moving to Clear Lake? (League City, Center: apartments, rental homes, townhouse)

[gulfcoastloans]

hello - - did you get someone to help you with your home loan. I work in the Clear Lake area and have lived in League City for seven years. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can offer assistance in any way?

[ke22]

Friendswood is a very nice family oriented town with great schools. It has a good small town atmosphere and I45 is fairly close to get to so that he can get to Pasadena. How old are your kids and what kind of activities do they want? We are close to Baybrook Mall and the other major retailers. We have less traffic than Clear Lake and League City, but we are much smaller, population wise. All three of these areas would be great ones to look at.

[HCottrill]

Sounds like we're in the same boat. One of us has a job in Pasadena and we'll be moving soon. Have you made any progress in your decision? Anyone send you good tips on daycare?

[Topaz]

When we were exploring different areas, I thought Bay Forest was a gorgeous neighborhood.

[DanielWayne]

SE Houston covers a lot of area. Houston is a checkerboard of good, bad, and ugly. I lived in League City for about 6 years, and now I am in actual Clear Lake. Lots of upscale neighborhoods here. There are no bad neighborhoods here - just a few areas with really run down apartment complexes. This is foreign to me since I'm from a small town in SE Tx with population of about 19,000 that has an entire East end you learn to avoid. Friendswood and Pearland are really nice, too. League City has some nasty traffic, but if you find work in Clear Lake, it really isn't an issue.

[AlfredB1979]

Originally Posted by tstone

Quality of life in Clear Lake is fine. I'm out here and basically everything I need/want except for pro sports, museums and the symphony is easily accessible. The whole area has jogging/biking trails that are used by many from 5AM-10PM, and I can take a 5 minute walk to the strip mall w/ the grocery store, bank, eye dr, haircutter, Pizza Hut & Hunan restaraunt.

The southeast side is a barrio north of Fuqua but I don't see any problem driving 15 mins for some great, hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaraunts over there. Flooding is a serious issue throughout the whole southeast side (and Pasadena) so research your areas wisely. My area never floods, but everywhere around me does about once a year in heavy rain, which traps me at home for a few hours until it drains off.

I can't think of any questionable areas in Clear Lake except for cheap apartments off El Dorado and NASA Rd 1 between I-45 and Hwy 3, and even then they are not that bad.

Depending on where exactly he is working in Pasadena, anything off Clear Lake City Blvd or Middlebrook Drive is where I would start looking as those streets are fairly void of stoplights and flow 24/7. The cheaper/older neighborhood ($150k, 30 y.o.) would be Middlebrook and Bay Oaks would be the upper end (up to $4M), and everything else off those two streets-- Bay Glen, Bay Knoll, Bay Pointe, Northfork, Pine Brook, Brook Forest are about $200k-500k and 15-20 years old. Price per sq ft is roughly $100 in the newer neighborhoods, comparable to Sugar Land or The Woodlands. If you need more room for less cash, there are some decent places inside Pasadena you could look at but you will lose some amenities vs. Clear Lake.

I know someone that lives in that neighborhood by Ellington...Space Center turns into a race track during drive time and I'm not sure how noisy Ellington can get.

Then again, I work down Dixie Farm from there and the only obvious noise is the occasional jet...and those are fun to listen to at least during the 8-5...

[tstone]

Originally Posted by AlfredB1979

I know someone that lives in that neighborhood by Ellington...Space Center turns into a race track during drive time and I'm not sure how noisy Ellington can get.

Then again, I work down Dixie Farm from there and the only obvious noise is the occasional jet...and those are fun to listen to at least during the 8-5...

Yeah I'm just south of Ellington. Here's something from the FAA:

NOISE ABATEMENT: NOISE SENSITIVE AREAS S AND E OF FIELD. JET AIRCRAFT RESTRICTED TO STR-IN FULL STOP LANDING ONLY BETWEEN 2200-0700 DAILY, 2200-1300 SUN. NO MULTIPLE PRACTICE VISIBLE FLIGHT RULES (VFR) APPROACH BETWEEN 2300-0700 SUN. ON DEPARTURE JET AIRCRAFT MIN USE OF AFTER BURNERS AND CLIMB RUNWAY HEADING TO 1000' PRIOR TO TURNS OR REJOIN.

I've been here 4 years and the noise is never after sunset or before sunrise. Nor is it every day even. I think it gives a personality to the area and is not a nuisance. It is mostly from military jets' afterburners. Now they've been testing these drones in circles over the area and sometimes you'll see a twin-rotor Army helicopter but that's still not very often. Sometimes on certain weekends they have an all-out practice session where you can step into your backyard and see all kinds of planes & helicopters.

Apparently if you live to the north (Pasadena or South Houston) the noise restrictions do not apply. I know they are flying turbo-prop cargo planes to Beaumont and College Station which could also create a noise issue to the north. AFAIK they aren't flying any of these planes to the south as that would put them in the Gulf.

[bls8195]

I live in Seabrook and like to think its very friendly out here and nice and quite, still Harris county.

[djt79]

Originally Posted by DanielWayne

SE Houston covers a lot of area. Houston is a checkerboard of good, bad, and ugly. I lived in League City for about 6 years, and now I am in actual Clear Lake. Lots of upscale neighborhoods here. There are no bad neighborhoods here - just a few areas with really run down apartment complexes. This is foreign to me since I'm from a small town in SE Tx with population of about 19,000 that has an entire East end you learn to avoid. Friendswood and Pearland are really nice, too. League City has some nasty traffic, but if you find work in Clear Lake, it really isn't an issue.

I'm coming next week to choose one of those appartments in Clear Lake (77062) as a temporary solution until we buy a house. Do you happen to know the names (or the streets intersections) of the complexes we should avoid? Thanks.

[djt79]

Never mind. I've read some reviews... We'll rent a house instead...