Your Thoughts On A Few Neighborhoods

[hardygirl]

My husband and I are looking to move within the year. I've lived in this area my entire life - Hunter's Valley is where I grew up and my parents still live there. Anyway, we want to stay close by and

I've got it narrowed down to a few neighborhoods:

My choices for Cy-Fair ISD:

Longwood

Lakewood Glen Trails

(i like Coles Crossing - but I think the taxes and HOA dues are too high)

My Choices for Tomball ISD?

Village Creek

Park at Glen Arbor

I would appreciate your feedback on these neighborhoods. We want to be in our next house for 20 years if possible! My main concern is that the neighborhood holds it's integrity. Longwood and Village Creek seem like the safe choices for that matter. But Lakewood Glen Trails and Park at Glen Arbor seem great since they are smaller, more affordable AND they have detached garages (which is a huge plus, I think it increases the curb appeal).

Thanks for the feedback!

[mrfootball]

My wife grew up in Hunter's Valley (her parents still live there). We live in Longwood and love it. Very convenient (especially if you've got kids). My mom just bought a home here as well. All and all you can't go wrong here as there are some of the best schools in CFISD in this part of the district. There are some great older neighborhoods (which are a very good buy IMO) and some neat newer ones.

Of course, I recommend Longwood as I think its one of the best planned 'newer' neighborhoods in the area (beautiful trees and forest, nice hike & bike trails, two pools w/parks and clubhouses, a pond, and a beautiful golf course). I also really like Lakewood Glen which is pretty much connected to Longwood (and its sister neighborhood Lakewood Glen Trails across Grant Rd). They all have good access to either Hwy 249 or 290 (whichever you prefer).

Lakewood Crossing is a new section of Lakewood Forest/Hunter's Valley that is nice as well.

Other area choices:

Coles is good. Northlake Forest is nice too. Stablewood Farms as well.

If you've got a big budget to work with, also check out Rock Creek and Lakewood Oaks Estates and perhaps Tuscany (across Grant near Cypresswood Dr), Stable Gate has horses. There's also a new "Falls" type development going in across from Hunter's Valley called "Hidden Falls". Methinks it'll be rather pricey.

As for the Tomball ISD side, Village Creek is nice and there are some nice homes in Gettysburg too. Villaggio is a really nice gated community across from LF.

There really are dozens of great neighborhood choices in this corridor whether it be on the CFISD side or the TISD side.

[Jedijake]

I live in Village Creek. My wife and I are very happy. It is quiet and the people are very friendly. The homes range from $160 K to around $300K.

[midwesterngal]

Long time lurker... first time poster. (Please be nice .)

We lived in Village Creek for four years. We liked our house and lived on a nice, quiet street. However, our realtor sold us on the "master planned community" of Village Creek. Maybe our hopes were too high, but we never felt like it was anything more than a regular subdivision. When we moved in, they were just starting to build behind the lake. Obviously, the demographics of the subdivision changed when less expensive homes (i.e. Lennar) were built. The fountain around the lake never seemed to be working and there were huge drainage issues on the sidewalks around the lake. I know there's a new HOA company, so hopefully some of those issues have been resolved.

We sold our house last year and took a loss. It's always best to think resale when you buy, so be prepared. Most of the resales in Village Creek have taken a loss. Ours was minimal, but many are not. Since the subdivision isn't closed out yet, many people would rather buy a new home. The area on Spring Cypress surrounding the subdivision entrance killed us. People didn't like the empty trailer that sits nearby. (Sorry, I can't remember exactly where it is/was!) They didn't like the tan building across the street from the entrance. It was a school at one time. I don't know what's in there now, if anything. The KB Homes on Eldridge were too close. It goes on and on.

If I were to do it over again, I'd look at Longwood or Coles Crossing. Longwood is away from all of the traffic mess on Spring Cypress. I've only driven through parts of Coles Crossing, but it always seemed cleaner and better maintained than Village Creek. Both are in CFISD, which I'd take over TISD any day.

[psilverot]

I recommend ROCK CREEK. It's nice. The surrounding neighborhoods are all similar looking. If you want something more distinct, go with Rock creek (actual custom homes). Either settle for an average home or splurge all the way! There's really no in between.

[mrfootball]

Well sure, Rock Creek, if you've got a half million or more burning a hole in your pocket...

At that price range, you could also get one of those sweet country estates on the backroads off cypress-rosehill and grant. Also, at that price range, I'd check out Lakes of Rosehill or those cool little hidden gated communities with homes on acre lots (Secret Forest and Park Forest) or the gated communities in Longwood that line the golf course.

PS - I recommend driving around Longwood and Lakewood Glen, lately a number of people selling have opted to go without realtors because lately certain homes (mainly $220K or less) are selling rather quickly (2 weeks or less), so be sure and drive through because there are some that won't be listed on HAR. Prices in Longwood range from $165,000 to around $1M.

My Longwood Picture Thread

[hbcu]

I've golfed there last year and like the enviroment....will be back soon....

[Jedijake]

Village Creek has finally closed out so the prices of homes are starting to creep upward.

We live in a Lennar Home. The demographics are still good in VC. Mostly the folks (like us) living in the smaller homes (still good sized) are young professionals. What makes it nice is that the neighborhood is balanced with larger homes.

That trailer across the street from the entrance truly is an eyesore. That is true. There has been a sign up for a couple of months with plans for some development. We welcome anything that gets it torn down.

The biggest challenge living in VC is getting out of the neighborhood onto Spring-Cypress. That can be a pain. There are supposedly plans to widen Spring Cypress-hopefully they will work on our areas of the road this summer.

What is starting to concern me, and this can happen anywhere I suppose (thanks to no zoning laws) is the whole "house for lease" idea. People leave for a period of time and have absolutely no fear to lease to just about anyone? I don't understand that one bit. Why would anyone want to do that? I've heard about it happening in Fairfield, Coles Crossing, and I've seen a couple of signs here as well.

[midwesterngal]

We had a house on our street in Village Creek that was leased for about a year. I never saw the inside of the house, but I can only imagine. The people who leased it had 3-4 kids. For a couple of months, someone was living with them -- another 2-3 kids. There were 1 or 2 dogs, hamsters/mice, etc. The kids played in the street or in the neighbors' yards. To our knowledge, the owner never stopped by to check on the house.

One day, a for sale sign went up in the yard. They moved out a couple of weeks after that and leased another house in Village Creek.

Glad to here that homes in VC may start to retain their value. Unfortunately, there is one realtor who prices his homes in VC a little lower than other realtors. So, for now, the comps aren't so good.

[Jedijake]

We had a house on our street in Village Creek that was leased for about a year. I never saw the inside of the house, but I can only imagine. The people who leased it had 3-4 kids. For a couple of months, someone was living with them -- another 2-3 kids. There were 1 or 2 dogs, hamsters/mice, etc. The kids played in the street or in the neighbors' yards. To our knowledge, the owner never stopped by to check on the house.

One day, a for sale sign went up in the yard. They moved out a couple of weeks after that and leased another house in Village Creek.

Glad to here that homes in VC may start to retain their value. Unfortunately, there is one realtor who prices his homes in VC a little lower than other realtors. So, for now, the comps aren't so good.

Aren't there laws/rules about leasing? I've never ever heard of people being able to simply lease their perfectly good home to people off the street who would never normally even come close to being able to live in that home.

Plus, for the people who are leasing out their home, you'd think they would be extremely selective about who they let live in their home while they are gone. If their home is occupied by people who will cause their house to fall in value, they are possibly the dumbest people on the face of the earth for doing so.

Can the HOA do something about this type of thing? (BTW, I think I know the house you are talking about.)

[midwesterngal]

I don't know if there are laws about leasing. Maybe someone else on here can enlighten us. I do think there are leasing companies that will look after the house for you, but this owner didn't use one. The HOA was contacted, but wouldn't get involved. Hopefully, the new HOA company is better about that.

It ended up selling for somewhere in the 260-270K range. They always seemed to have a new car, new furniture, etc. I don't know if they could afford it, or were just trying to live the high life by maxing out their credit cards.

They used the pool quite a bit, so you'd over hear conversations from the walking trail. Mom and Dad fought a lot. Mom and the kids fought a lot. Lots of foul language, without regard to how loud they were or who might hear.

I wonder if they're still leasing the other house in VC... And, I hope they're not your neighbors!

[Jedijake]

Likely this is not the situation I saw. There's no way the house I saw was that expensive and it was only a few weeks ago.

All in all though, VC is a nice peaceful place to live.

[PureAuteur]

My husband and I are looking to move within the year. I've lived in this area my entire life - Hunter's Valley is where I grew up and my parents still live there. Anyway, we want to stay close by and

I've got it narrowed down to a few neighborhoods:

My choices for Cy-Fair ISD:

Longwood

Lakewood Glen Trails

(i like Coles Crossing - but I think the taxes and HOA dues are too high)

My Choices for Tomball ISD?

Village Creek

Park at Glen Arbor

I would appreciate your feedback on these neighborhoods. We want to be in our next house for 20 years if possible! My main concern is that the neighborhood holds it's integrity. Longwood and Village Creek seem like the safe choices for that matter. But Lakewood Glen Trails and Park at Glen Arbor seem great since they are smaller, more affordable AND they have detached garages (which is a huge plus, I think it increases the curb appeal).

Thanks for the feedback!

I know that you've specified your neighborhoods and general area of nw Houston, but if you wouldn't mind living a little closer to Houston, there is a hidden gem close to where I live. It's called Woodwind Lakes, and it's between Fairbanks N. Houston and Gessner @ Philippine. (inside the beltway) I've driven through it recently, and there are several homes for sale. It was built in the mid 1990s, and it reminds me of Longwood in terms of overall aesthetic. It's got beautiful tall pines and other types of trees. They built the homes into the natural landscape, leaving most of the trees. The architecture is wonderful. There are two sections: one is gated and has wood frame, one story homes with nice porches and cobblestone streets, and the other section is non-gated and has larger two story homes with bigger yards. Each section has a lake with a walking trail around it. It seems to have a strong community feel with very friendly neighbors. They have regular activities and social groups for the neighbors. There is even a website too: www.woodwindlakes.org.

[Rackne]

The kids played in the street..

How dare they.

My vote would be for Longwood. I don't live there, but when we were looking that was on my short list. We chose a house in the Klein are.

[psilverot]

I agree. Woodwind lakes if definitely a nice community. The townhomes across the way on Gessner are also very nice.

I know that you've specified your neighborhoods and general area of nw Houston, but if you wouldn't mind living a little closer to Houston, there is a hidden gem close to where I live. It's called Woodwind Lakes, and it's between Fairbanks N. Houston and Gessner @ Philippine. (inside the beltway) I've driven through it recently, and there are several homes for sale. It was built in the mid 1990s, and it reminds me of Longwood in terms of overall aesthetic. It's got beautiful tall pines and other types of trees. They built the homes into the natural landscape, leaving most of the trees. The architecture is wonderful. There are two sections: one is gated and has wood frame, one story homes with nice porches and cobblestone streets, and the other section is non-gated and has larger two story homes with bigger yards. Each section has a lake with a walking trail around it. It seems to have a strong community feel with very friendly neighbors. They have regular activities and social groups for the neighbors. There is even a website too: www.woodwindlakes.org.