Hala's Blog

Hala, try going to www.har.com.. its the website for the Houston area realtors... I used it SO much when we were shopping. Its great because you can search by neighborhood, price, school district, new or used, even break it down to how many bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, etc.

Course I thought it would really whittle down how many homes I had to physicall go look at, I ended up visiting at least 10. And in the end, the home we bought was found by our realtor the first day it was on the market, it had not even hit the website yet!

Good luck!

if you really want to know how safe an area is, you can always check the hpd crime statistic webpage for a particular area.

http://www.houstontx.gov/police/stats2.htm

i hope that helps. good luck on your new home search!

Jeeterbug, that website was GREAT! I guess a lot of people judge an area by how much the houses cost, but i checked the crime activity of last month between the MLK area and Clear Lake and they were very close! Go figure...

Hala, use the www.har.com website. My husband and I are in the housing market too. We live in the Pasadena area and I use that website every day. The market seems to be kind of slow, though.
I'm staying in my general vicinity--Beltway 8 & I45S. There's crime every where, but you have to look at the different types.. burglary, drugs, vandalism, etc. And be sure to utilize the Texas Department of Public Safety sex offenders list. I use it whenever I find a home I'm interested in..it lets you see, by zip code, how many predators are in that zip. (Prepare yourself, though, it ain't for the faint hearted!)
Anyway, the HAR site has school district info, maps..everything. It's a really cool site. Be sure, though, to request tax rates for each property you're interested in..it should be on the MLS data sheet. That's where we're running into snags..I have a big problem paying a tax note equal to my house note.