swzine

There are thousands of MUD districts and it all depends on where you live. At a bare minimum everyone has a county and a school tax, sometimes collected on the same bill. You might also have a city, mud, lid, junior college, or one of many other types of special districts. The school is usually the highest bill and the rates can vary significantly by district. Each one has it's own tax rate and has different local option homestead allowances. You only file your homestead once and it stays with the property automatically until it's sold - assuming that they received and applied the exemption. The average tax rates in Texas are 2-3% of the appraised value. If you send me the property addresses I can look into them with the appropriate CADs and explain to you the variances. There are companies you can hire to appeal the value - they usually charge you about 50% of the tax savings, or nothing if they don't win the appeal. Or you can appeal values yourself. The deadline for this tax year has passed, but it's something to keep in mind for next year. I do not work for one of those companies and I'm not trying to solicit business. I actually find most of those companies to be sleazy, but if you don't know the tax system or don't have the time then they're worthwhile, especially sicnce they do tend to win the appeals. The only problem is that if you escrow your taxes, which it sounds like you do, it's usually not worth the money to pay someone up front 50% of tax savings that you won't see for another year when the mortgage company does an escrow analysis.

Send me a private message with the 2 property addresses you're referring to. I actually don't live in Houston anymore. I moved to Atlanta a few months ago, but I had gotten an email with this post and it caught my eye. I worked in property taxes representing mortgage companies for about 7 years and the past 2 as a senior property tax consultant representing businesses. I'll take a look at the tax/appraisal info on the two properties and tell you what I see.

Did you find out? That link was to the tax office. The appraisal district, which is the keeper of those records (the tax office is sometimes a few months behind) is www.fbcad.org. Here is a link to that 614 sugar creek property - http://fbcad.org/Appraisal/PublicAccess/Pr...yOwnerID=102867 If you go there and then click on the GIS Map link you can view a map that shows all parcels and can be scrolled. This is good if you don't know the address (or if the property doesn't have an address). You can identify it on the GIS site, get the parcel number and look it up on the CAD site. Once you find the info on the CAD site you can go to the Fort Bend Clerk's site for even more info - deeds and such. They shut it down at night, but during the day all documents are online for free - http://www.co.fort-bend.tx.us/getSitePage.asp?sitePage=5517 The Clerk's records will be the most up-to-date, but requires a little more effort to search since they're imaged documents. Sometimes it could take a few months for the CAD to be updated and then a little longer until the tax office has the update on their system. The tax office could especially be behind this time of year since new tax bills don't come out until October. Many of their sites will just show last year's owner especially if there are no delinquent taxes. (ha - I'm not giving any hints regarding my line of work!) I forgot - you might have to actually go into the Clerk's office right now. There was an AG opinion that states the clerk is liable if any SSN's are released - even in documents that were filed years and years ago. While it sounds great it's causing huge problems for people to be able to do their own record searches. There is a bill in the house to change the law that says they have to black them on upon request by anyone that sees their SSN on a document an that there is no reason for an SSN to be on any document filed there, but that they're not responsible for any documents that are already filed. It might sound silly, but you couldn't imagine the delays people would see in selling property if the clerk had to physically process every request on their own. The self serve process speeds things up a lot.

What is Raising Canes?

They put a sign up today - it's a Panda Express. They also put up a sign on the other building near completion - another bank, just what we need! Trustmark this time. Chic-Fil-A is open again too.

check out New Territory too. I was in your shoes a year and a half ago - same exact budget and expectations and I ended up getting about 2100 sq. feet in New Territory for exactly $150k. I had an offer on a house in Tara Colony (In the newer part - Stone River), but I was playing low ball and someone else came in and made a better offer. I'm glad I didn't get it because it's so close to the train, the houses are all os plain, and there are not enough trees. NT was a good decision in my opinion. If my budget was higher I'd love Telfair. Also, if you're looking in this area, I found it's best to restrict HAR searches to 77479 zip and exclude 77478. The houses in 77479 are usually newer and nicer.

I noticed there is some general info about the differant building permits for us nosey people. Looks like they put them out there at the end of each month. It tells the name of the tenant many times. http://www.sugarlandtx.gov/community_dev/p...facts/index.asp

That is really cool. Here is some more info as well. http://www.herald-coaster.com/articles/200...news/news02.txt

I saw in one of our joke FT Bend newspapers today that there will be a grand opening of the new addition starting next Wed. It's mostly kids stuff, but I'm pretty sure the paper said the new "lifestyle" section was opening. Here's a link to what it says on First Colony Mall site- http://www.firstcolonymall.com/html/EventD...l.asp?ecd=96051 Grand Opening Celebration! Come help us celebrate First Colony Mall's Grand Re-Opening! Don't miss out on our five-day celebration! Wednesday, October 18th # Bearamy appearance at Sugar Land Play Area - 12pm-2pm # McDonald's character appearance at Sugar Land Play Area - 4pm-6pm # Caricature artist near Fountain - 6pm-8pm Thursday, October 19th # Chick-fil-A Cow appearance - 12pm-2pm # McDonald's character appearance - 4pm-6pm # Creation Station craft event in Center Court - 6pm-8pm # KSBJ Fun Patrol - 11am-1pm Friday, October 20th # Toddler Time at Chick-fil-A -10am-12pm # Bearamy appearance - 12pm-2pm # McDonald's character appearance - 4pm-6pm # Caricature artist near Fountain - 6pm-8pm # McKaylis Performance-Expansion Stage - 7pm Saturday, October 21st # Chick-fil-A Cow appearance - 12pm-2pm # McDonald's character appearance -2pm-4pm # Face Painters in front of Gap -2pm-5pm # Caricature artist near Fountain - 6pm-8pm # Twin Connection -Expansion Stage -7pm # NOGGIN in JCPenney large court -1pm Sunday, October 22nd # Bearamy appearance -12pm-2pm # McDonald's character appearance -2pm-4pm # Face Painters at Main Entrance-1pm-4pm # Karaoke for Fun at Main Entrance -3pm-6pm # Caricature artist near Fountain -4pm-6pm All character appearances will be in Sugar Land Play Area.

The condos are going to be at HWY6 I believe, not in front of City Hall. The building in front of City Hall is going to be an office building I think. Plus, it's positioned where the entrance road would go between that building and the Mariott, so I think there will always be a clear view of City hall from 59.

Johnny Rockets is open now http://www.johnnyrockets.com/index2.php Looks like the italian restaurant is coming along too.

I noticed there are some updates on the city's website. Including the land use plan. http://sugarlandtx.gov/sugarland/imperial/index.asp

You'll be able to drive up to the stores? I assumed it was just a wide pedestrian plaza. I had driven by today and just assumed that. I didn't look in detail though to see if there were curbs. I just figured it would be pedestrian only.

I ended up buying in New Territory. I found when using HAR the best thing was to just restict to zip code 77479. That pretty much kept to most of the nicer areas in Sugar Land and it's ETJ. I found that I generally didn't like as many houses in the other 2 zips around Sugar Land.

First Colony is Sugar Land though. First Colony is just a master planned community - an area of Sugar Land since the annexation. It's the kind of thing where you say you're from Sugar Land and then you add first colony as a qualifier if anyone actually gives a crap. Now areas like New Territory and Greatwood are differant because they're techincally not in Sugar Land - just in the ETJ. The thing is that a lot of people don't even realize that since the mailing address is Sugar Land and those areas techincally are not in any city. People from those subdivisions would probably also say Sugar Land because "greatwood" and "new territory" are not cities.

The point is still the same though - it's supposed to be the largest in the Houston area I belive - at 55,000 sq ft

The number 3 ranking was paid for by Tom Delay. HAHA As for the comments about commute - it was taken into consideration, you just have to remember that a lot of other major cities - especially those in the northeast - have even worse traffic. I grew up in the Philly area. The lack of good highways would make it take an hour to drive 15-20 miles into the suburbs, Most of the roads were 2 lanes with traffic lights the whole way. The old cities just can't fit the good highways. And the few places that have decent highways - like DC for example - just have terrible traffic anyway. Plus people forget that some of us live and work in Sugar Land. My commute is 3 miles. That's why I chose to live in Sugar Land.

Wow. I've never seen 2 locations for an anchor in the same mall. Especially surprised that it woudl happen in such a relatively small mall.

http://www.pcdltd.com/ Not too many details out there yet. Just the same old renderings and such that have been there for over a year. I can see driving by it that the infrastructure is coming along and the offices are popping up fast.

I know 2 of the structures are the "char house" which is the big building that's the main landmark, and the water tower. They're the only 2 I had heard about them preserving, but I guess maybe there are 2 more.

I think the issue is that there were a lot of delays in working with the GLO to purchase tract 3. That was a conditions of development - that it would only work if they could get the big chunk of land next door. I just saw in the paper a month or so ago that they did get the land. Supposedly it was the biggest purchase in the history of the GLO. One of the local piece of crap Ft Bend newspapers was trying to get details of the sale under an open records request but they were denied. I bet we'll see something start soon if tract 3 is secured.

Sort of what happened in all major cities. I've been reading this book called Privatopia that is the history of homeowners associations (a-holes). It's pretty interesting. The part I just read talks about how much damage the suburbs have done on all cities by moving a lot of the middle and upper class (and their tax dollars) out of the cities and into these little private suburban kingdoms. I'm only about 1/3 of the way through the book, but so far I'd recommend it. The funny thing is that it's 10 years old and everything it talks about is still true today.

sorry to keep posting on this! I had just looked at the land plan again for another post and I noticed it's 65 DNL, not 85. So it's quieter than I thought. If 85 is a lawnmower and 20 is a whisper, 65 can't be too bad! Good windows should take care of that.

I don't think houses are being built where the graveyard is. There is a large area being used as parks because it's so close to the runway and I'm pretty sure that is where the graveyard is. I just checked the land use plan (http://www.telfair.com/downloads/TelfairMasterPlanCOSLApproved12-07-04.pdf) Take a look in the top rightcorner. The graveyard is in an area that will not be developed and it's in their land use plan, meaning it's staying where they found it as far as I know. They're leaving that big park there because of the 65 DNL sound level of planes taking off and landing. The houses will be in the quieter areas though.

The airport has recently built a nice state of the art terminal that I'm sure will bring in more traffic. Right now they get 10,000 flights per month according to an article in the paper today. I once went through a tour of the airport and they had said that they're open 24 hours but they discourage many flights from coming in at night. It is now and always will be a private/corporate airport, so I'm sure most traffic will be during the day. When you see how people here whine about the train, you can bet they'll whine about the planes. If you look at the Telfair general plan, the runway centerline goes right through the middle. http://www.telfair.com/downloads/TelfairMa...ved12-07-04.pdf The broken lines are differant average decibel levels. The inside one will be 85 and the outside one will be 60. If you look, the loud part is all parks and commercial, but there are a handful of residences that will fall toward the far end. About half of Telfair will be in the 60 decibel area. I don't know much about sample decibel levels to know what these are comparible too, but from what it sounds like, 85 is probably undesireable (http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/h&s0698.html). Needless to say, all properties are going to have avigation easements (Legal Document that provides a perpetual right of way to aircraft to fly over a residence in return for the sound insulation program improvements, that is permanently attached to the property deed.) The owners will have no legal right to complain. I'm sure this won't be a big deal, but I'm sure some people won't like it. It can't be much worse than the trains. If you use the Telfair land plan as a reference, perhaps you could try to use the knowledge of which properties are in the quieter areas as an advantage. I'm sure Telfair is going to be a nice place. I drive through it every day on my way home to New Territory. I'ts neat watching it grow. http://www.cdc.gov/nasd/docs/d001001-d0011...68/d001068.html Actually, I looked it up and 85 decibels is like a lawnmower. Also, here is a definition of what DNL means which is referenced on the map with 60 DNL and 85 DNL http://www.sacairports.org/noise/glossary.html DNL: The Day-night Average Sound Level (DNL) is the level of noise expressed (in decibels) as a 24-hour average. Nighttime noise, between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. is weighted; that is, given an additional 10 decibels to compensate for sleep interference and other disruptions caused by nighttime noise. An annual average of DNLs is used by the Federal Aviation Administration to describe airport noise exposure. Areas with noise impacts less than 65 dB DNL are considered "compatible" with residential use; areas at or above 65 dB DNL are designated "incompatible" with residential use.