Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Texas > Houston
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 04-28-2009, 01:19 PM
 
Location: Texas
447 posts, read 1,762,285 times
Reputation: 201

Advertisements

although, to be fair, if you're not really concerned about the schools, then go for it--you certainly wil get more house for your money on the northside.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 04-28-2009, 01:24 PM
 
70 posts, read 233,574 times
Reputation: 33
Well we definitely want to have kids in a few years but that puts us with a kindergartner in about 8 or 9 years.

I'm more thinking buy for the house now because the schools could change a lot in the next 8 years. No? Despite the high number of low socioeconomic status kids at Schmaltz, it seems to get a lot of good reviews. I asked a guy I work with about Mayde Creek (his kids go to Cinco Ranch HS) and he didn't have a good impression, but I'm almost wondering if it's more of a stigma attached to it than anything else.

It's a frustrating deal for sure.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-28-2009, 02:19 PM
 
Location: Texas
447 posts, read 1,762,285 times
Reputation: 201
It's not a stigma. When we first lived in Katy in 2001, we lived on the northside in Sundown Glen. Nice, quiet, but zoned to Mayde Creek, then to Morton Ranch. Both schools were a nightmare- and from reports still are. (now,mind you I'm comparing them to other Katy schools, not HISD or even FBISD)- My friend is moving specifically because of Smaltz- she's a teacher and is not happy with what she knows about Smaltz- but since I don't have kids at home anymore, I can't say whether her concerns are real, or possibly culturally motivated.

This may anger some folks here, but in my opinion, I would not put my kids in Mayde Creek or Morton Ranch. I had dealings with both principals, and was not impressed.

Who knows what will happen in the next 8-10 years, though.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-28-2009, 11:16 PM
 
Location: University Park
18 posts, read 37,047 times
Reputation: 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by eloon View Post
Have you looked at it lately? I've struggled to find anything less than about 225-230 on southside (around Barker Cypress/Fry) and a lot of those seem pretty vanilla.
Hello. What price point were you interested in? When is your target move date? How many bedrooms/bathrooms? What size yard were you intersted in? Just some things to consider in helping to narrow down your Barker Cypress choice.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-29-2009, 05:04 AM
cla
 
898 posts, read 3,301,187 times
Reputation: 568
I have read that the average homeowner moves every 7 years. With no children now or in the immediate future I would say buy where you want right now and then re-evaluate the school districts shortly before your children are ready to go to school. You'll may be ready for a change at that time anyway.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-29-2009, 02:20 PM
 
Location: Fulshear
1,326 posts, read 3,442,098 times
Reputation: 1184
My brother-in-law is having a home built in north Katy (near Fry and Morton).
I guess you could say he is on the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder, but him and his family are good, honest, hard-working folks.
From my understanding, most of the other people living in the area are too.
They're honestly just trying to carve out a better life for themselves.
Just because a school or area doesn't have six figure households all around it, does not mean it's a bad area.
It's a shame that certain people and areas get stigmatized b/c of things like the amount of kids at a school on reduced lunch.
I was on free lunch when I was in school and went to a school that was half minority population.
I still went to a great college and have a decent job today, as did many people who lived in my neighborhood.
I'd like to think I came out just fine and would hate to think that my family was looked upon as an "undesirable" by those families with higher incomes.
If you feel comfortable in the area, then go for it.
If the schools become so bad by the time you have a child and he's ready for school, then you can always move.
You'll hopefully be making more money and can afford a better home in a better area anyway.
And who's to say that the schools in south Katy won't go downhill in a few years anyway?
With the rate of people moving down there, I think it's only a matter of time before things start to turn for the worse.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-29-2009, 07:41 PM
 
Location: Katy,TX.
4,244 posts, read 8,731,226 times
Reputation: 4014
Quote:
Originally Posted by RVD26 View Post
My brother-in-law is having a home built in north Katy (near Fry and Morton).
I guess you could say he is on the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder, but him and his family are good, honest, hard-working folks.
From my understanding, most of the other people living in the area are too.
They're honestly just trying to carve out a better life for themselves.

Just because a school or area doesn't have six figure households all around it, does not mean it's a bad area.
It's a shame that certain people and areas get stigmatized b/c of things like the amount of kids at a school on reduced lunch.
I was on free lunch when I was in school and went to a school that was half minority population.
I still went to a great college and have a decent job today, as did many people who lived in my neighborhood.
I'd like to think I came out just fine and would hate to think that my family was looked upon as an "undesirable" by those families with higher incomes.
If you feel comfortable in the area, then go for it.
If the schools become so bad by the time you have a child and he's ready for school, then you can always move.
You'll hopefully be making more money and can afford a better home in a better area anyway.
And who's to say that the schools in south Katy won't go downhill in a few years anyway?
With the rate of people moving down there, I think it's only a matter of time before things start to turn for the worse.
BINGO! Agree 100%
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-29-2009, 08:51 PM
 
Location: Houston, Texas
1,668 posts, read 4,696,460 times
Reputation: 3037
Quote:
Originally Posted by eloon View Post
I've seen a lot of opinions about north Katy in general but my wife went and drove around the area and liked it. The house we're looking at seems nice and what we want for a great price, although I would expect them to come down some due to it being more expensive than pretty much all of the surrounding homes. It's the Barker's Ridge HOA.

It's zoned to Schmaltz/MaydeCreek/MaydeCreek. I've read some mixed stuff about all of those - but more good than bad for sure - and what I've read kind of reminds me of the Dallas suburb I grew up in (Rowlett). No kids yet, but probably going to start trying in another 3 years.

Any good reason to not buy here? I'm working downtown and she's teaching in spring branch, so we'd like to get as far east in Katy as we could, which is why we were looking in the Barker Cypress area. I think we both would rather be in the SBISD area between 610 and BW8 but those homes are out of our price range at this point, so this area seemed like a good entry point where we can stay in the general area we like with reasonable access to BW8, 610, Galleria, Memorial City, etc. The area zoned to Stafford in SB is pretty much 350+ and some of those schools are headed south due to apartments in the area. At our age and income level a house that expensive would be foolish. The HISD schools south of the bayou seem like good prices but the schools look pretty crappy.

Thoughts? I've lurked at this forum off and on for quite some time, so I know somebody is going to tell me to move to Kingwood, or to try Sugarland, or Pearland, but I don't think EasilyAmused can dispute my assessment of the Stratford area! I'd love to be wrong though.

Also, how useful or useless is the Addicks park and ride at hwy 6 and I10? I'd be interested in riding that to/from work. My current commute is downtown to Blalock on I10 which is great, but I have noticed that traffic starts to back up around BW8 so I think it would be advantageous to park and ride (and less stressful).
I'm curious why you say Stratford High school is going downhill? It almost made the top 10 list of the best high schools in houston. I think it came in around #14. The neighborhoods attending SHS are homes priced in the $500's-$600's on average. It may not be your price range but the schools aren't going bad.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-30-2009, 07:13 AM
 
Location: Charleston Sc and Western NC
9,273 posts, read 26,434,645 times
Reputation: 4741
What's wrong with Stratford? It's number 14 in the city, a Tier One school. 70%+ upper-middle/middle class students in an area that homes range from 300-1.5 million.
It had some problems (unmotivated students that dumped the schools overall performance) with some Katrina influx a few years back, but they are pretty much cycled out. It has apartment children, very low income at that, but so what? It's always been that way, those apartments have been zoned to Stratford since it opened and they aren't building anymore... they can't.

No, it's not Memorial HS, never has been never will be. No HS in the Houston Metro can be like Memorial HS..it's a geographic/demographic Fluke. But Memorial has some major social issues as well. Heck, Stratford has been looked down on since the Westchester days because of the apartments. Your ghetto term is nothing new....but know that the demographics haven't changed in decades. Heck when I was in high school and living in Tanglewood, we called Wilchester the Memorial Ghetto. But the fact is, most of those low income families are driving farther to work or paying more for an apartment so their kids CAN go to Stratford and get that Tier One education.


House prices in the neighborhoods zoned to Stratford have been doing nothing but going up forover 10 years now. Even little Thornwood has a starting point around 300k. If the economy recovers, I think the new CityCentre will put this area into a whole other price point. So, if you feel Stratford is going ghetto, it must have always been ghetto. We aren't gaining anymore apartment kids. It's not possible.

I think East Katy would be a great choice for you, if your concern is about the SBISD schools west of the Beltway. It's much more homegenous in Katy and you won't have to worry about low income kids. But, keep in mind I've heard people say Taylor HS is the drug capital HS of the westside of Houston. And that Morton HS is total ghetto. Do I beleive it? NO. I don't buy into all this status school v school and apartments make a school ghetto stuff. Basically, the residents of West Memorial seem pretty happy with the schools over here. The houses still sell at a premium.....so something must be right. But the ones that don't want their kids to go to Stratford put them in private. The location (key word in real estate) is great and if they can afford to buy around here, most don't have a problem shelling out a little more to go private.

You can always buy in Fleetwood or Barkers Landing and go to Katy schools. Proximity but not zoned to West Memorial schools. Whatever makes ya happy, do it.

But yes, I do dispute your claim about West Memorial. But dont' buy here if you aren't comfortable with the cost. Being a slave to a mortgage bill is not the way to go. But yeah, don't get pushed into Kingwood and Sugarland and the like. They have their "ghetto" schools too. Man, does anyone in Houston KNOW what ghetto really is?? 70% wealthy kids isn't ghetto.

Ps- I do think its odd that you are considering an area zoned to Mayde Creek, yet you call Stratford Ghetto. The area can get an infinite amount of new apartments built and zoned to it. We're done over here with apartment building. Have been for over 30 years.

Last edited by EasilyAmused; 04-30-2009 at 08:23 AM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-30-2009, 10:55 AM
 
77 posts, read 468,373 times
Reputation: 67
Eloon --- Maybe I can help you as my wife and I just went through the same situation. I work in the Galleria but she works in the Med-Center and we really wanted to stay inside highway six but didn't like what we could get for our price range. So we decided to move out to Katy. At first, I wanted to stay as far east in Katy as I could but realized that whatever was in our price range ($200K ish) was in the area that you're looking. Then I started stumbling across these huge house for cheap prices. I inquire and found out it was because of the schools/type of people that live there. I don't have kids so I wasn't concerned about the school. However, the more I thought about I realized that if I could get a really good price because "nobody" wanted to buy there then wouldn't it be really hard to sell my house when I did have kids?? I figured I'd rather drive 10 minutes more and get a little less house to be surrounded by like minded people (not that all people that live in North Katy have somethign wrong with them) and not have to worry about selling my house when my kids got of school age. Also, I thought what if I really like my house and neighbors and didn't want to move then I'd feel comfortable knowing my kids were zoned to top schools. However, for me it was more of a resale thing, knowing that property in the Katy South is where all the growth is so property values will rise and resale should be easier than North Katy.

Remember this, all the questions you're asking about buying in a particular area are the same questions potential buyers of your house will ask. So, if you're not sure then future buyers will probably not be sure either.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Texas > Houston

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top