Sugarland, TX...a good place to live?? (possibly relocating)

[Fly4free]

Looking for any info on relocating to Sugarland, TX (outside Houston). My husband lost his job here and is trying to stay with the same company, but the only available jobs are in Sugarland. The cost of living seems much lower than here in the Philly burbs, but it's so far away from my family.

Job prospects here are poor right now in his field, so having a secure job with benes is a big plus. Selling our house up here and moving the kids ages 12 & 14 will be tough.

Any insight is appreciated.

 

[low-key]

it has a cool name

 

[Fly4free]

Yes, we should hurry up and move before Christmas so I can have Sugarland as my return address for all my cards.

 

[low-key]

Yes, we should hurry up and move before Christmas so I can have Sugarland as my return address for all my cards.

 

[Debbie7452]

My Sis used to live in Sugarland and I grew up near there. There are good and bad schools in that school district so be careful where you choose. It is hot in the summer and fairly mild in winter(such as shorts are possible on some December days). People are very friendly. Housing is affordable. I live NW of Houston myself. Good Luck!

 

[Boston Tea Party]

it has a cool name

Thanks, I like it.

I love it here. Close enough to Houston for big city whatnots, still has a small town feel. Lots of shopping, dining, just got a minor league baseball team. Police department is very proactive. The First Colony area is a mature, master planned community. Although the homeowner's association can be a little...jackbooted... they work hard to keep property values up. Lots of parks and green spaces. It is an affluent area.

On the website for the city there is a feature where you can look up crimes by map or by subdivision name. I think that is helpful.

Also, you might look into har.com using zip code 77478 or 77479 to look for homes.

Surrounding towns are Richmond, Rosenberg, Missouri City and Stafford. Each one is different from the other and from Sugar Land.

Best of luck to you!

 

[Boston Tea Party]

PS Stay out of the southwest Houston area...

 

[descovy]

Sugar Land (it's 2 words) is a great place to live!

I live nearby in Katy. Some of the downfalls of living in the suburbs is the commute into Houston. But if you are lucky enough to work in Sugar Land, it would be perfect!


For real advice, please visit the Houston Forum on City-Data. Search for old posts about Sugar Land for some general info and feel free to ask questions. It is a very active board.

My only caveat (and this goes for all newcomers of Houston Suburbs) is do not get too goggly-eyed about the home prices and buy a bigger home than you need (just because you can) In my part of Katy, we have a lot of folks who will buy a huge 4000 sq ft house for 4 people because it is the same price they sold their tiny 2br bungalow for "back home."

We do not have a state income tax (yay!) but we do have high property taxes. In some of the newer neighborhoods it is as high as 3.6%. So you spend $300k on a house today, but you pay over $10k EVERY year in property tax! Not to mention the massive cooling bills. A/C is run 10 mo/ year.

Buy a reasonable house at a reasonable size and take advantage of the fact that you are not taxed on your earnings.

Schools are good. Best bet is in the city limits of Sugar Land (Fort Bend ISD) For good schools at a less expense consider neighborhoods in Lamar Consolidated. They have a "Richmond" mailing address but are suburban areas between Sugar Land and Katy.

 

[gillep]

Sugar Land (it's 2 words) is a great place to live!

I live nearby in Katy. Some of the downfalls of living in the suburbs is the commute into Houston. But if you are lucky enough to work in Sugar Land, it would be perfect!


For real advice, please visit the Houston Forum on City-Data. Search for old posts about Sugar Land for some general info and feel free to ask questions. It is a very active board.

My only caveat (and this goes for all newcomers of Houston Suburbs) is do not get too goggly-eyed about the home prices and buy a bigger home than you need (just because you can) In my part of Katy, we have a lot of folks who will buy a huge 4000 sq ft house for 4 people because it is the same price they sold their tiny 2br bungalow for "back home."

We do not have a state income tax (yay!) but we do have high property taxes. In some of the newer neighborhoods it is as high as 3.6%. So you spend $300k on a house today, but you pay over $10k EVERY year in property tax! Not to mention the massive cooling bills. A/C is run 10 mo/ year.

Buy a reasonable house at a reasonable size and take advantage of the fact that you are not taxed on your earnings.

Schools are good. Best bet is in the city limits of Sugar Land (Fort Bend ISD) For good schools at a less expense consider neighborhoods in Lamar Consolidated. They have a "Richmond" mailing address but are suburban areas between Sugar Land and Katy.

DH and I relocated from Washington D.C. to Missouri City Texas a year ago and we love it. We are right down the road from Sugar Land and we usually find ourselves in Sugar Land pretty often because there are a lot more restaurants and shopping there than in Missouri City. We chose Missouri City because of the good schools (Fort Bend ISD) and the great commute to the med center where I work on the Fort Bend County Toll Road as I did not want to have to deal with 59 from Sugar Land. We also love our community in Missouri City and built a great house here.

Please be aware that although the cost of living is lower here a lot of things are much more expensive than when we were in D.C. I pay 5 times as much per month for water here. Not only is it much more expensive per gallon but also I use a lot more to combat the effects of the hot climate on my grass. Also the per kwh price on electricity is much higher here although thankfully my house is new and is very energy efficient so I don't have the really high bills that some of my coworkers have. Also as stated above the property taxes and MUD and LID taxes are very high. I have also found that homeowners and car insurance are higher here (about 20 of us moved here from D.C. to places all around and in Houston so we have done a lot of comparisons). Gas prices here for instance are much lower than back on the East coast, my husband was just in New Jersey and he paid about 85 cents more per gallon than I paid here.

Overall we love it here (oppressive heat and all) and do not want to move back to the East Coast anytime soon, even though that is where we grew up and where both of our families are. Just make sure you really do your research regarding the exact costs of things before you make any decisions.

 

[njcarita]

my parents almost relocated us there from jersey 33 years ago............ i was 15 spent a summer their with my cousins and had a blast.......they all moved out of the area since than,,,,,and my dad decided against it........sO i have no idea what its like anymore.......but just the memories of that surgarlnd texas summer brought a big smile on my face

 

[Planogirl]

Sugar Land is nice! You are close enough to Houston to enjoy what it has to offer and yet you are enough removed to avoid the bad aspects of a large city. I had friends that lived there and we were always impressed with how nice the communities were.

 

[twinboysmom]

Sugar Land (it's 2 words) is a great place to live!

I live nearby in Katy. Some of the downfalls of living in the suburbs is the commute into Houston. But if you are lucky enough to work in Sugar Land, it would be perfect!


For real advice, please visit the Houston Forum on City-Data. Search for old posts about Sugar Land for some general info and feel free to ask questions. It is a very active board.

My only caveat (and this goes for all newcomers of Houston Suburbs) is do not get too goggly-eyed about the home prices and buy a bigger home than you need (just because you can) In my part of Katy, we have a lot of folks who will buy a huge 4000 sq ft house for 4 people because it is the same price they sold their tiny 2br bungalow for "back home."

We do not have a state income tax (yay!) but we do have high property taxes. In some of the newer neighborhoods it is as high as 3.6%. So you spend $300k on a house today, but you pay over $10k EVERY year in property tax! Not to mention the massive cooling bills. A/C is run 10 mo/ year.

Buy a reasonable house at a reasonable size and take advantage of the fact that you are not taxed on your earnings.

Schools are good. Best bet is in the city limits of Sugar Land (Fort Bend ISD) For good schools at a less expense consider neighborhoods in Lamar Consolidated. They have a "Richmond" mailing address but are suburban areas between Sugar Land and Katy.

We are relocating to Katy in the Spring of next year. Our boys will be attending a specialty school in west Houston and we just fell in love with Katy. We have similar housing prices and a similar cost of living so that's not an issue. We have looked at new subdivisions and have talked to an agent but I would love an insiders opinion. Are there any areas to avoid or particular schools to avoid (we don't plan to have them in private school forever)? Any help you can give would be much appreciated.

 

[Fly4free]

Thanks so much for all the info on Sugar Land and surrounding areas! I am especially interested in the schools. That is my top priority, with 1 in high school and 1 in middle school. Appreciate direct recommendations as it's so hard to figure out from a distance.

I also wouldn't have ever thought about the higher cost of water and electric and insurance. I did notice the RE taxes were a bit higher than what we are paying now, but we would also get a slightly larger house too.

 

[descovy]

We are relocating to Katy in the Spring of next year. Our boys will be attending a specialty school in west Houston and we just fell in love with Katy. We have similar housing prices and a similar cost of living so that's not an issue. We have looked at new subdivisions and have talked to an agent but I would love an insiders opinion. Are there any areas to avoid or particular schools to avoid (we don't plan to have them in private school forever)? Any help you can give would be much appreciated.

I invite you too to check out the city data forum... Lots of good threads about Katy too and a very active & helpful forum.

I cannot think of schools to avoid. People will pick and parse based on test score points or reduced lunch, but I don't take stock in that. North of I-10 is less expensive than the south side... So that may mean SOuth is "better"

We live in Cinco Ranch and I don't see how to go wrong here. Homes are 20 yrs old up to new builds. We all share in lots of parks, community activities and access to 8 pools.

The city of Katy is great for a small town real community feel (inside city limits zip 77493). One thing that I do lament about living in the new part of Cinco is the lack of roots, tradition, and community. Most are newcomers, which makes it easy to fit in at school, because there are always new kids! But many families work in petrochem and move a lot. We have lived here 5 years and have said many goodbyes.

Also regarding schools, Katy is still growing. This means building new schools and rezoning to fill them. For some people this causes a lot of angst too, although my family has been through an elem rezone & jr hi rezone without issue. Just don't buy a home based on a school you want to attend in 5 years, because the lines may change by then.

You mentioned your children will be attending a specialty school in West Houston. My best friend works at the Monarch School and another friend has a son that attends the Village School. If this is case of special needs, I would consider a neighborhood like Green Trails, or Nottingham Country Elem area. The commute to West Houston is less. Beautiful GREEN neighborhoods, and older schools mean they aren't dealing with overcrowding and starting everything from scratch

Hope that helps some. Hope to see you at city data too!

 

[descovy]

Thanks so much for all the info on Sugar Land and surrounding areas! I am especially interested in the schools. That is my top priority, with 1 in high school and 1 in middle school. Appreciate direct recommendations as it's so hard to figure out from a distance.

I also wouldn't have ever thought about the higher cost of water and electric and insurance. I did notice the RE taxes were a bit higher than what we are paying now, but we would also get a slightly larger house too.

Depending on budget of course...

Best HS reputations are Clements ($$$$ tho!) Travis, Austin.

Also Briscoe/Foster but that is in Lamar Consolidated ISD. Not Sugar Land but close (and often more affordable)

 

[twinboysmom]

I invite you too to check out the city data forum... Lots of good threads about Katy too and a very active & helpful forum.

I cannot think of schools to avoid. People will pick and parse based on test score points or reduced lunch, but I don't take stock in that. North of I-10 is less expensive than the south side... So that may mean SOuth is "better"

We live in Cinco Ranch and I don't see how to go wrong here. Homes are 20 yrs old up to new builds. We all share in lots of parks, community activities and access to 8 pools.

The city of Katy is great for a small town real community feel (inside city limits zip 77493). One thing that I do lament about living in the new part of Cinco is the lack of roots, tradition, and community. Most are newcomers, which makes it easy to fit in at school, because there are always new kids! But many families work in petrochem and move a lot. We have lived here 5 years and have said many goodbyes.

Also regarding schools, Katy is still growing. This means building new schools and rezoning to fill them. For some people this causes a lot of angst too, although my family has been through an elem rezone & jr hi rezone without issue. Just don't buy a home based on a school you want to attend in 5 years, because the lines may change by then.

You mentioned your children will be attending a specialty school in West Houston. My best friend works at the Monarch School and another friend has a son that attends the Village School. If this is case of special needs, I would consider a neighborhood like Green Trails, or Nottingham Country Elem area. The commute to West Houston is less. Beautiful GREEN neighborhoods, and older schools mean they aren't dealing with overcrowding and starting everything from scratch

Hope that helps some. Hope to see you at city data too!

Thank you very much. We are planning to send them to the westview school and I will keep the neighborhoods you mentioned in mind. I will check out city data.

 

[TJ's Mom]

Depending on budget of course...

Best HS reputations are Clements ($$$$ tho!) Travis, Austin.

Also Briscoe/Foster but that is in Lamar Consolidated ISD. Not Sugar Land but close (and often more affordable)

Love Sugar Land area. The growth and weather are my two complaints. I have middle and high school kids. Clements, Austin and Travis would be my choices for hs. For middle school, Bowie, Fort Settlement, Sartartia, and First Colony Middle. Some of these are in Richmond, Tx but the school district is the same.

 

[Micca]

Folk musician Leadbelly's song "Midnight Special" discusses his arrest in Houston and his stay at the Sugar Land Prison (now the Beauford H. Jester pre-release Center) in 1925.

"If you're ever down in Houston, Boy, you better walk right. And you better not squabble. And you better not fight. Bason and Brock will arrest you. Payton and Boone will take you down. You can bet your bottom dollar, That you're Sugar Land bound."

 

[Fly4free]

Thanks for all the info on TX. My husband had his interview and surprise, the job is in Texas City. It's not the job he applied for but would be a nice promotion for him. So......

We are now looking into moving to Friendswood or League City area. Looks like there are some great schools there. I'm open to any other suggestions from my Dis buddies.

Thanks for the city-data suggestion too. I have found some good info. One thing I am concerned about is the zoning for flood plains. I noticed Texas City is a high flood risk. That's one reason I am looking closer in land.

Will find out next week if they make DH an offer he can't refuse. I just want to make sure before we accept anything we have an idea of where we will be living.

 

[Roonik426]

I have a question. I'm re-locating to the Sugar Land Area this summer and where I live electricity is the highest in the nation.
So when you say that electricity is expensive - how expensive are we talking?
For a 2 or 3 bedroom home with A/c - can anyone give me an idea of they monthly electricity bill?

I know gas will be cheaper

And water is like how much per gallon? Don't homes have cisterns or no?