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what should I believe? Police reports or moving.com?


Samsoner

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Hello again,

I am thinking about moving to Houston and I've narrowed down my search to districts like 77067, mainly districts that have somewhat of a low flood risk and are within the loop or outside (yet close) to the Beltway. At first I liked what I saw at the Tremont patio homes in the 77067 area, but then I went to the Houston police report (from the city government website) and saw that there were alot of robberies and auto theft in the northern beat, where 77067 and adjoining districts are.

But then I went to moving.com and looked up 77067 and the murder rate was extremely high! The police report hardly mentioned any murders..and both statistics are recent from the year 2005.

So, from the perspective of someone who's lived in Houston for many years, what outlying districts (between the Beltway and the 610 loop) have the highest murder rates? I also realize that there are some northwest/northern districts that have low murder rates but have pretty high automobile theft rates.

For the past few hours I've been at moving.com comparing district to district, and it is starting to get frustrated because I'm getting different kinds of information on the same place.

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I am also thinking about moving to Katy but it is 45 minutes away. What is the workday commute usually like from Katy to Houston? Where I'm from, (SF) there is a considerable amount of crime but I know what the city is like and I know where to go and where not to go. Houston is extremely different..it is a huge city and none of my cousins are helpful in determining what districts are risky to live, whether you're in a new home or an old one.

The best thing going for me is that I'm single and I'm familiar with living in high-crime areas, but even with a high murder rate of 219 (moving.com) I can't take that risk.

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since no one has responded I guess I will...

1. the commute from Katy is one of the worst in the nation... I-10 is abysmal and is undergoing a widening right now... on a weekend with little traffic it'll take you 30-45 minutes to get into the loop area from Katy.. so on a work commute add another 15-20 minutes on a good day and double the time if there is an accident....

2. as for neighborhoods.... why don't you tell us what sort of budget you have in mind for a house and what size... we'll be able to much better guide you to areas of value and relative safety... statistics don't tell the whole story of a zipcode as the difference from one street to another can be quite drastic...

3. where are you going to be working?? I presume somewhere inside the loop since you keep asking about commute times... would you literally be downtown or maybe Galleria area, or Greenway? it all makes a difference to where you can live comfortably and with minimal commute..

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Houston is a very interesting city, where, in the space of a block or two, you can go from ghetto to mcmansionville, slums to yuppy heaven. I would think it is very hard to tell from a zip code search anything about a particular area here in Houston.

As others have said, budget and expectations would help us better point you in a good direction.

good luck!

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I don't worry about violent crimes...for the most part, I think the victims are involved in something shady. Murders are usually revenge- or drug-related, or domestic disputes. Random murder is pretty rare.

More of a concern is property crime. Unfortunately, you're not going to find a place in Houston, inside the Loop or out in the suburbs, that is immune to property crime. I think most of this is committed by high school kids, and high school kids live everywhere...or they have a car and can drive anywhere.

A guy that works for me had his truck broken into within the first 6 months that he bought his house up in Spring (a relatively well-to-do suburb on the north side of Houston). I live inside the Loop, in a blue-collar neighborhood, and our house has been burglarized once in 60 years...and that was in the late 1980's when Houston was in bad shape. The burglar was caught, by the way, by a shotgun-toting neighbor.

Personally, I've had my car broken into once in Houston in the 15 years that I've owned a car. I haven't locked my car for over a year, I leave CD's and stereo within plain sight, and I haven't had anything stolen. It's a total hit-or-miss thing...you can't avoid random property crime. It happens in the best and worst of places.

As for violent crime, just don't try to steal from your dealer and you should be OK.

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