Wife and I are looking to buy our first home and are looking pretty hard into the Spring Branch area.

Looks the area between Long Point and Hammerely is pretty shady but the area along Westview behind the HEB and the Spring Shadows area north of Hammerly to Clay look nice.

We'd like to be closer in around the Oak Forest, Timbergrove, Graden Oaks area but seems that is at the high end of our price range and SB can get us a lot more square feet for the money.

I grew up in the area...prices are raising quickly. Very sought after area...the winner is to find a home zoned to Memorial HS.

If you need help feel free to email me shahin@madisontx.com

I would imagine any home zoned to Memorial will be out of the OP's price range (even north of 10).

If you like that area, I would take a look at Long Point Woods.

I have sold a couple over there and there are a lot of young families moving into that area. I am a big fan. Not a ton of listings right now but they pop up occasionally.



scottrose@intownhouston.com
www.intownhouston.com

Also if you haven't started the convo with a lender that should be step number one. Lots of good lenders on this board.

I grew up in west SB. As long as you aren't next to apartments it's a good area. I would go the private school route if you are zoned for SB.

Pho Saigon on Gessner, between the 99 cent store and washateria.

Thanks for the info.

We've already retained a realtor and I'm making a few calls this afternoon to lenders to get that rolling.

Any way to tell what particular school a property is zoned to? So far I've only seen school districts on HAR.

The whole reason to go to SB is that it's one of the few places not in the burbs where you don't have to private school.

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Any way to tell what particular school a property is zoned to? So far I've only seen school districts on HAR.

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http://cms.springbranchisd.com/publicapps/StreetFinder/tabid/20544/Default.aspx

My brother, vansprinkle, lives in SB (very near the HEB and all of that stuff), and I think they really enjoy it. Values have gone up quite a bit since they bought a place about two years ago.

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The whole reason to go to SB is that it's one of the few places not in the burbs where you don't have to private school.

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It sounds like you're thinking of SBISD rather than Spring Branch.

I would guess the majority of Spring Branch is not zoned to schools you would consider sending your kids to.

Check out Sherwood Oaks...77043. Quiet and peaceful...prices very low and has a TON of potential imo. If they ever tear down the nearby apartments, adjacent to the elementary school, jackpot. But even if they don't, I think it is a solid place to live and an excellent location w/ quite a bit of upside. Going to elementary school with a few working class minorities builds character. The Middle School and HS are both solid by Houston standards.

Disclaimer: I am completely clueless when it comes to residential RE.

PS- #SherwoodEaglez4LYYYFE

[This message has been edited by North Mayne (edited 1/11/2013 11:22a).]

I love the area, but at the same time i hate the people. Too many apartments brings in too much riff raff.

Spring Branch is on the rise, they just need to price out the folks in the apartments. You generally want to avoid being closer to 290, along Hempstead. Try to look for West of Blalock.

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It sounds like you're thinking of SBISD rather than Spring Branch.

I would guess the majority of Spring Branch is not zoned to schools you would consider sending your kids to.

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Ah, you are indeed correct, I was. I thought all of SB was zoned to SBISD. Are you saying most of it is HISD?

Can someone tell this non Houston native, which schools in that area are do-able as far as not going the private school route?

are spring branch middle school and spring woods HS any good??

TIA

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Ah, you are indeed correct, I was. I thought all of SB was zoned to SBISD. Are you saying most of it is HISD?

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It's all SBISD, but the better schools are south of I-10. There are a few pockets north of 10 that are zoned to some of those schools, but they are generally pretty pricey.

As mentioned above, I'm just north of the Lowes/Best Buy/Costco. I like the area but am unfortunately backed up to a ghetto apartment. I don't mind the kids drinking and smoking weed, but when they mess with my stuff it gets pretty annoying. Best bet would be to buy a place in the central area of your neighborhood away from apartments and avoid the riffraff. It is quiet on the end of my street, but quiet also allows hoodlums the chance to go unnoticed.

And yes, we bought a "higher" priced home in 2011 for ~$210. Now similar homes are listed for ~$265-275 and they have started tearing down homes, which leads me to believe that the prices are going to keep climbing like Oak Forest when they started rebuilding. I'm super stoked that we should easily make a bit of money on the house when we decide to sell.

A buddy picked up a rent house on Longbranch about a year and a half ago for 122k, they are going to murder it on that thing if they ever sell which they won't.

[This message has been edited by Stan Crowch (edited 1/11/2013 12:50p).]

Campus attendance zone maps:

http://cms.springbranchisd.com/maps/Home/tabid/25837/Default.aspx

we just moved to Spring Shadows and love it.

Tornado Burger

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Can someone tell this non Houston native, which schools in that area are do-able as far as not going the private school route?

are spring branch middle school and spring woods HS any good??

TIA

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Almost any Middle School which feeds Memorial and Stratford. People are going to bash Northbrook and Springwoods. Spring Branch is essentially divided between North and South of Westview. And you can guess which area is zoned in the north.

Spring Branch is huge, but the district it self is essentially divided into two sections.

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Sherwood Oaks

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Live here now and like the neighborhood. If the apartments on Sherwood Forest ever get torn down, this place will be awesome. There are already a bunch of new homes on Sherwood Forest near I-10. They need to keep going in on down the road.

we just moved to the SBISD area (we're just north of i10 outside the beltway) but several yrs before our kid/s go to school.

with this said, a big advantage, i hear, about SBISD is that their charter schools are excellent. it's a lottery system to get in, but if your kid does, the schools are great...so on top of the Memorials, Statfords, Rummel Creeks, etc...there are great charter schools. so bottom line, many opportunities for your kids to go to great schools in SBISD and you don't have to live out in the boonies.

Another Spring Shadows resident here. We are in the pocket across from Pinecrest golf course. It's nice since there are no through streets in our section.

Does anybody know what is being built across from the Y on Clay road?

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. If the apartments on Sherwood Forest ever get torn down, this place will be awesome.

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The problem with slum apartments is they tend to cash flow pretty well. I wouldn't expect them to get bulldozed unless they get condemned.

There are several areas of Spring Branch that are pretty nice, if you aren't worried about schools. We live in a nice little neighborhood near Blalock and Long Point, but there is a cheap apartment building and associated food store at the end of our street. It doesn't bother me, but my wife would like a little more insulation between us and the common folk.

Most of the schools on the north side of I-10 rank fairly low. They aren't terrible, they just have a lot of low income hispanic students.

This is the area you want to stay in, if you want you children to go to school with middle class+ white kids. Elementary school would be either Valley Oaks or Hunters Creek.


You can find all of the SBISD maps here
http://cms.springbranchisd.com/maps/Home/tabid/25837/Default.aspx

The gentrification of the area just blows my mind. I was born there and lived there for a year until my parents moved off Hwy6. My grandparents lived there until I was about 6, and my cousin lived there until I went to college. It was becoming a 1950s clapboard house ghetto slowly but surely back then, as the houses got older, cheaper, and the burbs moved farther out.

It really is interesting how much the land is worth again. I hope the poors that have been living there since the 90's are cashing in big time.

[This message has been edited by MouthBQ98 (edited 1/11/2013 2:46p).]

+1 on the Sherwood Oaks recommendation, I bought a house there back in April. It's a nice, quiet neighborhood that feeds up to Stratford HS, and is significantly more affordable than the houses on the South side of I 10.

My thoughts were way pay roughly the same for a house in SB inside the beltway that feeds up to a middle school and a HS that aren't as good?

It'll be tough finding a reasonably priced house on the north side of I 10 that feeds up to Memorial HS, just my 2 cents.

You think the houses n of 10 feeding to MHS are unreasonably priced?

Must be why they're so hard to sell.

By "reasonably priced" I assume he means "in my budget". We wanted to buy there because we have several friends in the area (including our realtor), but everything in our budget just moved so quick. You really need to be available to go check out a house the day it hits the market, and most of them will need a decent amount of work.

I meant it will be difficult for the OP to find something zoned to Memorial HS in what I'm guessing is their price range.

My sincere and humble apologies for my poor choice of wording.....

not sure what your price range is but check out Wilchester... we moved in about 4 yrs ago and love it