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LOL. Thanks for the info. If I may ask, how was it moving across country? Did you just call Mayflower movers and that was it? I'd imagine we'll have to do the following: 1) Find an apartment first, before we buy a home. 2) Call a reliable moving company who go cross country. 3) Somehow drive down to the apartment (3+ days) before the truck full of our stuff arrives at the apartment. 4) Find a house. 5) Get another moving company to move our stuff from the apartment to the house. This seems like somewhat of a headache. Did you do something similar?

Thanks much for the links, I'll look into those developments! Out of curiosity, since you live just about as far from downtown as the Woodlands, why did you pass up living in the Woodlands?

Thanks for the additional feedback. I can live with the lower appreciation, because for $300K up here, you get a really lame house. To convey exactly what I'm talking about, here's a house in a below average neighborhood, with below average schools: http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListin...xlid=1042156899 That's $450K for that box, can you believe it? That's typical. And if you want nice schools, and remotely nice looking house, that will cost $600-750K. It's absolutely crazy And I'll agree that there are more reasons than financial to move to Houston -- the people are much nicer, and there seems to be more of a focus on the family. It seems like a great place to raise kids. As for the Memorial area, are those homes on the older side? (Yes, we're looking at $350K max.) Some of the new homes in the area are so incredible, that it would be tough to move into an older home. Are there any nice 'acreage' communities within a 40-minute rush hour commute of downtown? It would be nice to have a full acre, or more. I'm amazed at how they stuff these large homes on 1/4 acre lots (or less) and the neighbor's house is literally 15 feet away. The towns shouldn't allow that. I hear Kingswood (?) next to the Woodlands has larger plots, but that's a long commute and the schools are not as good as the Woodlands, right?

Thanks for the additional info Jason! We had planned to take a look at North Carolina homes next month near Research Triangle Park, which is booming. However, after weeks of looking at homes online there, we learned the homes are more expensive than the Houston area, and not in the same league as far as 'nice.' All the nice stuff like brickwork, cathedral ceilings in the living room, etc, are far less common there. Most homes have vinyl siding. So we're going back to Houston in a few weeks! We may be neighbors yet. Oh, and I like the 'low key' signs on the retail stores, it was just that some stores seemed too hidden. It's hard to shop at a store if you don't know it's there. On the Houston area, I still have some reservations on home appreciation. How do you folks deal with that issue? Coming from the Northeast, people here view their house as an investment, as well as a place to live. So if they spend $300K on a home, they may hope to sell it for double the price or more when they retire. But it seems in Houston you would actually move backwards with your 'nest egg' since you're paying 6% or more in interest on a house that's gaining in value at less than that rate. Also, while there is no state tax income in Texas, we looked at a house that had $11,000 in property taxes (Missouri City), which is a serious hit. Would love to hear other thoughts on these issues.

Thanks for the info KZ. How about the IT job market in Houston, would you say it's solid? Is the pay much less than Seattle? Something like 75% less? On specific Houston area home appreciation rates, I've Googled on that for awhile, but didn't find much.

By the way, this thread has some horror stories about home appreciation in the Houston area: http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...?showtopic=1427 Is it difficult to sell a home in the Houston area? One guy mentions taking a $45K loss because buyers would prefer new construction to his 'old' house.

How is the IT job market in Houston? Was it difficult to find a gig? I intend to target the financial services corporations. As for the order, job first vs location first, if we make the move to only where there's a quick job opening, we'll never end up living where we want to live. I've been developing large-scale Java-based apps for many years, so if there are opportunities in Houston, things would hopefully just work out. Did you travel to the other cities you explored as well, to check out their neignborhoods, etc? Which cities were close or tied with Houston?

One last neighborhood goal is: warm climate. Winter stinks!

Thanks for the additional info and links. No, we're not decided yet, but during our week-long visit we found the First Colony area to be the best fit... so far... The actual move would be to an apartment first, then to a house, so we will look further into the various neighborhoods. How does the commute from Sienna Plantation compare to FC? On a map, it seems quite indirect to downtown vs Hwy 59: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=3777%20Sienn...C0.241095&hl=en We did in fact look north of Hwy 59 near Greatwood/First Colony and found the homes spaced very close together. I think Houston (Texas?) is shooting itself in the foot by allowing fairly large homes built so close together (we noticed this in almost every development, including the Woodlands). An extra 10 feet between the homes in most neighborhoods would work wonders, even if the homes cost a bit more for the extra space. We've also been somewhat considering -- brace yourselves -- places like Atlanta, North/South Carolina, Dallas/Plano, and I hear Austin is also good for my industry (internet e-commerce developer). Here's an interesting city listing: http://www.kidfriendlycities.org/2001/majorranking.html Houston did fairly well at #9. We were initially drawn to Houston because of its good size, and proximity to the Gulf (though much of the towns near the water appear to be in/near industrial zones). Our neighborhood goals are: * Near a medium-sized city * Reasonable commute (45-50 minutes) * Good job opportunities * Affordable real estate ($350K for 3,000+ sq ft) * Good schools * Close proximity to ocean a major plus A friend also suggested Tampa, but I don't think the job market is that great there... Decisions, decisions...

You guys are great, it's nice to see so many people who like the Houston area so much. Don't get me wrong, the Woodlands was nice, but it didn't have that 'suburban' feel we're looking for. Hope I didn't offend -- those were just our impressions after spending close to 8 hours driving around the place. I wouldn't agree that $350K doesn't buy much in the Woodlands, as all the homes we looked at had 3,500+ sq ft, 5 bedrooms, a 3 car garage, 3.5 baths, and a built-in pool. The homes we looked at in First Colony were essentially the same specs -- the main difference was in the town itself. As for commute times, now my head is spinning. I've heard Clear Lake has a lengthy commute (over 1:35 if there's a stall or accident, which I understood to be frequent), and others say that Hwy 59 into downtown is one of the best commutes in the city at about 45 minutes I don't know what to think anymore.

From what we gathered, the commute would be 45 minutes or so. Do you think it will be closer to one hour? We asked a lot of locals about traffic, and they indicated that the trip via Hwy 59 was one of the better commutes into downtown, and that the commute would improve further still (due to various hwy construction) over the next few years. Anyone with specific rush hour commute times from First Colony to downtown would be excellent. I hear the commute from just a bit farther down on 59, Greatwood, is currently a bit brutal, until the hwy construction there is complete.

The First Colony area may consist of mostly human-planted trees, but the town as a whole didn't seem 'fake.' We actually told our realtor to leave the Woodlands early because we just didn't like the vibe. First Colony stuck us as more 'normal' with stores and major chains scattered around and not hidden (though they all had low-key signage). As one drives through the Woodlands, all you see are trees -- hence not a very 'high-end' impression. I'm sure there are extremely nice homes hidden throughout the Woodlands, but one would have to search to see them. I'm talking about the overall feel of each town and not the available homes, per se. Compare with a drive into First Colony -- tree-lined main drag, nice stores scattered around, and then there's Palm Royale Blvd with it's gigantic homes. It just feels like a high end suburb. Within 60 seconds of entering First Colony, we thought 'this is a nice town.' For the Woodlands, we thought 'where is everything?' Just endless houses and trees with a few scattered shopping centers, hidden from view by trees. We drove around in each community for many hours, so we've seen quite a bit of each. I guess it all comes down to personal taste -- we're from more of a suburban environment, so First Colony/Sweetwater was more our cup of tea. Also, all those trees in the Woodlands seem like a mosquito haven. Different tastes for each, I guess. We had high hopes for the Woodlands, but the remote/sterile vibe, and the longer commute into downtown put it behind First Colony for us. Also, with the massive building underway in Sugar Land around Hwy 59, it seems a good bet homes will appreciate quite well there in the next few years.

Thanks for the info! We actually did look at some David Powers homes, and they were very nice. The only concern we had with Greatwood was the schools, and it sounded to us like Greatwood schools are in the process of undergoing 'improvements' which will bear fruit in a few years time. Thanks for the link to greatwoodonline.com, I'll look around there.

I have just returned from a trip to Houston where my wife and I looked at homes in First Colony and Greatwood. We really liked the feel of First Colony as a town, but we preferred the actual homes in Greatwood (newer & nicer for the same price - about $350K). The one issue that stops us from buying in Greatwood is that we hear the schools are not as good as in First Colony. Is this the case? If so, how 'bad' are the schools in Greatwood? Greatwood seems more on the 'frontier' of suburbia than First Colony, but that will be a non-issue in 5 years or less judging from the incredible building rate near Hwy 59. Any thoughts on these two towns?

Well, we have just returned from a visit to the Houston area. Thank you all for the advice and great info, we printed it out and brought it along! We looked at The Woodlands, and actually didn't like the feel of that community. It's hard to explain, but it seemed fake, like too much of a good thing. It didn't feel 'high end' to us at all, but more like being at DisneyWorld, where everything is artificial. Some may find this community appealing, but we just didn't like the vibe. We looked at Sugar Land (First Colony), and really liked the area. Nice tree-lined streets, and homes ranging from $325K to $4+ million. The town also regulates retailer signage, like the Woodlands, but in a more sensible way, IMHO. This community had a high end feel (with 10,000 SQ FT mansions lining Palm Royale Blvd), yet also had reasonably-priced homes in the $300K+ range. The commute to downtown via 59 would be around 45 minutes, which is less than a Woodlands commute. The First Colony area schools (Commonwealth/Fort Settlement/Clements) are apparently very good, which is critical to us. We also headed out a few more miles on 59 to Greatwood, and found some very nice newer homes (2001 to 2005 built) in a similar price range ($350K+), but we hear the schools are not that great in Greatwood. Is this correct? This area had the nicest homes we looked at, but that school issue is a show stopper. We also briefly looked at Clear Lake, for its proximity to the gulf, but this commute to downtown would be brutal, and we could smell the refinery fumes every few minutes.

Wow, thanks for that list! These three apartment complexes look very interesting: Woodridge Park http://www.apartmentguide.com/Property/pho...qsSFlg=&lk=phTb Alden Landing http://www.apartmentguide.com/Property/pho...qsSFlg=&lk=phTb The Mansions http://www.apartmentguide.com/Property/pho...qsSFlg=&lk=phTb Any thoughts on these three? Woodridge Park looks like a Hawaiian resort in the photos. Are they all about the same commute-wise into the city? You guys have all been extremely helpful, thanks so much!

Thanks again for all the great info and insights! I'm going to print this entire thread before we leave for Houston. How about home appreciation in the Houston area, have homes consistently increased in value over the last 5 years or so? It seems the Woodlands has a high appreciation rate, is this correct? Also, in general, how is the Houston job market? I'm in high tech (Java application development), and there seem to be a decent amount of Houston area jobs listed on monster.com.

LOL

Thanks for the great replies! So, to sum up: Commute time during rush hour: One hour? Floods: Not a problem. Hot weather: Similar to Miami? I've been hearing so much whining and criticism about Houston's "nasty traffic," and "unbearably hot weather," so it's good to hear some different perspectives. I'm thinking we should live in an apartment complex for awhile, before deciding on the Woodlands, or elsewhere. Does anyone know of an apartment complex near the Woodlands, or another nice community? We're more into suburbs than city life -- a quiet community with easy access to stores and downtown Houston would be ideal. Thanks again!

Hello folks, hope you can help! I keep hearing the morning commute from the Woodlands to downtown Houston is "very long" and then in the same breath, someone mentions a time of 35 minutes. Where I'm from (NY City area), a 35 minute commute is abnormally short, with the average commute into the city at about 1 hour. So, how long is the commute from the Woodlands into downtown Houston? Since it probably varies, any estimates for the following departure times from the Woodlands: 6:00AM 7:00AM 8:00AM 9:00AM Also, how about at night, say leaving the Woodlands at 8:00PM? I'm headed to Houston next week to look at some homes, and have been considering the Woodlands, and Clear Lake (I like that it's near the water, but hear that commute is quite long?). Aside from comute time, other Houston things I've been curious about are "the unbearably hot summers" and floods. Anyone have thoughts on these two items? Is the Woodlands in general out of a flood area? Thanks!