The first time I drove through the neighborhood of Bellaire it was Halloween last year. A friend of mine, a young urban professional in the best sense, had recently moved from the downtown area to what I imagined was quiet suburbia. As I drove down Bellaire Boulevard, however, I quickly came to realize how ‘in the best sense’ was a phrase Bellaire embodied magnificently.
The sense of community there is palpable, I remember thinking that as I drove past a small church next to a few homes that faced the boulevard, all sharing that pull-apart spider web for the trees. In a community near 610 that’s noise-blocked by a beautiful brick wall, one family planted flowers on the outside path for the pleasure of all. They’ve even got a water tower commemorating their little league team.
Bellaire Boulevard is a long suburban ‘main’ street with shops interspersed with impressive residences: it has all the charm of Memorial Drive with a quarter of the irascible drivers, all the charm of Smalltown, USA, and an epicenter of options—not just between chains, but now between clusters of small local businesses.
The neighborhood just keeps getting bigger since being founded in 1908, but that quality is going up with its quantity—a difficult thing to do in a city that’s expanding so quickly. Major businesses, including Chevron and AT&T also call Bellaire home, making for incredible job opportunities. Residents also have access to more than 10 parks nearby and aren’t too far from hospitals.
Its reputation is family-oriented, with a median annual household income of about $150k (in 2012) with a median home value of around $550k (also in 2012), though the town home market is expanding with an average value of just under $300k (2011) though the community is also pretty homogenous at almost 75% Non-Hispanic whites, which is pretty dense for the most racially diverse city in America.
The Houston Independent School District serves the children of the area, featuring challenging academic and magnet schools to help prepare them for a very bright future. There also 7 colleges and universities within a ten mile radius, including Houston Baptist University, University of Houston and Baylor College of Medicine.
If you’re looking for a village to raise your children, that apple-pie-on-the-windowsill house that speaks to the dream of classic Americana: now might just be the perfect time to get a plot and start to build for the future. Found one today, and it might be calling my name, too!
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