Dallasites in Houston

There is currently a very high chance that my husband will be offered a job that will land us in Houston. He’s not from Texas and I’m a lifelong Dallas suburb resident. We both aren’t familiar with Houston. We’ve stopped by a few times but never long enough to actually know the Houston area. As much as I would like to live in the Houston inner loop, it wouldn’t actually work for our family.

We are a family of 5 with two dogs and we want to end up in a good area. Regardless of where we end up my husband is going to have a long commute. We are currently considering The Woodlands. Does anyone have any recommendations?

We have a pre-teen, a toddler, and a baby. We don’t have any family or friends in Houston to help us so I’m hoping any current Dallasites in Houston can help us out. We currently live in Garland, just about 20-30 min away from downtown Dallas, depending on traffic. Our budget is up to a million.