Spring Branch Quality vs. League City Quality? (Houston, Howe: apartment complexes, mortgage) - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

Mod_Momma · 10-05-2015, 08:40 AM

Our family is considering a move to the Spring Branch area to take over a home left behind by an elderly family member (would ultimately need to be a scrape/rebuild). The property is zoned to the following schools: (Elem: Valley Oaks / Middle: Spring Branch / High: Memorial).

Currently, we are zoned to all great CCISD schools, both kids are in gifted/talented (and will have access to Clear Creek ISD's WAVE program), have a nice home in a nice subdivision (safe, quiet, easy school bus access for all schools).

So, why would we even consider this:
1) A LOT closer to family (in the Loop)
2) A LOT closer to husband's job - he's currently commuting 2-3 hours/day to his 'west Loop' job.
3) We don't seem to "fit" in down here as it is largely conservative Christian (we are not religious so we miss out on all the church friendship circles) and 'always lived here' folks. We've lived in a LOT of places in the US and around the world and tend to make good friends with others with similar pasts and looser (or non) religious views.

Questions:
1) Is Spring Branch Middle very good? (Online ratings do not look very good.) It sounds like both the Elementary and High School would be just fine.

2) How is the SBISD gifted & talented program? I've got one kid who is a sharp, data-focused child and another who is the exact opposite with high emotional intelligence and creative, free spirit, needs a different-style classroom. (CCISD's GT program is working fine for both my kids, currently.)

3) Are we going to find similar 'always lived here' and 'Christian' demographics in Spring Branch? (We do live in Texas, after all?)

The move won't be worth the effort and cost to us if:
1) The schools and GT programs are not at least comparable. (What we have is definitely good enough for us.)
AND
2) The social demographics are going to be the same. (We will do better with more international friends.)

Any insights, thoughts, or questions to share? Thanks!

shortel · 10-05-2015, 09:00 AM

Im not religious and I don't let the bible beaters tell me what to do. Just ignore them. Their is plenty of people with high morals that aren't religious.

Mod_Momma · 10-05-2015, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shortel

Im not religious and I don't let the bible beaters tell me what to do. Just ignore them. Their is plenty of people with high morals that aren't religious.

Oh no, I think you took my post the wrong way. We don't have ANY issues with the Christian groups down here, we are involved in our neighborhood and we are "friendly" with most everyone. We just aren't "friends" as we find we hold very different interests outside of just talking about our kids, the community and the weather. It makes for a pretty quiet social life. We have always had a number of friends until we moved down here.

westres1 · 10-05-2015, 09:22 AM

Spring Branch is much more diverse than where you are. It also has lots of international people working in the energy corridor. Spring Branch schools are know to be very good and the access to all Houston has to offer will be much closer.
I think you will find people in Spring Branch different from League City in that reguard.

Texas Ag 93 · 10-05-2015, 09:55 AM

Both locations are very good options. I live in the League City area (Kemah, technically, but just barely) and we love it here.

But, SB might be worth it for your husband's commute alone. What about housing costs? Would you be going from a home with a mortgage to a house that's already paid for? You mentioned you would be taking over a home "left behind" from a relative, but described it as a scrape/rebuild...

Mod_Momma · 10-05-2015, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Ag 93

Both locations are very good options. I live in the League City area (Kemah, technically, but just barely) and we love it here.

But, SB might be worth it for your husband's commute alone. What about housing costs? Would you be going from a home with a mortgage to a house that's already paid for? You mentioned you would be taking over a home "left behind" from a relative, but described it as a scrape/rebuild...

We'd still have a mortgage and would take on a bit more costs/taxes (all doable). Our questions really boil down to the schools and the social demographics. We wish we loved it down here since the home, the schools, and community safety are all working so well. (Don't fix what ain't broken, right?)

Texas Ag 93 · 10-05-2015, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mod_Momma

We'd still have a mortgage and would take on a bit more costs/taxes (all doable). Our questions really boil down to the schools and the social demographics. We wish we loved it down here since the home, the schools, and community safety are all working so well. (Don't fix what ain't broken, right?)

Tough one. Two desirable areas, both with good schools. For me, the social demographics would be the lowest priority, moreover, it's the one hardest to quantify and there are no guarantees it would be any better than where you are now. Both Schools and commute time would be more important. Did you mention how old are the kids are? How do you think they would react to a move? I think it would be easier if they are young elementary, because once they get into about 4th-5th grade (and esp Middle school), their established relationships become so important.

PinkLadyK · 10-05-2015, 10:24 AM

I don't know about the gifted/talented stuff, but VOE is fine from what I know, and Memorial HS is excellent. Your issue will be Spring Branch Middle. Can you tolerate 3 iffy years for the good bookending of elementary and high? Might be worth it since they spend the least amount of time in middle.

Ghost Town · 10-05-2015, 10:40 AM

Well I am subscribed to spotcrime.com alerts, and what I see is robberies/assaults happen pretty much every day in Spring Branch. I am not an expert in this neighborhood, but I've been there few times. It looked kind of run down to me with lots of sketchy characters.

I've seen one apartment complex: it was like after WWII with large craters in the ground kind of after heavy bombing. This was pretty scary experience. I don't know how they live there like this.

In general, it looked worse than even 3rd world country to me. And it is in the US, in one of the most financially successful cities!

However, Spring Branch is pretty big, and I am assuming there are some good parts as well, but I would not like to be surrounded by all these sketchy characters, run down houses and crappy apartment complexes. So I would definitely prefer League City if commute time is not an issue.

Mod_Momma · 10-05-2015, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Ag 93

Tough one. Two desirable areas, both with good schools. For me, the social demographics would be the lowest priority, moreover, it's the one hardest to quantify and there are no guarantees it would be any better than where you are now. Both Schools and commute time would be more important. Did you mention how old are the kids are? How do you think they would react to a move? I think it would be easier if they are young elementary, because once they get into about 4th-5th grade (and esp Middle school), their established relationships become so important.

You are right - it IS hard to quantify! And, it seems crazy to think moving 35 miles would change our social life all that much. Our kids struggle with it a bit, too, as Saturday night sleepovers and Sunday play times are rare/if not impossible (due to other families' Sunday church obligations).

Our kids are elementary-aged this year. But, the older one moves up to middle school (and would be bussed to the WAVE GT program to be more exclusively with other GT kids) NEXT year. So, if we move, we know we need to make it happen next summer.