Conroe

Very few master-planned communities bring the vision of their developers to fruition quite like Woodlands, Texas. Conceived in the mid-90s as a collection of subdivisions encircling a state forest, Woodlands is a tight-knit residential community near Conroe, Texas with highly rated schools, picturesque water features and high-quality amenities all within walking distance of its custom-designed luxury homes. Neighborhood streetscapes combine elements of master-planned communities – cul-de-sacs, manicured lawns and fountain ponds – with plenty of towering live oak trees, buck-and-rail fences and open-sky vistas to remind locals that they’re deep in the heart of Texas. “This lifestyle appeals to so many people,” says Wendy Welsh, a Broker Associate at Coldwell Banking Realty with over 20 years of experience in home sales. “You’re sort of away, but yet you’re close enough to the big city.” With over a dozen small master-planned communities spread across Woodlands, it’s impossible to capture with any totality the architectural makeup of the neighborhood. Homes were carefully and systematically developed by reputable home-builders such as D.R. Horton and Legend Homes over the last 30 years, with many buyers opting to design custom homes on lots ranging from .5 to 2.5 acres. Houses include single-story traditional brick ranches with attached garages, custom Farmhouses with Craftsman-inspired accents, and two-story Victorian estates on sprawling wooded lots. Most homes take full advantage of the pleasant weather, maximizing outdoor living spaces with covered patios, outdoor fire pits, screened-in porches and backyard pools. Homes are typically priced between $400,000 and $600,000, although gated properties on large plots of lakefront land can sell for up to $1.2 million. It’s easy to stay active in Woodlands. Lake Creek meanders through the woods along the community's northern edge, forming a natural border between Woodlands and Conroe and creating endless outdoor adventures for neighborhood kids. The 3 Palms Action Sports Park welcomes visitors at the entrance of the neighborhood, home to a motocross race track, children’s bike park, adult soccer league and aquatic wakeboarding park. At the southern entrance to the community, WG Jones State Forest provides educational opportunities for school groups and scout troops, as well as fishing, hiking, bird watching and geocaching. Schedule a playdate or feed the ducks at Durango Creek Park, one of the many community parks sprinkled throughout Woodlands, each of which includes a playground, field, pond and pavilion. Work up a sweat at CrossFit Magnolia, dive into the sand volleyball courts at Woodlands Revolution Volleyball Club, or do your best to avoid the sand at Lake Windcrest Golf Club. On rainy days, scale the walls at the CLIMB Woodlands Indoor Rock Climbing gym, or sink into the plush, reclining seats and enjoy a movie on the massive screens at Xscape Movie Theater. Fuel your outdoor adventures at one of the many neighborhood restaurants, including Citizens Grill, Good Charlie’s Seafood or Mezcal Cantina Mexican Kitchen, an authentic Mexican Restaurant famous for its colorful dining room, house-made guacamole and top-shelf margaritas. Meet up with friends for the big game at Tapped Drafthouse, or opt for a fresh fruit smoothie at Raw Creations Juice Company. Woodlands is home to two HEB Grocery Stores and a Kroger, with retail opportunities along Farm to Market Road 1488 – the neighborhood’s commercial artery and busiest thoroughfare – including Target, Best Buy and Home Depot. “There’s all kinds of great things to do there,” says Welsh. “Houston is only 30 minutes away, but honestly, there’s rarely any reason to head into Houston.” Students in Woodlands enjoy access to the award-winning Woodlands Independent School District. US News and World Report gives Galatas Elementary School an overall score of 99.5 out of 100, making it the 25th-ranked elementary school in Texas. Neal Knox Junior High School has an A-rating from Niche and ranks among the top five percent of public middle schools in Texas. Woodlands High School boasts a rare A-plus-rating from Niche, and the entire community descends on the 9,600-seat Woodforest Stadium on Friday nights to cheer on the Highlanders as they compete for district championships in the famously competitive 6A Texas high school football league.

Skim the brochures from any master-planned community around Houston, and you’ll likely read about all of the nearby amenities, with caveats like, “Only 40 minutes from Houston!” But for the developers of Wood Forest, “nearby” wasn’t close enough. When laying out the plan for the 3,000-acre community in 2009, they designated large swaths of the Texas woodland for commercial use, ensuring that dining, retail and entertainment opportunities would be available immediately within the neighborhood. Today, Wood Forest's grocery store parking lots include spaces for golf carts, a testament to the proximity between the neighborhood’s houses and amenities. “The way they designed the neighborhood is perfect,” says Wendy Welsh, a Broker Associate at Coldwell Banking Realty with over 20 years of experience. “There are schools, parks and walking trails inside the community.” The housing market in Wood Forest is “build or buy,” allowing prospective residents to buy a pre-owned home or to purchase a lot and collaborate with a builder to design their own custom house. Move-in ready homes include traditional brick-and-stone ranches, Craftsman-style Colonial Revivals and contemporary cottages priced between $450,000 and $650,000. Custom builds start at $300,000, offering 13 distinct architectural styles ranging from modest town houses to multi-million dollar estates on the golf course. Regardless of the architecture, homes in Wood Forest feature attached garages, large manicured lawns and plenty of outdoor living space, including covered patios and backyard pools. Sidewalks are rare, but with through-traffic funneled to the major roads on the neighborhood's perimeter, locals can walk their dogs in the streets or along the pedestrian trails that link subdivisions with neighborhood parks. Wood Forest is home to more than a dozen neighborhood parks scattered throughout the neighborhood. Parents host birthday parties under the pavilion at the Lily Pad Spray Park, perfect for children ages 3 and younger, while older children run to Forest Island, where the 42-foot water tower, water slides and sports zone create hours of supervised entertainment under the watchful eye of the lifeguards. Christine Allen Nature Park is the largest park in Woodforest, a 33-acre nature preserve with jogging trails, fishing ponds and a beautiful pedestrian bridge. Other neighborhood parks include hard-to-find recreational features, including disc golf courses, outdoor yoga spaces, scooter tracks, dog parks and accommodations for children with disabilities. Wood Forest even has its private golf club – a 27-hole course designed by PGA Tour pro Steve Elkington – and additional indoor recreation opportunities are available at The Palm, an event center with space for private parties, dances, spa facilities and an indoor swim complex. Approximately 90 acres of the Woodforest master plan are zoned for commercial use, allowing immediate access to retail, dining, medical facilities and everyday necessities across Wood Forest’s three distinct commercial districts. The Medical District includes a family hospital, dental office and sports rehab center; the Pine Market District caters to weekday errands, as coffee shops, gas stations, salons and boutiques surround Harvest Market, a fresh-food grocery store modeled after Whole Foods; and the West District caters to kids and families, offering schools, day-care centers and chain restaurants. “The shopping district is very similar to The Woodlands, but it’s all much newer,” says Welsh. Weekday dinners are easy thanks to Grab N Go Tacos, a Tex-Mex restaurant with a gourmet fusion tacos carry-out menu. On weekends, start your day with a latte from Luv Coffee, order spring rolls for lunch at WO Sushi Fusion, or book a table for two at Orioli’s Cucina Italiana, where the house-made pastas are perfectly paired with fine wines to create an ideal date-night destination. Two separate highly rated school districts intersect within Wood Forest – Montgomery and Conroe ISDs – creating a fun intra-neighborhood rivalry during the high school football season. Many students in Wood Forest are within walking distance of Stuart Elementary, a school with an A-rating from Niche. From there, students graduate to the A-rated Peet Junior High School and B-plus-rated Conroe High School, where students have access to over 30 Advanced Placement courses and programs to help them prepare for college.

College Park hovers at the edge of The Woodlands, a township that began as a master-planned community. “College Park shares the theme of the rest of the Woodlands, it’s just a different location,” says Becky Drake, a Realtor and team leader at RE/MAX ONE who has lived in the Woodlands for over 40 years, watching its population skyrocket from about 17,000 people to over 400,000. “It has the community feel, the access to shopping and bike trails. You’re going to be a mile and a half from a swimming pool, neighborhood parks and tot lots.” Highway 242 separates College Park from the rest of The Woodlands, but easy access to it and I-45 makes commuting easy. It’s just 8 miles from downtown Conroe and 35 miles from downtown Houston. For many, being part of The Woodlands community is just as much a draw as College Park’s location. “The Woodlands is divided into villages to give it more of an identity and a close-knit feeling,” Drake says. “We have a Fourth of July parade, we have celebrations at Christmas, Waterway Arts Festival in the spring and golf tournaments. There are just so many community activities.” <br><br>Potential homebuyers are also drawn to College Park for its home prices, which are lower than other parts of The Woodlands, typically falling between $300,000 for a townhome to around $550,000 for a larger single-family home. A few newer developments offer expanded Cape Cods, colonial-style and Tudor-inspired homes with wide-open lawns and little in the way of tree cover, while other areas have town homes or ranch-style houses stretched along thickly tree-lined streets that lack sidewalks. College Park also has two 55-plus communities, Windsor Hills and Windsor Lakes. While high interest rates have slowed the market somewhat, Drake says that homes in Windsor Hills and Windsor Lakes often sell to cash buyers in about two weeks, while well-priced houses in the rest of the neighborhood sell in an average of 21 days. <br><br>College Park is part of the Conroe Independent School District, which Niche gives an A rating and places among the top 35 districts for athletes in Texas as well as among the top 50 districts in the state. Children can attend Suchma Elementary School from prekindergarten through fourth grade, Donald R. Collins Intermediate School for fifth and sixth grades and Knox Junior High School through eighth grade. All three schools have A ratings on Niche, and the website lists Knox Junior High School among the top 4 public middle schools in Montgomery County. The Woodlands College Park High School, which has an A-plus rating and is listed among the top 50 public high schools in the state, offers a wide range of sports and activities like speech and debate, women in STEM and space clubs. There’s even a Dungeons & Dragons club. Lone Star College, which is a public school with over 16,000 students, also has its Montgomery Campus in College Park. <br><br>At just over 12 acres, residents flock to Harpers Landing Park for its playground, sports areas, including a skate park, and public pool. The park’s dog park is a popular spot for residents to take their dogs to burn off energy and make friends. Smaller parks like Jack Thornby Memorial Park also dot the neighborhood, offering playgrounds, tennis courts and green space where residents of all ages can have fun. Jack Thornby Memorial Park’s lake makes an ideal fishing spot close to home. When residents are in the mood for a hike or a horseback ride through the woods, the W.G. Jones State Forest’s 1,700 acres offers over 15 miles of trails, plenty of picnic spots and two small lakes where residents can fish.<br><br>College Park is home to a major shopping center where residents can find practically anything they need, from groceries at Walmart or Costco to clothes at Kohl’s and home improvement supplies at Lowe’s. Even medical care is convenient, as four hospitals are located in College Park. When residents are hungry, they often stop by Nona’s Italian Grill for Italian fare in a relaxing setting with live piano music or grab dinner at well-known chains like Willie’s Grill & Icehouse, Whataburger or Taco Cabana. This adds to College Park’s convenience, making it a great place to call home.