oaksinger

Hi,

We recently moved to Houston and are currently renting in The Woodlands while we try to decide where to buy. We are having real trouble narrowing our search down to one neighborhood, so I am hoping that getting a few opinions here might help us... :-)

We have a young family and noise and crime averse (By that I mean that even things like loud music from passing cars at night or getting a bicycle stolen from the garage would drive us completely crazy. I know these things happen anywhere but we would rather lessen the risk). We want a large single family house with a yard of some sort. We would prefer to live in a close in neighborhood because we are city people despite the above - but we are priced out of the hugely gentrified kind of places we probably would feel comfortable in like (from a position of complete ignorance) Bellaire.

The Woodlands probably would be more or less OK as a compromise except for 1) It is just too much of a commute into Houston. It is taking up to 1 1/2 hours at peak times into Downtown right now. 2) It is very very white.

Our budget is about 240K and we do want 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, garage. At the moment I am looking at 2 areas:

1) Sugar Land which is closer in than The Woodlands and seems more ethnically mixed. But it is still a long commute and very suburban. Does anyone have an opinion on which way property prices will go here in the next 5-10 years? The big plus for this one is that it looks like we would be closer to the "worst house in the best area" ideal scenario.

2) Which brings us to the other area we have been looking at, around the 77077 postcode just South of the I-10 west which I know has a large European population. Not as "pretty" but we like the fact that it feels much more a part of the city, although I am not sure about the commute at rush hour... We would be looking at a 70s house if we bought in this area. Worries: what is the build quality likely to be on this kind of house? Also from what I have seen the price range of older houses such as we could afford in this area would put us nearer the top of the market. I am not necessarily interested in making a profit on this house but I would prefer not to have to sell it later at a loss.

3) Any ideas on other neighborhoods?

Apologies for the novel. Hope you all have lots to say on this one

Depending on which part of town you work, have you tried looking at Pearland and Sugarland as well? The Shadowcreek development in Pearland is on par with those in Katy and commute to downtown usually takes 30 - 45 minutes depending on location and time. Sugarland has a dozen or so developemnt that fit your price range and the commute is about the same as Shadowcreek to get to downtown. Less if you work in the Galleria area. Both these area are still relative close to the city and without traffic would usally take about 15 minutes. All the area mentioned including Katy have master planned communites that are growing and seem to have rising property value.

One thing to consider that wasn't mentioned is that, in 3 or 4 years, the Southeast Metrorail extension will run near the St. Emmanuel lofts on either Walker or Rusk until it turns south on either Dowling or Scott, according to current proposed routes. Metro Southeast Study (cumbersome pdf file).

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From the looks of the new revised Phase II plan. There will no longer be lightrail on the Southeast end initially. It looks like they're replacing it with buses.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/m...politan/3229392

Does this plan deal with the issue of digging under the bayous? That to me would seem like a major challenge.

What is it about colleges that so often attracts the worst elements.  Almost every college I have visited or attended has always been surrounded by crap neighborhoods.

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Maybe you're just familiar with Texas schools. You obviously have never visited some of the best schools out east and west. All the Ivey League schools are pretty much in very affluent areas. and that is the tip of the iceberg. On the west coast I've visited UCLA, UCSD and Stanford and the area they are in are beautiful.

I think you'll find school location falling into all sort of areas across the spectrum.

I had a different impression on the areas. The Juliet an InTown homes are in an area where their is alot more room for development. If you talk to the InTown sales rep, he can tell you all the different lots that are being bought out by developers. I never got that impression or info on the Kim Son area. Plus, there is the Buffalo Bayou master plan which at least is a vision for future growth. The Kim Son area seems to have more business that do not appear to be going away anytim soon. It just seemed alot dirtier somehow. So in the short term, I would think there would be alot more developments in the Juliet/InTown area. I also drove around alot in both areas at different time of day and do actually see alot more homeless people walking around by the Kim Son area. And I don't necessarily see the sheriff's station as a negative as I never hear sirens going off whenever I visit the area and it would be a good crime deterrent. As for being closer to downtown, If you work in the North end of the CBD, its actually faster to take the 10 to the 45 and exit at Dallas. But I don't see 5 minutes compared to 8 minutes being that big a deal. Just my opinion.

Anyone have any thoughts on the cluster of 5 townhomes going in at St. Emanuel near polk?  They seem very nice, and the price seems right as well.  Its right up on 59 (2 blks back) so the road noise is there, but a good view of downtown and what seems to be a good location for future growth.  Any thoughts from you guys?

My wife and I are thinking of putting an offer in on one, does anyone know mcuh about the builder, a man named John Scarbourough.  He also built the line of bricl townhomes a couple fo blocks back from these.

St. Emamuel townhomes

This is the link for the standalone, the attached are 10k less.

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I actually considered the phase 1 development last year. The views would be great. The issue I had with it, which may not be issue for you, is that its a three story and I prefer two stories. Also the area has alot of older properties as well as run down buildings and companies. There also appears to be a number of homeless people walking around as well. I prefer the area north of this being developed by InTown and Juliet as it is a lot quieter and appears to be a better area for redevelopment as they have less existing businesses and a lot of abandoned warehouse and properties which are better candidates for being redevloped. You should drive around the two area and you'll know what I'm talking about. If you do choose the St. Emanuel property and money isn't an issue, I would suggest going for the free standing property. Its got better resale value and apperas to have better views as well.

It seems all the Juliet homes have sold out in the Ball Park landing subdivision which I was looking at. Too bad. Anyone here seen the plans for their newer subdivision?

Bought a Juliet Homes in the area.

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Anyone have any experience with Juliet homes? Are they good? Have you had any issue with them? I'm looking into the East End area as well and certainly like the floor plan of the Juliet homes alot more than the InTown homes.