Pearland

If the first rule of real estate is location and the second is pricing, Morningside Place has it all figured out. Situated at the southernmost part of Houston and the northernmost part of Pearland, this collection of residential subdivisions is full of modern, recently built homes at accessible prices. It also has the added benefit of a massive local park, a quick drive to shopping and amenities and an easy commute into Houston and Pearland’s medical districts. Combined together, these factors have Morningside Place an increasingly desirable address for new homeowners. The name “Morningside Place” refers both to an individual subdivision and a larger collection of communities. Morningside Place includes the same-named subdivision as well as Brunswick Lakes, Brunswick Meadows and Holloway Heights. Quaint brick and stone-faced homes built in the 2000s and onwards are the norm in all these subdivisions. These Contemporary-style homes are located alongside manicured lawns and mature oak trees that offer shade from the Texas sun. A one-story home starts at around $200,000, while most multi-story properties are closer to $400,000. “The price point really pulls people into the area, and it’s pretty ideal for people looking to break into the market, like first-time homebuyers and young families. Homes are more affordable here for first-time buyers compared to neighborhoods closer to the city,” says Gleshia Joyner Givens, Realtor with Keller Williams Realty Southwest. Morningside Place has a CAP Index Crime Score of 4, which is in line with the national average. Served by the Houston Independent School District, students can attend Frost Elementary School and Albert Thomas Middle School, which both have a C-minus score on Niche. Sterling Aviation High School earns a C grade from Niche. The school offers the Houston ISD magnet program in aviation, where students can earn 30 hours of flight time and take the written exam for their (Federal Aviation Administration) FAA licenses. Morningside Place is within 7 miles of the University of Houston – Clear Lake at Pearland and Houston Community College – South Campus. The south side of Morningside Place is almost entirely occupied by Tom Bass Regional Park along Fellows Road. This 115-acre park is big enough to be divided into three sections. Section 1 features a performance amphitheater and disc golf course, while Section 2 houses the Clear Creek Golf Course and Tom Bass Dog Park. Section 3 has the Tom Bass Community Center and a 23-acre fishing lake. The massive park also offers playgrounds, tennis courts and jogging trails across all three sections. Many of the subdivisions’ individual HOAs also maintain community amenities, like the neighborhood water park at Brunswick Lakes. Holloway Heights has more houses of worship than any other subdivision in the area, including Ebenezer Assembly of God, Shri Jagnnath Hindu Temple and Chua Thanh Long Tu Buddhist Temple, all on Fuqua Street. As Pearland's next-door neighbors, Morningside Place residents are only 10 miles from The Crossing at 288 and Pearland Town Center, two large shopping complexes along Route 288. The shopping centers have multiple big-box stores, including H-E-B Plus, Target and Walmart, as well as clothing, hobby and electronics stores. While most of the limited food options in the area are chains or fast food, there is one notable stand out. Influenced by the Louisiana-style cooking of the owner’s mother, The LaRoux Table on Sam Houston Parkway serves up bayou-inspired dishes like étouffée, gumbo and po’boys, and popular island dishes like smothered ox tail and jerk chicken. The restaurant also operates the Cajun Fever food truck. Morningside Place is located along Sam Houston Tollway, which forms Houston's final outer “Loop.” Downtown Houston is about 14 miles away via Sam Houston Tollway and Route 288. Morningside Place is 12 miles from Houston’s Medical Center Area and 5 miles from HCA Houston Healthcare Pearland and Memorial Hermann Pearland Hospital. This location has made the Pearland area popular with healthcare professionals. “It’s very close to the Texas Medical Center; when we moved here in 1990, it was because my husband was working at Baylor,” says Cindy Cristiano, a Realtor with Re/Max Space Center who has lived in Houston for over 30 years. “But it’s still the best commute, I think, around Houston.” Morningside Place also neighbors William P. Hobby Airport, one of Houston’s’ new international airports. However, proximity to the airport means that locals may have to deal with excess noise.

In land-locked Houston, finding a home with a guaranteed waterfront view can be difficult – unless that home is in Shadow Creek Ranch. This master-planned community in Pearland was developed in the 1990s with 17 distinct lakes across the neighborhood. Woven in between these are walkable and bikeable trails, four recreation centers and pools, two malls and a full-service hospital. The community also boasts seven highly rated schools, a 22-mile nature trail operated by the City of Pearland and a full calendar of monthly and seasonal community events. Shadow Creek Ranch is nearly bursting with modern suburban amenities, and when residents need to travel a little further, two nearby major highways provide a fast, 15-mile route into downtown Houston.<br><br>Shadow Creek Ranch is zoned into the highly-rated Alvin Independent School District, and seven public schools are within walking distance of the community’s lakes and recreation centers. Among these schools, Glenn York Elementary School and Dr. Ronald E. McNair Junior High School have A grades on Niche. Shadow Creek High School received an A-minus grade and has a robust athletics program with 20 sports teams. Chamberlain University – Pearland is part of the Shadow Creek Ranch community and specializes in nursing programs. <br><br>Shadow Creek Ranch independently maintains 150 acres of parks and four recreation centers with pools. Out of all these rec centers, Diamond Bay Water Park on Trinity Bay Drive is the most popular for its elaborate pool with lap lanes, twisting water slides and water play areas for kids. The City of Pearland Parks & Recreation maintains Shadow Creek Ranch Nature Trail, an approximately 42-acre park on Del Papa Street with a sports complex, 22 miles of hiking trails and protected space for wildlife. “People who are runners love the nature trail. There’s a 2-mile in-and-out run through the wetlands,” says Jason Koon, a Realtor with eXp Realty. “It’s such a nice place to run or just for birdwatching on the observatory deck.”<br><br>The Shadow Creek Ranch Homeowners Association hosts multiple monthly events for residents throughout the year, from movie and food truck nights, community walks and landscaping seminars to seasonal camping nights, pool parties and sand volleyball tournaments. Every December, The Sports Complex at Shadow Creek Ranch hosts the Pearland Food & Fun Fest, a free event where multiple Houston food trucks fill the complex for a day dedicated to trying out different fast-casual cuisine. <br><br>Shadow Creek Ranch comprises about 15,000 single-family homes across 30 residential subdivisions. Multi-story, contemporary homes with stone and brick exteriors, arched entryways, and multi-layer pitched roofs are the most common style. A typical single-family home can be priced between $350,000 and $600,000. Shadow Creek Ranch also has some Mediterranean-inspired mansions spanning 5,000 square feet, costing between $800,000 and $1 million. All Shadow Creek Ranch properties are surrounded by interconnected sidewalks meant to encourage walking and biking, and nearly every home in the area is either waterfront or has lake views. “Regardless of which neighborhood you choose, you have lakes and beautiful walking trails,” says Shelly Garg, a Real Estate Broker with Alpha Elite Realty. “You can get on one trail and do a good 1 to 2-mile walk or just keep going through all the different neighborhoods.” Shadow Creek Ranch has a CAP Index Crime Score of 2, which is lower than the national average score of 4. <br><br>Both the north and east sides of Shadow Creek Ranch are mainly dedicated to commercial space. The HCA Houston Healthcare Pearland complex and the side-by-side Shadow Creek Ranch Town Center and Pearland Town Center all border Highway 288. The two mall complexes have over half a dozen grocery stores—including Costco, H-E-B and Target—as well as clothing stores, bookstores, hobby shops and restaurants. Two of the most popular restaurant offerings near the shopping centers are Big Horn BBQ, a family-owned barbeque restaurant that also doubles as a convenience store and a gift shop, and Yummy Pho & Bo Ne, a Vietnamese restaurant with fresh dishes and extensive rice platter offerings. <br><br>A large corporate campus on Shadow Creek Parkway takes up the northern part of Shadow Creek Ranch. In addition to hosting multiple businesses, several local houses of worship – including Second Baptist Church, South Campus, Shadow Creek Muslim Community Center and Mosaic Episcopal Church – can be found here. <br><br>Highway 288 borders the eastern side of Shadow Creek Ranch and connects to Sam Houston Tollway about 2 miles north of Shadow Creek Ranch. These highways give the community easy access to Missouri City, Sugar Land, downtown Houston, and the William P. Hobby Airport which are all between 10 and 20 miles away.