I'll be leaving the active duty Army soon and we will be moving back to Houston. Katy, TX has always been my permanent place of residence while in the Army. I'll be going to grad school and joining the Army Reserve while the wife works full time.

I left Katy in 2008 for college and and when I visit it seems like it has grown like crazy. We are looking at houses where my wife and I spent our high school years, in the 99 and Fry area. Seven Lakes/Cinco area.

We have friends who live in The Heights and Cypress area, but they don't have kids like we do. Just looking for a good place to call home again.

Katy is not its own state, I've checked.

it's fine... keeps growing as expected.

The whole area west of 99 is growing like crazy. In a few years Brookshire will be a Houston suburb - lol.

Biz Ag said:

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The whole area west of 99 is growing like crazy. In a few years weeks Brookshire will be a Houston suburb - lol.

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FIFY

TarponChaser said:

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Biz Ag said:

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The whole area west of 99 is growing like crazy. In a few years weeks Brookshire Sealy will be a Houston suburb - lol.

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FIFY

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FYFIFY

What's the question?

Yes its doing well. Still only 20 minutes from downtown. And 99 makes it great to travel between the Westpark toll way and I-10.

Yes, growing like crazy, but so are many parts of Houston. With kids, I'd imagine you'd be better off out there than close to your friends in the Heights. Especially if yall have family in the Katy area that can help w/ the kids while yall keep up w/ that schedule. Go with the biggest yard and nearest babysitters.

still terrible

Why can none of you Katy townies conceive of living elsewhere?

Is Katy where all the white people in sugar land moved? Or is that Rich/Rose?

I'm a Katy native,Realtor and Cinco Ranch grad class of 2004. Happy to help talk you through your search.

Jjdavis85 at gmail

Fulshear

Move to El Paso. This town is full.

And, thanks for your service.

Sooper Jeenyus said:

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Why can none of you Katy townies conceive of living elsewhere?

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Because I am tired of living at Army bases where the local town is absolute trash.

Fayetteville, NC (We chose to live 40 mins away due to the less desirables around that Fort Bragg, NC)
Killeen, TX
Columbus, GA

Elyson seems to be nice and has some solid retail developments around the corner.

https://www.elyson.com

MAS444 said:

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What's the question?

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Is Katy as nice as it was in 2008 or has it turned to Lina Land?

Did Harris County antics influence Fort Bend County?

Katy is much more like Houston than Richmond or Rosenbgerg.

Nothing much has changed here. They are continuing to build, which has led to more traffic. They still love their Katy Tigers. Time to get anywhere really hasn't changed that much since '08, but one big change since that time is they opened 99 north of I-10, which has made getting to Spring, Tomball, and The Woodlands a far quicker commute.

As for the influence of Dora the Explorer, as portions of Katy are in Harris County, you'll see those signs in stores about mask requirements and all that bunk; Ft. Bend went blue I believe in the most recent "election", so there is some idiocy in that county as well. But one thing I've noticed is that the Whataburger on Westheimer Parkway is not requiring masks and has resumed to pretty much pre-virus hours, whereas the CFA a block away is still closed (dining area).

Sooper Jeenyus said:

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Why can none of you Katy townies conceive of living elsewhere?

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Perhaps because we prefer it out here rather than cramped in limited space inside the loop or wherever you think is paradise. Some of us grew up in smaller towns, so there is no allure to the big city life.

MarathonAg12 said:

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MAS444 said:

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What's the question?

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Is Katy as nice as it was in 2008 or has it turned to Lina Land?

Did Harris County antics influence Fort Bend County?

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Fort Bend voted blue in this last election, if that's something that truly sways your opinion on where to live. But otherwise, Katy seems like Katy was 5-10 years ago. You've still got moms driving slow as **** in minivans, you still have Karens freaking out on neighborhood facebook pages. Not much has changed.

It should be as you remember it, only larger. More housing developments W of 99 with no sign of slowing down. Schools are still excellent, this will be very important to your wife as the kids get older.

Budget wise I can give you two tips, the houses E of 99 that flooded are selling cheaper than the houses W of 99 that didn't. Obvious reasons for this.

Taxes in Ft. Bend County are lower than Harris county, and the schools in LCISD that feed into Fulshear are excellent as well.

Welcome back, Thank you for your service, there are a lot of Ags and Veterans in the area. When you settle in let us know and we can partake in an adult beverage of three.

Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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Sooper Jeenyus said:

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Why can none of you Katy townies conceive of living elsewhere?

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Perhaps because we prefer it out here rather than cramped in limited space inside the loop or wherever you think is paradise. Some of us grew up in smaller towns, so there is no allure to the big city life.

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I grew up in a town much smaller than Katy. I'm not mocking the folks who moved there and enjoy it. I'm mocking the folks who never left (which is a lot of folks).

It seems like Covid has helped make the market in Katy spike quite a bit. It was already growing, but more and more people are wanting to leave the city for a place with a little more space, without committing to living on acreage. Add in that many are still working from home, and you end up with a Sellers market.

I have a neighbor that listed their home for $25-50k more than it should sell for. They held an Open House that was set up as one family at a time. The line of people waiting in line to see the place wrapped around the block. In total they said 400 people viewed their home in one day. They ended up with 8 (I believe) offers above asking. This was last Saturday.

78_Pacecar said:

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Budget wise I can give you two tips, the houses E of 99 that flooded are selling cheaper than the houses W of 99 that didn't. Obvious reasons for this.

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To add to this, many houses flooded east of 99, but many did not. The further south you go toward West Park, the more likely the house was to have flooded. Use the flight level imagery from NOAA from Harvey as a rough guide of what flooded.


https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/harvey/index.html

vansprinkle said:

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I have a neighbor that listed their home for $25-50k more than it should sell for.

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according to who?

Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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Sooper Jeenyus said:

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Why can none of you Katy townies conceive of living elsewhere?

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Perhaps because we prefer it out here rather than cramped in limited space inside the loop or wherever you think is paradise. Some of us grew up in smaller towns, so there is no allure to the big city life.

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lol. so much contradiction in this post.

Cinco Ranch isn't "cramped in limited space"?
Katy is a "smaller town"?


Katy is exactly what I would call "cramped in a limited space", as well as the "big city life".

Katy keeps chugging along. Growing west and north without abandon.

One of these days they're going to actually widen 99 between I-10 and westpark. Its apparently a few years away and there is some pissing and moaning about added lanes being tolled. Karens wanting noise reducing grooves in the expansion because they couldn't conceive that living up against a freaking highway would be loud. Also no sign of them actually building full feeder lanes that would actually solve the traffic problem.

While katy has grown west, more of the school boundaries have become stratified eastward. The older neighborhoods east of 99 have larger footprints that tend to reach eastward as they have less school age kids compared to the newer neighborhoods out west of Cinco II. KISD has been thought to be protecting its academically 'crown jewel' schools when redistricting (seven lakes and tompkins) while Cinco and Katy Taylor get mop up duty. I'm sure whatever the new, most westward school they just built will join the protected ranks as well.

I would make sure to buy squarely in the middle of the boundary of whatever school you want your kids to go to. There's a strong chance of horse trading along the fringes in the near future.

I would also not buy north of I-10 up in elyson. There's too much unknown about what neighborhoods are going to actually be built up next to it. They have grand plans for a strip center outdoor shopping area, but I think its going to get squeezed by Bridgelands mega development they are planning as well as what is already entrenched in LaCenterra.

one MEEN Ag said:

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One of these days they're going to actually widen 99 between I-10 and westpark. Its apparently a few years away and there is some pissing and moaning about added lanes being tolled. Karens wanting noise reducing grooves in the expansion because they couldn't conceive that living up against a freaking highway would be loud. Also no sign of them actually building full feeder lanes that would actually solve the traffic problem.

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I don't think they have ROW to expand, unless something has changed. ChipFTAC01 can chime in there though.

As far as "living up against a highway", you have to remember that a lot of these homes predated the tollway. Westpark was a little 2 lane road about 15 years ago.

AustinCountyAg said:

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Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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Sooper Jeenyus said:

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Why can none of you Katy townies conceive of living elsewhere?

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Perhaps because we prefer it out here rather than cramped in limited space inside the loop or wherever you think is paradise. Some of us grew up in smaller towns, so there is no allure to the big city life.

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lol. so much contradiction in this post.

Cinco Ranch isn't "cramped in limited space"?
Katy is a "smaller town"?


Katy is exactly what I would call "cramped in a limited space", as well as the "big city life".

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No, I would not say that CR is cramped in limited space, as opposed to looking at home lots in the Heights or other neighborhoods inside the loop. Yeah, there is a lot of congestion here these days, and those big flyover overpasses do give the area a big city look, but it's not like living in Midtown. When I moved here, I chose the area because it reminded me in some respects of my home town (Lake Jackson) - close knit community with lots of trees, but with easier access to freeways to get in to Houston proper.

AustinCountyAg said:

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Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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Sooper Jeenyus said:

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Why can none of you Katy townies conceive of living elsewhere?

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Perhaps because we prefer it out here rather than cramped in limited space inside the loop or wherever you think is paradise. Some of us grew up in smaller towns, so there is no allure to the big city life.

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lol. so much contradiction in this post.

Cinco Ranch isn't "cramped in limited space"?
Katy is a "smaller town"?


Katy is exactly what I would call "cramped in a limited space", as well as the "big city life".

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As a near life long Katy area resident, I laughed at the idea of Katy being a small town. Katy hasnt been a small town in decades. Katy is the place where people who have jobs in the west side of Houston but want to be as far away from the city as possible mix with the people who want the city amenities but want more space and good public schools. It makes for fun driveway talk with the neighbors as you have those who think Katy is too damn big and those who think Katy is nice getaway from actual city life

Not sure how it is now, but folks from old-school Katy always snubbed their nose at us city slickers south of I-10.

Would be interested in hearing more about ROW issues.

From TxDots' comments those that are complaining are those whose houses back up to 99, not westpark. And 99's feeder roads predate Cinco ranch being built. You can get on google earth and pull back the historical satellite images. The grade level highway was there first. People just bought and didn't think about increased traffic from more build out.