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

Pearland.

Pretty quick drive to Freeport on the weekends.

Woodlands are now $140+/sf.......thanks Exxon.....

Eta: kingwood was annexed by the city of houston and it shows. The woodlands realized what it'd do and make a periodic $55million payment to the city to stay the frick away.

Kingwood is nowhere near the quality of the woodlands......seriously. Don't let anyone tell you different.

Katy, cinco, fulshear are better than kingwood as well but still not woodlands level.

What does 1-2 kids exactly mean? Not sure yet? Just kidding.

Not sure of your price range, school choices, atmosphere, etc. but, I say definitely not the burbs!
My groupings:
As others have mentioned, pricier areas like River Oaks, West U, Tanglewood, Memorial, one of the Briars.
Next tier:
Heights is probably there or close
Oak Forest/Garden Oaks/Shepherd Plaza/Timbergeove areas - you want to be zoned to Oak Forest if younger kids and public school v. Private
Spring Branch - good schools and good commute

The woodlands is way overcrowded. Will only get worse with Exxon moving their campus nearby.

The majority of the answers here are way outside the loop.

Schools in the heights are still somewhat transitional. I will go ahead and guess river oaks is out. So west u, south hampton, bellaire, and all of the braeswood areas. Memorial area is otl but still has great schools and is still close to civilization.

Plus Woodlands has soul crushing traffic to downtown. Worse than Katy.