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To move to Kingwood or not? Help?
My husband, son and I live in an apartment near the Galleria area. As much as we love the apartment, we have outgrown it and are ready to become homeowners. We love LOVE the area we're in. Everything is near us, family & friends live minutes away, my husband's job is 15 minutes away and I'm just a city girl, plain and simple.
Problem is that our budget is small. We're not comfortable spending over a certain amount simply because we're more devoted to savings, having more kids, not living paycheck to paycheck, etc. According to our budget, we can either live in a crappy area (but still within Houston) or in an amazing house and move to the suburbs (Spring, Kingwood, Richmond, etc.).
Our two first priorities when house hunting is a good school district and a friendly neighborhood. Well, I doubt we'll be zoned to Bellaire schools since we can't afford a house in Bellaire so there goes that. The schools in Kingwood however, are supposed to be excellent.
So it seems like the obvious choice would be to move to Kingwood. My H would like to move there because he feels very strongly about our son and future children going to a good school and he doesn't mind the 45 minute commute to work. I, on the other hand, don't know if I want to be so far from Houston. I feel like my life is IN Houston itself, not the suburbs. Then again, I would do and sacrifice anything for my children.
THIS.IS.SO.HARD.
Advice?
TTC#2=July 2011: Surprise BFP: Chemical Pregnancy
Re: To move to Kingwood or not? Help?
i love kingwood (i don't live there, but it is a great place). i'm willing to bet that once you become parents and live out there among parents, you will make friends and love it as much as you love city life.
my photography blog
There are lots of affordable options in COH with good schools.
We moved from Bellaire schoools to Poe (HISD.) There are lots of fantstic options with great schools ITL or just outside of it. Especially in Meyerland and the surrounding areas.
Kingwood would be a reasonable suburb because 59 isn't awful, but traffic within Kingwood can be nasty. I wouldn't move to the suburbs no matter what. It all depends on what is important to you. For me, life is in Houston. I love that I can walk to the zoo, museums, etc...
So Tasty, So Yummy
My life is also in Houston but my kids are also equally (if not more) important. Can't I just have my cake and eat it too?
TTC#2=July 2011: Surprise BFP: Chemical Pregnancy
I have my cake and eat it too...but I do not understand the allure of the suburbs...so you are not talking to the right person. It is worth it to be in the city. I grew up in the suburbs, I will never go back. My friends who have moved to the suburbs come into the city often, I just wish they still lived here
So Tasty, So Yummy
With all due respect (and I don't mean this in a snarky way by any means) but you have your cake and are eating it too because you've got $$$.
Unfortunately, that's not the case with us so we're left with this dilemma.
TTC#2=July 2011: Surprise BFP: Chemical Pregnancy
I have no clue what your situation is, but we seriously downgraded so I wouldn't have to work. There are lots of options in our area that are not spendy in the least. We have crap middle school zoning, but I think we will have moved once we get to that point. bonus: pre-school co-op is dirt cheap.
We had (and lost) a lot of money on a house in the suburbs. So I totally understand your dilemma.
Have you considered Pearland? It is 10 miles instead of 20 miles away.
So Tasty, So Yummy
My misunderstanding.
We have not considered Pearland but we'll put that on our list of options for sure. We did check out Sugarland a few weekends ago (haven't been there in years) and I was honestly not that impressed.
Thanks for your input and suggestion!
TTC#2=July 2011: Surprise BFP: Chemical Pregnancy
in what area of town does your husband work? there are easy commuter options (park & ride) in most of the suburbs if he works "regular" hours.
a good idea of what you want + housing budget + a good realtor will help you find the answer to your having cake and eating it too.
we live in friendswood (on the southeast side near baybrook mall), and my office is near the museum district. i don't commute at rush hour, and i work from home a lot so my situation is different. i enjoy kind of having a presence there, and being "in town" often, but i love the suburban life.
my photography blog
I think there are a LOT of choices in between. You seem to be focusing on the two extremes (Galleria v. Kingwood). I grew up in Atascocita and am familiar with Kingwood. It's a nice place. But it's really freaking far away from everything. My mom drove an insanely long commute. I can probably count on my fingers the number of times we drove to do something in Houston over 20 years.
If you're looking for a big new house, then yes, I'm sure you don't have a lot of choices that you can afford (though there are still more than just Kingwood), but if you are willing to live in an older home, maybe not a huge house, there are good, safe neighborhoods and good schools all over the place.
Thanks for your input, girls.
My husband is convinced we can only do either Houston or Kingwood but I keep insisting that we should talk to a realtor before deciding that. I'm going to shoot Brandi an email right now.
TTC#2=July 2011: Surprise BFP: Chemical Pregnancy
Have you considered renting a home in the city? Honestly, you probably aren't going to make a ton of money "investing" in a home in the burbs. The house values just don't increase that much. I love our home in Pearland, it works perfectly for us because of where we work. (Our jobs are in the burbs) But, if we both worked in town, I might consider renting a house closer in. (Because like you, we couldn't afford to buy) Just another thought.
ETA: Pearland is just ok. Like I said above, it is a perfect location because of our jobs and I loooove our neighborhood. However, the shopping and restaurants leave something to be desired. THAT being said, I can leave my house at 6:45pm and meet my girlfriends for book club by Central Market at 7:00. Like PAGAS said, it is very easy to get into town from Pearland (during NON-peak traffic times of course) It would be about the same time to get to the museum district. One of my offices is in Sugar Land, and it is by far my favorite suburb. The commute in to downtown in 59 isn't tooo bad. And there are lots of restaurants and stores.
Care to post your budget? The gals on here know about all kinds of hidden gem neighborhoods that might work!
Like others have said, there is no knowing what you're really talking about without looking at actual numbers but there are many, many neighborhoods in town or what a friend of mine calls "near loop orbit." Most of the areas north of the Heights have good schools and are affordable by "city" standards.
I also have friends who live in the Meyerland area who had small home budgets. Their houses are not shiny and granite and everything new but they are roomy with nice yards and a strong sense of community.
But I also agree you might want to rent. There are so many things that go in to the cost of owning a home that people forget when they look at mortgage numbers. There's taxes, homeowners assoc fees (esp in the burbs), repairs... Literally on a monthly basis I tell my husband I want to cash out on the house and rent and let all this crap be someone else's problem.
IN the end, I guess I agree with the others--- start working with a good realtor but you don't have to go one extreme or the other. There are a lot of good options in between.
What you've just said is why we still rent too. I don't want to live in the 'burbs and we can't afford our dream house ITL, so we rent.
However, we'll be moving to Eastwood next year because those are homes we can afford in an area that we're willing to put time and investment in to and hope in ten years or so, it's the new Heights.
Also, we're homeschooling, which is wonderful for a lot of reasons, not the least is that it frees us from being bound to certain school districts. Have you looked into private schools or other options so that you don't have to stick to certain school districts?
j+k+m+e | running with needles
Love Eastwood and also have a line on a house you might be interested in, Kat!
As far as schools, don't forget that if you are in HISD, you do not necessarily have to go to the school you are zoned to. We are zoned to Browning (bad) but our next door neighbor's daughter goes to Harvard (excellent). I know a bunch of kids in the Heights who go to Wilson, in Montrose, and Garden Oaks, which are both public Montessori. There are kids in the Heights that go to River Oaks Elem, too. So, when you are in HISD, zoning isn't an absolute. You do have choices.
We live in Kingwood and it's fine. I grew up here and I do like it. We live in the "back" of Kingwood so I rarely go up to the front, so traffic is easily avoidable. We take a back way out of Kingwood. It's a nice place to live, especially if you are a SAHM.
That said, I'm always trying to talk DH into moving ITL. He isn't going for it...he just isn't jazzed about paying that much for a house. I'll be a SAHM when we have kids and his office is downtown and the data center is out towards Katy, so he has quite a haul. He has flexible hours, though, so he goes in after rush hour. Door-to-door is about 40 minutes for him.
Of all the suburb options, Kingwood is our favorite, fwiw. We looked at other options but ruled them out for a variety of reasons.
I have lived all over this city (ITL and out) and currently live in The Woodlands. I don't feel like I miss out on much in town b/c I just go there if I feel like it. The driving is NBD to me.
Thank you for posting your experience. I'm very stubborn as well but sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do, especially when there are children involved.
TTC#2=July 2011: Surprise BFP: Chemical Pregnancy
When we return to Houston, if buying a house means we'll have to raise our kids outside of the city, we will rent. I don't have a problem with suburbs, but we just prefer to raise our kids in the city. (If I were to move to the suburbs, however, and commute wasn't an issue, I'd pick Kingwood in a heartbeat.)
This is how I feel, but DH would rather get a McMansion (or mini-McMansion, lol) in the 'burbs. No thank you! We are planning to move back to Houston next summer and we'll probably rent in Bellaire or Meyerland. Both have great schools.
DH and I currently live in Westbury, and we, too, did A LOT of searching trying to decide what was best for our situation. DH is an engineer with LyondellBasel and therefore works on refinery row (as I call it) along 225; you know, the smelly part of Houston
My parents grew up in the City of South Houston, and I was in Deer Park with them until I was four. We moved to Spring/Klein from there.
Because I grew up in the 'burbs, I was not opposed to living in one, but I was highly attracted to living closer to the city if possible. As many other PP have stated, we considered many of the 'burb options; Clear Lake, Friendswood, League City, Pearland, Sugar Land, and Kingwood. We were actually REALLY considering Fall Creek as an option. That said, we stumbled upon the S Post Oak exit on 610 one day and discovered all that Willowbend, Westbury and Meyerland had to offer. I was embarrassed to say that I'd NEVER known this area existed! We were both so impressed and intrigued that I think it made us finally call our realtor after a year and half of trying to pin down an area that we wanted to live in.
As PP stated, most houses in this community are older and will need work. I understand some people's desire to not deal with this, but we were ok with this. We were actually looking for something that we could put some sweat equity into
Our specific neighborhood within the community is larger homes with larger lots, so we are very pleased with the amount of space we have. I'm not sure that there are any homes in our neighborhood under 2,000 sq feet actually; if there are, perhaps they are 1,975 or something like that. Most lots are around 9,000 sq ft, and, of course, some corner lots are larger.
All that said, I'm SO PLEASED at how close we are to so many things. We actually halfway between the Galleria and Sugar Land, so we are able to do things in both areas. It's also only 20 minutes for DH to get to work from park to park. He loves that about his commute. The longer we live here, the more I find about why I love living here.
None of this has anything to do with schools, and I realize that. It wasn't a factor for us since kids were nowhere in the picture at the time of the house purchase, and it's still just us two and the pup
We knew that we would move about the time the first child is about to enter Kindergarten, whenever that may be. Neither of us are sure where we want to go at that time.
As some PP have said, I would suggest considering this area around Meyerland.
I grew up in Friendswood, and it was very nice, good schools ect. But now DH and I live in Kingwood, and I LOVE it! We don't have kids yet but I love the fact that when we do the elementary school is walking distance from our home. All the neighborhoods have their own! Everything you need is so close and we still go downtown to go out and it takes no time at all. 59 is a breeze compared to 45! I used to fight that everyday in Friendswood, and it just wasn't worth it. Kingwood is beautiful, its established, and the people are NICE! They wave when you drive by, they walk their dogs, they ride bikes, they have parties and BBQ. Parents can let their kids play outside and ride down to the park! In Friendswood every one seemed to stuck up to have fun like that when I was growing up.
The city it's self is not so far away. We are always surprised at how fast we can get downtown. And I have a car with fantastic gas miliage so thats no issue either. My grandparents live in Myer-land and it is a great part of the city. It has a great feel too it. But their house, for instance, needs a lot of work. (The avocado green shag carpeting just got replaced!) And they bought it when that neighborhood was brand new, so they don't even have a mortgage payment anymore.
Budget-wise you just need to consider what is best for you. We love to cook and are always coming up with new things so you could save money there if you normally eat out downtown. If you like going out at night, drink prices are cheaper out here and we have picked out a few favorites to hang out at. Do you have a gas guzzler, so the commute would be more expensive? Do you have enough furniture for a larger home, or would you be happy keeping some places a little empty for a while? The cost of heating a cooling a larger home is more expensive and home repairs can get up there too. Don't forget the yard work, homeowner's association fees, and all the other odds and ends.
In the end, I'm a suburb girl. The city is fantastic, but I just love my home and the experiences I have out here.
It is a great house!