Relocating from Canada (Houston, Sugar Land, The Woodlands: house, neighborhoods, buy)

[roberm1]

My wife and i are relocating to the Houston area, i will be working out of the downtown core (comuting times is a good factor). We have been looking at three areas, Katy, Woodlands and Spring. Being that were not to sure of the areas it would be nice if anyone had some incite into these locations or others that may be worth reviewing. We'll be looking at a home priced 250k to 300k. We not worried about schools or amenities so much, a comfortable area with good purchasing value and resale. Property tax as we have noticed are quite high so if a general comment about property tax base for specific areas might be of some help.

Any direction to areas for us to review for possible locations to live in would be most gracious.

Thank you

[GeraldineGray]

Join meetup.com and find fellow Canadians who can give you like-for-like info. Works great.

[sbhubbell]

Well I live in Katy and love it. We chose it for the schools mainly though. Commute to downtown is not great though. It's between 45 minutes and an hour usually. You can buy a great house for that price range...if you want to look in Katy my advice is to stay south of I-10 and north of 1093. Cinco Ranch is a fabulous master planned community where I live, but all the neighborhoods around me are nice too. Taxes where I live are about 3.2%.

[EasilyAmused]

I would consider Sugarland as well.

Woodlands/Spring is a worse commute than Katy by far. Not to mention isolated from city ammenties.

[Poltracker]

Be prepared for 1+ hr commutes in any of those communities (at least lately but always for the Woodlands). You may want to consider something closer in like Timbergrove Manor, Meyerland, or Garden Oaks.

[ZeroTX]

I would also consider Sugar Land.

However, The Woodlands or Spring have an alternate route to downtown: The Hardy Toll Road, which runs directly parallel to Interstate 45 and provides a nice relief for I-45 traffic. Generally you can cruise pretty fast on the Hardy all the way from The Woodlands to the 610 loop, then take 59 (not I-45) into downtown, which is only about another 2 miles.

I lived in Spring and commuted to downtown. I bought in Spring specificially because of the dual routes into downtown. Don't even consider Katy. It's a mess and will take 2x as long as it will from The Woodlands.

Sugar Land is closer to downtown and to amenities and resale is better. The commute isn't any shorter, though, because traffic on 59 is slower. I'd rate The Woodlands and Sugar Land equal on commute length, if you consider the use of the Hardy Toll Road.

You can get a very nice home in any of those communities for the amount you are looking to spend. You'll get the MOST for your money in Spring (of the ones you listed). There is still a lot of new construction in Spring where 300k will get you a virtual mansion.

-Michael