As only our third entry in our new series “Spring Texas Neighborhoods”, we are just getting started. Each week we provide a snapshot of a new neighborhood. Hopefully providing you with a “feel” for what it is like to call a particular neighborhood or subdivision “Home”.

By the end of the weekly series, we will have doubled our quantity of profiled Spring Texas Neighborhoods. Don’t worry if you miss a week because the full profile (not just the snapshot) with additional photos of the Neighborhood will be located in the Neighborhoods section of our blogsite for you to view at anytime.

This week, we take a look at the Spring Creek Forest subdivision and find out what makes it a great Spring Texas neighborhood to call “Home”.

If you desire a little breathing room between you and your next door neighbor, then you will want to consider the heavily wooded, established subdivision of Spring Creek Forest. Known for its large lots ranging in size from 10,000 to 30,000 square feet with the median lot size totaling 15,000 square feet, you are sure to find the extra space you crave.

There are a variety of architectural styles from which to choose including Colonial, Tudor, Contemporary and English Cottage. The majority of the homes were built in the 1970s and home prices range from $140,000 to $220,000. The higher priced homes have seen some renovation over the years. While the lower priced homes showcase the “in” styles of 1970s. 

The subdivision amenities include a baseball field, lighted tennis courts, playground area, Olympic sized swimming pool and a clubhouse which is available to rent exclusively by the residents of Spring Creek Forest.

View the complete profile of the Spring Creek Forest subdivision, additional photos and its homes for sale.

Read also:

• the first in the Spring Texas Neighborhoods “Weekly Series” - Stone Forest
• the second in the Spring Texas Neighborhoods - “Weekly Series” - The Thicket

The second entry in our new series on “Spring Texas Neighborhoods” in which each week we will provide a snapshot of a new neighborhood. Hopefully providing you with a “feel” for what it is like to call a particular neighborhood or subdivision “Home”.

By the end of the weekly series, we will have doubled our quantity of profiled Spring Texas Neighborhoods. Now don’t worry if you miss a week because the full profile (not just the snapshot) with additional photos of the Neighborhood will be located in the Neighborhoods section of our blogsite for you to view at anytime.

Since everything is better with a little fanfare ……  Drum roll, please ……. Introducing The Thicket, a small secluded neighborhood in Spring Texas. Located off of what looks to be an old country road is the main entrance to this tucked away neighborhood. The home buyers lucky enough to have found the Thicket love the quiet setting provided by its seclusion. Tucked away does not mean “far away” as it is located only 2.5 miles from I45.

The small subdivision contains 253 “custom built” homes with the majority being constructed by Partners in Building and Norwood Homes.  Built between 1991 - 2001 with an average size of 3,400 square feet. The Thicket’s homes would be characterized as “Executive” with a traditional architectural style. The homes typical amenities include detached garages with porte chocheres and long driveways, master bedrooms on the first floors, studies, and both formals. 

View the complete profile of the Thicket subdivision, additional photos and its homes for sale.

Read also:

• the first in the Spring Texas Neighborhoods “Weekly Series” - Stone Forest

With our weather being near perfect, this is one of my favorite times of year to live in Spring Texas.  We have very little rain and low humidity. And the temperatures hover between highs of 75 - 80 degrees with lows of 55 - 60 degrees.

The real estate market is also slower, providing Rick and I an opportunity (ie.. not the usual “don’t have time” excuse) to enjoy the beautiful weather. So with no more excuses, I decided that next Sunday, we were going to have a picnic lunch and enjoy a couple of hours in one of our many Spring Texas parks. 

I am ashamed to admit that I drive by our parks numerous times a week but rarely do I make the time to visit them. Well, that has now changed. For the last 3 Sundays we have packed a lunch and headed to a different park in the Spring Texas area. We have picniked at Meyer Park, Collins Park, and now Mercer Arboretum & Botanic Gardens.

With each park containing different amenities, its hard to say which park is the BEST park. I think it really depends upon which activity you want to do at the park.

If I wanted to play or watch soccer, I would definitely choose Meyer Park.  Meyer Park has 26 soccer fields and on a Sunday afternoon the fields are a buzz with activity.  We did notice that finding a parking spot can be a little challenging during the 2:30 - 3:00 pm time frame which is between soccer games. Meyer Park also has wonderful paved trails for bike riding, roller blading, or just walking your dog. 

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Last night, Tim Novak, Executive Director of the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts, hosted Prudential Gary Greene, Realtors “Night at the Museum”.  Approximately 30 of my fellow Realtors and myself took advantage of a wonderful opportunity to learn about the ONLY Fine Arts Museum outside of the Houston Museum District.

The Pearl Fincher Museum which officially opened its doors on March 29th, 2008 is located in a 10,000 square foot facility that previously housed the Harris County Cypress Creek Library. The Museum’s current exhibit on loan from the Houston Museum of Fine Arts is African Gold from the Glassell Collection.

The exhibit which runs through November 2nd consists of objects made by Akan artists living in Ghana and neighboring Cote d’Ivorie. Ghana was once known as the Gold Coast and gold was used as a basis for trade. The works of art in the exhibit date back to the 19th and 20th centuries.

One of my favorite pieces was the bracelets that the Akan artists produced in the shape of watches for decorative rather than functional purposes. They were worn by men and women and displayed wealth and symbolized the power to control time.

The idea that someone thought they could actually control time amazed me because I gave up on the notion that I could control time a long time ago.

 My next favorite collection of the exhibit were these weights. They are brass castings used as counter - balances for weighing gold. I have always been intrigued with items used in the exchange of goods and the currency of other nations.

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Fall in Spring Texas sounds a little weird doesn’t it?  But what should I expect when my city is named after a season. 

I grew up in the Midwest and Fall was one of my favorite seasons. I use to marvel in the beauty of the leaves as they changed colors, I enjoyed walking in the woods and listening to the rustling of the leaves, and the distinct smell in the air of burning leaves. These were the sights, sounds, and smells that told me Summer was over and Fall was here. 

In Spring Texas, there are signs everywhere that tell me its Fall. My calendar says its October, stores are having sales on their Fall clothing lines, the local nursery is stocked with pumpkins, the newspaper is loaded with advertisements for Fall Festivals and the real estate market is slowing down.

But it doesn’t feel like Fall to me. Our temperatures are still in the mid 80s with the night lows being in the 60s. I am still wearing clothes from my summer wardrobe and I have not reached for a sweater nor a jacket yet. And my yard still requires mowing which it usually does until November. No matter what the signs say around me it is not Fall to me because it just doesn’t fell like Fall.

I have lived in Texas for 14 years now and although I do still miss the Falls in the Midwest I will not be moving back any time soon. Because I know that after Fall comes Winter and Winter in the Midwest means bitter cold, snow, ice, and bone chilling winds.  While Winter is Spring Texas means NO snow, rarely ice, lots of sunshine, and average high temperatures in the mid 60s with lows in the mid 40s.

I LOVE Winter in Spring Texas. Even Winter in Spring sounds weird.

Read also:

• Top 20 Reasons to Live in Spring Texas
• Is Spring Texas a GOOD place to RETIRE to?

Around 3 am in the morning of Saturday, September 13th, I was awaken by the sound of Hurricane IKE roaring through our town of Spring Texas.  I was not able to return to sleep the rest of the night as the sound of the howling of the wind and the beating of the rain kept me awake. The whole experience felt as if I was on a dingy in rough seas because the rain fueled by the wind made it sound like waves were crashing against my window panes.

Our electricity was knocked out around 1:30 am Saturday morning but the water, gas, and my land line were all still working. Later in the day, cell phone service went down. During hurricane Rita’s descent on our area, our electricity was only out of service for about an about which made it possible for us to receive the majority of our news updates by watching the weather channel.

Not this time. With no power, we called our family members in other states for updates on the location of the storm. We did have an additional and unexpected source of news. Somehow during the mist of a hurricane, the local paper, our Houston Chronicle was able to be safely delivered to our front yard. By the end of Saturday, hurricane IKE passed but not first without making its presence known.

We live in a community that was established within the last five years and as such the majority of the trees are 25 feet or smaller with the average size being about 12 feet tall. Thus the damage that was felt in our subdivision was minimal as it was limited to down tree limbs and some newer trees were left standing at a 45 degree angle.

The older more established communities in the Spring Texas area received major tree damage with some of the trees causing significant damage to the houses they fell on or went through and older property line fences were completely knocked down.  Billboards were split in half, traffic signals went out along with the electricity, and pieces of fiberglass signs were scattered across the roadways.     Read More »

All day today, my husband and I have been making preparations for the arrival of Hurricane Ike in Spring Texas. I am sure we are probably like a lot of other residents that wait until there’s a high probability that a Hurricane is coming our way before we prepare. Today was that day and the Hurricane … it’s name is Ike.

First decision of the day is do we pack up and leave or do we stay?  If we lived on Galveston Beach or closer to the coast, it would be a more difficult decision for us. But in Spring Texas, we are located about an hour and 15 minutes from the coast. Far enough from the coast not to experience storm surge so we are staying. After all the old adage is “Run from water and Hide from wind”. 

We are going to be on the dirty side of Hurricane IKE which means we are going to get dumped on with rain along with experiencing winds gusts that are projected to be 85 miles an hour.  Not an ideal environment to be journeying out to a restaurant for meals which means we need to stock up on FOOD. We didn’t need a lot of food but enough to make it through at least three days and the food was to be non-refrigerated.

Out my husband went in search of food. Looking for food the day before a Hurricane is projected to make land fall is similar to foraging for food out in the wilderness. You have to take what you can find and be happy with it.  What did my fearless hunter of food bring home?  Potato Chips, Ho Hos, Potted Meat, and Bread. My only question was “Potted Meat?  What in the heck is Potted Meat?”  With shopping crossed off the list, next action item to tackle was Gas.    Read More »

In its latest issue, Money Magazine, announced the “Top 25″ cities where homes are affordable. And coming in at #14 on the list of affordability is Spring Texas homes. With an annual median family income of $74,298 and a 2007 median home price of $131,005, its easy to understand why the residents of Spring Texas enjoy a comfortable lifestyle.

Often I receive calls from potential Spring Texas homebuyers asking “What’s wrong with the house that you have on the market for $155,000?”  The answer is nothing’s wrong with the house. Its just our market prices.

Or the other question is “Why are all the houses so cheap?”  The answer is a two-part answer. First, the Spring Texas real estate market has not experienced the huge price appreciation that other parts of the U.S. has keeping our housing very affordable. Second part, the reason why we have not experienced large price appreciation is because of land. We still have plenty of land and the developers are building lots of new construction homes on it. The fresh and plentiful supply of homes coupled with a balanced demand has kept our home prices affordable.

Read also:

• Spring TX Real Estate Market Reports
• Top 20 Reasons to Live in Spring Texas
• Is Spring Texas a good place to retire to?

If you are thinking about relocating to Spring Texas and have a few questions give us a call at 281.300.3141 or 281.804.8626. We would be happy to tell you about why we call Spring Texas “home” and help you find your own house in Spring Texas to call “home”.

Vintage Park, an upscale town center shopping center, announces its first Summer Events schedule. On the following Saturdays, August 2 and 16, September 13 and 20 from 4 - 6 pm enjoy live music plus additional entertainment for the kids at Vintage Park.

The recently opened Vintage Park is located at the HWY 249 and Louetta intersection in Northwest Houston. Careful attention to detail has been paid in the construction of the Mediterranean architecture structure including hand-laid pavers, stone columns, clay tile roofs, and hand painted murals.  Read More »