moving to houston from ny city, needs advice!

hi i just to ask for advice what suburb in houston not far from the medical center has a lower property tax and at the same time has a good school system and good nieghborhood. my husband and i are considering shadowcreek ranch in pearland but i heard the tax is sky high over there. we are both nurses and im wondering how much is the base pay for nurses there? we are actually moving bec we cant afford the cost of living here in ny and at the same time the houses are very old and expensive, average is like 450-550 k, we have a 2 yr old and 4 mos old boys and we%26#39;re very excited to go there. pls give us some advice! thanks!

moving to houston from ny city, needs advice!

Pearland is in Brazoria county which will lower your taxes, your homeowners rates, your insurance rates, etc. Harris County (which includes Houston) has higher taxes. Shadowcreek Ranch probably has MUD taxes (municipal utility district) taxes which make your tax rate higher. You might try looking at communities in Pearland that are a bit more into Pearland that do not have a MUD tax.

Friendswood in Galveston County will also give you a lower tax %26amp; insurance rate. Wouldn%26#39;t get much farther into Galveston County though or homeowners, etc. goes up due to proximity to the Gulf of Mexico during hurricane season.

moving to houston from ny city, needs advice!

The MUD district taxes are only for the neighborhoods that are in the county and do not have city services. You can go a bit close into Pearland and find wonderful neighborhoods with no MUDS.

Hello titaanne2001. I have family in Boston and New York city. I know the cost of living is very high there. You will like it here. It is a bit warm and humid but I think you will find it is a warm and friendly state. I saw the replies about Pearland, what about Clear Lake? I live in the Pasadena area and we live in the newer part of the city. Our taxes are reasonable and we do not have MUD taxes. We are on the border of Deer Park and our daughter is in the Deer Park school district. She has done very well and loves it. The school district was in the paper recently and number 2 in the state for school districts. I must admit I am a Pasadena native so I have always liked living here. I too am a nurse and used to work in the medical center. Probably a 20-30 minute commute with traffic. Hope that helps.

thank you very much texas7 and texasnative70 for the very good advice and very fast reply, i can feel that you are very accomodating and we are very excited to go there. maybe we are gonna look in clear lake and deer park if theyre also closer to TMC. do u have any idea how much is the MUD tax, we dont want it though, i just want to know how much. thanks very much again for your time and effort! I really appreciate it!

You will love the friendliness in the Houston area. We just moved away and we miss it terribly.

As far as the MUD taxes go. Every MUD has a different rate, and most every subdivision is in a different MUD. Supposedly, the rates will decrease as the neighborhoods age. The purpose of the MUDs is to put in utilities in unicorporated areas, which is a good portion of Houston area suburbs. As the neighborhoods age, the tax rates drop, because the utility installation is being paid off.

I know that when we bought our last home there in the Katy area (West Houston) the taxes in our subdivision that was about 10-15 years old, was less than a newer larger masterplanned community only a couple of miles away.

Good luck.

Foregot to say that the MUD taxes are usually not terribly high, and you will be saving so much money on the cost of your home, even if you are paying MUD taxes you%26#39;ll never miss the money.

thank you very much dcarson4, that was really informative. actually we are considering a house with the price range of 190-225k, hopefully the property tax wont be that high with that range, if in if case we want to buy a model house, can we buy the inside tto? like the furnitures and decorations? just asking, because the model house looks so nice and its just like you just want to live there right away. i know i sound very childish, we are just very excited to move. thank you very much again for all the inputs.

We%26#39;re currently building our new house in ShadowCreekRanch right now. Currently we%26#39;re estimating total ';tax burden'; at about 4%.

From my experience with buying new construction, the models are not usually available until the builder has finished in the area. We looked at several and inquired about them. They were for sale, but you had to wait to take possession until the builder closed out that neighborhood. You might get lucky though and find one that they are ready to sell. There is so much new construction all the time in Houston, that you might find one. I guess you can buy them furnished. I%26#39;m sure anything is available for a price. Also, there are places where you can buy the furnishings used in model homes at a discount. I know there was one in the Katy area.

We recently bought a model home from Lovett Homes in Houston.

We were asked if we wanted to purchase any furnishings and our Realtor would have negotiated for these on our behalf but we didn%26#39;t need/want anything. Light fittings were included though which was very convenient.