Moving Advice Needed-- Seeking Objective Opinions

[ekatiel]

So, we are planning to make an in-town move this spring or summer (if our house sells ). We are moving for 2 reasons: 1)To get to a better school district (ODS starts kinder in the fall). 2) To be closer to my parents (we currently live 30 minutes away-- we'd like to be 5 or 10 minutes away). So, I've got two options for where to move, and I'm kind of stuck on which direction to go. I think I may be a bit biased b/c I grew up in one of the towns (and my parents still live there). I figured you guys would be a good un-biased bunch to present my options to. Here are the options:

1) Move to my parents' town (Friendswood). We'd be about 5 minutes from their house. The schools are top-rated (all of them are either a 9 or 10 on greatschools.net), but b/c of the top-rated schools, the home prices are over-inflated. Also, the town is a bit clique-ish, and you end up dealing with a lot over over-privilaged kids and the problems that come with them (drugs being a major problem in the district). We would end up buying a house that was 20-30 years old and probably not updated, or if we stretched our budget (meaning no cable, no eating out, and no fun!), we maybe could manage something 10-15 years old and possibly updated. We would probably lose a room, but not square footage (right now we have 4 bedrooms and a gameroom-- most of the older houses just don't have gamerooms).

2) Move to the town adjacent to my parent's town, League City (10 minutes from their house, tops). The schools there are also very good (all in the area that we are looking are rated with an 8 or 9 on greatschools.net). The housing prices are more reasonable. I'm sure the schools have their own problems-- they are larger than the Friendswood schools, etc. We could buy a house here that was just a few years old and have plenty of space-- probably go up a little in square footage and not have to lose a room.

My mind says that League City is the easy choice, but for some reason (probably the great schools), I am still drawn to Friendswood. What decision would you make, being more objective about the situation than me? --Katie

 

[MSSANDRA]

tough...

Would it be nicer to be a little closer to your parents as they age or would a little distance be nice?????

Do you still have friends in your hometown????

will you parents be helping out a lot with then kids? Being closer might be good for that??

housing market is great for buying now...maybe some good deals in the higher price area???

good luck!

 

[Lizzy2]

I would vote for the 10m away town- it will still be super easy to see your parents and you can get a house where you are totally comfortable!

 

[zumbergc]

kind of depends on how much you want help/kids see inlaws. Both seen pretty close...
You might get lucky in todays housing market, come across a short sale or a forclosure that may mean the price could be more in your bracket.

If you already know people in the one town, maybe lean toward that area, especially if you have friends in those subdivisions with kids your children's ages. Make the transition easier for everyone.

 

[EnchantedPrincess]

That is the same decision that we had to go through...Friendswood ISD or Clear Creek ISD..and after looking at houses, and comparing schools in both area, we decided to stay in CCISD. The same house/floorplan with the same builder cost at least 50k when you enter the FISD area.

CCISD is a really school district as well...it is a much, much bigger school district than FISD...my neighbor is a teacher in FISD, and could have had all her kids go to FISD but chose to keep them in CCISD for some of the reasons that you mentioned above. There are only 6 schools in FISD, and about 40 in CCISD, and I am sure if CCISD has only 6 schools, it would be easier to have every single one of their schools be top-rated as well.

So IMO, if buying a home in Friendswood is going to really stretch your budget, I would seriously consider League City or the part of Friendswood in Harris County zoned to CCISD. You will still be very close to your parents, and still in a good school district.

 

[Cindy B]

In our area greatschools.net is a FARCE. In our area, the true data about the schools ability comes from the Dept of Education Testing Scores data. In our state, each school district and all schools in that district data is broken down by standardized testing parameters, subgroups, teacher student ratio, amount spent per student, types of degrees the teachers have, languages spoken at school, amounts of students in the school, number of suspensions/expulsions, amount of computers in each school, etc. That is the data I want to see. There is more data in these charts but that is what I can remember quickly.

I have found greatschools.net to be full of opionated parents who just want to spout off.

I personally don't find 30 minutes that far away. My parents now live about 1500 miles away and I only see them every few years!

But I can tell you that I have lived in an entitled neighborhood. If given the choice and the schools are equally rated, I would go the more "normal" neighborhood.

Trust me, you don't want to be the "poor" one in a rich town.. the kids will notice! In first grade, my son said to me "Whats an Import?" I then asked "what do you mean-- like a car?" My son then replied that the kids said to him "Your mom only drives a Saturn-- its not an import."
When my daughter was born, I received a little card in the mail from an exclusive (read expensive) girls schools that wanted our money and her spot on the waiting for when she turned 8 or 10!!

 

[ekatiel]

That is the same decision that we had to go through...Friendswood ISD or Clear Creek ISD..and after looking at houses, and comparing schools in both area, we decided to stay in CCISD. The same house/floorplan with the same builder cost at least 50k when you enter the FISD area.

CCISD is a really school district as well...it is a much, much bigger school district than FISD...my neighbor is a teacher in FISD, and could have had all her kids go to FISD but chose to keep them in CCISD for some of the reasons that you mentioned above. There are only 6 schools in FISD, and about 40 in CCISD, and I am sure if CCISD has only 6 schools, it would be easier to have every single one of their schools be top-rated as well.

So IMO, if buying a home in Friendswood is going to really stretch your budget, I would seriously consider League City or the part of Friendswood in Harris County zoned to CCISD. You will still be very close to your parents, and still in a good school district.

I'm glad to hear from someone who's been through this! I really do think Friendswood ISD home prices are crazy-over inflated for what you get . I'm driving DH NUTS b/c I swtich between wanting to move to FISD or CCISD almost weekly. I jsut hope I've got my decision made by the time our house sells! We've been looking a lot in Brittany Lakes in League City-- do you know anything about that neighborhood?

Trust me, you don't want to be the "poor" one in a rich town.. the kids will notice! In first grade, my son said to me "Whats an Import?" I then asked "what do you mean-- like a car?" My son then replied that the kids said to him "Your mom only drives a Saturn-- its not an import."
When my daughter was born, I received a little card in the mail from an exclusive (read expensive) girls schools that wanted our money and her spot on the waiting for when she turned 8 or 10!!

I am concerned about this, and I drive a Saturn, too . There are certain neighborhoods in Friendswood that have the rap of being the "ghetto" neighborhoods (they are really just middle-class neighborhoods). It is hard to know what neighborhoods are going to get a bad rap next-- and considering our budget, we could end up in one of those. Here's just a sampling of what you can get for around $200K in each district (and for those of you who live where home prices are crazy-- yes, you can buy a nice house for $200K in Texas ):

Friendswood ISD listing for $210,000 (this one's actually a really good deal for the area): http://search.har.com/engine/1209-Blueberry-Ln-Friendswood-TX-77546_HAR86805814.htm
Friendswood ISD listing for $192,000: http://search.har.com/engine/301-N-Shadowbend-Ave-Friendswood-TX-77546_HAR87059594.htm

Clear Creek ISD listing for $209,500: http://search.har.com/engine/2514-Goldeneye-Ln-League-City-TX-77573_HAR66069001.htm
Clear Creek ISD LIsting for $191,900: http://search.har.com/engine/2145-Salt-Marsh-Ct-League-City-TX-77573_HAR17688724.htm

We would have a lot more to choose from in League City. I just don't know why I have an emotional hang-up with Friendswood! --Katie

 

[woodkins]

I'm glad to hear from someone who's been through this! I really do think Friendswood ISD home prices are crazy-over inflated for what you get . I'm driving DH NUTS b/c I swtich between wanting to move to FISD or CCISD almost weekly. I jsut hope I've got my decision made by the time our house sells! We've been looking a lot in Brittany Lakes in League City-- do you know anything about that neighborhood?



I am concerned about this, and I drive a Saturn, too . There are certain neighborhoods in Friendswood that have the rap of being the "ghetto" neighborhoods (they are really just middle-class neighborhoods). It is hard to know what neighborhoods are going to get a bad rap next-- and considering our budget, we could end up in one of those. Here's just a sampling of what you can get for around $200K in each district (and for those of you who live where home prices are crazy-- yes, you can buy a nice house for $200K in Texas ):

Friendswood ISD listing for $210,000 (this one's actually a really good deal for the area): http://search.har.com/engine/1209-Blueberry-Ln-Friendswood-TX-77546_HAR86805814.htm
Friendswood ISD listing for $192,000: http://search.har.com/engine/301-N-Shadowbend-Ave-Friendswood-TX-77546_HAR87059594.htm

Clear Creek ISD listing for $209,500: http://search.har.com/engine/2514-Goldeneye-Ln-League-City-TX-77573_HAR66069001.htm
Clear Creek ISD LIsting for $191,900: http://search.har.com/engine/2145-Salt-Marsh-Ct-League-City-TX-77573_HAR17688724.htm

We would have a lot more to choose from in League City. I just don't know why I have an emotional hang-up with Friendswood! --Katie

Good luck with your house hunt, I am from NY so I don't have any advice on areas etc...I just had to giggle though about the import & ghetto comments. First of all you can only wonder where little kids are learning this Secondly, I would love to bring those kids up here to where I live, for $200K you can't buy ANYTHING!!! The house behind me has been abandoned for 3 years and in forclosure and they are asking $290K for a house that virtually needs to be knocked down. They would be in for some real sticker shock!

 

[GinCar]

I used to live in Houston (Laporte) we had no children at that time, so schools were not something we looked at when buying. We loved our home in Texas, before we made the giant leap to Colorado.

My advice would be League City because of the financial reasons. We had friends that lived in both and I really never heard any negatives about either city or schools. Since the economy is not much better, you really want to be secure and have breathing room, if needed. 30 min is really nothing in Houston as far as distant goes.

Good Luck with your choice.

Oh, and don't forget the flood insurance! (extra if you can)
I kinda miss seeing rain.

 

[Cindy B]

I'm glad to hear from someone who's been through this! I really do think Friendswood ISD home prices are crazy-over inflated for what you get . I'm driving DH NUTS b/c I swtich between wanting to move to FISD or CCISD almost weekly. I jsut hope I've got my decision made by the time our house sells! We've been looking a lot in Brittany Lakes in League City-- do you know anything about that neighborhood?



I am concerned about this, and I drive a Saturn, too . There are certain neighborhoods in Friendswood that have the rap of being the "ghetto" neighborhoods (they are really just middle-class neighborhoods). It is hard to know what neighborhoods are going to get a bad rap next-- and considering our budget, we could end up in one of those. Here's just a sampling of what you can get for around $200K in each district (and for those of you who live where home prices are crazy-- yes, you can buy a nice house for $200K in Texas ):

Friendswood ISD listing for $210,000 (this one's actually a really good deal for the area): http://search.har.com/engine/1209-Blueberry-Ln-Friendswood-TX-77546_HAR86805814.htm
Friendswood ISD listing for $192,000: http://search.har.com/engine/301-N-Shadowbend-Ave-Friendswood-TX-77546_HAR87059594.htm

Clear Creek ISD listing for $209,500: http://search.har.com/engine/2514-Goldeneye-Ln-League-City-TX-77573_HAR66069001.htm
Clear Creek ISD LIsting for $191,900: http://search.har.com/engine/2145-Salt-Marsh-Ct-League-City-TX-77573_HAR17688724.htm

We would have a lot more to choose from in League City. I just don't know why I have an emotional hang-up with Friendswood! --Katie

I'm officially jealous! That 210K in Friendswood would easily be in the high 500-700K around here. Small Cape Cods are selling for about 210K around here!

 

[ceecee]

I would vote for the 10m away town- it will still be super easy to see your parents and you can get a house where you are totally comfortable!

10 minutes vs 5 minutes??? Not much of a difference. I would hesitate moving into a school with a drug problem??? But you said it was a good school? Possibly by the time your son starts middle/high school the school in the district with the cheaper houses may be better because people would rather get more house for their $ and no drugs in the school.

 

[Leleluvsdis]

I would vote for #2. I had personally rather have a bigger, newer house and drive 5 more minutes. Reason #2 would be because of the school situation. I have a cousin that moved to a school district b/c the school were the top in the area, and it is biting them in the butt BIG TIME! They are an average working class family and live in about an 1800sp ft cape cod house. Now that their son is in getting older he's starting to experience the over-privilaged kids and their attitudes. He is 14 years old and is coming home saying they need to move b/c all his friends houses are bigger than 3000 sq ft and he can't be their friend if he doesn't live in the same size house, or he doesn't have an lacoste cloths and he can't be their friend is he doesn't. It seems like everyday he comes home with the same senario and to me, the school ratings wouldn't be worth this humilation everyday.

In the end, it's only a decision that you and your family can make, but this is just my opinion. HTH

 

[janette]

Something else I'd check on the schools is the ethnic mix; I'm also in TX and moved about 10yrs ago and had to be pretty selective as the town I'm in has 4 possible school districts.

The HS my girls are now in is one of the best ethnic mixes in the area; no real majority. Other schools in the area can be 80/90 % of one ethnic group; I just didn't want that type of school for my kids whether they were in the majority or minority group and it varied by school.

You can also see the economic mix in the schools; again I'd try to find a middle ground. Just more of my comfort level.

 

[dfchelbay]

We live in a 10 school district. In the beginning, about ten years ago, it was fine. But, over time, we have come to realize that our house is grossly inflated in value (not anymore...lost $100k, thru the recession) and not worth what we paid. With the good schools, comes higher taxes. Our property taxes keep goin up, even though our house value has gone substanially down. Our utilities keep goin up too, as is probably the case with everyone.

My suggestion would be to look at homes in the neighboring town. More home for less money. As your kids get older, they, along with you, will appreciate more space. Also, you won't have to pay money to upgrade a house, in addition to the higher price tag, like you would in your parents town.

One last thing you may what to keep in mind is that you have to look at how you will pay for your new home over time if something happens, like going from a two job family, to just one, or DH salary is lowered or gets a different job etc. It is peace of mind to know that you can get by in a lower priced home should your finances coming in the home become lower later in life.

With that extra cash cushion, just think of all the wonderful trips you can take to WDW...or buy in to DVC.

 

[ekatiel]

Thanks for all the replies, guys. It looks like the disboards votes for option #2! Oh, and anyone who is impressed by home prices here in Texas-- come on down, y'all ! The more the merrier . --Katie

 

[WDWAtLast]

If you can tour the elementary school that your new home would be zoned to before you buy, that may help you decide (even within League City) I am in CyFair and although the school district is rated good overall, there are a few schools that you would not want to be zoned to. My child's school is "recognized" and has great teachers/staff and a good mix of kids. My sister used to live 10 minutes from me, but was zoned to another CyFair school. They moved after only one year - out to the Conroe area! lol The teachers at her old school were good, but there was no parent support - they did not even have a PTO due to lack of parent involvement. Good luck!!!

 

[EnchantedPrincess]

I'm glad to hear from someone who's been through this! I really do think Friendswood ISD home prices are crazy-over inflated for what you get . I'm driving DH NUTS b/c I swtich between wanting to move to FISD or CCISD almost weekly. I jsut hope I've got my decision made by the time our house sells! We've been looking a lot in Brittany Lakes in League City-- do you know anything about that neighborhood?

Brittany Lakes is a really nice subdivision. I have a few friends who live there and love it, and I believe they are zoned to Bauerschlag Elementary which is an exemplary school, and also zoned to one of the newer high school in the school districts. Oh by the way, I will also have one entering Kindergarten in the fall and if you moved to Brittany Lakes, they will both be attending Clear Springs High in about 9-10 years? LOL

 

[TxRabbit]

This is such a funny thread for me to read! We have been kicking around the EXACT same dilemma. Friendswood ISD or CCISD? Our house isn't even on the market yet, but we are hopeful for this spring. We are still doing some final home improvements before hitting the market. DH has been commuting the 60 miles to that area for almost two years now.

We love our current school and it has been hard to think of moving DS from it. We did infact move in with family at the beginning of the school year so that DS could also attend a school with his cousins. It was not good. We ended up moving back home. DS is a GT kid and he ended up being one of two in his entire grade at the new school. Discipline was a real issue as well. The kids were unruly and out of control. The teacher wasn't good. She was too concerned about being liked by the kids IMO. She was very nice, don't misunderstand. But she didn't maintain order.

Our school is tightly run. Discipline is positive. The kids are guided through what is appropriate behaviour. It is proactive discipline as well. Expectations were clear. Behavior was positively reinforced. The kids WANT to behave. This was not AT ALL the case in the school that we tried. Expectations were unclear. Discipline only AFTER bad behavior had occured, meanwhile the kids have already giggled and laughed and the students have gotten the positive attention they craved from their peers and the cycle becomes a cyclical type of thing where the teachers are struggling to keep these few kids from misbehaving and disrupting. Our son was having to practice walking around the school quietly during recess as punishment because the class couldn't behave right, among other things.

I would highly recommend that you tour the different schools. Get a feel for them. I started looking at some of the different ones. They are all over the board with how they do things differently. Also, one school has much more to offer than another. More grades could be in choir. They had a student talent show. This that the other. Whatever.

Parent involvement could be a big issue too. You might want to get some info on the local PTO or PTA as they call it in CCISD. I know that the Falcon Pass PTO used to meet ONLY during the day. My SIL's son went there for second grade and she couldn't even think about doing anything to help out because she worked.

The ethnic mix is a good thing to research too. I know that in our school district, some people started moving into our neighborhood because they were sick and tired of being the only English speaking people at the bus stop. It's not so much the ethnic mix, as much as the ESL percentage. If you get a higher % of that then you generally will not have much parent participation (the parents don't speak English and so they feel uncomfortable doing things like the animal demos and parent readers and other volunteering).

Please don't flame me about ethnic diversity. I'm just offering advise as to the different indicators of overall school performance. There are plenty of schools that are rated well for academics but have lowsy extras because of lack of parent involvement and that is what I am talking about. Every school in CCISD was rated recognized or exemplery by the TEA last year, but not all schools are equal beyond the test scores. I for one am searching for a more rounded school atmosphere.

Also. Watch out for some of the newer schools. They can be very high tech. Very cool. But it have no playground. There are a couple of basketball courts and hoops, and if parents have donated balls, then there are some balls. There are a lot of rumors regarding the district and the whole playground business. Eventually there will be more schools opening, so be sure to look at long term plans of the district to see if there would be a possibility of being rezoned. I don't mean to offer an opinion that no playground makes a school "bad" or "undesirable", I'm just bringing up another qualification for trying to pick a school. Like for instance, if you were liking one school, some of the kids end up going to the new one with rezoning, so you need to be watchful of that.

Keep in mind that CCISD has a open enrollment policy. If a school is not at capacity, then you can go to that school and enroll your child there, even if it is not your attendance boundary. This may not be the best scenario, but if you were living kind of close to one, but just not in it, then it might make more sense.

It'll be interesting to see what you decide!

 

[descovy]

So, we are planning to make an in-town move this spring or summer (if our house sells ). We are moving for 2 reasons: 1)To get to a better school district (ODS starts kinder in the fall). 2) To be closer to my parents (we currently live 30 minutes away-- we'd like to be 5 or 10 minutes away). So, I've got two options for where to move, and I'm kind of stuck on which direction to go. I think I may be a bit biased b/c I grew up in one of the towns (and my parents still live there). I figured you guys would be a good un-biased bunch to present my options to. Here are the options:

1) Move to my parents' town (Friendswood). We'd be about 5 minutes from their house. The schools are top-rated (all of them are either a 9 or 10 on greatschools.net), but b/c of the top-rated schools, the home prices are over-inflated. Also, the town is a bit clique-ish, and you end up dealing with a lot over over-privilaged kids and the problems that come with them (drugs being a major problem in the district). We would end up buying a house that was 20-30 years old and probably not updated, or if we stretched our budget (meaning no cable, no eating out, and no fun!), we maybe could manage something 10-15 years old and possibly updated. We would probably lose a room, but not square footage (right now we have 4 bedrooms and a gameroom-- most of the older houses just don't have gamerooms).

2) Move to the town adjacent to my parent's town, League City (10 minutes from their house, tops). The schools there are also very good (all in the area that we are looking are rated with an 8 or 9 on greatschools.net). The housing prices are more reasonable. I'm sure the schools have their own problems-- they are larger than the Friendswood schools, etc. We could buy a house here that was just a few years old and have plenty of space-- probably go up a little in square footage and not have to lose a room.

My mind says that League City is the easy choice, but for some reason (probably the great schools), I am still drawn to Friendswood. What decision would you make, being more objective about the situation than me? --Katie

As a fellow Houstonian (Katy) I say pick the more affordable home in League City. Here's why. We moved from a "Recognized" elem in Cy-Fair to Katy. I was willing to make a lateral move "recognized to recognized" but not willing to take a step down.

We ended up in Cinco Ranch, in the newest, finest, "Exemplary" schools in the district. Don't get me wrong, the school really is good, but I just don't get what is extra-special here versus our old school. As much as I love Cinco Ranch, I wouldn't move here if I could barely afford it... the schools aren't magical or anything.

Sometimes it gets frustrating around here when people act snooty, but I don't let it bother me, and I don't try to pretend to keep up. I still work my retail job, my kids still wear hand-me-downs or clearance clothes, still drive a modest 9 year old minivan. The people we gravitate towards just end up being like minded to us. Having my kids in Scouting has helped tremendously, as they all learn about character, and being a good, fair citizen.

And please don't stress too much about scores and ranks. We are going through this in Katy. Folks who refuse to go to Taylor HS because it is "worse" than Cinco Ranch HS. Define worse? 99% of CRHS students pass the TAKS, but *only* 98% at Taylor pass TAKS. Waa-waaa.

 

[EnchantedPrincess]

Keep in mind that CCISD has a open enrollment policy. If a school is not at capacity, then you can go to that school and enroll your child there, even if it is not your attendance boundary. This may not be the best scenario, but if you were living kind of close to one, but just not in it, then it might make more sense.

As far as the open enrollment policy, it is not as easy. I just talked to someone from the CCISD administration about that couple weeks ago. Although CCISD has an open enrollment policy, each school make the decision if they want to be an open or closed campus and makes the final decision if they want to take on students not within their attendance boundary. A few of my friends just went through this last year, and all were denied and had to go to their home school. All intermediate and high schools are closed campus this year..and i was told that they may remain that way. So I would definitely not buy a house in one area and count on being able to enrol your child in a different school.