Possible business opportunity in Lufkin, yet having never been there, I know nothing about the city. Their city website has good basic info, but am looking for real-world feedback. We have 3 small kids (6,4,1) so quality schools are a big point of interest for us.

Overall demographics
Schools - public and private
Crime
Entertainment
Preferred areas to live ($250-400k range)
Parts of town to avoid

Will be goIng up there in a couple of weeks to check it out, but any other information/suggestions would be a big help. TIA.

Crown Colony is a nice area to live, but I haven't "lived" there in a while (I still visit), so I don't now about any newer areas.

Suggest you look at homes in Hudson just outside Lufkin. Several new subdivisions with 1+ acre lots. And good schools.

I have live in Lufkin for 8 years now. I really enjoy the place. I just have a 1 year old so I don't have much first hand knowledge of the schools, but I can pass along what I hear.

It seems like most people agree the best public schools in the area are in Hudson which has already been stated above. It has a 3A high school no football team but very good academic reputation. It has some interesting demographics with a lot of very new houses in developing subdivisions along with quite a few trailer parks in the area.

I have worked with the Lufkin High School robotics team for the past two years and can tell you that there are some quality students and teachers in the Lufkin school district as well. I have heard that if your kids can get in the pace program in the schools then the Lufkin schools are great, but if they don't get in the program it is kind of hit or miss. I was at a meeting that the Lufkin Superintendent spoke at and was amazed at the percentage of students in the district that were on the free meal program, so the demographics are obviously all over the map there too.

In Lufkin proper there are few nice areas in the price range that you speak of. The two largest are Crown Colony on the south side of town and Brookhollow on the west side. The rougher part of town is on the north side.

It has been a few years since I lived there, but I grew up there and regularly visit family up there. To hit your points of interest:

Demographics - Wikipedia looks to be pretty close to my impression though I think the Hispanic population percentage has crept up some.

Schools - As others said, Hudson is probably the best bet for schools. There are a couple of private schools - St Cyprian's Episcopal and St Patrick's Catholic, and neither has a high school.

Crime - I grew up way out in the sticks, so this was pretty much a non-issue as a kid. Even in the nicer parts of town which you are looking at will feel fairly safe as long as you exercise some common sense.

Entertainment - Not sure what you're interested in. There are a couple of cinemas, a really nice zoo, and a bowling alley. Angelina County is just a few years removed from being a dry county, so the bar scene is pretty limited. You'll have more luck if you're more of an outdoors type as you'll be living less than half an hour from Sam Rayburn.

Prefered areas - Crown Colony and Brookhollow are the big prestige neighborhoods in town, but there has been a lot of development on FM 58 south of town in the last few years. If you want to get inside Hudson ISD, you should be able to find a nice sized lot in that budget range.

Areas to avoid - Anything inside the loop and north of Hwy 94 is a safe assumption though granted there are some decent areas in there.

Purple Drank