As I get more into writing my blog about Texas I realize that there is a lot to write about and I'm pretty sure it is enough to last me a life time. Whatever remaining time the Good Lord will see fit to give me that is! Just trying to cover the main cities, towns and areas has started to look like a very big and huge unmanageable task. So my plan as of now is to try and cover the 254 counties of our great state of Texas and that should be enough of a good thing. Well, maybe not, but of course I will try to throw in as much information as I can and point out a few of the towns and cities as we go along on the journey. I am also sure there will be some very interesting characters to read about. So with that little bit said, let's get started on the county I live in and have spent most of my life here.
Harris County Texas is the most populous county in Texas and was founded in 1836. The City of Houston Texas is the county seat of Harris County. The county was named after John R Harris. Harris County has a total land and water area of 1,778 square miles and the 2010 population was 4,092459. The County was actually founded as Harrisburg County but the name was later changed in 1839 to Harris County. The original Harris County Court House was built in 1913 and is still serving our needs to this very day. In my life time I have seen a lot of old courthouses on the square come down and it is always a tragedy to lose such a land mark. Let's hope we can keep this one for all the future generations.
The Harris County Department of Education has seven elected County School Trustees to oversee 26 school districts all across Harris County. It is an excellent school system and schools like Tomball ISD, Klein, Spring, Katy, Houston, Crosby, Waller, Cypress-Fairbanks, Pasadena and La Porte just to name a few, provide real quality education for our young folks starting out. I myself graduated from Tomball High School and believe that qualifies me as able to speak to the fine quality of professional teachers I had in the Harris County School system. In addition to that there are excellent colleges and universities in Harris County and more college level educational opportunities every day. With the arrival of on-line programs, Wow! this is the place to start and stay, given the great job opportunities in the county. The University of Houston is a top level college and has great 4 year degree programs which produces many of our leaders currently living and working in Houston, Texas and Harris County. Rice University is know for it's high academic standings and recognized nationally as one of the leading teaching and research universities of the United States. The campus is absolutely beautiful as I have driven past it many times. It is near the Houston Medical center and the huge oak trees are certainly a beautiful sight to see. I certainly think I should mention here the Lone Star Community college campuses in Harris County as I believe they also offer excellent college level classes without the kids having to move out from home after high school graduation. There is a campus here in the Tomball and Cypress-Fairbanks areas and from what I have seen really do a great job of offering kids a good starting place straight out of High School. Oh, and another great idea at the community colleges is the continuing study programs for anyone wanting to learn more about a hobby or job skills, like computers, etc. etc. These are excellent programs for older folks and working moms and dads that can take one or two classes here and there. I myself took my real estate classes for my Brokers license at the University of Houston Downtown school. This is a great system we have here.
Harris County has so much to offer it is hard to get my mind around all that statement represents. There are two major airports including George Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airport. Also Ellington Field a general aviation and military airport, as well as numerous privately owned airports such as West Houston airport, Dan Jones International, Weiser Air Park and David Wayne Hooks Memorial airport. There is (METRO) the metropolitan transit authority of Harris county that operates the bus lines and fairly new Metro train lines. There is Greyhound bus lines of course and Amtrak train service to take you just about any where you might want to go. There is the Port of Houston and the energy capital of the world, for lack of a better word, to describe the vast and booming economy of Harris County. The Texas Medical Center is also known for outstanding medical care and advancements on a world wide scope. No pun intended. Well maybe a little. Cancer research and heart care medicine are known to be the best available any where in the world. The Harris County hospital services operates three hospitals in the county and as well as many clinics. The major hospitals are LBJ General, Quentin Mease Community and Ben Taub General. Harris County also operates its own public library system, fire fighters and police protection.
I think I could go on for a long time about Harris County but time and space have to come into play somewhere. If you want to look up more facts and figures on Harris County just go to Goggle and type in Harris County Texas. That will get you more to read than most of us have time for this year. One more web site you might want to use some time is the Harris County Appraisal District. HCAD They give you tax information, property ownership maps, appraisals and do a really good job of it.
Go to http://www.hcad.org http://en.wikipedia.org/ Reference link
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Texas County Map
Texas County Map
As we travel around this great state of Texas, I thought it might be helpful to have a county map to look at and know just exactly where we are in the state. There are after all, 254 counties to travel through and some you probably never even heard of. I know Schleicher County was a new one on me and I am sure there will be more to come. Just click on the Texas County Map link to find the County and the County seat. I hope to bring you more photos of each county and of course those wonderful old court houses from days gone by. Charles
Sunday, March 4, 2012
HOUSTON TEXAS - WHAT A GREAT HOME TOWN !
It seems only right that my blog for the first week of places in Texas should start with Houston. After all it is my home town and really a great place to live. I know, I grew up in Tomball and it was a small town, nothing like the big city of Houston but I also have come to know, that little town would not be what it is today without Houston being close by and providing jobs for most of the people in town. Sure the commuting gets to be a drag but Hey, most folks I know will do what they need to do, to provide for their family. I remember one job I had with Conn's Appliance Stores where I drove twice a day from Spring Texas in the Woodlands area to the South side of Houston out on the Gulf freeway. That was about a two hour haul both ways. But like I said we all do what we gotta do. I mean, come on Y'all what's not to like about having plenty of JOBS available, LOW cost Housing compared to most states in the country, Loads of great ENTERTAINMENT like the Texans, the Rodeo, the Astros, the Opera, the Houston Museum, etc. etc. I could go on and on with that list as I think you probably get the idea that there is plenty to do around here. And Oh yes, did I mention some of the close in areas like Galveston and the Gulf of Mexico, Clear Lake, Lake Houston, Lake Livingston, Lake Sommerville, Sam Houston National forest and the Brazos River, and the Trinity river to name a few.
My current work, of course doesn't take me to all those fun places all the time, but this is a great area to work in and the freeways have come along ways since my early days of commuting from Tomball or spring. My work this week took me to the Houston permit office located off Washington Avenue near downtown. When modifications are made to the existing cell towers like changing antennas or cabinets, the tower company hires contract companies like I work for to do the work. Powder River Development Services is contracted through a company like Ericsson or General Dynamics to build and repair cell towers. Houston is home to over 29 Fortune 500 companies and 16 fortune 100 companies. Our city is the fourth largest city in the nation and has over 600 square miles off land. That's alot land for anybody to cover and room for alot of growth. In fact I checked this out on the Houston Texaplex video. Houston has a 30% growth rate and is home to over 5.7 million of us. For those of you that like all that sort of thing, please take time to click of the Houston Texaplex video posted at the bottom of this blog. It is very well done and tells the story about our city in an interesting short film. starting with the first words heard from the moon "Houston" and covering the entire aspect of the city in size, growth, entertainment, sports, housing, education, job market and my favorite golf. Did you know we have over 165 golf courses in our area and the weather allows us to play all year round. The average freezing days in Houston is less than 19 so there is no reason you can't chase the little white ball around in any month of the year. Now that's what I call living in paradise! Ha, But seriously another good Web site to check out our fair city and all it's opportunity is the City of Houston. That Web site is of course linked to the State Web site and for property information there is HCAD at the Harris County Appraisal district. I have posted these Web sites at the bottom of this blog as well.
Since starting this blog I am wanting to learn more about building the blog page so it is more interesting and hopefully I can also post some pictures or have a video or two from my travel around the State. Out side of Houston this week, I also went to Sealy, Wharton, Columbus and La Grange. These are all small towns around Houston and they like Tomball, benefit from Houston and it's ever expanding population. Remember that part about Houston have a 30% growth rate!?! Well all these towns benefit from that growth rate and there are plenty of people looking for that perfect little piece of heaven on an acre or two outside the city. I can certainly say I have seen alot of benefits from that growth over the years. In fact my job is mostly attributable to that growth rate and the need to expand the cell phone service. I say grow baby grow ! As a licensed Real Estate Broker that growth rate has also spelled lots of opportunity in land. Property is like gold around here, it just seems to keep on going up! Oh, yes there have been some down turns but the property values always seem to come back and keep going up. I certainly have seen land go from both ways but I also know that over the long haul land in definitely higher and values are up. The cost of housing in Houston is 26% below the national average and the cost of living in Houston is 12% below the national average. Those are some more stats courtesy of the Houston Texaplex video posted at the end of my blog here. So whether your living in a small town like Sealy or Tomball or you live in Downtown Houston like my good buddy Cleve Williams. Houston has alot to offer and most folks I know are happy they are here. But like I said to start with, I wish I had photos of some of the places I went through this week. The old courthouse in La Grange is a beautiful building and there is an oak tree on the courthouse lawn that just blows me away. It is huge! That tree must be 300 years old or more. Wow what a site! I will try to get better at this blogging and make my travel bring more interesting places into your view.
Thanks for looking in on me this week and Y'all and come back any time!
Charles L Mahan
PS: Those links I promised are
http://en.wikipedia.org/ Reference link
http://www.houstontx.gov/
http://www.hcad.org/
http://www.texaplex.com/ (you can view the Houston Texaplex video here or click on this U-tube link)
My current work, of course doesn't take me to all those fun places all the time, but this is a great area to work in and the freeways have come along ways since my early days of commuting from Tomball or spring. My work this week took me to the Houston permit office located off Washington Avenue near downtown. When modifications are made to the existing cell towers like changing antennas or cabinets, the tower company hires contract companies like I work for to do the work. Powder River Development Services is contracted through a company like Ericsson or General Dynamics to build and repair cell towers. Houston is home to over 29 Fortune 500 companies and 16 fortune 100 companies. Our city is the fourth largest city in the nation and has over 600 square miles off land. That's alot land for anybody to cover and room for alot of growth. In fact I checked this out on the Houston Texaplex video. Houston has a 30% growth rate and is home to over 5.7 million of us. For those of you that like all that sort of thing, please take time to click of the Houston Texaplex video posted at the bottom of this blog. It is very well done and tells the story about our city in an interesting short film. starting with the first words heard from the moon "Houston" and covering the entire aspect of the city in size, growth, entertainment, sports, housing, education, job market and my favorite golf. Did you know we have over 165 golf courses in our area and the weather allows us to play all year round. The average freezing days in Houston is less than 19 so there is no reason you can't chase the little white ball around in any month of the year. Now that's what I call living in paradise! Ha, But seriously another good Web site to check out our fair city and all it's opportunity is the City of Houston. That Web site is of course linked to the State Web site and for property information there is HCAD at the Harris County Appraisal district. I have posted these Web sites at the bottom of this blog as well.
Since starting this blog I am wanting to learn more about building the blog page so it is more interesting and hopefully I can also post some pictures or have a video or two from my travel around the State. Out side of Houston this week, I also went to Sealy, Wharton, Columbus and La Grange. These are all small towns around Houston and they like Tomball, benefit from Houston and it's ever expanding population. Remember that part about Houston have a 30% growth rate!?! Well all these towns benefit from that growth rate and there are plenty of people looking for that perfect little piece of heaven on an acre or two outside the city. I can certainly say I have seen alot of benefits from that growth over the years. In fact my job is mostly attributable to that growth rate and the need to expand the cell phone service. I say grow baby grow ! As a licensed Real Estate Broker that growth rate has also spelled lots of opportunity in land. Property is like gold around here, it just seems to keep on going up! Oh, yes there have been some down turns but the property values always seem to come back and keep going up. I certainly have seen land go from both ways but I also know that over the long haul land in definitely higher and values are up. The cost of housing in Houston is 26% below the national average and the cost of living in Houston is 12% below the national average. Those are some more stats courtesy of the Houston Texaplex video posted at the end of my blog here. So whether your living in a small town like Sealy or Tomball or you live in Downtown Houston like my good buddy Cleve Williams. Houston has alot to offer and most folks I know are happy they are here. But like I said to start with, I wish I had photos of some of the places I went through this week. The old courthouse in La Grange is a beautiful building and there is an oak tree on the courthouse lawn that just blows me away. It is huge! That tree must be 300 years old or more. Wow what a site! I will try to get better at this blogging and make my travel bring more interesting places into your view.
Thanks for looking in on me this week and Y'all and come back any time!
Charles L Mahan
PS: Those links I promised are
http://en.wikipedia.org/ Reference link
http://www.houstontx.gov/
http://www.hcad.org/
http://www.texaplex.com/ (you can view the Houston Texaplex video here or click on this U-tube link)
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