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Get to know The Woodlands

The Woodlands may technically be considered suburban Houston, but it is the rare suburb with national name recognition and its own well-defined identity. In 2021, The Woodlands was named the “Best City to Live in America” by Niche, cementing its status as a destination it its own right. Created in 1974 by gas baron George P. Mitchell, The Woodlands was envisioned as a self-contained community where residents could live, work, and play without ever leaving the area. Today, The Woodlands has succeeded beyond what its original planners could have ever imagined, with a flourishing town center, corporate campuses, and a beautiful waterway. There are nine residential villages, each with its own character, set amid lush and heavily forested land. The Woodlands, technically a special-purpose district rather than a city, stretches across two counties, Montgomery County and Harris County, and the schools, police, and other public services are under each local district’s jurisdiction.

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Living in Greater Houston

Like all of Texas, Greater Houston’s history is the story of oil, with suburban towns developed by and for gas and oil executives, with Houston’s Energy Corridor remaining a major employer today. The suburbs of north Houston stretch from Kingwood, technically inside the city limits, all the way up to and beyond The Woodlands, whose growth and prominence has earned it its own identity, separate from H-Town. These suburbs are young metropolises—towns that grew out of farmland and forest in the past 50 years, with houses, office parks, newly created lakes, and golf courses emerging from rural lands where only cows and feral pigs once roamed. As Houston’s economy has diversified and as the region has created more new jobs, Houston residents have looked farther and farther out for more space to settle. Greater Houston is booming and there’s no better place to call home.