re: If you were in your early 30s with 1-2 kids in Houston, where would you live?

Heights or West U.

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Oak Forest/Garden Oaks area just north of the Heights is blowing up. It's probably 200-300k less than heights property. Good private schools are located there as well.

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that's the best bet but it won't be for long ...

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frick the suburbs. Just not my thing.

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You're missing out. A place like Kingwood is a no-brainer if you're from Louisiana and have young kids. It is the safest suburb in the metro area, and has the best value in terms of price per square foot with more upside to go. LSU merch can be found on bumper stickers, license plate holders, and flags in front of houses. I would estimate more than a third of the population has LA roots. This means it is easy to find things in common with other kids parents.

If you like the outdoors, there really isn't a neighborhood that can come close to Kingwood's proximity to Lake Houston. It's not hard to afford a home walking distance to the lake. I paid 250k for a very nice 3,400 sq ft home about a football field distance to the lake just 8 years ago.

If you like golf, good luck finding a neighborhood with two very good and very affordable country clubs (one of which was used in the film Tin Cup), both of which are on the San Jacinto river.

If you like jogging or biking, it's hard to beat Kingwood's 75+ miles of greenbelt trails through the wooded areas between neighborhoods and along the lake. Many of the road crossings go UNDER the roads. This makes it safer for kids to be set free and helps ensure you don't break stride or momentum when jogging or biking.

Since Kingwood has natural boundaries of water on the south and east sides, and an interstate on the west side, there is very little chance of any neighborhood bleed of riff-raff that occurs in virtually every other Houston suburb that could bring down property value and bring in crime. If some piece of riff raff comes into the neighborhood, it immediately draws attention because Kingwood is a destination, not a pass-through.

The elementary schools are almost all rated Exemplary. Good luck finding that in other suburbs.

Working downtown is the best part. There isn't a cheaper, nicer way of getting downtown than by taking one of the commuter buses. They are like tour buses with high backed, reclining seats, personal reading lights, and personal air vents. A new one passes every five to seven minutes and once it leaves Kingwood, it doesn't stop until it gets downtown to let the workers off at various stops a few blocks apart. This is cheaper than driving your own vehicle and is much quicker and safer than driving. You can use the commute to sleep, listen to music, read, work or look at porn on a mobile device.

West U

Check out [link=(Har.com)]LINK[/link]

Kingwood

Eagle Springs in Atascocita.

The Woodlands

Heights representing. Grew up in the burbs out 290 but I'm liking the inside the loop life so far. The garden oaks area was a good recommendation IMO for inside the loop

Kingwood has so many restaurant and retail projects on the horizon and many that are already underway. Buy a house now while its affordable.....