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I hope you dont mind me posting here - I am curently in the UK and have owned my (Silverstone red/black) S2000 for 18 fantastic months:
I work in the oil industry and things in SE England are not going well - our Houston based parent company has announced that it is to close the office here. There is a possibility of me bing transferred to Houston, but this somewhere I have never visited, so..........what is good and what is bad about the Town?
More specifically, given my office would be located in NW Houston (just north of the 290 near Jersey Village) - where would be a good place to live (I will need a family house in a safe, quiet area close to good schools)?
And other stuff - how much can I expect to pay for a new 03 S2000? Is a hardtop a good iddea for the very hot months?
Many thanks in advance for reading this,
Hope to meet up and buy some of you guys a beer sometime soon
SpEeDxXxRaCeR, Stratocaster, many thanks for the input guys - please keep it coming - I need it!
I am especially grateful for the offer to show me around a little - there is nothing worse than trying to get to know a town as a complete stranger! (Well, OK, I am sure there are worse things than this, but it still aint nice/easy! )
Just to show how little I know about Houston / US here's a really dumb question: what is a sub-division???
Since your office would be in Jersey Village area, that is also a decent place to live. Lots of good housing with good school districts in the northwestern sections of Houston. Just depends on your budget and how much you are willing to travel to work. I moved here 20 years ago and have traveled 30 miles or so to work from a place called The Woodlands ever since and have driven or commuted by bus to dowtown and beyond for years. The Houston area has lots going on for family activities and is a pretty active sports town. Summer lasts about 9 months here and the humidity is as high as the temperature much of the time. That is why they invented a/c though.
You can get the S2000 for sticker pretty easily in Houston. John Eagle for one and I bought from a dealer called Goodson Honda for another. Best of luck.
I work in the oil industry and things in SE England are not going well - our Houston based parent company has announced that it is to close the office here. There is a possibility of me bing transferred to Houston, but this somewhere I have never visited, so..........what is good and what is bad about the Town?
More specifically, given my office would be located in NW Houston (just north of the 290 near Jersey Village) - where would be a good place to live (I will need a family house in a safe, quiet area close to good schools)?
And important stuff - how much can I expect to pay for a new 03 S2000? Is a hardtop a good iddea for the very hot months?
Many thanks in advance for reading this,
Hope to meet up and buy some of you guys a beer sometime soon
Best wishes
Ian
Ian,
As SpeedXXXRacer mentioned, there are definitely some pros and cons with this city. We have also been hit hard by the downfall of the oil/gas industry. There have been many layoffs during the past year which has flooded the area with qualified people that have no place to go. The point I'm trying to make is that you need to make sure that you will have a guaranteed position until the economy picks up again. One of our fellow HouStooks moved from Canada to work for Enron, and has since moved back after being laid off. It's been very tough on the job front as of late, so that should be your primary concern.
The NW side of town is very nice and continues to grow. You will have all the amenities in that area including the Honda dealership(John Eagle Honda <here's your plug, MAC! >) that will sell you an S2000 at the best price in town ~ 34k (USD). There are plenty of department store fronts, malls, grocery stores, that will meet all your needs. They have some very nice neighborhoods that might be classified as upper middle-income and above which should accommodate your safety and schooling requirements. Wesmaster may have more Insight, since he lives in that area.
As far as driving an S2000 goes, you can drive it year round comfortably without the hardtop. They probably do help with the summer heat, but it is not necessary. I drive mine top-down about 99% of the time throughout the year unless there is rain getting inside the cabin.
Anyway, I hope this helps. If you need some help finding a house, my brother-in-law is a real-estate agent.
Let us know if you have any more questions and keep us updated if your future plans include becoming a Houstonian.
Sub-divisions, simply put, are small residential communities usually outside of the city limits and self incorporated in many instances. They usually have their own shopping areas and organized functions within their communities. Jersey Village would qualify as a sub-division. Some have community associations which dictate how you maintain your property to keep the property values up and not offend your neighbors. In short, they are communities within themselves in many instances.
I live in the Northwest Area, actually about 5 minutes from where your Office is.
I just bought a house in this area (Concord Bridge is the sub-division), it a new sub-division (no more than 3 yrs old and are still building houses around there). Price ranges from low 120's to mid 250's.
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>) that will sell you an S2000 at the best price in town ~ 34k (USD). There are plenty of department store fronts, malls, grocery stores, that will meet all your needs. They have some very nice neighborhoods that might be classified as upper middle-income and above which should accommodate your safety and schooling requirements. Wesmaster may have more Insight, since he lives in that area. 
