SBISD + small house or private school + bigger house? (Houston, Sugar Land: condo, loans)

[fnh]

We are in Cy-Fair, inside the beltway, zoned to Reed/Dean/Jersey Village. We love our neighborhood and location and would hate to leave. I wouldn't move just to leave Reed or JV, but Dean gives us pause.

My friend who moved to Memorial lived in a Montrose townhome (zoned Wilson/Lanier/Lamar) and really needed more space anyway, with two growing boys. They ended up buying a slightly larger townhome in Memorial b/c the prices are so high there, but at least there is some green space outside for her kids to play. She describes it as the 'Frostwood ghetto.' She feels profoundly poor there, despite their being a white, educated, professional Italo-American family who spends summers in Italy at their home in Genoa.

Easily Amused is right, many families in Memorial can afford to do private even with the high cost of housing there. I think this is why you hear more about the western SBISD schools. More of those families are choosing to live there FOR the schools. The eastern schools (like Hunters Creek) don't get as much chatter because many families in that area elect to go private even with an excellent public school down the street.

[EasilyAmused]

FNH, I've lived outside the Beltway for a couple years, 80% of my neighborhood goes private.But it's a higher price point than Wilchester/Nottingham/Gaywood etc. Many people chose to live here due to the lot size and park proximity. Just two miles east, these houses would be worth double.So they had choice between Village house and public and the same type house outside the Villages and private...plus miles of park path

Seems most people need to find a personal balance, no matter the price point.

But the area the OP is talking about, will strongly attend public.

[Vicman]

Is it possible for your kids to be sent to a different Cy-Fair ISD school? Maybe other CFISD schools have transfer programs?

Originally Posted by fnh

We are in Cy-Fair, inside the beltway, zoned to Reed/Dean/Jersey Village. We love our neighborhood and location and would hate to leave. I wouldn't move just to leave Reed or JV, but Dean gives us pause.

[ToyYot]

Originally Posted by EasilyAmused

FNH, I've lived outside the Beltway for a couple years, 80% of my neighborhood goes private.But it's a higher price point than Wilchester/Nottingham/Gaywood etc. Many people chose to live here due to the lot size and park proximity. Just two miles east, these houses would be worth double.So they had choice between Village house and public and the same type house outside the Villages and private...plus miles of park path

Seems most people need to find a personal balance, no matter the price point.

But the area the OP is talking about, will strongly attend public.

Agreed, most kids on our street in Nottingham Forest go to the public schools. Both parents and kids seem quite happy with them.

[houston-nomad]

Interesting discussion. We have friends who moved to one of the memorial nabes for the schools. They ended up unhappy with the schools, but because the neighborhood was pricey, they couldn't go private, as they wanted. They moved west to an area zoned to Barbara Bush elementary, I think, a good area but more affordable, and are sending their kids to private school.

Best case scenario might be a neighborhood where the schools are good and present a realistic option for you, but if it doesn't work out, you're not so house-poor that you can't manage private school if you become unhappy with public. Personally I hope to ride the public school train until it begins to derail for us, then look for private options. I'm hoping to ride through middle school but who knows, maybe our lottery luck will change and we'll get into a good HISD hs. But I'm not sure even a good one will be good enough for us, so I plan to keep living in our affordable little house, so we can manage private if we need to.

Don't over extend on the house. For so many reasons.

[Dionne7]

Originally Posted by fnh

Every year we are faced with the same choice - move to Memorial and put our money into a house and taxes for public school, or remain in our beautiful home and pay tuition for private school, currently pushing $40K annually for two elementary kids. Crazy, maybe, but so far we have elected to stay in private school because, well, we've been able to keep paying for it. We love our neighborhood and have a vibrant home community despite our children not going to the local school, and we value the education and community they enjoy at their private school as well. How do you measure the return on that?

My closest friend made the opposite choice this year, buying a home in Memorial this summer and leaving our private school after 5 years for Frostwood/Memorial/Memorial, mostly for financial reasons. Despite the glowing stats at Frostwood in the end it is still a TX public school with 25 kids per class, a palpable focus on testing and worksheets, junk food in the cafeteria, etc. They also find it to be shockingly non-diverse, both racially and economically - hence the glowing stats, perhaps. This latter point makes them most uncomfortable about their choice.

The schools in SBISD are generally fine but I think the perception is that they are like public 'private' schools and they simply are not. They are schools with very affluent white kids and a sprinkling of Asians, and the test scores directly reflect this. Whether you will be happier with small house/Memorial school or with cheaper house/private school depends on your past experience and your personal preferences.

I am curious with all the money you people are spending on homes, education, and in the future, college, have you thought about saving for retirement? A job or family income is not guaranteed in this economy. I have talked to old folks, who spent their lives spending money, but did not penny pinch for retirement living in regret. Just something to think about. It sounds nice and is something to brag about for alot of folks, but I have to wonder if folks are doing long-term financial planning for retirement unless you believe the kids are going to take care of you with the best education that you paid for.

[Dionne7]

Originally Posted by Dionne7

I am curious with all the money you people are spending on homes, education, and in the future, college, have you thought about saving for retirement? A job or family income is not guaranteed in this economy. I have talked to old folks, who spent their lives spending money, but did not penny pinch for retirement living in regret. Just something to think about. It sounds nice and is something to brag about for alot of folks, but I have to wonder if folks are doing long-term financial planning for retirement unless you believe the kids are going to take care of you with the best education that you paid for.

I have to add I have NEVER seen the craziness surrounding education in Texas compared to other places I have lived. You don't need to spend half a million dollars on a home in order to get into a good neighborhood outside of this state. As for private school, based on statistics the same kids coming out of the "good private" schools are going to the same colleges as the kids coming out of the Texas public schools, who are prepared for college. Most of the kids in private either go to University of Houston, University of Texas in Austin or some other university in Texas. College tuition is very expensive and I am sure most parents cannot afford to pay for out of state tuition unless the student loans it through. Parents tend to get wrapped up into believing that paying for private will make their child a better student and they will be advancing far ahead than public school students. Parents have an affect on student performance not the school.
The way things are going today with the rise in college graduates not being able to find employment although, education is competitive, it will not guarantee that there will be work for everybody as there are alot of highly educated people unemployed right now.

[EasilyAmused]

Different people make different choices, some just are lucky enough to have more paths the choose from.
A good education can be had at all economic levels with effort, this is true. But the families I know in the private system aren't worried about pulling loans for college, nor being supported by their children. They are also looking for something more than what government education has been whittled down to. And certainly most are hoping their children do go on to out of state, private universities.

As to future employment, that's the educated kid's problem. Jobs can be had, just not the glamourous 80k right out of college job many think they deserve just for breathing.

If people want to fuss, let them fuss.

[fnh]

Absolutely we save for retirement. It is our third largest expenditure, after taxes (#1 by far) and private school tuition. By contrast our housing expenditure represents less than 1/20th of our income. This is the choice we have made and we re-evaluate all the time. Both of our children are not socially typical and benefit from the extra attention a small class affords, plus one of them is in a full-time French curriculum. That is something we simply can't get from the public system.

Then there is the concern that TX compares very unfavorably on national measures of education...

At any rate, DH feels that we are in the safer position with a small mortgage and big tuition bill, as long as we are able to save additionally for retirement. If the worst happens and he loses his job, we would hate to do it but we would of course pull the kids out of private school. It's much more difficult to rid yourself of a big mortgage bill!

[fnh]

Originally Posted by EasilyAmused

Different people make different choices, some just are lucky enough to have more paths the chose from.
A good education can be had at all economic levels with effort, this is true. But the families I know in the private system aren't worried about pulling loans for college, nor being supported by their children. They are also looking for something more than what government education has been whittled down to. And certainly most are hoping their children do go on to out of state, private universities.

As to future employment, that's the educated kid's problem. Jobs can be had, just not the glamourous 80k right out of college job many think they deserve just for breathing.

If people want to fuss, let them fuss.

Agreed!