re: Best suburb of Houston to buy a house?

quote:

---

I think the NE area along 59 (Atascocita, Summerwood, Kingwood...) probably has the best "daily" commute into downtown Houston.

---

This, and it's not even close.

Kingwood is also a great choice for several additional reasons:

· Routinely rated as the safest suburb in the Houston Metro area, based on actual crime data.

· Very good school district – top 5 in Houston. Within the school district (Humble ISD), Kingwood High is the top performer

· Very affordable homes. A good starter home can be had between $100K- $140K. A very nice house that’s walking distance to Lake Houston can be had between $300K-$370K. For slightly more than $350K you can get a new home in a country club, also walking distance to water.

· As in every suburb, the commute will vary depending on what time you leave. During peak rush hour, a Park N Ride bus is the best option. You park your car in Kingwood and ride a bus that takes the HOV lane and doesn’t stop till it gets downtown where it will have several planned stops. The commute using this option can range between 40-45 minutes, which includes wait time on the bus before it leaves. Another bus leaves every 5-7 minutes during peak hours and every hour during non-peak hours.

· This is one of the only suburbs having natural boundaries like Lake Houston to the east, and the San Jacinto river to the south. These natural boundaries are what will prevent neighborhood creep from lower income neighborhoods – preserving property values over time.

· NE Houston is starting to boom, with new large scale developments underway along that portion of the Beltway 8, new developments along 59 up towards the new wing of the Grand Parkway connecting the Kingwood area to The Woodlands, and the proposed Grand Texas Theme Park under development just north of Kingwood.

· It’s only a 4 hr drive to get to Baton Rouge. It’ll take you 45 minutes longer from The Woodlands or an hour longer from Katy and about an hour and a half longer from Sugar Land.