Anyone with any opinion of this neighborhood and area? I've heard these homes did not flood during Harvey. But the homes south of Tanner did with the reservoir backing up. Looks like a nice neighborhood. Gated access with security guard. No kids so schools aren't really an issue personally. But could affect resale?

I live in LOEN.

I am not aware of any homes in this neighborhood that flooded during Harvey. However, many homes were inaccessible during Harvey unless you had a boat.

Local schools are meh. Not the best CISD has to offer. Many families in the subdivision send their children to private schools.

Because of the neighborhoods location near the energy corridor, it is convenient for expatriate oil company executives. Many of the homes in this neighborhood are occupied by expats who are only here for a few years.

In addition to being a gated community, there are many amenities. 2 swimming pools, 2 sets of tennis courts, a workout room that is actually fairly nice, and green belts. The trails on the green belts are paved and are nice for running, walking, and biking.

While my family doesn't attend many of them, there is a summer concert series that's underwritten by a local RE agent. I would say they are probably 6 concerts during the summer near the big community center. A lot of people in the subdivision enjoy those.

The neighborhood is conveniently located because you have easy access to 290, beltway 8 and I-10. However, during Harvey there were probably a couple of days when we could not leave the neighborhood because all of our options were flooded. Generally speaking, however, those aren't a problem. More frequently, highway 6 and Eldridge will both be flooded. This has probably happened 3 times in the 13 years that we have lived here.

I live here as well. What Combat Wombat said .

I built a house in LOEN in 2002, moved out in 2011. No kids, so schools weren't a concern for me, either. I now live in Rice Military near memorial park.

Overall, LOEN was a fantastic neighborhood for me. Really enjoyed the amenities and my home was great. I will say that LOEN is in a bit of a "no mans land" between polished burb (Sienna, Cinco, Woodlands) and something in town. That is, the location is a good distance from restaurants, shopping, etc. To that end, I would guess that the value isn't ever going to drop like a bomb, but never dramatically rise over time vis-a-vis something like Nottingham or Westchester (8 miles due south of LOEN).

YMMV

MyMamaSaid said:

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I built a house in LOEN in 2002, moved out in 2011. No kids, so schools weren't a concern for me, either. I now live in Rice Military near memorial park.

Overall, LOEN was a fantastic neighborhood for me. Really enjoyed the amenities and my home was great. I will say that LOEN is in a bit of a "no mans land" between polished burb (Sienna, Cinco, Woodlands) and something in town. That is, the location is a good distance from restaurants, shopping, etc. To that end, I would guess that the value isn't ever going to drop like a bomb, but never dramatically rise over time vis-a-vis something like Nottingham or Westchester (8 miles due south of LOEN).

YMMV

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Yes, the good dining isn't right next door. However we can get to decent restaurants within 10-15 minutes. Otherwise we have the fast food restaurants. Kroger is very nearby. HEB is a few miles away and it only takes a few minutes - 15 - to get to the HEB on Bunker Hill.

We are very close to City Center in Memorial city Mall.

Thanks for the replies. I am actually currently leasing a house in LOEN. Been here almost a month. I am favorably impressed with the neighborhood as a place to live. It is convenient to me for a variety of reasons, mostly personal, ie close to my girlfriend's place of employment and where my mom lives should she need assistance. Would you compare it favorably to the section south of Tanner Road? Similar? What about Twin Lakes? Or if you were looking in this price range, would you be looking more towards Spring Branch? And by price range, I mean the lower end of this neighborhood. 350-400k or so. I'll readily admit I'm not a baller and I don't want to be house poor. LOL.

@Reno - Sounds like LOEN is a good place for you. Check out the build dates for houses in Twin Lakes and LOE South of Tanner - a tad bit older and generally inferior building materials (not all have low e windows, radiant barrier roofing, etc). If you can get into a Trendmaker-built home (best of lowest end, IMO) in LOEN, you're doing good for that price range. Anything in memorial west near Stratford HS I mentioned is *much* older and starting at about $650k. People who buy in there are doing it for the schools, which is driving price appreciation. Kickerillo built homes in Twin Lakes have always had a hit/miss build quality about them.

Final thought - look at the price history for LOEN housing. Both BP and COP sent a bunch of expats back to the UK in the last downturn ('15-'17) and looks like LOEN took a major hit when that demand exodus took place. I work in the industry and can tell you that nobody is bringing back the posh expat packages that drove LOEN price appreciation in the '10-'14 years anytime soon.

Good luck!

Again, YMMV

I would say that it's better than Lakes on Eldridge, which is south of Tanner Road, and Twin Lakes, which is south of Tanner road and west of Eldridge.

I say this because:

1) while the neighborhoods are very similar, those 2 neighborhoods had significant flooding of homes during Harvey. I've heard that Lakes on Eldridge had somewhere between 60% and 75% of the homes flooded. Twin Lakes had a lot of homes flooded, as well. It was really heartbreaking driving through there after Harvey and seeing everyone's stuff piled up on the curb.

And

2) The homes in LOEN are also much newer. As a result, they're also much more energy efficient. We lived in a home in Lakes on Eldridge before building this one. This home has many more energy saving features. Also, we looked at buying a house in Twin Lakes. The utility bills for that house were astronomical. The homes and Twin Lakes are older than the homes in Lakes on Eldridge... at least the ones we looked at.

my parents bought a home in twin lakes in 1998 and I am one of the few kids in twin lakes who didn't attend private school.

The neighborhood is nice and the HOA fees are more reasonable than loen but obviously with less amenities.

My parents home was very well built by kickerillo. I know a previous poster here may disagree but I have found all kickerillo homes in twin lakes to be very well built. The homes are a little older compared to loen so some are due for remodeling.

My parent's home is listed for sale right now if you are interested

https://www.har.com/homedetail/13527-sundowner-drive/11481017

I'm in LOE and 300 yards south of Tanner. Good neighbors - some expats, some retirees, and some new families. As far as Harvey flooding, 30% of the homes flooded. Twin Lakes had a large percentage.

trestamu said:

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I'm in LOE and 300 yards south of Tanner. Good neighbors - some expats, some retirees, and some new families. As far as Harvey flooding, 30% of the homes flooded. Twin Lakes had a large percentage.

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Wow, that's way less than another LOE resident told me. Good to know.

Property values in that area are going to suffer due to the recent down rating of the zoned schools, influx of rent homes, and deterioration of industry in the immediate area. LOE/N is going to be the last affected.

In regards to flooding during Harvey, everything in LOEN stayed dry. There was access to W Little York to get in and out, some homes were blocked in by high water on the road.

Just sold our house in the neighborhood and are moving this week. Enjoyed living there but is time to move on.

Another decent indication of valuation trends is to look at price adjustments of current listings. My random quick scan just now shows 7/12 listings with price reductions. That trend line indicates a buyers market and may support the observation above.

Again, YMMV

I will say that the decline in the number of expat residents is probably a good thing in one respect. I'd rather have long term/permanent residents who are more invested in the neighborhood than people who know they are only here for a couple of years. Our neighborhood seems to have stabilized some, with more kids for ours to play with. I have noticed that there don't seem to be as many Awty & British School kids as there used to be. Still plenty of Cypress Christian, Houston Christian, Grace School and catholic school kids.

We had an agent in my old office who made so much damn money off those expats. Areas like LOE and Lakes of Parkway seemed to be very propped up by that segment.

You're right, Scott. That gravy train, unfortunately, may never be as robust again as it used to be.

RenoAg,

Based on your budget I think you are limited to LOEN anyway.

I don't think twin lakes has anything for sale in your price range.

Also live in LOEN but looks like Wombat covered it all. I was here during Harvey and while we couldn't leave the water never got higher than the sidewalk. I know some areas had higher water but my understanding is that no homes were flooded in LOEN due to Harvey. Imelda caused no issues.

So if you don't mind me asking - where are you moving to? Is it in the same area? Where would you think a good value is in this general area of town?

I'm moving to ft bend richmond area on a similar budget as you. If I was tied to NW Houston 290 corridor, I would be looking near Blackhorse or Fairfield, they seem to have the most upside. I looked in both those areas and if the work commute would have been feasible, I would likely be there instead.

Back to LOEN, there is a demographic shift in the area affecting everything out to Copperfield due to HUD and low income rent housing.

fire09 said:

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I'm moving to ft bend richmond area on a similar budget as you. If I was tied to NW Houston 290 corridor, I would be looking near Blackhorse or Fairfield, they seem to have the most upside. I looked in both those areas and if the work commute would have been feasible, I would likely be there instead.

Back to LOEN, there is a demographic shift in the area affecting everything out to Copperfield due to HUD and low income rent housing.

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Source? Where exactly is the low income rent housing you reference?

You can do that research yourself. Look at Houston housing authority, formerly section 8 for their voucher program, or HAR for rentals, or talk to a local real estate agent.

If all else fails, go drive down and check out the apartments along HW6 between clay and 529 and take a look for yourself.

Soooo... you have no source?

Coventry, peppermill place, Copperwood, st gregory's beach. are all section 8. That was thru a quick search on the HHA website. Are you looking for a news article instead?

LOEN is sort of a tweener location. We are more likely to spend time in Spring Branch than Copperfield. We are also down in the Memorial area quite a bit for church, restaurants and shopping. Spring Branch is slowly gentrifying, which may be pushing some folks out to the older apartments on Highway 6 near Copperfield. I spoke to a realtor who specializes in the area and he agreed the expats may not be coming back anytime soon. He said to watch for Schlumberger hiring, because their employees tend to send their kids to Awty. Our neighborhood has traditionally had a lot of Awty kids, with a busload dropping off kids at our rec center daily. I know that has diminished in the last two years, but I have no data on how much. He also said the thing that might have the best impact on home demand would be Occidental moving into the old Conoco offices at Eldridge & I-10. That was in the news earlier this year but I don't know where that all stands now. If anybody here has news about that, please share.

Oxy isn't moving out there anymore. That got shelved after the merger.

Last I heard, they have the old Conoco campus on the market.

Diggity said:

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Oxy isn't moving out there anymore. That got shelved after the merger.

Last I heard, they have the old Conoco campus on the market.

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Well that's bad news, because there are a limited number of possible buyers for a facility of that size and most of them are probably not in expansion mode. Could be a long wait for that facility to backfill with hundreds or even thousands of engineers plus related functions like accounting, legal, IT and HR.

In any case, the oil company employees tended to fill the $400k to $600k housing in LOEN. There's another level that goes from $600k to around $1 million and those tend to be owned more by entrepreneurial guys who own businesses in the area (especially up and down Brittmoore). All of those industrial buildings house businesses and each of those businesses has an owner.

You're correct. There is a limited amount of companies willing/able to take on 70 acres and 1.4 million sqft of 80's office space.

Interesting. I didn't know they had done serious work on the property already. Guess that makes sense if they were planning on moving next year.

Oxy will take a bath on the sale whenever it happens. My wild guess is that either a big church or Lone Star College end up with a new campus sometime in the next 2-3 years.