Property Values

[mbgriffith1]

I have friends in Spring Valley as well. I didn't know there were any homes in the $150K range there. Their kids go to private school, so I can't tell anything about how the school district is. What schools (public) are the kids from Spring Valley zoned to? Is it true that because of the Katy Freeway expansion project that destroyed many businesses in the area, that the local resident taxpayers will be paying more taxes to make up for the loss of corporate tax revenue?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would definitely suggest living in the Memorial Villages. Like Spring Valley, they have a great high school (Memorial- great school- I went there... let's just say a 'few years ago', but my kids will go there fairly soon) and middle school (Spring Branch), but their elementary schools are far better. No one is low income. Land values are constantly rising, one of the fastest rates in the city, primarily because of the great schools. Only problem is most starter homes in the Villages are going to run you about 600k; a little steep but a great investment. If you want a bigger home, be prepared to spend closer to 1 million. The area is really pretty with lots of tall pine trees. Hope this helps.

[Hunter]

La Porte and deer Park are not to bad either. Both have very good school districts and excellent housing, Notto far from the Gulf anf Houston either. And both are easy to get around in. The only main draw back is all of the refineries in the area.

[MelaineA]

I have friends in Spring Valley as well. I didn't know there were any homes in the $150K range there. Their kids go to private school, so I can't tell anything about how the school district is. What schools (public) are the kids from Spring Valley zoned to? Is it true that because of the Katy Freeway expansion project that destroyed many businesses in the area, that the local resident taxpayers will be paying more taxes to make up for the loss of corporate tax revenue?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I obviously was not clear, sorry. Spring Branch ISD has some excellant elementary schools (Bunker Hill, Frostwood) where you can still find homes starting at $150,000 (just west of Bunker Hill Village).

Spring Valley doesn't have homes starting at that price range (unless you want a small tear-down). Even though Spring Valley's city taxes will rise due to the I-10 expansion, they will still be lower than the City of Houston.

Spring Valley's middle and high school is the same as for Hunter's Creek, Piney Point, Hedwig and parts of Bunker Hill.

Just east of Hillshire Village, in the City of Houston, that neighborhood is zoned to Hunter's Creek Elem.

[hydepark]

Snickers, I now have a pretty good friend that just moved from Chicago and he loves it. I would recommend moving close to the city, but it also depends on where you are working. Personaly I enjoy Galveston but would not want to live there. Too run down and poor, but there are some nice areas.

I would stay away from the HISD school district. If you are looking for good schools you would want to be out in the suburbs like Spring, Klien, Jersey Village, SugarLand and Kingwood....but be prepared to drive to work.

Try this link, it should give you some hints on what you are looking for.

http://www.houston-guide.com/guide/info/inforelocat.html

Go to Hobb.org for information on housing and builders

[KatieDidIt]

I obviously was not clear, sorry. Spring Branch ISD has some excellant elementary schools (Bunker Hill, Frostwood) where you can still find homes starting at $150,000 (just west of Bunker Hill Village).

Spring Valley doesn't have homes starting at that price range (unless you want a small tear-down). Even though Spring Valley's city taxes will rise due to the I-10 expansion, they will still be lower than the City of Houston.

Spring Valley's middle and high school is the same as for Hunter's Creek, Piney Point, Hedwig and parts of Bunker Hill.

Just east of Hillshire Village, in the City of Houston, that neighborhood is zoned to Hunter's Creek Elem.

uhh we just moved out of the Tanglewood area and you couldn't pay me enough to live NOrth of the old tracks. Other than those 4 streets in Brykerwoods, everything is zoned for Valley Oaks Elem. SBISD is re-zoning over there lately, so Spring Branch Middle won't be an option for long. WHIle its still a great school, Hunter's Creek Elem is at the breaking point with the influx of kids in the past three years.

And yeah if you can buy the RARE 600,000 Piney Point/Hedwig house, go for it. Keep in mind you'll have to put another 300k in it to make it liveable. If we could afford athe 1.8 million it takes to get in a new home there, plus the 30k a year in taxes, we'd be there in a heartbeat!

I am CRAZY about Piney Point (Mem. Elem, SB Middle, and Mem. Senior), but its simply not even on the radar for most.

Fonn Villas and is still reasonable, but not for long.Once you go West of the Beltway, you are in Stratford Territory. Stratford is a little more rough and tumble compared to Memorial.

I wish they would do something with the old Westchester and make it a real high school again. Yorkshire and Wilcester have some homes RIPE for the picking, if the high schools were top notch. Yorkshire's values got killed when they rezoned their elementary and middle school.

[VicMan]

"I would stay away from the HISD school district. If you are looking for good schools you would want to be out in the suburbs like Spring, Klien, Jersey Village, SugarLand and Kingwood....but be prepared to drive to work."

Hydepark, don't be so simplistic.

There are good HISD schools out there. Instead of saying "Don't go into HISD", say "check out the individual HISD school to see if it is good or bad." In general, Lamar, Bellaire, and Westside High Schools along with their feeder schools are thought to be the best comprehensives in HISD.

Areas zoned to considered "good" HISD schools include: cities of Bellaire, West University Place, and Southside Place, Braeswood Place, Afton Oaks, River Oaks, Meyerland, parts of Willow Meadows, the Briar Forest area, Sunset Terrace, Old Braeswood, Southgate, Avalon Place. Also the elementary schools in the Uptown area are thought to be good (though Katie says that construction is causing some problems at the moment, so you may want to wait until the new campuses are built - Katie felt like construction was causing problems with the education at Briargrove, so she chose to move to the Woodlands) and Uptown has Lamar High as an option. For middle, if Grady doesn't impress, try to get your kid into Lanier. For others, visit the school and check out ratings.

If you choose to live in Westbury, elementary and middle should be fine, but try to get your kid into Bellaire High, a magnet school, or a private school when high school starts.

Of course, SBISD is also good.

[KatieDidIt]

"I would stay away from the HISD school district. If you are looking for good schools you would want to be out in the suburbs like Spring, Klien, Jersey Village, SugarLand and Kingwood....but be prepared to drive to work."

Hydepark, don't be so simplistic.

There are good HISD schools out there. Instead of saying "Don't go into HISD", say "check out the individual HISD school to see if it is good or bad." In general, Lamar, Bellaire, and Westside High Schools along with their feeder schools are thought to be the best comprehensives in HISD.

Areas zoned to considered "good" HISD schools include: cities of Bellaire, West University Place, and Southside Place, Braeswood Place, Afton Oaks, River Oaks, Meyerland, parts of Willow Meadows, the Briar Forest area, Sunset Terrace, Old Braeswood, Southgate, Avalon Place. Also the elementary schools in the Uptown area are thought to be good (though Katie says that construction is causing some problems at the moment, so you may want to wait until the new campuses are built - Katie felt like construction was causing problems with the education at Briargrove, so she chose to move to the Woodlands) and Uptown has Lamar High as an option. For middle, if Grady doesn't impress, try to get your kid into Lanier. For others, visit the school and check out ratings.

If you choose to live in Westbury, elementary and middle should be fine, but try to get your kid into Bellaire High, a magnet school, or a private school when high school starts.

Of course, SBISD is also good.

Hey Vic, you still have missed my most valid concern about HISD--They're BROKE. They can't afford any of the enrichment courses that other school systems have. Their elementary campuses have PE, ART and Music on a 7 day rotation...that's not even once a week. You can't just study the 3 R's for the Taks Test every day. And with all the overweight kids lately, its just insane to cut out daily PE.

Briargrove was excellent for many years, but we saw it fading. The teachers are simply overloaded and under funded. The classes have 25 kids, many "latch key behavior" problem children from the Fountain View complexes. They had no security and moving to a temp school for an ambigious amount of time. Its didn't matter that the PTO raised at least 80 grand a year for supplimentals, it was still and HISD education. We had to pay for after school science and spanish courses, and what kid wants to hang around school another hour to be well rounded? We had just lost faith in HISD, not the school itself.

And as it is you can't get into Briargrove Subdivision for under 400k now...unless you buy one street off Westhiemer and be behind some Boobie Bars. Tanglewood now starts at 600k, untouched at 2,200 sq ft,backed up to Woodway or on Chimney Rock. (Real Tanglewood, not those Garden Homes on Potomac and Nantucket that like to say they are Tanglewood).

[VicMan]

Hey Vic, you still have missed my most valid concern about HISD--They're BROKE. They can't afford any of the enrichment courses that other school systems have. Their elementary campuses have PE, ART and Music on a 7 day rotation...that's not even once a week. You can't just study the 3 R's for the Taks Test every day. And with all the overweight kids lately, its just insane to cut out daily PE.

Briargrove was excellent for many years, but we saw it fading. The teachers are simply overloaded and under funded. The classes have 25 kids, many "latch key behavior" problem children from the Fountain View complexes. They had no security and moving to a temp school for an ambigious amount of time. Its didn't matter that the PTO raised at least 80 grand a year for supplimentals, it was still and HISD education. We had to pay for after school science and spanish courses, and what kid wants to hang around school another hour to be well rounded? We had just lost faith in HISD, not the school itself.

And as it is you can't get into Briargrove Subdivision for under 400k now...unless you buy one street off Westhiemer and be behind some Boobie Bars. Tanglewood now starts at 600k, untouched at 2,200 sq ft,backed up to Woodway or on Chimney Rock. (Real Tanglewood, not those Garden Homes on Potomac and Nantucket that like to say they are Tanglewood).

I've never heard of PE being daily at the elementary level.. And I did not have daily PE ever at the elementary level, neither at River Oaks ES, nor at the Parish School (The private school I went to) - However at River Oaks teachers made the kids walk a mile-long track every day before recess. PE goes 45 min. daily or 90 min. every two days daily starting at the middle school level, as far as I know.

Anyways, about Briargrove, Briargrove is rated statistically as a "good school" in several areas. http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3359 That's not to say that it will work for everyone. It didn't work out for Katie partly because of the construction issues and overworking of teachers. Do shopping around in HISD, I say.

The security and temp school stuff is why I said wait at the Uptown area - Those issues will not last forever. Soon policemen will come back and the buildings will be done. However by then many families will be at the middle school level already. Or one could just go somewhere else where construction is finished. Also, other schools have backloads of money stored.

And those expensive developments in central Houston will have to generate money soon.

EDIT: I accidentally took out the funding details by mistake.. http://www.texans4fairfunding.org/district...SD&Submit=Go%21 http://www.texans4fairfunding.org/district...SD&Submit=Go%21 - HISD actually has more property value per student than Conroe ISD, yet at the same time it still has budget issues.

[KatieDidIt]

I've never heard of PE being daily at the elementary level.. And I did not have daily PE ever at the elementary level, neither at River Oaks ES, nor at the Parish School (The private school I went to) - PE goes 45 min. daily or 90 min. every two days daily at the middle school level, as far as I know. What's funny is that according to Great Schools.. Briargrove is rated statistically as a "good school" in several areas. http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3359

The security and temp school stuff is why I said wait at the Uptown area - Those issues will not last forever. Or one could just go somewhere else where construction is finished. Also, other schools have backloads of money stored.

And those expensive developments in central Houston will have to generate money soon.

SBISD and CISD have PE everyday on the elementary level, and yes I think its just as important as english. I think the wealth of an area has nothing to do with the quality of education provided by the school district. It does however effect the amount the PTO can raised to pay for basic needs not supplied by the school district.

The Woodlands is full of comfortable people and a few highly wealthy. HISD, while it can have extreme wealth in an areas (most of which will go to private) educates a much larger impoverished population. But the wealth of the residents has nothing to do with the district. When the district has no money, it cuts back. < wait Vic edited out his remark of CISD having a poorer popuation the HISD, so this no longer applies>

HISD is out of money. Didn't you hear about all this two years ago?

Anyway, and I will stick to this, the best public eucation in town is SBISD inside the Beltway. And sending a wealthly, sheltered white child to Lamar is just playing with fire. Especially if they are not in the IB program.

[VicMan]

SBISD and CISD have PE everyday on the elementary, and yes I think its just as important as english. I think the wealth of an area has nothing to do with the quality of education provided by the school district. It does however effect the amount the PTO can raised to pay for basic needs not supplied by the school district.

The Woodlands is full of comfortable people and a few highly wealthy. HISD, while it can have extreme wealth in an areas (most of which will go to private) educates a much larger impoverished population. But the wealth of the residents has nothing to do with the district. When the district has no money, it cuts back.

HISD is out of money. Didn't you hear about all this two years ago?

Anyway, and I will stick to this, the best public eucation in town is SBISD inside the Beltway.

I heard about the district having budget issues... that's why I asked how could the district be out if there's not just the property wealth, but also a similar tax rate.

Yeah, I do remember a budget shortfall for HISD - http://www.kpft.org/news/011503story4.html - It looks like a move by the state legislature may have caused it.

In Houston ISD, the wealth of an area perceivedly has a lot to do with the education. There's an article on kids fleeing neighborhood high schools and going to the rich area schools and magnets. E.G. everyone wants into the schools in the rich areas. http://www.chron.com/content/archive/ysear...hview=2&dview=1

However, I will say this. It is hard to get into a "good" (notice my use of quotation marks) neighborhood HISD school if you cannot afford a home above, say, 230 K.

[KatieDidIt]

VICMAN "In Houston ISD, the wealth of an area perceivedly has a lot to do with the education. There's an article on kids fleeing neighborhood high schools and going to the rich area schools and magnets. E.G. everyone wants into the schools in the rich areas. "

The rich areas don't get any more money than the poor ones from the district. The PTO can raise more money in wealthy parts of town, therefore provide some extras. And its a heck of a lot safer, the kids calmer because there is usually one stay at home parent. They may get better teachers due to saftey issues also.

[VicMan]

What's also funny is that I read somewhere that the high schools in HISD that got the best test scores were the ones that spent the LEAST per student. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=...id=339096&rfi=6 - Then again, I'm not sure if they factored in the PTO fundraising.

As Katie said, the PTO makes the difference. The PTOs determine which schools get students and which schools shrivel up and get closed (which may cause the end of HISD's recent budget problems..)

"And sending a wealthly, sheltered white child to Lamar is just playing with fire. Especially if they are not in the IB program."

There's quite a lot of them there, as far as I know. I know of a River Oaks family that sends their daughter to Lamar and their son to a boarding school. One of my dad's cousins, who lives in West U, also has a daughter who goes to Lamar. As a matter of fact I remember one of my sister's friends talk about how Second Baptist is "1,000 times snobbier than Lamar" (Also Lamar's rate of free/reduced lunch is 27%). I also know of a kid who used to go to my magnet school but he made too low grades and got kicked out. Now he's at Lamar, and he says he doesn't feel unsafe either.

On the other hand, there are some disadvantages to Lamar. Lamar is HUGE, and that may cause an impersonal environment. Some people like it that way, and some don't. Some kids transferred from Lamar to my school because they felt like Lamar was too impersonal. The same goes for Bellaire, Westside, Memorial, Stratford, and the suburban high schools.

As for a place where one can safely say that it has big-time issues, I heard North Forest ISD (http://www.texasbest.com/schools/northforest.html) has been having a lot of problems recently. The test scores on that page appear low, and I also heard from one of my teachers that the district has been having a lot of issues. Texasbest includes the following blurb at HISD's page (http://www.texasbest.com/schools/houston.html) "HISD is the state's largest school district, with over 210,000 students and a budget of over 1.2 billion dollars. The district includes Houston's richest neighborhoods, as well as some of it's least affluent. The average test scores of individual schools can vary widely between different areas within the district. " - But no such blurb is at North Forest's.