Private Jet to West University Place

West University Place, located a mere seven miles from the center of Houston, consistently appears on “Best Places to Live in the United States” lists. The affluent town of two square miles has low crime rates; most residents are homeowners who take an interest in their community; there are plenty of jobs available, and there is easy access to transportation and entertainment. In addition, nearby Houston is home to more than 20 Fortune 500 company headquarters, fourth highest in the country.

Often called West U for short, West University Place has a median home value of $917,000 and a median household income of $243,000, almost four times the national median household income. While residents are richer, things cost less. Goods and services are about 5 percent lower than the average cost nationwide. West University Place got its name because of its proximity – two miles west – to Rice University. Its streets are named after colleges, universities, and poets. That was done in the 1920s by a Rice University English major named Lilly Nicholson, who was given the task by a city planner who was the father of a friend of hers. Using her English literature book for inspiration, she gave the streets of West University Place names such as Chaucer Drive, Dryden Road, and Shakespeare Street.

The town, which was developed in 1917, was mostly filled with bungalows and cottages until building rules were relaxed, allowing new construction in the early 1990s. Then the teardowns began with about half the existing small houses demolished and replaced with bigger, newer, often red-brick Georgian colonials, in the decade and a half that would follow. Despite the new construction, many of the most expensive houses in West University Place today are located in subdivisions like Pemberton, south of University Drive, where the houses were restored and not torn down.