Even though you have been away from the area for quite a while, you should still be ahead of me. Alief and similar parts of Metro Houston don't have Location working in their favor like some areas inside and near the 610 Loop. So demand to drive redevelopment might be a long long long long time (if ever) in coming. Maybe 25 years ago, an older woman told me a story about her impending move to Katy. She lived in a house in the Bellaire area and the offer for her house was just too much to resist. She noted that the Developer was going to tear down her house and build a rather expensive house on the lot. It has been a while since I drove that area, but the transition from the houses built decades ago to rather nice and expensive houses was still going strong. It might be close to complete by now. There are probably similar stories about old houses in the Heights being replaced by new and expensive houses. Alief? Nah
Yeah, I'm partially to blame for that, starting in the late 90's. Tried to hold it together as much as I/we could...you just can't fight "progress".
When the offer meets and even exceeds expectations, it is difficult to say No. My Mother had relatives move to the Heights decades ago and the SPJST Hall on Beall was their favored place for holding large events. Via Google, I looked at some street view pictures and parts looked similar to what I remember from decades ago and some parts had definitely changed.
My family has considered moving back to Houston and Clear Lake is one of the areas they like. I myself would prefer inside the Loop or around the Chinatown area.
I grew up on Spruce St. in Bellaire in the 70s-80s. Every house on that street has been replaced with a Mcmansion.
This is assuming you are building new as opposed to buying an existing home : If you are Asian, want really good schools, and you like trees, I'm not sure that's a very good combination when hunting for houses. lol. If you're looking for Asians, check out the west and southwest areas like Sugar Land, Cypress, Katy, Sugar Land (not really (m)any new houses out here) etc. A lot of Katy overflow has headed over to places like Fulshear, but a lot of Fulshear (not all, I don't think) is Lamar Consolidated school district, I think, but I hear it's a pretty decent district and coming up. Fulshear has exploded in population over the past 5 or so years, I think mostly because of its proximity to everything around Katy, Bridgeland, etc. Places like Bridgeland in Cypress are nice, but there is a Katy ISD side (one of the best school districts in the Houston area/probably the best) but a lot of the stuff they're building now in Bridgeland is zoned to Waller ISD from what I recall. In terms of school districts, I'd try to stay around Katy ISD, Fort Bend ISD, Cypress Fairbanks ISD, etc. I've heard Magnolia, Tomball, Montgomery, etc. ISDs are also pretty decent, but I have no idea. If you love trees, you may want to head out to Magnolia , Tomball, or Conroe, but then the school district may suffer, and not a ton of Asians out that way. Beautiful areas out there where you get way better bang for your buck, and possible acreage land, too. Woodlands would be a nice area for this, as well as possibly schools, but they're almost completely built out, I think. Also, if you're moving to Houston, make sure you know about property taxes. For example, there are cheaper, nice homes out by Iowa Colony/Manvel but they also have 3.5-3.75% in property taxes which is crazy to me. Also look to see where flooding "always" hits. You probably won't escape it no matter where you live in Houston with maybe some rare exceptions, but hell, at least try to. lol. You should probably consider getting flood insurance, too. Someone else can answer this better than I can, but I've heard areas like Kingwood "always" flood. I hear a lot of the southeast areas of Houston floods because everything drains out that way after big storms. Cannot confirm. lol. You also didn't specify square footage (unless I missed it). For a 3000 sq, ft, house, your price range may be very tough in a lot of the best areas I mentioned, but if you only need a 2400 sq. ft. house, you could do it. Depends on the lot size, too.
Cy Fair -- Cypress Faribanks and Jersey Village Bridgeland Cy Fair Cy Falls Cy Creek Cy Falls Cy Lakes Cy Park Cy Ranch Cy Ridge Cy Springs Cy Woods Jersey Village Langham Creek Bridgeland, Cy Woods and Cy Ranch are in relatively newer areas. Cy Fair is an older school, but seems to be holding up okay. Jersey Village, Cy Falls, Langham Creek and Cy Springs probably aren't what you are looking for. I don't know enough about Cy Lakes, Cy Ridge and Cy Park to comment. The area around Cy Creek very well could meet the criteria about trees, but probably not what you are looking for. So I will suggest Bridgeland, Cy Ranch and Cy Woods. Others will need to grab the baton and continue with the rest of the Districts & Schools in Metro Houston.
Your post reminded me about trees that RudyTBag mentioned early in this thread. Not sure if he is looking for trees that have been around for decades or is okay with what Developers have planted. Some of the recently developed areas around Manvel, Sugar Land, Katy, Fulshear and probably parts of Cy Fair used to be pasture, crop land, rice fields etc. The trees in yards will tend to be newly planted rather than from decades ago. I don't consider it a Hard & Fast Rule, but a transition appears to start around Hwy 290 and working towards Tomball, Woodlands, Kingwood etc in regards to finding older trees in the Suburbs.
Just make sure it's not an area prone to flooding these days. That might take a bit of research, but I'd avoid neighborhoods that flooded during some of our recent storms and hurricanes.
Katy. North of 99 & I-10. Ventana Lakes, Camillo Lakes, Lakes of Katy, Elyson. Anything west off 99 and Morton/Clay/529. It’s all being built. Light traffic and trees w land.
CFISD TowneLake and Bridgeland look very nice the newest sections in Bridgeland across 99 are actually zoned to Waller, not CF
Yes, that's what I've been reading regarding the trees. As you go further west, you'll see a bunch of flat(ter)land with not too many trees other than the ones that were planted in master planned communities. There are patches here and there of probably native trees, though not many. The other issue regarding trees is a lot of that area in the western burbs are around the Barker and Addicks reservoirs. I don't think too many people thought there were going to be all those subdivisions being built out that way. The following video may be old news to current Houston residents, but back when I lived in the Houston area, it wasn't something I thought about because not too many people lived waaaaay out there that I knew of. Maybe it was because I was young, but it was eye-opening to me :
I lived in Magnolia for a few years recently and really enjoyed it, it felt far out enough to be its own place. Quiet, cleaner air, away from the hustle/traffic, surrounded by forest, but still a short drive to decent enough amenities in Egypt/Tomball/Willowbrook. But speaking of Maga neighbors, it's a serious maga-ville. Friendliest seeming people waving at you with their young kids by their side, but also have a big "F*CK BIDEN" sign in the front yard, bumper stickers for days, and seemingly every other garage I saw open had a Trump flag in it. Another thing that I didn't know was a thing until living out there is the neon blue porch lights for support of the police, again like half the houses. Took my son down the street to a church with an outdoor basketball court. We were approached by a woman who was associated with the church, a super friendly lady, we told her we recently moved to the area and she asked my son where we had moved from. He answered "Houston Texas" She responded, "Which is in America, and we're gonna make it great again aren't we?". He's 5 and responded "ok" lol. I liked Magnolia, I liked the people, but I constantly found it funny the number of folks that made politics their personality and had to shout it, decorating their homes like it was Christmas. Never seen it so prominent in an area before.
I grew up just outside of West U off of Buffalo Speedway and the house I grew up In has been replaced by a McMansion. My family left Houston in the 90’s. The house I grew up in was about a 2,000 SF ranch. It was heavily damaged during Allison and was replaced with what looks like a 4,000 SF Mc Mansion.
