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Relocating to Houston in Jan'13...

Relocating to Houston in Jan'13...

Old Sep 23rd 2012, 12:24 am
  #31  
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Default Re: Relocating to Houston in Jan'13...

Originally Posted by Weeze
Handy for the outlet mall!
Exactly and theres a nice sushi place up that direction too! Sushi Choo Choo. Gotta have your priorities
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Old Sep 23rd 2012, 7:30 am
  #32  
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Default Re: Relocating to Houston in Jan'13...

Clay and beltway... You'll be wanting to look at Lakes of Eldridge, LOE North or Twin Lakes. Just look and see .... Again, we have the bus to the British School. Copperfield and Bridgeland are possibles, but I'd do the surface roads and avoid the 290....Clay is often a parking lot during rush hours due to it's use as an east-west pass through.

As for the three MPCs at Eldridge mentioned..the only issue, which is Houston-wide is that it's not village-like. As for crime, LOE and LOEN are gated. The amenities are excellent with low HOA fees and a hod HOA.

Also consider Sugarland..it's a not too bad commute via beltway. You can get a lot of house and yard there.

And I like the Heights. But warning the homes are smaller, older bungalows but with tons of character..larger homes, say over 3000 sq ft, can start very high. Plus the lots are smaller, many without garages.
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Old Sep 23rd 2012, 1:55 pm
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Default Re: Relocating to Houston in Jan'13...

Originally Posted by fadeaway531
Hi, hope everyone is well. My family & I are about to make the daunting move of relocating to Houston, TX. We are moving in Jan'13 and have started preparations.

Any advice would be gratefully received.
We've just moved from the UK and so far the experience has been very positive.

Both our children have started at the BSOH and they are both enjoying it. The small class sizes and background of the children make it academically focused. The school buildings are relatively old, but the people make a good school, not the buildings. Overall I'd give it a thumbs up. In our case we won't be here more than 4 years so academic continuity is important with children aged 9 and 12. That's why we stuck with the British curriculum.

Use Google maps to get directions between possible home and work locations and you'll get a good idea of journey times. It'll also update times with traffic which can easily turn 40 mins into +1hr. Some of the freeways are notoriously bad and worth avoiding for your commute. The tollways make it better, but even they jam up and the costs add up.

Another good site is http://www.houstontranstar.org/ for traffic info, but a lot of the info only make sense once you got some on the ground experience.

The big problem we have had is getting a house to lease. There are a lot of Expats coming in and the market is very tight. However if you can get a decent furnished apartment to rent when you get here that will take the pressure off. We thought about the Lakes on Eldridge areas, but shied away because together with the British school the whole experience would have been too British for the kids. Katy is another big expat area. We've gone for the areas along Memorial Drive where your the are some very nice, typical surbuban America estates (they call them subdivisions). A lot of them have community pools and tennis courts for use by the residents. Hopefully this week we will get the thumbs up on a house in the Wilchester area. Look at www.har.com for houses.

The only other advice is to make sure you come out with plenty of access to cash. Managing your cash flow into the first few weeks is important. Setup an XE Trade account. I can move money from my Nationwide account to my credit union in around 24 hours and that makes things easier.
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Old Sep 23rd 2012, 3:57 pm
  #34  
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Default Re: Relocating to Houston in Jan'13...

Originally Posted by Bomjeito
Clay and beltway... You'll be wanting to look at Lakes of Eldridge, LOE North or Twin Lakes. Just look and see .... Again, we have the bus to the British School. Copperfield and Bridgeland are possibles, but I'd do the surface roads and avoid the 290....Clay is often a parking lot during rush hours due to it's use as an east-west pass through.

As for the three MPCs at Eldridge mentioned..the only issue, which is Houston-wide is that it's not village-like. As for crime, LOE and LOEN are gated. The amenities are excellent with low HOA fees and a hod HOA.

Also consider Sugarland..it's a not too bad commute via beltway. You can get a lot of house and yard there.

And I like the Heights. But warning the homes are smaller, older bungalows but with tons of character..larger homes, say over 3000 sq ft, can start very high. Plus the lots are smaller, many without garages.
I wouldn't recommend the back roads as being any better than 290 during rush hour to be honest. I live in Copper Lakes (Barker Cypress @ West) and have tried various different routes and honestly 290 is the best choice. You'd think the back roads would be better but so many people try to do that during rush hour it's worse than 290. It's manageable for me as my time is truly flexible and I don't have to get in at a certain time. I normally go in early (pre 6am) or wait until 8.30-8.45am to leave my house. Traffic at those times is fine.

As regards to the OPs comment on crime. I personally haven't noticed it to be any different to any other big city. There are always isolated incidents in places and there are areas to avoid but on the whole I have always felt pretty safe here and haven't seen anything that has caused my great concern or discomfort.

Look at the heights, Sugarland, LOE and Katy. They all will have decent commutes. If you are going to have to travel during rush hour I'd probably reconsider the Heights. I-10/610 interchange during rush hour (and the surrounding area and back roads) can be pretty nasty, no matter which direction you're going and you're going to have go through there to get to the heights.
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Old Sep 24th 2012, 5:09 am
  #35  
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Default Re: Relocating to Houston in Jan'13...

We are on Lakes on Eldridge north and find it to be very international, not British. Every nationality is here, as what I found with LOE. Since there is no International School, Awty and the British School seem to fill the gap. There are car pools to all the private schools from here.

Our cul de sac has 10 houses and of all, only we have a Brit in the household. Three house are Americans...so I can't agree with the prior poster who feels LOE communities are too British. Our community events are truly multinational with a lot of Americans. I find more Brits in the Memorial subdivisions.
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