What r some good areas 2 live in Houston, TX? Good schools, low crimes. Also, how is IT job market there?

Question

Currently live in the northern VA suburban area.

Answer 1

Most of the IT jobs in Houston are concentrated in the downtown, West belt and North Beltway.

As for where to live. Depends on willingness to comute. The best schools in the area are on the south side. Clear Creek being consistantly the best school system in the area. Friendswood, Woodlands, Spring and Katy also have very good school systems. If you are working in the South or West side of town Pearland has very good schools and is a nice area to live. Santa Fe has very good schools and lots of inexpensive land. So if you want a house with 3 acres of mostly trees the places to live are Santa Fe/Alvin area or up in the Woodlands. I believe the Jersy Village school system also rates pretty high.

Cost wise Clear Lake is relitively expensive compared to League City and Friendswood. Living in League City or Dickenson has the advantage of being in Galveston county which will half your insurance costs. Harris county has some of the highest insurance in the nation. Taxes are very high in Harris county compared to the sourounding counties. League City is a very nice area, it's pretty starting to take on a more urban athmosphere but still has a small town feel to it. League City is a 20-60 minute comute to downtown depending on what time you leave and how you choose to travel and weather. Kemah is about the same distance from downtown. Kemah is right on the bay so it is expensive to buy property there. Tons of resertaunts shops and things to do. You do not want to move to Baycliffe except maybe the far northern edge of it where you'll still be in Clear Creek school system.

Spring/Conroe area has lots of trees, a smallish town feel to the area but real close to Houston so you get the best of both worlds. Tall pines dominate the Spring Conroe area. There is a major lake near by and prices are reasonable. The comute is a pain. Expect to use toll roads in or sit forever in traffic.

Jersy Village is very urban. Lots of rules regulations and such to live there. If urban is your thing that's the place to live unless you want to pay half a mill for a house in a safe area. Jersy is still very much more expensive than the outer areas but the comute is much shorter.

Forget Katy unless you work there. I-10 is a nightmare at the best of times. The area is nice but if you work outside of Katy you will regret moving there. When traffic isn't shutting the roads downt he weather is. I-10 was poorly designed with lots of dangerous rises. All too often your flying down I-10 at 80 mph, top a hill and traffic is at a complete stop. The road itself sits low. So flooding is a constant problem. Nothing special except a huge mall out that way unless you plan to frequently go out to the hill country or San Antonio.

Friendswood/Pearland is a close commute to downtown and west side, prices are very reasonable compared to Jersey village and dirt cheap compared to anything inside the loop. Within easy drive of the beaches of Galveston and Kemah.

North side you have the Pavilion where all the concerts happen. Lake Conroe, the horses.

South side you have Kemah, the beaches, dog track.

Avoid Passadena, Baycliffe, Central Dickenson, South houston, Inside the loop unless you are filthy rich or are renting an apt, Katy unless you work there. If you are Black you'll find quite a few nice houses and safe schools in the Sugarland area which has a high concentration of Blacks. Property prices are relitively inexpensive.
Commute is almost as bad as Katy's if you work downtown or North Belt.

There is a large concentration of Vietemese in the South Houston but the surrounding areas are dives and it's not a safe place to live.

The areas just outside downtown is a mixed lot. Some are parts of the worst slums in the area. Some areas have been redeveloped for downtown workers. Law suits have held up redevelopment in some areas. A few to save historic buildings, most because the wards surrounding downtown are almost purely Black. These groups charge it is discrimanation to have to leave thier homes and move into mixed neighborhoods. This despite the high crime and decay of the area they live in. So redevelopment is hit and miss and a very nice area can be located literally accross the street from a high crime area. The "nice" neighborhoods are overpriced and most likely you'd have to send your children to a private school as the schools in the wards are the worst in the Houston area. I'd stay away from living around downtown unless your single and live in the high rise apts in the area. Then you just walk to work. There is an extensive tunnel system under down town that connects much of it together. So you can walk to half of downtown even in a rain storm and shop in the stores in the tunnels, get breakfast and walk to work. Not a place for kids but for single adults it's great. Lots of clubs, resteraunts, the baseball park all in walking distance.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I don't know about the IT job market per se, but the Oil Business is booming, the port is expanding and the health care and allied markets are up also, all need IT people.
Jersey Village is very good as far as low crime. It is a small town that has it's own police department. I would AVOID SE Houston and Pasadena. If you like having a large yard or just trees in general you need to consider commuting. If you like loft or high rise living and don't mind traffic Downtown or Galleria area may be for you. Montrose area is very trendy & has an eclectic atmosphere, but can have real bad crime.

Answer 4

Depends on the budget. Memorial area is a good bedroom community with houses in the $600K plus range with decent schools. An up and coming in West Houston (beltway 8 and Westpark toll way) is Royal Oaks Country Club with garden villas starting at the high 400K to not a joke 4 million. A completly gated/security community. The area is in transition, however, give it some time and the undesireables will be priced out. Horrible HUSD in this area. There are great private schools nearby. The Woodlands is about 45 mins/1 hours from Houston but its stunning. Everything you would ever want in a planned community. Great shopping, food, entertainment. Good schools. Katy is about 30 mins. from the galleria area (talk about traffic on highway 10). Really nice houses for the money, awsome community, very family orientated. GREAT schools. Avoid the galleria area for family orientation. West University is beautiful, but very expensive and I don't know about the schools. Bellaire is cleaning up with houses in the 500K (new construction) and OK schools. I don't know anything about downtown. OK, I can't provide any more info. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

It depends on your budget. I like the west side just south of
I-10. There are some good neighborhoods around Eldrigde and
Briar Forest. That area is pretty clean and nice. That's mostly apartments there though. If you want a nice house, you're probably better off going somewhere like the Woodlands like the person above said. I don't know if you've been to Houston before, but you're in for a ton of driving no matter what.
I recommend looking for IT jobs at oil and gas companies.
There are more petro chemical companies headquartered in Houston than anywhere else in the U.S. They all make a killing and usually pay well.

Answer 6

I notice you asked the same question in the Houston page, and I didn't want to say this there, but I would chose Dallas/FtWorth over Houston in a second. Crime is less in DFW than Houston, DFW is actually a bigger metro area (5.8 vs 5.1 million ppl) But DFW feels smaller since it is really broken into 2 cities. There is more to do and the weather is better in DFW than Houston. (hot vs hot and humid, trust me houston is a killer in summer time) I have not looked for a job in Dallas recently so I cannot comment on that part of your question though. Schools in most of the suburbs are good, Plano does have a great reputation in this department. (PS I did graduate from Plano Senior High, Go Wildcats! so I may be a bit biased ;) Crime is pretty low in most of northern Dallas, South dallas gets a little rough.

Answer 7

Katy is great. Katy ISD is a recognized school district in the state.
Cypress is an up coming new community. The Cypress-Fairbanks ISD is very good as well. West of Houston in Harris County and Fort Bend County are good places to live.
As far as IT positions go, I'm not sure, But check the Houston Chronicle newspaper, there may be some listings there.

Answer 8

Ok I work for one of the oil and gas companies and I work in IT, and I would not say they pay any more than any other industry. At least not for IT services. The IT job market in general is ok, not as bad as it was a few years ago, but not swimming in available positions either.

Spring on the north side of town is also a nice area and has good schools, Cypress has a reputation for some of the best schools in houston.

Commuting is a pain from most suburbs....

Answer 9

Technically it's a little north of Houston City Limits. But, The Woodlands is a great place to live.

Answer 10

Try the Northwest side: CyFair, Cypress, Spring, Tomball, The Woodlands area. (Look around FM 1960 between Hwy 290 and 59 and north) There are good schools in this area, low crime. Great area I love it.