What are your thoughts on China Spring? (Crawford, Midway: for sale, homes)

[txstate]

China Spring basically "Far North Lake Waco" is about to experience tremendous growth. WalMart HEB and more subdivisions are planned stay tuned.

[Mark Senior]

Originally Posted by txstate

China Spring basically "Far North Lake Waco" is about to experience tremendous growth. WalMart HEB and more subdivisions are planned stay tuned.

Yes, where have you been, bringing back all these old to older threads. Got tired of it all as I am nearing, or just...

[lonestar2007]

Originally Posted by Mark Senior

Yes, where have you been, bringing back all these old to older threads. Got tired of it all as I am nearing, or just...

[Mark Senior]

Originally Posted by lonestar2007

Gee.it must have been past my bedtime, I have no clue what I meant about "nearing"? I think I meant, just tired of being on the site and left for awhile or what... Oh, well I've got better things to do right now than this, lol

Old but not dead, yet and want to beat most of the heavy rain, at least... Oh, I'm much younger at heart, but numbers, when it comes to age, do matter, especially those HIGHER numbers lol.

[ckenneth]

I am looking at moving back to Texas. It appears "the best kept secrete state" has been discovered and the influx of people have raised home prices. DFW & Austin have become untouchable and traffic is horrendous. I never did like Houston. San Antonio might be an option. Waco appears to still have affordable housing (~250K) with decent schools. I am retired with a school age child. The previous recommendations were for Woodway & Hewitt. China Springs drawbacks were traffic and lack of amenities (grocery stores, walmart, home depot, etc), all being 20 min away. NOW 2020, what are the recommendations and opinions (is Texasdiver still around)?

[ikoolu]

depends what is important - we live in Woodfield next to China Springs and love the fact we are outside of town a bit- little traffic, no street lights, no noise and close to town - we find the 15- min drive to the borg ( home depot ) not a issue and can make it to BSW hospital in a little over 15 min. China Springs is in a bit of growth right now - but China spring road is being widened. We go to the HS football games and have season tickets to Baylor

there is a Ace hardware about 12 min away and a couple chains for taco and burgers if you don't want to go to town. we like the fact we are in the country but 15 min to town - Waco is just big enough for us and yet at 5:30 you can stand in the middle of the streets and they are empty - lol

Austin and Dallas are just over a hour away for day trips - the one thing i don't like about CS is the lack of a strong planning codes. You see trailers next to single family houses, small next to large etc - the newer tracks are close together and smaller lots- there are custom houses going up in several areas - the HEB has not been built so its a trip to town to the HEB but what the heck you are retired - like us you got the time -

PM me if you want to know more

[texasdiver]

Hey! I’m still around. I haven’t lived in the Waco area for 4 years but still keep in touch.

Last time I was there they were widening the China Spring Highway from North Waco out towards China Spring which will no doubt bring more growth and sprawl. What really hurt China Spring about 10 years ago was when they moved the Hillcrest Hospital from North Waco to south Waco along I-35. So all the doctors who lived out in far flung subdivisions like the Hills of Childers Creek and the others along Wortham Bend Road went from having 15 minute commutes to 40 minute commutes and a lot gave up and moved closer out towards Woodway and the new subdivisions along 84 towards McGregor.

The reason why there is no planning out there is because China Spring isn’t an actual incorporated town. It is all just rural county land. There is no actual incorporated town of China Spring. If I were moving back to the area, I’d probably look to Woodway or the area along 84 between Woodway and McGregor. Much more convenient to most jobs and shopping. And there are still lots of pretty rural areas out there too on the side roads if that is what you want. I used to bike all the time out there all the time. If I wanted some ranch land out in the country I’d buy it along Church Road. There are some beautiful estates out there like this one for example:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2...12176947_zpid/
But also lots of more modest rural places in the general area.

If I was picking schools, I’d pick Midway ISD over China Spring. Bigger district but actually smaller schools at the elementary level. China Spring should have split into two or three smaller elementary schools a LONG time ago but they just keep adding onto the one school which is now enormous for an elementary. I found it much more regimented than the Midway schools when my daughter was there just due to all the overcrowding.

PS, it is China Spring, not China Springs. Just one Spring. Actually I don’t think there are any actual Springs, at least not anymore.

[ckenneth]

IKOOLU and TEXASDIVER........thanks for the input. I believe I will drive to Waco next weekend (weather permitting). Because of schools being a higher priority (since I am retired), Hewitt or Woodway appears to be a better fit at this time but, I will look at both China Spring as well. I was also reading that Hewitt's property taxes are less due to a 20% exemption.
Now the challenge would be to find a house that I can afford (I am on a fix income).

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by ckenneth

IKOOLU and TEXASDIVER........thanks for the input. I believe I will drive to Waco next weekend (weather permitting). Because of schools being a higher priority (since I am retired), Hewitt or Woodway appears to be a better fit at this time but, I will look at both China Spring as well. I was also reading that Hewitt's property taxes are less due to a 20% exemption.
Now the challenge would be to find a house that I can afford (I am on a fix income).

I would look at Lorena as well. The schools there are roughly equivalent to China Spring. Smaller more rural district but well respected. But not so remote in terms of commuting as parts of China Spring. I had friends who lived there and were happy with the schools but ended up moving back to the Midway area when their girls grew older mainly due to the greater opportunities for girls sports. They were into tennis, swimming, and soccer and Lorena didn't have much to offer for those, at least compared to Midway back then.

[ikoolu]

Crawford schools are highly rated too - its a small community 20 -25 min out - we go to their hs football games and our neighbors just moved from our area to have their kids go to school there due to lower class sizes