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seamusTX wrote:the homeowners association is sometimes run by people who would make soviet commissars blush with shame.
- Jim

There is much truth to this. Many HOAs have gotten bad reputations for how they've treated residents. Best to be aware and ask lots of questions.

One trick we would do on previous moves is, if the wife showed interest in a house, we'd go back to the street later, without the realtor, meet the prospective neighbors, walk the side walks, and check out the parks and schools. If a realtor ever got huffy about this practice, I'd quote Regan, "Trust, but verify." Or, I'd get another realtor. If the neighbors weren't at least reasonably open and friendly, we'd probably pass on the house. We would also ask about flooding, HOAs, utility services and all those types of every day items.

In addition to location relative to work, you should consider school opportunities for future kids if you think you'll be here that long. Houston Independent School District has some good schools, but frankly, it also has the same sorts of challenges that any large city School District faces. This is another reason to strongly consider the suburbs and the commute.

Another issue is the lack of zoning laws. Without them, some areas have resorted to "master planned communities" in order to prevent the opening of a strip club across the street from the church. The master planned communities have the entire development planned out and memorialized in deed restrictions before the first lot is sold. They often have golf courses, parks, green-belts and such.

The choice we made when we moved to the Houston area years ago was to live in Katy, in a place called Cinco Ranch and we've enjoyed living here. To be honest, I really don't enjoy the traffic, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make to afford the wife and kids the opportunity to spend the majority of their time in a nicer place with better schools. Now, many years later, the fact is that two of my four kids have gone to college on academic scholarship - which may have happened anyway, but I'm convinced that the schools were a big factor - I'm pretty sure it's ain't just the depth of the gene pool...

Good luck with whatever you decide - in my experience, it's always a trade-off and really depends on priorities.