Moving to Houston from Australia - Need Help regarding Homes / Neighbourhoods / Getting Car-License (Pecan Grove: for rent, car insurance)

[Hershal]

Originally Posted by chris_ut

Spring is just a suburban sprawl area north of Houston, nothing special about it and some of the schools are bad depending on the district but houses are cheaper than buying in Houston or The Woodlands.

I have been reviewing the schools in spring some are not as good as others, but this isnt really an issue for us at the moment until the little fella gets a bit older! just need a safe secure place to rent for 12 months until we make our decision on a more permanent area

[expataussie]

I would recommend The Woodlands or Kingwood. I'm Australian and lived in Dallas for a while many years ago. I recently researched the Houston area and narrowed our search to The Woodlands and Kingwood. Kingwood is closer to IAH but The Woodlands has more in regards to shopping, restaurants, etc. Having said that Kingwood has more than enough to keep you happy. I believe both are safe areas and very nice.

[HometownTX]

Originally Posted by arafiq81

Sugar Land is a great place to live, great communities and schools. Plenty of community activities and people in all back grounds (e.g. business owners, franchiees, business professionals)

Regarding Drivers License, you will probably need your social security card + another form of ID (AUS passpport or Green card).

I've lived in Sugar Land for 6 years--moved here because of the excellent schools. Terrific place to raise a family! Great diversity and safe!

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by imback

As far as housing goes, in your situation (commuting to Australia!), I think a major consideration needs to be airport access, and how you plan to get from Houston to Australia. Don't forget that Houston metro area has TWO airports - IAH (George Bush Intercontinental) on the far north side, and HOU (Hobby Airport) on the far south side. Both airports have multiple daily nonstop to LAX - if LAX is how you want to get from US to BNE or SYD. HOU (Hobby) is a smaller and considerable easier airport to navigate than IAH. (I'm assuming you aren't considering other West Coast gateways like SFO).

But you have other options than dealing with the hell-on-earth that is LAX. QANTAS flies nonstop from DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth). There are of course numerous daily flights from IAH to DFW. From HOU (Hobby), you can fly Southwest Airlines to a secondary Dallas area airport (Love Field), which is less than 20 miles from DFW and has shuttle or taxi connections. I am not sure, but some of the other airlines flying out of HOU (Hobby) may have nonstops to DFW.

DFW airport is a great origin-destination airport but a bad connecting airport. Hopefully the terminals aren't too far away to catch connections, especially coming back to the U.S. through Immigration. Immigration lines can delay the check-in for the domestic connection (sterile connections are not allowed in the U.S.). Don't forget about the flight delays that may arise on each leg. Would not recommend a taxi to connect from DFW and Love field because of that.

LAX is better known as the busiest origin-destination airport in the world. On the other hand there is a skybridge between the International terminal and Terminals 4,5,6,7,8 and a shuttle bus running the perimeter. SFO is a compact bicycle wheel design; each terminal is part of the "rim" of the wheel with various concourses (the spokes).

Is it possible to transfer to an office in California or somewhere on the Pacific coast of the U.S.A. or the Mountain West (inland Western U.S.A.) instead? That should shave 3 hours off your "commute", not counting the time zone changes.

[Hershal]

Originally Posted by HometownTX

I've lived in Sugar Land for 6 years--moved here because of the excellent schools. Terrific place to raise a family! Great diversity and safe!

I am leaning more towards Sugarland due to the nice communities and the fact its not North of I45, I have heard nothing but bad stories about that highway.

[Hershal]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

DFW airport is a great origin-destination airport but a bad connecting airport. Hopefully the terminals aren't too far away to catch connections, especially coming back to the U.S. through Immigration. Immigration lines can delay the check-in for the domestic connection (sterile connections are not allowed in the U.S.). Don't forget about the flight delays that may arise on each leg. Would not recommend a taxi to connect from DFW and Love field because of that.

LAX is better known as the busiest origin-destination airport in the world. On the other hand there is a skybridge between the International terminal and Terminals 4,5,6,7,8 and a shuttle bus running the perimeter. SFO is a compact bicycle wheel design; each terminal is part of the "rim" of the wheel with various concourses (the spokes).

Is it possible to transfer to an office in California or somewhere on the Pacific coast of the U.S.A. or the Mountain West (inland Western U.S.A.) instead? That should shave 3 hours off your "commute", not counting the time zone changes.

As I dont pay for my flights half the time, the company I work for mostly just look for the cheapest flight... to a point. So I could assume that I could be commuting out of either Airport Depending on the Airline. I would assume though that I would fly Direct from Dallas to Sydney, That seems the easiest. However I could also flight with Emirates and go via Dubai and it would be longer but only 2 flights Houston - Dubai - Perth.

Again I really got no idea which way they would go and because I work in different locations and not just Australia it could vary alot.

EDIT: I just looked up the flights from Houston to Perth and Emirates are the Cheapest, Flying From George Bush Airport via Dubai 33Hours

[fnh]

OK, the Sugar Land boosters are doing you a serious disservice. If your commute is to IAH, you most definitely do NOT want to live in Sugar Land. The commute to downtown from there is ferocious, never mind beyond downtown to IAH!

There is nothing that Sugar Land will offer you that is different from The Woodlands, or Kingwood, or Spring, aside from a horrible commute to IAH.

Our first year here I commuted to Seattle via IAH, DH commuted to the Galleria area west of town. We settled in northwest Houston inside the beltway and it takes 20-30 minutes to reach IAH via the beltway. If you have only IAH to consider then you have a huge area from the northwest to the northeast with good options, but I would never consider south of town. Besides, the north side is much greener.

[Hershal]

Originally Posted by fnh

OK, the Sugar Land boosters are doing you a serious disservice. If your commute is to IAH, you most definitely do NOT want to live in Sugar Land. The commute to downtown from there is ferocious, never mind beyond downtown to IAH!

There is nothing that Sugar Land will offer you that is different from The Woodlands, or Kingwood, or Spring, aside from a horrible commute to IAH.

Our first year here I commuted to Seattle via IAH, DH commuted to the Galleria area west of town. We settled in northwest Houston inside the beltway and it takes 20-30 minutes to reach IAH via the beltway. If you have only IAH to consider then you have a huge area from the northwest to the northeast with good options, but I would never consider south of town. Besides, the north side is much greener.

Could you not just skip downtown to get to IAH? go around the inner loop? Or is that just taking longer?

I only go once a month so I didnt think it would really be an issue, plus my company pays for the taxi fair so I am not to concerned. I didnt really want to go as high up as the Woodlands if I could help it. Is there some nice areas in the northwest / northeast that you could recommend. We are looking for a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom house around the $2000 a month rental price, we found a few nice ones in the sugarland area, some in gated communities too.

[fnh]

Sugar Land is 40+ miles from IAH and you would have to cross over the entire metro area from SW to NE. To skirt the worst traffic you would need to go around the city on the east side, bringing the commute to 50-60 miles. There is simply no reason to do this. The Woodlands, even being "high up", is half the distance away and offers everything Sugar Land does (and more), and your commute is contained to one side of the city. Kingwood is another great option, and smaller neighborhoods like Eagle Springs in Atascocita. You can use the map search on HAR.com for rentals too.

We are near Jersey Village and I am under 20 miles to the airport. We love it here but the northwest made sense since DH was working on the west side, plus we are even closer than that to downtown where he works now. If we had no other considerations besides a nice community convenient to IAH, we would have looked at the northern and northeastern areas as well. Pretty neighborhoods, safe, very leafy.

[Hershal]

Originally Posted by fnh

Sugar Land is 40+ miles from IAH and you would have to cross over the entire metro area from SW to NE. To skirt the worst traffic you would need to go around the city on the east side, bringing the commute to 50-60 miles. There is simply no reason to do this. The Woodlands, even being "high up", is half the distance away and offers everything Sugar Land does (and more), and your commute is contained to one side of the city. Kingwood is another great option, and smaller neighborhoods like Eagle Springs in Atascocita. You can use the map search on HAR.com for rentals too.

We are near Jersey Village and I am under 20 miles to the airport. We love it here but the northwest made sense since DH was working on the west side, plus we are even closer than that to downtown where he works now. If we had no other considerations besides a nice community convenient to IAH, we would have looked at the northern and northeastern areas as well. Pretty neighborhoods, safe, very leafy.

I am Going to consider this area alot, Again appreciate the advise. Its very overwhelming with all the new areas. I am thinking of a gated community for piece of mind and security while I am away. I know it doesn't give you 100% security, but it must be a little bit better than not in a gated community.

So many options and so little time to decide, 2 weeks of looking to decide on a place that we will live in for a year, and half of that I wont be there as I will be working and leaving my family on their own... very worrying...