Thoughts on Fairfield?? (Houston, Spring, Friendswood: home builders, neighborhoods, good schools)

[Cordbears]

Ok, we are moving to the Houston area soon and I was wondering if anyone could give me some information. Can you give me pros/cons or other info on the Fairfield community? Are there any bad parts of Fairfield? I have 3 children. How are the schools there? Thanks in advance.

[Mr. Football]

The schools are very good. It's a nice community that has grown quite a bit. The community itself looks a lot like other master-planned communities, very similar in price, looks, style and demographics to Cinco Ranch. I really like the area behind (directly North of) Fairfield, The Lakes of Fairhaven and Saddle Ridge.

I would also recommend looking at Bridgeland and the Fry Rd. Corridor communities like Blackhorse Ranch and Cypress Creek Lakes.

Then there's my favorite part of Cypress, the wooded half in North Cypress around Longwood, Coles Crossing, Northlake Forest, Lakewood Oaks Estates, Rock Creek, Stable Gate, Lakewood Glen, etc.

Here are some pics from the above areas:

Flickr: longwood_cypress' Photostream

[citizen_jane]

Where will you be working? The problem with Fairfield isn't Fairfield, it's quite nice. The problem with Fairfield is that it sits next to US 290 and 290 may be the worst, most congested freeway in the city. It's horrible. So if you plan to use this road to commute I would make sure you know what you're getting into. Even if you're not commuting on 290 the area in general (outside of Fairfield) seems quite congested. Also look at the tax rate. Years and years ago we looked at homes in Fairfield and I remember the tax rate being very high but it may have come down. There's also a brand new "premium" outlet mall on the edge of Fairfield on 290.

[Supermac34]

Fairfield is a master planned community by Friendswood Development.

PROS: Nice neighborhood with many price ranges. Friendswood puts a lot of money into their developments and CONTINUES to support them. They plant, keep things looking nice, if there are issues, they fix them. Its an up and coming area and has close by ameneties. Good schools.

CONS: Location. That part of 290 is WAY out there and there isn't much of an infrastructure in the area now. Almost all of the surface roads in the area are heavily congested as the boom in population in the area has quickly outpaced the available roads. 290 has to be the worst freeway in Houston for getting into town as well. It is almost exclusively tract home builders as well. There is only ONE custom builder in the whole development and he has apparently had some complaints. I've heard that a new custom section might open up soon on a lake with more custom builders (and if its the ones I think it might be, it would be top notch builders), but that is down the road and would take months if not years to start to develop up the section. Also, no natural trees, everything in the area has to be planted. Its outside of the Gulf Coast/East Texas tree line.

To me, and this is just from driving through, I think Bridgeland might be the next big thing in the area. The amount of money and time that has been put into making that neighborhood look good in the opening phases is staggering and it looks spectacular. The opening phase is big, but is tiny compared to the planned size of the community, something that will rival Kingwood and the Woodlands in size and ameneties when it is completed in a decade or two.

Blackhorse also looks very nice in the area and I've heard you can get some steals on golf course tract homes right now, but I haven't personally looked into it.

Going East a little bit from those areas you get into the Cypress/Spring/Klein area with Champions and all those neighborhoods. They are more established, not as much new contruction, but those areas already have the infrastructure and is not nearly as congested. It DOES have trees. It is inside the Gulf Coast/East Texas tree line.

With all that being said, I'd live in any one of those communities. I don't think you can go wrong with a Friendswood Development (Fairfield), Blackhorse is beautiful with a top rated golf course, and Bridgeland *might* be the next Woodlands and despite being new, already looks spectacular, and the Champions/Klein area is more established and has almost a little bit more of an inside the loop area since the trees are still there and anything that was planted has matured.