Pompano Beach to Kingwood (Houston, Spring: house, neighborhoods, movie theater)

[AbbeRoad]

Hi all-I am looking for some insights. We are 95% sure that when we FINALLY get our house sold that we will be moving to Houston. We are also fairly sure that we will be living in Kingwood, and 100% sure that we will be staying there, at least at first. One of my concerns is that I am used to having shopping and great restaurants right around the corner. I don't get the impression that Kingwood has that much to offer as far as restaurants and there does not seem to be much shopping available- groceries or otherwise. I have heard that the mall on the other side of 59 is kind of scary.
Will I need to go all the way downtown to get to good restaurants and shopping?
If anyone here is familiar with South Florida? Would you say the drive from Kingwood is similar from a drive from Ft. Lauderdale to Aventura?
Also, I am a little shaky about the decision to move because although I was quite impressed with Houston when I visited, everyone seems to raise their brows and say "Houston?!? Why would you go there?" Is there something that I missed? It may not have the water, but at least I found the neighborhoods around Rice to be gorgeous and Kingwood is full of trees and therefore not hard on the eyes....In general I thought it was somewhat similar to South Florida sans water...
Please give me any info you think I might need! BTW, my family is my husband, my 11 year old horse loving daughter and I. We will be trying to work from home or as close as possible depending in part on what territory my husband gets assigned. Thanks for any help!

[Texas Mack]

Kingwood is actually a fairly large area. The area west of US 59--aka The Eastex Freeway--that includes the Deerbrook Mall and the sea of stores and big box retail (and so on) that you're specifically referring to is an area called Humble. To my knowledge, Deerbrook Mall probably isn't much different from the Broward Mall. Not quite on the scale of Pembroke Lakes Mall but a step above the Boynton Beach Mall. The mall in that area that you'll want to avoid is the Greenspoint Mall (think 163rd Street Mall or Westland Mall in northern Miami-Dade County for a general idea).

Kingwood has its enclaves and such along a couple of major roads, including Kingwood Drive and Lake Houston Parkway. You want find the kind of dining that you'd find in south Florida areas like Coconut Grove or along Las Olas but probably a lot of what you'd find in Aventura. Hope that helps.

As for commutes, Kingwood is approximately 21-25 miles from DT Houston, depending on what area of Kingwood you reside. Traffic on the Eastex is actually better than average compared to most Houston freeways (or South Florida freeways) but you can experience some backups on a couple of the main roads leading to/from Kingwood and onto/off the Eastex Freeway. Expect a typical commute to be in the 35-45 minute range. I'd imagine that's probably somewhat inline with a Pompano to Aventura commute, especially when you include the vehiclular gymnastics you sometimes have to pull on US 1.

Hope it helps to give you a better frame of reference.

Minus the number of retirees, I'd more compare Kingwood to some of the western reaches of Boca Raton as well as Coral Springs and Davie.

[BearBranch]

Good response Texas Mac. Building on that, Kingwood actually has a good selection of grocery stores and dining. There is lots to choose from - 4 star french, sushi, vietnamese, mexican, chinese, breakfast, burgers. There are two new bars being built at the new waterfront shoping and dining development. Also, there is the new Rock Wine and Blues night club down West Lake Houston. Deerbrook is decent and not scary. There is a new movie theater complex going up on 1960 in Atascocita.

Regarding Houston, I got similar responses from people from California when I said Houston anout 3 years ago. This has been a good move.

[chris_ut]

"Houston?!? Why would you go there?"

People here say that about Florida .

For groceries I suggest HEB on Kingwood and Lake Houston I think they have the best stuff personally. Lots of restaurants around Kingwood just sometimes it can be hard to spot all the stuff on a quick driver through because of all the trees. Also Humble is only a short drive away and has a ton of good shopping and places to eat out.

[AbbeRoad]

Wow TexasMax you really went out of your way! Thanks! You sound like a Florida transplant yourself. You are more familiar than I am with the malls.

BearBranch- thanks for the input. I will check out the new waterfront when I am there in June.

Chris_ut- you are absolutely right. When you drive through all those trees (that I absolutely love!) you can miss a lot.

Thanks for taking the time all of you!