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We have lived in Pittsburgh, PA for almost 20 years. We are a middle class, working family, both of us with master's degrees (husband S. American, me from Caribbean). While Pittsburgh is not the most diverse city, the area we live in has all the amenities, safety, super friendly people, affordability we could want and it has been a great place to raise our children (7, 5) so far. On the downside we're struggling to find nice/affordable 4 br homes around $250K. We're also tired of the snow, dealing with basements, also it would be nice to have the children experience a more diverse environment/learn Spanish and being closer to family living in CA - which is too expensive to be an option.
We started looking around and talking to people and the big Texas cities (Dallas, Houston, San Antonio) seem like a good option for the things we're looking. Have not considered Austin since I found it's more expensive that the other areas. I want to hone in on the best suburbs for us and appreciate any guidance on this from people who live there. Here's what we're looking for:
1) Safe suburb/neighborhood
2) Great public schools (where my children are accepted and not discriminated against or typecast for being Latinos/Hispanic)
3) Nice houses around $250K with at least 4 bedrooms
4) Diverse neighborhood (meaning multicultural people -white/black/indian/oriental/Hispanic/etc- living together amicably/friendly/accepting of each other)
5) Close access to the city
6) Not prone to flooding
7) Not too hot, JK (I know, it's Texas!!!)
(Access to school sp. ed. programs, pediatric speech/OT therapy services would be a plus)
Places that seem compatible from my research:
HOUSTON: Katy, Missouri City, The Woodlands, Sugar Land
DALLAS: Plano, Allen, Frisco
SAN ANTONIO: Helotes, Cibolo, Universal City, Selma
Any city better than the other? Please I really need your comments and recommendations to narrow our choices! Thanks in advance.
Last edited by FromPghtoTX; 05-20-2016 at 09:55 AM..
- Safe suburbs can be found around all Texas cities.
- Good to great public schools can be found in suburban areas of all Texas cities. (& there would be little to no discrimination anywhere)
- The 250K & under for 4 BR will be tougher. At least for areas that feed into "great" schools. (one pays a premium for the great schools). But it might be doable in Houston or San Antonio. (less doable in greater Dallas or Austin)
- Semi-Multicultural will be found in suburbs of all cities. Obviously a significant Latin population in San Antonio (but mostly Mexican-American).
- What do YOU mean by "Close Access" to the city? Why is this important? There are some brutal commutes in all Texas cities. (at least from the "nice" suburbs with 250K homes).
- There are flood prone areas in each city (during a large rain event). Buy (or rent) a home that avoids this.
Off the top of my head:
Houston - Katy or Clear Lake area. Dallas - Way Way out (for that price) San Antonio - Northside or NEISD school districts. (& Cibolo/Schertz & New Braunfels ISD & Comal ISD)
Why not greater Ft. Worth? (or Corpus?)
I think you're off the mark with:
- Plano/Frisco (out of your budget & a different kind of "diversity).
- Mo City & Sugarland & Woodlands (I suspect the same)
- Universal City & Selma are dumps.
- Helotes is part of Northside ISD area & Cibolo is part of Shertz...& both areas might be a fit.
My gut say greater San Antonio or greater Ft. Worth/mid cites area (maybe Mansfield?)
One thing to note with San Antonio is that you don't need to move to a suburban (separate) city to get that "suburban", safe feel you are looking for. The city of SA annexes like crazy so many outlying areas are in the city limits but have good schools, amenities, etc. You could probably find an older house in the Stone Oak area at $250k and that includes great schools and access to shopping, restaurants, etc.
- Safe suburbs can be found around all Texas cities.
- Good to great public schools can be found in suburban areas of all Texas cities. (& there would be little to no discrimination anywhere)
- The 250K & under for 4 BR will be tougher. At least for areas that feed into "great" schools. (one pays a premium for the great schools). But it might be doable in Houston or San Antonio. (less doable in greater Dallas or Austin)
- Semi-Multicultural will be found in suburbs of all cities. Obviously a significant Latin population in San Antonio (but mostly Mexican-American).
- What do YOU mean by "Close Access" to the city? Why is this important? There are some brutal commutes in all Texas cities. (at least from the "nice" suburbs with 250K homes).
- There are flood prone areas in each city (during a large rain event). Buy (or rent) a home that avoids this.
Off the top of my head:
Houston - Katy or Clear Lake area. Dallas - Way Way out (for that price) San Antonio - Northside or NEISD school districts. (& Cibolo/Schertz & New Braunfels ISD & Comal ISD)
Why not greater Ft. Worth? (or Corpus?)
I think you're off the mark with:
- Plano/Frisco (out of your budget & a different kind of "diversity).
- Mo City & Sugarland & Woodlands (I suspect the same)
- Universal City & Selma are dumps.
- Helotes is part of Northside ISD area & Cibolo is part of Shertz...& both areas might be a fit.
My gut say greater San Antonio or greater Ft. Worth/mid cites area (maybe Mansfield?)
But where are your jobs located?
Good luck.
Thank you for all the helpful info. I wrote Dallas but really meant DFW, so anywhere in the metro area. Where in DFW do you recommend? I didn't think Plano was out, have seen very nice houses for $250K on real estate sites which list Plano ISD for the schools, so that's why I thought it could work!? Maybe the info is not correct. Totally get what you're saying about paying for the good schools, I guess that's how it is everywhere. How about gangs, I'm kind of scared of that, we really don't see or hear much about that where we are now, so that's a concern.
In terms of jobs, I have looked in Indeed and jobs are listed for my profession in all cities, and I'm also considering working remotely while making the actual move there to make things easier. That said the way I'm approaching it is, make sure there are places with our wish list first, then target those areas to find jobs, then move. Don't want to move just for a job. I want to make sure we have the same good quality of life we have in Pittsburgh, PA there, but just adding the things that we cannot get here, if that makes sense. Thanks again for the feedback. Very helpful! Any other tips...let me know!
One thing to note with San Antonio is that you don't need to move to a suburban (separate) city to get that "suburban", safe feel you are looking for. The city of SA annexes like crazy so many outlying areas are in the city limits but have good schools, amenities, etc. You could probably find an older house in the Stone Oak area at $250k and that includes great schools and access to shopping, restaurants, etc.
That sounds like a good plus for San Antonio! Thanks!
1) Safe suburb/neighborhood
2) Great public schools (where my children are accepted and not discriminated against or typecast for being Latinos/Hispanic)
3) Nice houses around $250K with at least 4 bedrooms
4) Diverse neighborhood (meaning multicultural people -white/black/indian/oriental/Hispanic/etc- living together amicably/friendly/accepting of each other)
5) Close access to the city
6) Not prone to flooding
7) Not too hot, JK (I know, it's Texas!!!)
Everyone else has given great responses. Hound mentioned Clear Lake. Next door to Clear Lake is Friendswood and League City. League City is about 15-20% Hispanic (me included) and since it is close to NASA, you will occasionally bump into people from literally all over the globe. Russians, Canadians, and Japanese officially have a presence at the Space Center in addition to tons if Asian and Indian engineers. You also have a lot of engineers working in the nearby chemical refining industry and also UTMB has a lot of employees and doctors who commute from here to Galveston. Your kids will likely go to school with children of NASA engineers among other highly educated professionals. Very low riff raff here, although no place is totally free of riff raff.
So
1) Look up Friendswood and League City (we are right next to Clear Lake) in safety rankings, you won't be disappointed
2) Look up Friendswood ISD and Clear Creek ISD - some of the top rated in the state
3) Yes plenty of houses in that range
4) League City is majority Anglo, but you will find people from ALL over the world here. Friendswood too.
5) Yes, almost midways between downtown Houston and Galveston
6) That depends, but mostly if you live close to Galveston Bay.
7) Sorry, it gets hot here.
Last edited by DanielWayne; 05-20-2016 at 01:17 PM..
I spent some of my best childhood days there, although the population was about 6,000 or so, I would guess. Dancing was illegal in town, I think (although I was too young to care). There were just a few Hispanic families in town at that time. One had twins that were my age (Peter and Paul Munoz, iirc) that lived one block over and I played with all the time. Another (the Gutierrez family) was (and still are) very close friends of my family and they all worked for NASA in the 60s. Then the boat people thing happened and a Vietnamese engineer and his kids moved into town. Some of the really old racist families just about died right then and there .
We used to drive through the woods to get to Houston, which kinda started at Loop 610 and the new Almeda Mall.
Things sure have changed, mostly for the better....
SanAntonio- check 78258, 78258, 78260 and 78261. That's Stone Oak and surrounding zips. The area is relatively new so the older homes are about 30 years at most.
One thing to note with San Antonio is that you don't need to move to a suburban (separate) city to get that "suburban", safe feel you are looking for. The city of SA annexes like crazy so many outlying areas are in the city limits but have good schools, amenities, etc. You could probably find an older house in the Stone Oak area at $250k and that includes great schools and access to shopping, restaurants, etc.
Agree with this.
OP, the Stone Oak (& surrounding areas) recommendations are good ones and are in the NEISD school district. NEISD and NISD school districts are the two school districts (in San Antonio) to look at in your price range.
The Shertz/Cibolo area & the NB area are also good choices in your price range, (but both are 15-25 miles NE of town).
My wife and I are raising a mixed Hispanic family I suppose. I'm Anglo, she's from Chile. Our oldest was born in Chile, the younger two were born here. Everyone but me is a dual citizen. We have a little of both languages in the house.
Generally speaking if you are middle class Hispanic citizens you'll find little or no overt discrimination of any kind in any of the nicer urban areas anywhere in Texas. Hispanics are basically everywhere. Texas is literally filled with 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. Hispanics who are Texan through and through. I teach HS and probably 25-30% of my students have Hispanic names and ancestry but are pure Texan. That said, there are also millions of recent immigrants and whole large areas of many cities where it feels more like Mexico than the US. But these are not your middle class suburbs.
As for your original list, you are more or less on the right track, although each suburb has its own unique characteristics. For example, the Plano area north of Dallas and the Sugar Land area southwest of Houston are very popular with Asian Americans and have some of the most competitive academic high schools anywhere. Plano schools, for example, put out an astonishing number of national merit scholars every year but you don't find a lot of Hispanic kids on the list: National Merit Semifinalists / News Archive : Plano ISD I've not been to Sugar Land but it has a similar reputation. 87 FBISD seniors are semi-finalists in National Merit Scholarship Program
In your shoes, I'd look at pretty much anywhere on the north side of the DFW area from Keller on the Fort Worth side to Rockwall on the Dallas side. Each suburb has its own vibe and price point but none are "bad". The big swath of suburbs along the south side of the DFW metroplex are more mixed. Some are pretty nice like the Mansfield area, other areas are more mixed.
The Houston area is just enormous. There are nice areas to the north around the Woodlands and surrounding towns all the way up to Conroe. To the west Katy is very popular and to the south others have mentioned Friendswood, Clear Lake and League City. I have friends in Katy and it is the classic American suburban sprawl area filled with master planned communities but many like it. Others here can tell you more about the Houston area.
My personal preference would be the north or northwest corner of San Antonio. It is still a big city on the scale of Pittsburgh but not so overwhelming as the DFW and Houston areas in terms of traffic and size. San Antonio is also the most Hispanic city in Texas that has the highest percentage of Hispanic mover and shaker types in the government and business community. It has also become a popular place for wealthy Mexicans to buy second homes to escape the drug war violence down there. So you have some very upscale subdivisions (way outside your price range) where the majority of residents are wealthy Mexican nationals (not Mexican-Americans). Of all the cities in Texas, San Antonio seems to have the most family feel to it, not quite as fast paced business-oriented as DFW and Houston and not quite so young hipsterish as Austin.
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