from what I understand. That area is really the most reasonable to commute from.

tstone · 07-13-2008, 07:08 PM

Outer east areas of Houston = East Texas = where the Deep South begins. There are a lot of refineries out that way as well, with the corresponding mentalities & attitudes. I'm not saying this in a bad way, but it's something you should most definitely expect out there.

If you're coming from the west side, forget Beaumont unless he gets his own place there, or he really enjoys punishment. There is construction and lots of traffic along I-10 between Hwy 6 and Loop 610. It'll take you 2+ hours each way and 6am/6pm are most definitely rush-hour here. That piece of I-10 regularly crawls like the freeways of Los Angeles. For now anyway.

The area I suggested to you (Clear Lake) is within Clear Creek ISD, and they have wrestling

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I'm telling you from personal experience, that this is still a hell of a drive. I'm only doing it because it is temporary and the bribe was good. Screw moving out there.