wordgirl

Wow! I didn't expect to see any activity on this thread still. I posted last year when we were looking for a new house. We have since moved to Fall Creek (northeast of Houston near Beltway 8 and 59), mostly because we were priced out of most neighborhoods zoned to Memorial unless we wanted to go the fixer-upper route again. And paying $300,000 plus for a fixer-upper in Spring Valley was hard for us to stomach.

The lack of affordable housing stock was also the main reason we moved from GO. I am sure we could have figured out HISD, but I'm not sure if we wanted to deal with all the hassle.

They are building a new elementary school in our neighborhood and will also be building a new middle and high school to which we will be zoned. I have no idea whether the schools will be good or not, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. I do know that my daughter will be going to school with kids in her neighborhood, and that was what we wanted for her.

Thanks for all the information!

I don't know where your experience comes from, but every one of my friends and I brag about never leaving the loop. When I lived in The Woodlands, I routinely drove 2,000 miles per month. Now, in the Heights, I rarely put more than 500 miles per month on my car. I haven't been to a suburban mall since I moved into town 7 years ago, including Greenspoint.

All I know is that when it is close to a hundred degrees outside, and you are bored out of your gourd at home watching your baby all day long--an airconditioned mall is a nice place to go. When we lived in Garden Oaks, we hung out at Memorial City Mall pretty often. Lots of moms from the Heights sought refuge there as well.

We live in Fall Creek now, so it would be great if Greenspoint were renovated, because it is just down the road from us. But I probably wouldn't shop there too much until it got cooler. I much prefer the open-air "town-center" concept, but in August, the mall is the way to go! I wish Deerbrook would get a redo like Memorial City, but it is not too bad.

The deed is done. We are moving to Fall Creek by the end of the month. No worries here.

Thanks. Garden Oaks is great, but three bedroom houses in good shape and under 3K are getting hard to come by.

Plus they are tearing down houses left and right.

Looks like my daughter will have plenty of kids to play with up there!

Update: We finally got off the pot and sold our house in Garden Oaks. Looks like we are going to be neighbors Midtown Coog. We are moving to the Laurel Oaks section of Fall Creek. While we are sad to say goodbye to GO, I have to admit we are excited to be moving into a brand new house that doesn't require constant repair! And at least for the moment, the commute is about the same for my husband who works downtown! If it ever gets too bad, he has the option of the park and ride.

Thanks for all your help and advice folks!

I am a graduate of Memorial High School and strongly believe that it is the best public education in the city, bar none. Lamar, Bellaire, and Stratford would be the only other schools in the actual city of Houston that I would consider as far as public schools go. However, Memorial can be rather snotty as many of the kids live in multi million dollar mansions and th ey all drive 40k and up foreign cars, but if a great education is what you're looking for then look no further. However, I will warn you that both Valley Oaks and Spring Branch have apartments and lower end housing zoned to them so I would be wary of those schools. Personally, I would move in the Villages south of I-10 to avoid those problems and get zoned to Memorial Middle School.

Thanks for the info. Sounds lilke Memorial has a lot to offer, but I'm not too keen on the snotty factor. Can't keep up with those Joneses. Guess it is too much to hope for a mostly middle class experience near the city. Seems like what you get is a mix of very rich and very poor.

I grew up in Bunker Hill Village.......

Oh, you did say south of I-10. Got my directions mixed up.

Better have deep pockets for the villages, atleast now.......my parents property value has skyrocketed since they first moved and built there in the 1970's :):)

What villages are we talking about? Hilshire? That's too rich for my blood.

Huh...I didn't know they bussed to magnet schools. Something to consider.

Where are you zoned?

Some of the zoned schools on HISD's west side are good too.

Type in your address at: http://dept.houstonisd.org/ab/abcx_tool/search.asp

This should determine where you are zoned.

As for the Memorial area schools - They are in the Spring Branch ISD: http://www.springbranchisd.com/

Thanks for the suggestion.

We are zoned to Garden Oaks elementary and Oak Forest in nearby. Choices nearby for middle and high schools get rough. We would have to be shuttling kids across town. Spring Valley is closer to here I work part time and downtown where my husband works, than the west side of Houston I think. I work at Gessner and Kempwood.

OK. Maybe it is a loaded question, but I welcome your feedback. My husband and I need more space for our growing family, but are still wrestling with the decision on whether to make the move out to the burbs. We are in HISD and can do the Vanguard/magnet thing, but kinda liked the idea of our kids growing up and going to school with the same bunch of kids. Spring Valley seemed like a good option because it is zoned to Valley Oaks, Spring Branch Middle and Memorial, and is still close in.

We are not millionaires, and I want to raise a grounded kid. Are we out of our league here? Does anyone have experience with these schools? Of course, academically, Memorial is excellent. Valley Oaks is recognized and Spring Branch Middle got an acceptable score this year, although they have performed better in the past.

Thanks!

jgs1419,

Know what you mean! We were just at the Children's Museum today. I agree it is a wonderful place when you run out of ideas. Better than the mall anyway.

Our challenge is being patient in our small and falling apart house, until we can save up money to remodel or move to a bigger house. Every time the inlaws come, My mind starts dreaming of that big house in the burbs.

Posts like yours help me keep my resolve.

Do you have a website for your homebuilding business? Do any work in GO?

We wanted to move to the Heights six years ago, but even then it was getting too expensive, so we chose Garden Oaks to the north. The neighborhood is changing a lot too. Anyone want to look in their crystal ball and ponder on what the future holds for your neighbors to the north?

We keep going back and forth on whether to move, now that we have an 18-month old daughter, and may have plans for more kids.

Ditto. Thanks for all the information everyone contributed. It will be great if the plans come to fruition.

Just curious if anyone had any updates about the Northwest Mall. I saw in the Chronicle today that developer Jenard Gross is going to tear down the MetroNexus building at 610 near 290, "to make way for as many as 300 new apartments, 140 single-family homes and 200 townhomes."

The article continues...

"Gross said the industrial area northwest of the Heights shows promise as a residential neighborhood because of planned improvements at nearby Northwest Mall and a new office building under construction for HISD in the area."

Any specifics on the improvements? Would love to see something cool happening there.

Yep.

Barely a bite on the Fall Creek vs. Kingwood vs. Summerwood thread.

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Yeah, I would have liked to see more people talk about the benefits/detriments of living in Kingwood or Summerwood. Plus there's so much that will be built in that area in terms of commercial development. I keep waiting for someone to tell me that the Deerbrook Mall is going to be renovated. Now that would be something! That mall...not so good. At least compared to Memorial City, where we are used to going.

Pics?  Price?

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We're still in the process of fixing it up some to sell, so I don't have pics right now. We are thinking the $170,000 range. The neighborhood is really changing. There's a new house going up on the end of my street on 42nd, and new ones going up on Althea. Nice houses.

Thanks for all the info. Now we just to get our house on the market and hope to get enough for it to be able to move out there. Anyone looking for a 2 bedroom 1 bath "cute cottage" in Garden Oaks?

The new homes on Wilson are about a 3/4 mile form the land fill.  I don't think I'd live there.  They do have some nice fake-lakes.

Audobon is across form Fall Creek.  I don't think it's anything to worry about.  Some houses are nice, but most are not.

Have not heard much about Greens Bayou plans, but it wil run right through the new gold course.

There is also a great Co. park on the south shores of Lake Houston with boat ramps, etc.  I think it butts up to Summerwood.

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I think it is really hard to Houston to find somewhere nice that isn't close to somewhere that is kinda shady, maybe with the exception of Kingwood and the Woodlands. I hear police sirens all the time coming down Shepherd, but generally feel pretty safe because we are a tight-knit neighborhood.

The parks sound pretty nice. What are the people like there in Fall Creek? Lots of families?

My, how times have changed. I grew up in that area and know every nook and crannie of the Humble/Kingwood/Atascocita area. I remember specifically the conversation I had a number of years back with a friend:

me: "I don't think I heard you right, they're building a PGA caliber golf course and million dollar homes where?"

friend:"on the North Belt just east of 59"

Next to the garbage dump on Wilson?

Near it, closer to Audubon though.

Eeww.

Like I said, times have change and I am really impressed with Fall Creek, though I would have never thought someone would have had the guts to develop homes there. Always assumed that area would remain undeveloped old oil fields. The only problem I see is whether the area surrounding Fall Creek will fill in with other subdivisions. As long as the economy keeps chugging along I think it will. That's the main selling point of Kingwood and Summerwood, the fact that they are both large established residential areas. If you are more interested in commute times to Houston tho, Fall Creek has both areas beat by a mile.

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What and where is this Audubon neighborhood? I also read about it on the Kingwood.com message board. Is it any scarier than Independence Heights, North Shepherd and Acres Homes near where I live? I just try not to drive in those areas.

We moved from Midtown to Fall Creek last year with no regrets.  We love it.  Nice and quiet, although we do hear jets from IAH.  But I am a pilot and love it.

Summerwood is more built out, but that is a stressfull 8 miles from 59 during rush hour.  I also see those folks on the four-wheelers at Shell on Lake Houston Parkway.  That's just not my style, either.  You don't see that in Fall Creek.

Kingwood may have more to choose from retail wise, but plan on an hour commute, even if you take the bus.  And how often do you really go to Bombay Comapny, J.A. Bank, etc?

Fall Creek is lacking stores, etc., but they will come.  It was an easy adjustment for us, since Midtown lacked retail as well.  I want a little shopping, but I don't want to live in the middle of it, either.

I can get to downtown in about the same amount of time it takes me to get to Kingwood.  I can get to from driveway to parking downtown in less than 30 minutes with just about no traffic.  And we are one mile from the Eastex Rark and Ride.

Gotta work.  I'll post some more thoughts later.

FYI  - I think we won the battle to be zoned to the new high school.

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Thanks for the skinny of Fall Creek. Concerning the dump that HeightsGuy mentions...can you smell it from Fall Creek?

Thing about Kingwood is it sometimes takes forever to get to 59.  Kingwood Drive gets congested during rush hour, and traffic is fairly heavy all day.  And some of the subdivisions are seven miles or more from the freeway.  Also be aware that there's not much in Kingwood in the way of commercial development: you'll probably find yourself driving to the Deerbrook Mall area a lot.

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Yeah, I'm worried about that. But the thing Kingwood has is trees, and lots of them. Plus libraries, banks, grocery stores etc. The area around Fall Creek and Summerwood is still lacking many amenities. I know they will come. Who knows what it will look like though. The ugly sprawl on FM 1960 turned us off of Eagle Springs.

I think Fall Creek residents had a cow when the initial Atascocita HS boundaries were proposed because they remained zoned to Humble HS--which, among the more affluent residents of the district, has come to be considered the "ghetto" high school.  Last I heard, Fall Creek residents will be attending Atascocita.

I read that they passed a bond issue to build another high school near the beltway and 59, plus a couple more elementary schools in that area as well. Not sure about the middle school situation.

And you're wanting to avoid them while staying within commuting distance of Houston? 

I hear Fall Creek is really nice.  Midtown Coog lives there and will surely tell you about it when he sees this post.

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Yeah, not likely right? That's what my husband said. And we park our pickup on our front lawn, so I shouldn't be putting on airs.

We liked Fall Creek too. Pretty expensive compared to other neighborhoods, but you are paying for the location for sure.

Liked the trees and trails of Summerwood. Saw people on four wheelers riding down the sidewalk though. Not that there is anything wrong with that....

My husband and I are going to be moving from Garden Oaks (sigh) to the suburbs, because we are priced out of our neighborhood and are in serious need of a bigger house in better shape. I work from home to take care of my baby, but hope to someday return to work in the medical center. My husband works downtown. We are looking at the Northeast neighborhoods of Fall Creek, Summerwood and Kingwood. Any opinions on which is best? We are hoping to avoid too long of a commute and too many raving rednecks (non raving rednecks are OK).