Safe Luxury

July 2008: Relocating to Houston, Texas?

I am looking to move to Houston, my home town. I live in a part of California that I would have to commute an hour or more one way for a decent paying job. There is nothing here. I've researched the job market in H-town, there are alot of excellent possibilities. Question: what area is the best? I am a single parent, so safe location is important, as well as the schools, elementary & middle. Apartment complexes? Which are the best, or at least good to live in, good community? Has anyone heard of "Lazyacres" in the "tomball" area? I just read reviews of apartment complexes being torn down by the city.

Public Comments

1. There are some nice new apts off West Little York before Eldridge in Northwest Houston .Schools are nice its Cypress district.
2. if your looking for school got to go with Klein ISD www.kleinisd.net Spring ISD www.springisd.org anything north of Houston is good
3. if you want to avoid the hour or more commute, you need to know where you are working and then look at the apartments and schools in that area. houston is full of good schools and safe places to live, but you already know how big it can be, so you need to work close to home. it would be best to land a job first and then pick a place to live based on that. but if you must get a place first either 1. find a complex that doesnt sucker you into a long lease in case you do need to move so you can be closer to work or 2. find a complex that has sister communities in the houston area. that way if one of them is closer to your work, you can move to another one without breaking the lease. also, get an apartment locater to help you find what you are looking for. they are usually free, all you have to do is put their name down as reference on the paperwork.
4. Do you have a job yet? If not, find one. THEN find a place to live. Believe you me, some people can commute for more than an hour around here. EDIT: Sweetmom is right. We can have good areas bordering bad ones. I live in the heart of Memorial, one of the best areas in town. However, traveling a mile and a half north gets me into the bad areas of Spring Branch, full of drugs and crime. While I can walk my streets at night and not fear anything but someone's housecat meowing at me, I don't even cross I-10 at night by car.
5. The previous answers are right, know where you will be working first. Here is a link to Houston Area Realtors so you can get an idea of prices. http://www.har.com We have no zoning here so there are good areas and bad areas in close proximity to each other. You just really need to know where your job will be and find something good around there.
6. Definitely find a job and then look for a place. There are lots of different nice areas of town depending on where your job is. The city is really big and not all companies are downtown.. we have several areas... downtown, galleria area, medical center, greenspoint, greenway plaza where there are good paying jobs so it depends where you work.
7. Houston is very boring. You should have looked into moving to Seattle.
8. Find the job before you make the move.