Clutch, With Kids and schools, you should look at Katy, or around the Fry road area. You can get a nice size house in a good neighborhood with good schools. In fact, it is cheaper to buy in Houston than Austin, WAY cheaper. My house in Houston in a similar neighborhood is about $100,000 less expensive. So you can get more house for your money, especially in the burbs. However, get used to watching a murder a night on the news. Houston is just not as nice as Austin.... DD
ClutchDaddy...if you want to stay close to the loop, check out Meyerland/Westbury. Half a mile outside the loop. Meyerland is zoned to the best public high school in HISD (Bellaire). Prices range from the low 100s (Westbury) to the 400s (Meyerland) and everything in between. Do a search on HAR.COM for zip code 77096. If you don't want to live in the burbs and commute like crazy everyday, it is a great neighborhood to live in.
Define nice. I lived in Austin from 1979-1983, when it was one of the best places on the planet to live. Since then, rampant growth and development have turned Austin into a nightmare compared to what it used to be. Austin's infrastructure has not kept up with it's growth, and the city is hurting because of it. I've been in rush-hour traffic in both places, and I can tell you that Austin's is definitely worse than Houston's. It actually reminded me of Los Angeles. You couldn't pay me enough $$$ to live in Austin these days. That's why when I moved back to Texas in 1998, and had job offers in Austin and Houston for the same salary, I chose Houston in a heartbeat. I'm glad I did. Austin is a joke these days compared to what it once was.
Tex, I have been in Austin since 1985, with the exception of 2 years in Houston in 92-93. Houston traffic, especially on I-10 going west is just like Los Angeles, Austin is not even close. I grew up in Houston, and would not move there unless I HAD to...Austin is better in all aspects. DD
I grew up in Bellaire on a street called Jaquet. It's the one with the little park on the 610 feeder between Fornace and Bissonet. The last time I went there to drive around, all of the old houses were gone and replaced with David Weekly-type homes. I didn't even recognize my old stomping grounds. I was just glad to see my childhood home still there and really fixed up. It seems like they are trying to turn that area into the next West U.
Clutch, My mom is a real estate agent in Houston and has been doing it since... as long as I have been around basically! Anyways, I am sure she'd be happy to give you some advice or help if needed... she helped alot of my friends with Schlumberger when they moved down to Sugarland. Offers out there, email me at jk5566@hotmail.com if you might want to talk to her. Easy on the jokes about me real estate pimping my mom!
You are entitled to your opinion, as am I. In my opinion, Austin is living on its past glories. It has gone way downhill since I lived there, and I wouldn't live there now for all the tea in China. If you like it, fine. It's all yours.
Bellaire already is the next West U. When I was growing up, it was where the poorer kids who went to my school lived. Not anymore.
Rocektman Tex has it right. Meyerland is good and close. Bellaire is by many measures the best public highschool in Houston. I agree with him about Houston and Austin. I was living in Ausin in December 1984 when I decided to move back to Houston because: wages were higher, rents were cheaper and traffic was less in central Houston then in central Austin. People in Houston and Austin wouldn't believe me as Austin still had the reputation of a sleepy college town left over from the 1970's.
I live in NW Houston (Champions and 1960), and it sucks. Boring and lots of traffic, but the homes are nice. I honestly prefer living in my dorm at UH.
I know a lot of people who can't stand Austin. I lived there and HATED it. It's all perspective. As for a murder a night, why would you watch the local news EVER ANYWHERE?!
Bellaire and Meyerland are excellent choices. Certainly gets the priorities of school and investment down. Now, getting 2800-4000 sq.ft. - hmmm. Maybe you should build. My wife and I built our home in the Rice Village area. We were our own contractors. It was trying but has been very rewarding. I can send some pictures or will try to upload some later. We made a good profit on our starter home there, so we bought a tear down, knocked it down, and built a new one, keeping the contractor fee and and land mark-up out of the game. I'm also a broker and property manager, so that helps, but we know others without that experience who have successfully built in Bellaire and the Heights. You will save a lot of money, if you can stand it. I can give more information another time. Sometimes it helps to get into a good neighborhood and good school system, then scout around, and make you lot purchase and sell the interim house. There's a number of homes that flooded in Bellaire that can be picked up cheap. You can "mold remediate" (clorox) them yourself, get them re-inspected and approved for insurance, (fire only) and then stay there while you prepare to tear it down, draw plans, get permits and such. The new home will be built up on a high foundation and you will avoid the flooding problem. Same in Meyerland and Brays Heights, with less restrictions from the city of Houston than you would find in Bellaire. If you play your cards right, you can turn $ 400,000.00 into $ 550,000.00. But that's just play money anyway, right? . There are less cash-intensive plays in the neighborhoods, too, of course. That's just one on my mind.
I just wanted to comment on MManal's description of Katy because I don't want someone getting the wrong idea. He is right that the Katy area is not that ethnically diverse, and is predominantly white. However, the juneteenth incident he mentioned came from a home in Old Katy, near katy high school. It's not nearly that bad in the more upscale part of town, where my family lives now. I grew up on the other side of Fry and it is night and day, even moreso now since all the expansion in Katy. I was suggesting mainly anything on the side of Fry Road close to Katy Taylor high school, one of the best public schools in the state, or by the Grand Parkway and Cinco Ranch high school, another very good school. And Taylor, where I graduated in 2001, is getting more diverse. By the time I had graduated the school had some black players on the varsity basketball team, and most of the top 10 students in my class of 810 were Asian. Obviously, it isn't where I would like it to be yet, but its improving. I'm not one to turn a blind eye to racism, either. I just don't want people to think the town is just an old style, old way of thinking town. It's not nearly that bad. I do agree with MManal on the property values though, as there is constant rapid expansion in Katy right now. To put it in perspective soon Katy will have built a 6th high school. It will open either next year or the following year if I'm not mistaken. And in closing, MManal is spot on in that Katy is not the place one goes if they desire the most ethnically diverse town, but it isn't anywhere to some towns that act like they are a branch of the Klan, either.
Also, in those 6 figure homes I was mentioning, they are very large homes. Lots of square feet, and usually two story. I think my parents paid 250k for our 2 story 5 bedroom, 3 bath house in the mid 90's, and I'm sure the square footage is close to 4000, if not greater. Correction: I meant to say Katy isn't anywhere close to some towns that act like branches of the Klan.
Anybody know anything about Oak Forest (north of the loop between TC Jester and Ella)? Seems like a pretty nice little neighborhood with lots of "starter homes" which is what I'm in the market for.
I grew up there and my parents still live there. Very reasonably priced, and not too far of a drive to downtown and the rest. Not a whole lot going on there but a decent enough place to start out in.
I've lived in Austin since 1980, but I visited often from the late '60's until I moved here. Is it what it used to be? Hell no! But is it like Houston? Hell no! I never go on I-35, which can be hell-on-earth, unless I'm going to SA and the coast or going north towards Dallas. Even then, I avoid the "in town" stretches. I don't understand how someone of the obvious intelligence of you, 'Tex, can make the comparison. I'm bitter about how Austin has been screwed up and gentrified as well, but it's still the most liberal city in Texas (despite DD being here! ) and beats Houston silly as far as traffic goes. (and many other things, but I don't want to argue... I just wish I could move the many things I love about Houston here and get about 150,000 Californians to move back. That's why everything has gotten so expensive. They've driven up the property values. My house here is worth a rediculous amount of money. People who sold their homes on the West Coast to move here think they've died and gone to heaven. They think Austin's cheap.)
