Living in Clear Lake, Houston

NASA's Johnson Space Center occupies more than sixteen hundred acres near Clear Lake's shoreline, and Space Center Houston's exhibits and tours draw visitors from well beyond the neighborhood to see the campus up close. Marinas ring the lake itself, part of a stretch of Gulf Coast waterway that holds more than seven thousand boat slips spread across yacht clubs and public docks, among the largest concentrations of pleasure boats in the country. Homes throughout the area mix waterfront properties with more modest inland streets, all sharing easy access to sailing clubs, seafood restaurants, and waterside parks. Rents here run toward the more affordable end for the region, letting a renter's budget stretch further than it would closer to the urban core, even after factoring in the added distance from downtown. University of Houston-Clear Lake sits near the water as well, adding a campus presence to a neighborhood otherwise built around boating and space-industry employment.

Plenty of streets sit a block or more from the water despite the neighborhood's waterfront reputation, and homes there won't carry the same marina view or bay breeze that draws people to Clear Lake in the first place.

Between the Space Center's campus and the lake's marinas, Clear Lake offers two different reasons to live here — one built on boats and open water, the other on the area's long history with human spaceflight.