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Thanks Michael, it's a lot of info to absorb but super helpful. I think we would prefer an older home over new construction, we want mature trees (do people grow fruit trees in Houston?) and the lots seem to be bigger with some of the older homes. Plus they do seem to have more character, less cookie cutter. There are just so many homes for sale and Houston is so big, I'm really trying to narrow my search before we actually come down to do house shopping. To put it into perspective we currently live in a village of 825 people, so it's all a bit overwhelming. Every time I think I've made up my mind there's something else to consider. What are the class sizes like in the elementary schools? Are there any preschool requirements? Do kids have to attend kindergarten? Are public schools completely free? In Alberta we have numerous fees for various things that can add up to hundreds of dollars for our "free" education. And a little something to make you glad you live in Houston...we are currently paying 5.20 a gallon for gas.
Yep, I do prefer older homes And you can get more for your buck if you shop for a well-kept one with some upgrades. If you get a house with a pool or install one later, you'll love that you can swim for at least 6 months of the year in Houston. Maybe 9 months if you can stand cool water
Public elementary schools by law have a class size limit of 22 kids. In practice, it may be 23 or 24, because you obviously cannot hire a new teacher for just a few extra kids. Often though they do maintain pretty close to the 22.
Yes, public schools are COMPLETELY free in Texas, from Kindergarten on up. Pre-school is only free to kids with economic need or language barriers. That's a sad truth. I think it should be free for all. You'll probably have to send them to a private pre-school, but Kindergarten is free for all. Kindergarten is NOT, however required in Texas, but I do highly recommend it. School attendance is compulsory in Texas from 1st grade through age 18, and it is also free. Even illegal aliens cannot be denied free education, thanks to a supreme court case out of California back in the 90's.
Holy cow on the gas prices! Yeah, we're at $3.54 today around the block. Prices vary by about 20-25 cents, by part of town, but I haven't seen them about the 3.70's this week. They've been (thankfully) dropping for a few weeks now.
Good luck in your hunt. Do your online research. In my experience, realtors are full of it and their main goal is to get you to make an offer on something ASAP, because they get paid the same no matter how long it takes you to find something
I am a Texas native. I've lived in Houston for 12 years, and I worked in Cypress-Fairbanks for 6 of those years. I've also lived in the Braeswood/Meyerland area, Clear Lake, Greenspoint and 7.5 years in Spring. I have seen construction projects and vast changes in traffic quantities and patterns in those 12 years. I personally would NOT recommend knowingly buying into the "Cypress, TX" area and trying to work in Westchase. The commute will be painful and the tolls will eat you alive. It could be worse, but I will tell you that Hwy 290 is the absolute WORST freeway in Houston. The lanes are narrow and it is by far the slowest freeway to drive every day, hands-down.
That being said, the Cypress-Fairbanks SCHOOL district is huge. It's the 3rd largest school district in Texas (period), the largest "Recognized" school district in Texas, and its borders go WAY down on the west side and INTERSECT with Katy ISD. In fact, there are Cy-Fair schools with a "Katy, TX" address. I highly recommend checking out some of those areas that will get you closer to Westchase without taking tolls. Beware of areas with lots of brand-new houses, but with heavy foreclosures and mostly cracker-jack cheaply-built houses. They are soon to become a blight on the city (10 years or less), but they are the primary source of the district's 5,000-7,000 student per year growth.
-ZeroTX
Zero, he's not asking about Katy or Bear Creek. He's asking about Cypress. That's not "Cypress".
Cy-Fair is an enormous school district which now enrolls over 100,000 students. It's made up of numerous communities and going all the way North to Champions...all the way South to Katy...all the way East past Jersey Village to Houston...and all the way West to Fairfield.
The area Zero is referring to is the Katy part of Cy-Fair. While there are some nice neighborhoods in that area like Deerfield Village and Berkshire, that area South of 529 to Clay (and the Katy ISD area opposite of it) also has a lot of newly constructed housing that fits the entry-level description. Again, this is not Cypress.
Cypress is the area between 249 past 290 almost to 529. The homes they have built and are building in this, currently, the fastest growing part of the district is the Western part of the district, in communities like Bridgeland, Towne Lake, Cypress Creek Lakes, Fairfield, Blackhorse, Cypress Lake Estates, Stone Gate, Canyon Lakes, Lakes of Fairhaven. This area is the newest area of Cypress with the bulk of new construction priced from the $200's to the $500's. These communities were built on large ranches and are similar in price, look & feel to Cinco Ranch and the South Katy communities. They have great schools, low foreclosure rates and high HH incomes.
The area I usually focus on (see above) is North Cypress (aka the "HP Corridor Area") located between 249 and 290. It's a mostly built-out area with dozens of neighborhoods and homes ranging from $150k to over $1M with the avg home price of around $250k. It features big trees, nice established neighborhoods, exemplary schools, very low foreclosure rates, very high avg HH incomes, and great demographics. This area enrolls into Cy-Fair and Tomball ISD. It's a great choice because you can buy a well-kept "older" 25 year old 3,000 sq ft. custom home in a nice established neighborhood for less than $200K. These neighborhoods were carved out of thickly wooded forests, so its very green and pretty year round. It's accessible by either 290 or 249 and has similar nice areas on all sides so it's nicely buffered.
Last edited by Mr. Football; 08-09-2008 at 11:40 PM..
I agree, that's what he was asking about. But I think it would be a mistake to live in Cypress if you want to work in Westchase. It's a heck of a commute with only the tollway as a feasible route. The Katy-side of Cy-Fair would be more feasible. Indeed, the bad part of that is that there's nothing old or established there, really. The only established areas out there is like Bear Creek or even West Houston, and we've already told him why he doesn't want to live in that are if he is concerned with quality schools. Cy-Fair ISD is the largest Recognized district in the state. I don't know that they've hit 100k students yet, but maybe. I think I already told you I worked there for 6 years. I only resigned 3 weeks ago, so I have an idea about CFISD
I do the commute to Westchase every day and it's really not bad. Around 25-35 minutes in the morning. 35-50 minutes in the afternoon. Not too terrible for a Houston commute. Yes, I go the tollway so the commute costs me, but I think its worth it. I'm not sure how much those factors (time, tollways) would change if you lived in South Cypress or even South Katy for that matter. Westchase is located on the Beltway, not much getting around that - though I know people who've tried it.
Plus, at that price range they could find a good value on a really nice home in a solid area with a larger lot-size in: Lakewood Forest, Hunter's Valley (aka Hunterwood Forest), Quail Forest, Lakewood Glen, Gettysburg or another nearby neighborhood with all custom-homes.
Quail Forest is a good value IMO
Same with Lakewood Forest
Hunter's Valley (shows up as "Hunterwood" on HAR.com btw)
Last edited by Mr. Football; 08-10-2008 at 01:07 AM..
Thanks guys! The houses are beautiful, honestly you have no idea how good you have it there. Any of the homes pictured above would run at least 500K in a smaller community in Alberta and probably a million in the cities. You can barely buy a trailer on it's own lot for 200K around here. We are so looking forward to having a really nice house to call home. So, Mr. Football, how much would you say the commute tolls cost you on average a month? We're pretty used to having to drive to get anywhere so a half hour/45 mins each way isn't too bad IMO. What do they have available for shopping/groceries in this area between 249 to 290? Is there a kind of downtown area or is it just little pockets of stores spread around? And to all those people who say Houston has no scenery, I don't get it. Every picture I've seen has beautiful trees and everything is green, green, green. Looks like paradise.
Thanks guys! The houses are beautiful, honestly you have no idea how good you have it there. Any of the homes pictured above would run at least 500K in a smaller community in Alberta and probably a million in the cities. You can barely buy a trailer on it's own lot for 200K around here. We are so looking forward to having a really nice house to call home. So, Mr. Football, how much would you say the commute tolls cost you on average a month? We're pretty used to having to drive to get anywhere so a half hour/45 mins each way isn't too bad IMO. What do they have available for shopping/groceries in this area between 249 to 290? Is there a kind of downtown area or is it just little pockets of stores spread around? And to all those people who say Houston has no scenery, I don't get it. Every picture I've seen has beautiful trees and everything is green, green, green. Looks like paradise.
I spend about $115/month on tolls. I usually take 290 to the Beltway in the morning and the Beltway to 249 in the afternoon, so it's a bit more if you choose to go that route.
We have some good grocery stores around here with two of the new concept hybrid HEB's (one at Vintage Park which is a brand new European inspired upscale Lifestyle Center and also at Coles Crossing) that each have a Central Market Cafe on the Run as well as Prime Beef, full butcher shop, Sushi bar, delis, bakery, floral, fresh daily seafood and a huge wine selection. We also have a couple nice Kroger Signature (just outside Longwood and another at 290 & Spring-Cypress) as well as a new concept Randall's (outside of Coles Crossing).
There is no real or faux downtown area here, mostly pockets of stores. When Vintage Park fully opens that'll be the closest thing to it, as you'll have mixed use retail in a town center/lifestyle format along with nearby corporate office buildings Hewlett Packard and others at 249 & Louetta. Over on the other side at 290, there's a number of big projects slated for the area between Barker Cypress and Spring Cypress, but they're in the planning stages (save for the mixed use Metro Park & Ride center). There's a great little shopping center right in front of Longwood & Lakewood Glen that has a very good Italian Restaurant, Mezzanotte (read the Houston Chronicle review here).
Louetta is a mostly tree-lined boulevard that is the main thoroughfare for this area between Hwy 249 an 290 with Spring-Cypress also running parallel (other main roads are Grant, Cypress N-Houston, Barker Cypress, Cypresswood, Telge, Huffmeister N. Eldridge and Jones Rd.). Major national retailers can be found on Hwy 249 and 290 and further down on FM 1960.
Last edited by Mr. Football; 08-10-2008 at 02:10 PM..
There's also a mall right off 249/1960 (Willowbrook mall), if malls are your thing... It's not as fancy as the Galleria or The Woodlands mall, but it's probably in the top 5 in the Houston area for nice-ness. It's also surrounded by the typical array of restaurants and strip-centers. Try Babin's seafood restaurant. My favorite
You definitely will get a great value on a home in Texas compared with where you are coming from. My wife and I are currently in a home search in Southwest suburbs (Sugar Land mostly), and our budget is under 130k. Yep, and although we won't get a mansion for 130k, we can easily find a good move-in ready 3 or 4 bedroom house. It takes a little more work in the 130k range, but if you go up to 160k, it gets really easy. 200k? Super easy.
Flooding has not been a problem in these neighborhoods. Years ago, there may have been a few homes in Lakewood Forest that backed up to the creek, but most of those have been bought out by HCFCA. Harris County Flood control constructed a large retention area located right outside Lakewood Glen and Quail Forest. No flooding problems in Hunter's Valley (aka Hunterwood on HAR.com) either. Faulkey Gulley does a good job, they also recently built a nice hike & bike trail.
Before you buy anywhere in Harris County, you will want to refer to the latest Flood maps:
http://www.tsarp.org/viewmaps.html (broken link)
Last edited by Mr. Football; 08-10-2008 at 08:52 PM..
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