KatieDidIt

City Centre and TCV doesn't NEED to be a sustainable community. It's already within it.

Funny that you think that Katy would suffer more than the Woodlands considering their geographical locations. Katy is much closer to an economic core than the Woodlands. And despite how some people want the Woodlands to appear, it's also primarily middle class. And I think Katy has built a Town Center type thing recently. La Centerra or something. North of I-10 hasn't ever been considered totally desireable along the west side, so the fact that it's the first to have foreclosure problems is no surprise. I dunno, if there is going to be any slide into the slums in any burb, I think they will all suffer about the same amount. Someone told me that Sugarland is having problems with multiple family moving into single family dwelling in some the the 400,000+ housing. No way to varify that though.

You don't have to be an inner looper to understand that these days it makes more sense to live close to work. Hell we live outside the Beltway even. We now fill up the car once A MONTH, vs. once every three-four days. Our summer energy bill went from 550 for a 4100 sq foot brand new house with 22 foot ceiling and no mature trees around it, to 425 for about the same size house, built in the 60's that isn't hermetically sealed, but with only 8 foot ceilings and tons of enormous oak trees to shade it. We turn off the AC and the hottest it gets in here is 76. I was shocked, I honestly thought our power bills in this old house wouth be at least 30 % higher. While the new designs of open concept living are appealing, the cooling issues for Houston make it impractical. (Not to mention how loud they are)The upstairs gameroom in our Woodlands house was impossible to get below 76 in the summer even though the system was top of the line and exactly what the house required. Because it was open to the downstairs it was always running. Our current house, the upstairs AC doesn't even run during the day, and when we turn it on for the evening it's down to 70 within an hour.

I would have THAT house inspected by not only a structural engineer, but also tested for mold.

My agent friend says it's a buyers market in a majority of price points, if you are willing to live in a house a few years old. That listings and inventory are growing weekly.

The Raven on Bissonet.

How are you going to enforce road noise issues when the place doesn't have sound ordinances nor the ability to enforce any problems with sound? Or the ability to enforce anything while we are at it.

Clinton Simpson with GreenWood King seems to have a bazillion listings around here. Sells a lot of them before he puts them on the MLS as well.

How is expelling problematic children an "appearance?" I think public and private are equally good educations, depending on the child. So, I don't know why you are getting your nose out of joint calling our decision "hell-bent."

What?? You have got to be kidding me. My kids have attended both public in The Woodlands and private in Houston. The private school has ZERO, and I do mean ZERO tolerance for "issues." They are moving way to fast and put up with nothing. The public system has to put up with a lot or they will get sued. Do you know how hard it is to expel a kid in the public system? There were kids in my boys public that were physcially violent towards kids and teachers, and they would just go home for the rest of the day and have "sessions" with the VP. Let's put it this way, one of my boys is a complete HAM. Good hearted but a total distraction and brilliant to boot. In the public system they just would put him on red or yellow for the day...no recourse. In private, the kid racked up so many detentions for hamming ( 5 of them) and talking that he got suspended (in house). Next year 5 detentions means a 3 day suspenion. Two suspensions you are out. And this is for overly-social talking. All this said, there are specific private schools know to be more for the troublesome kids of the wealthy, but most of them are not that way.

Is this honestly a problem? Don't people just not buy houses that back to roadways if they can't handle to noise, rather than making the roadway change for them?

There are signs along Memorial that say "Biking Prohibited." But technically after living in The Woodlands, where everything is "prohibited," yet you don't get arrested for it, I don't think it's enforceable. I dunno. But I did see the Village police with a biker on the side of the road the other day.

Well, it's dangerous for the biker/scooterer. Most of Memorial is two lane,winding blind areas, no shoulder with tons of pot holes on the edges. Even the parts that are two lane have no shoulder to speak of and culverts right next to them. If a wheel on one of those little bikes or scooters hits any of those holes, the rider can easily be thrown. The only option is for them to ride dead center of the road, which would hold up traffic for miles. As in my blog, I complained some guys do this anyway. Most are getting smart and going up to the sidewalks. I think after a close call on Memorial, most bikers understand the reason why it's illegal to bike right on it.

Lot's of bikers around here. Since it's prohibited on Memorial, and there really isn't enough room for them, it looks a little dangerous. But most of them around the EC are using the sidewalks to shoot up to I-10 to their offices.

That's gotta be a health code violation

Not a word yet. They have me higher than any other house on the street right now by quite a bit, so hopefully they are fixing that.

HUH? You have a huge portion of Memorial ( and their income) that have very easy access to this. Town and Country Village does a booming business and it's not exactly accessible from I-10 or the Beltway. Most of us in the area use Memorial for getting around anyway, so I-10 access isn't an issue. Due to the amount of disposable income around here, I think it will have great success. It's built more as a CityCentre for the area, not a tourist attraction. Most of these other Centers and Markets aren't visable from the freeways either. Apparently it's going to be finished in the Beltway area by October. And by the looks of it, it will be. I am amazed at what they have done in 4 years.

If The Woodlands can get 750,000 for theirs I see no reason CityCentre (in Memorial, in the City) can't get 800,000 for theirs. Just saying....

I understand the Post Office may be getting a face lift, so maybe that will help.

take a peek at this one when you are out and about. http://www.har.com/9703584

Right along the Westpark, hitting West Houtston, Royal Oaks, Katy, and all point Sugarland. Seems like it would be a no brainer.

Puma, it's still a great nature park and plenty of the old places are still. My husband knows all of them. The boys are always down there catching minnows and frogs. It has been a getting a lot more traffic lately. I think word is getting out. When with the kids and dogs we stay up on the old trail, now called the "Quail Trail," that runs along behind the houses. When biking by ourselves, we go on the asphalt path. Often times we don't go west of Dairy Ashford. It goes from shaded pathes to being in full sun. Its amazing how fast the terrain changes.

Puma, most areas west of Eldridge go to KISD, and a small portion to HISD. Honestly, 40 years ago when these houses were built, big families shared two bathrooms. It's a concept lost to the children of Baby Boomers,aka those of us in our mid-20's and 30's. Strangely we all shared bedrooms and bathrooms growing up, and are so scarred by it, we swore our kids would never grown up in such and un-kingly manner. I'm not poking fun at you, merely laughing at our own generation. I would go for the house in Spring Branch ISD and after a few years...add on to it. Appreciation and space problems solved. Most people find a house that connects easily to the garage and build up after a few years. Giving the kids an area with bathrooms and a gameroom. Or they build off the opposite backside a whole new master suite. If you can find a Nottingham Forest house east of Dairy Ashford it would be a no brainer, however they are getting harder and harder to find in the interior areas for 350k. Thornwood would be my second choice, north of Memorial is SBISD. I'm still not sold on Nottingham West. Too much cut through traffic from the apartment areas over there. Barkers and Fleetwood are very nice, but the reason they have not appreciated and are not as sought after as the more Memorial locations is that there are less trees, higher traffic, Highway 6 looks like a bomb went off on it, KISD schooling (who is still passing bonds to build new schools rather than improve existing structure) and smaller lots. Fleetwood has a very sterile and packed in feeling to it. They are also a fairly far drive to stores.For resale in that area, anything farther than 2 miles to retail centers is a "haul." And even though its in 77079, it doesn't feel anything like Memorial.

We've used Monster Mosquito spray systems twice now. This last house was $2800 for the backyard...and its a big back yard. It makes an AMAZING difference. Costs about 150 every 3-4 months to refill and we never have run the system November- March. And being that we area cross the street from Buffalo Bayou, you better believe we had a problem.

Yes, I know a lot about the area because I live there. And after living in suburbia, it's extremely nice in 77079. If you can get east of Dairy Ashford, I would recommend it. West of Eldridge is just has a whole different personality and doesn't feel like Memorial at all. We looked at houses in Memorial Thicket and Fleetwood but I thought it was crowded and a little bit of a land-locked feeling. As some other poster said, the traffic and congestion is horrible west of ELdridge.