Live in Alief
A farm town named in 1895 and annexed by Houston from 1977, now 104,800 people in subdivisions and apartment complexes west of the Beltway, in Alief ISD rather than Houston ISD, with 45% of its ground in FEMA's 1% annual chance flood zone.
Alief began as Dairy, a railroad farm town at the headwaters of Brays Bayou that took its present name in 1895 from its first postmistress, Alief Ozella Magee, and it stayed small until the 1970s, when subdivisions and apartment complexes spread west from Houston and its population quadrupled between 1970 and 1985. Houston voted to annex the Alief-Fondren area on 23 November 1977 and took in more pieces through the 1980s. This guide covers the City's Alief super neighborhood, 9,060 acres west of the Sam Houston Tollway where the 2020 census counted 104,800 residents and owners lived in 43% of the occupied homes. Nearly all of it is in Alief ISD, which assigns its three main high schools by lottery, and 2,103 residents are across the line in Fort Bend County and Fort Bend ISD.
A rice town on Brays Bayou that became a district of a hundred thousand, with its own schools
The City of Houston's Alief super neighborhood (POLYID 25 on the Planning and Development Department's layer), about 9,060 acres: the Sam Houston Tollway (Beltway 8) on the east, from US 59 north to the Westpark Tollway; the Westpark Tollway and then Alief Clodine Road on the north; on the west the City's own full-purpose limit, which steps south near Synott Road across Bellaire Boulevard, Beechnut Street and Bissonnet Street to Belknap Road and West Bellfort Avenue; and on the south West Bellfort Avenue, then the Harris and Fort Bend county line and US 59 (the Southwest Freeway) back to the tollway. Beyond the western and southern line Alief goes on as unincorporated Harris County, which this guide does not count. Other bodies draw Alief differently: the Alief Community Association from Westheimer Road to US 59 and from the tollway to the Fort Bend County line, and Alief ISD further east in places.
Alief began as Dairy, a railroad farm stop at the headwaters of Brays Bayou, renamed in 1895 for its first postmistress, Alief Ozella Magee. It flooded from the start: after the flood of 1899 and the hurricane of 1900 six of its thirty families stayed, and they grew rice because it suited land that went under. It was still mostly pasture in 1970; then subdivisions and apartment complexes spread west, the population quadrupled by 1985, and Houston voted on 23 November 1977 to annex the Alief-Fondren area. This guide covers the City's Alief super neighborhood, 9,060 acres west of the Sam Houston Tollway with 104,800 residents in 2020. Beyond its western and southern line Alief goes on as unincorporated Harris County, not counted here.
The school district is the first difference. All but 2,156 residents are in Alief ISD, so the arithmetic on the Houston page does not apply as it stands. With Alief ISD's 2025 rate of 1.0072 per $100 in place of Houston ISD's, the eight units add to 2.25412, and Alief ISD grants the state's $140,000 homestead exemption with no local percentage on top. On Zillow's figure for ZIP code 77072 a homestead owes about $2,628 a year, against $2,196 in Houston ISD, and $4,534 without the exemption; Alief ISD's 2026 rate, 1.0204, is already posted. The 2,103 residents in Fort Bend County pay that county and Fort Bend ISD instead. The International Management District, created in 2007, taxes businesses across most of Alief.
Owners hold four homes in ten. In 2020 owners lived in 14,284 of the 33,464 occupied homes and 19,180 were rented. No price index follows the line: Zillow put the typical home in ZIP code 77072, which holds half the residents, at $201,125 in August 2026, down 1.5% on the year, and in 77099 at $217,100, both well under the Greater Houston single-family median of $330,000. Houston has no zoning, so what can go up on the next lot is set by the subdivision's recorded deed restrictions and the City's lot size rules.
The flood map covers nearly half the ground. FEMA's effective maps put 45.0% of the super neighborhood in the 1% annual chance zone, 3.6% of it floodway, and 26.3% more in the 0.2% zone, with 43,923 residents on blocks inside the 1% zone. The water is Brays Bayou near its headwaters, Keegans Bayou and the tributaries between them. The Flood Control District's point is that you do not need to live near water to be flooded, and its newer MAAPnext maps are still drafts.
Bellaire Boulevard is the spine. Hong Kong City Mall opened at Boone Road in 1999, built to pull the city's Asian business district west of the Beltway. Route 2 runs along the boulevard every 15 minutes, the 151 Westpark Express runs to downtown every 15 minutes on weekdays, and the nearest METRORail stop is 18.6 km east. The Alief Neighborhood Center puts the regional library, a City recreation center and a health department office in one building.
- Read every taxing unit on the appraisal district's account, including any utility or management district
- In the Fort Bend corner, use that county's appraisal district and Fort Bend ISD
- Look the address up on the Flood Control District's mapping tool and price a flood policy
- Read the subdivision's recorded deed restrictions before offering
- Ask Alief ISD how the high school lottery works for your year
How Alief got here
- 1861Reynolds Reynolds claims 1,250 acres at the headwaters of Brays Bayou. Jacamiah Seaman Daugherty buys the land in 1888 and in 1889 grants the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway a right of way.
- 1894County surveyors name the community Dairy. Francis Meston of Colorado, who bought the land in 1893, grants a free town lot for every forty acres of farmland bought.
- 1895Meston has the town platted, and an application for a post office changes the name to Alief, for the first postmistress, Alief Ozella Magee; the office opens on 16 August.
- 1900After the flood of 1899 and the Galveston hurricane of 1900, only six of the town's thirty families remain. Daugherty persuades farmers that rice suits the easily flooded land, and it becomes the cash crop.
- 1909Residents form a drainage district that the Handbook of Texas calls the first Harris County Flood Control District.
- 1911An independent school district is established; renamed in 1917, it becomes the Alief Independent School District.
- 1934The Cane Belt Canal's irrigation reaches Alief and rice revives as a cash crop.
- 1964Alief ISD builds Alief Elementary, its oldest remaining school, later renamed for the teacher Cynthia Youens.
- 1970sAlief is still mostly pastureland in 1970. Subdivisions and apartment complexes follow, and the population quadruples between 1970 and 1985. Hastings High School opens in 1972 and Elsik in 1975.
- 1977On 23 November the City of Houston votes to annex the Alief-Fondren area, and more pieces follow through the 1980s over residents' protests.
- 1985The Alief Branch Library, now the Alief-David M. Henington Regional Library, opens, as does Houston Fire Station 76.
- 1993The City buys the former Quillian Memorial Center from the First United Methodist Church of Houston for $3.5 million; the park is renamed Alief Community Park in 1997.
- 1997Arthur Storey Park, a Flood Control District detention site on Brays Bayou at Bellaire Boulevard and the tollway, opens on 26 September.
- 1999Hong Kong City Mall opens at Bellaire Boulevard and Boone Road, moving the Asian business district west of the Beltway.
- 2000The City recognizes the Alief super neighborhood council on 25 June. Taylor High School opens the next year.
- 2007The Legislature creates the International Management District, which levies taxes on businesses across most of Alief.
- 2009Harris Health's El Franco Lee Health Center opens on 19 May.
- 2020The census counts 104,800 residents and 36,200 homes inside the super neighborhood. On 10 November the City breaks ground on a building joining a library, a health department center and a recreation center in Alief Community Park.
- 2023The Alief Neighborhood Center, completed in the fall of 2022, is scheduled to reopen on 14 January.
- 2026Alief ISD's Taste of Alief international parade and community festival is on Saturday 25 April.
A City park around the neighborhood center, and a county detention basin with trails
Alief Community Park surrounds the neighborhood center with a pool, a skate park, fields, courts and the parks department's first climbing net and wall. Hackberry Park took over a golf course, Boone Road Park has a cricket field, and Harris County's Arthur Storey Park has 175 acres, two lakes and 3.31 miles of trail.
What the map does not show: Arthur Storey Park is a stormwater basin first, holding about 1.15 billion gallons; the Flood Control District began buying its land along Brays Bayou in 1995.
Elsewhere in Houston, not Alief
25 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 25 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are computed from OpenStreetMap's place node for Alief, near Bellaire Boulevard and Cook Road, using straight-line distance multiplied by a road factor and a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times.
Every gym within reach
The City's Alief Community Center has a gymnasium and a fitness room with a walking track, closed Sunday. No YMCA branch is inside the boundary; the nearest full ones are in Missouri City and the Galleria area.
- Alief Community Center, 11903 Bellaire Boulevard: gymnasium, fitness room and, in summer, the pool
- Fort Bend Family YMCA, 4433 Cartwright Road, Missouri City: outdoor pool and gymnasium
- Trotter Family YMCA, 1331 Augusta Drive: outdoor pool, courts and track
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Alief Community Center open | The City's center in the Alief Neighborhood Center at 11903 Bellaire Boulevard: a gymnasium and a fitness room with free weights, cardio equipment and a walking track. The weight room is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. and 4 to 7:45 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; the pool in the park opens from Memorial Day to Labor Day. | 4–6 min |
| Fort Bend Family YMCA open | The nearest full YMCA to the south, at 4433 Cartwright Road in Missouri City: strength and cardio equipment, an outdoor pool, a gymnasium and pickleball, from 5 a.m. on weekdays. | 16–23 min |
| Trotter Family YMCA open | 1331 Augusta Drive in the Galleria area, east along the Westpark Tollway: an outdoor pool, tennis and racquetball courts, a gymnasium and an outdoor track. | 13–20 min |
| Hackberry Community Center closed | The City's center at 7777 South Dairy Ashford Road. The parks department's fitness page lists its weight room as closed. | 6–9 min |
The free option is the trail network: 3.31 miles at Arthur Storey Park, and loop trails of about a mile each at Hackberry and Boone Road parks.
Zoned to grade 8, then a lottery for high school
Schools are Alief ISD's. At the reference point its zone layers assign Youens Elementary, rated C (74) for 2026, Youngblood Intermediate for grades 5 and 6, rated B (83), and Alief Middle School, rated B (81). The district draws no high school zones: Wikipedia's account is that students go to Elsik, Hastings or Taylor by computer lottery, rated B (82), C (75) and B (86) for 2026, or apply to Kerr or Alief Early College, both rated A (99).
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Youens Elementary School | Alief Independent School District | 12141 High Star Drive. It is the zoned elementary at the reference point on the zone layers behind the district's Alief ISD - Schools lookup, last edited in September 2026, which state no school year. The Texas Education Agency rated it C, 74, for 2026, after D, 68, for 2025, and counted 96.5% of its students economically disadvantaged. TEA's campus list gives it grades from early education to 5. Built in 1964 as Alief Elementary. |
| Youngblood Intermediate School | Alief Independent School District | 8410 Dairy View Lane, grades 5 and 6: the zoned intermediate school at the reference point. Rated B, 83, for 2026 and B, 80, for 2025; 86.9% of its students counted as economically disadvantaged. Some Alief ISD elementaries keep grade 5 themselves, which is why a family should check the grade the intermediate starts at for its address. |
| Alief Middle School | Alief Independent School District | 4415 Cook Road, grades 6 to 8 on TEA's campus list: the zoned middle school at the reference point. Rated B, 81, for 2026, after C, 74, for 2025; 90.5% of its students counted as economically disadvantaged. |
| Alief Elsik, Hastings and Taylor high schools | Alief Independent School District | Alief ISD has no high school attendance zones on its lookup map. Wikipedia's account is that students are assigned to Elsik (12601 High Star Drive, rated B, 82, for 2026), Hastings (4410 Cook Road, C, 75) or Taylor (7555 Howell Sugar Land Road, B, 86) by computer lottery, and may apply to Kerr High School or Alief Early College High School, both rated A, 99. The district's own page on the lottery was not read, so a family should confirm the process with the district. |
Check the address with Alief ISD before you commit. Its zone layers state no school year, this guide could not read the district's own page on the lottery, and Fort Bend ISD's zones for the Fort Bend corner were not read.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- The 2025 tax bills, mailed around mid-November, are due by 31 January
- Highs near 17.7 °C and lows near 6.5 °C at Bush Intercontinental on the 1991 to 2020 normal, with 96 mm of rain, and about four nights at or below freezing
- Highs near 19.9 °C and lows near 8.7 °C at Bush Intercontinental on the 1991 to 2020 normal, with 75 mm of rain, the least of the year
- About two nights at or below freezing on the normal
- Highs near 23.3 °C and lows near 12 °C at Bush Intercontinental on the 1991 to 2020 normal, with 88 mm of rain
- Under one night at or below freezing on the normal, and none from April to October
- Alief ISD's Taste of Alief international parade and community festival was on Saturday 25 April in 2026
- The protest clock runs from the appraisal district's notice; a buyer's first value is the market's, because the seller's homestead cap ends with the sale
- Highs near 26.7 °C and lows near 15.4 °C at Bush Intercontinental on the 1991 to 2020 normal, with 100 mm of rain
- 15 May is the deadline to protest the appraisal district's value, or 30 days after the notice if that is later; a Fort Bend County address protests to that county's appraisal district
- The pool in Alief Community Park opens on Memorial Day
- Highs near 30.5 °C and lows near 19.9 °C at Bush Intercontinental on the 1991 to 2020 normal, with 127 mm of rain, and about nine days reaching 32 °C (90 °F)
- The Atlantic hurricane season starts on 1 June
- Highs near 33.5 °C and lows near 23.2 °C at Bush Intercontinental on the 1991 to 2020 normal, with 152 mm of rain, the wettest month on the normal; 45.0% of the super neighborhood is in FEMA's 1% annual chance zone
- Free adult water fitness at the Alief pool on Wednesdays and Fridays ran from 16 June to 7 August in 2026
- Highs near 34.7 °C and lows near 24.3 °C at Bush Intercontinental on the 1991 to 2020 normal, with 96 mm of rain, with about 27 days reaching 32 °C
- Arthur Storey Park's detention basin, about 1.15 billion gallons, is there for the storms
- Highs near 34.9 °C and lows near 24.1 °C at Bush Intercontinental on the 1991 to 2020 normal, with 123 mm of rain
- About 27 days reach 32 °C
- The City's pools close on Labor Day
- Highs near 32.4 °C and lows near 21.4 °C at Bush Intercontinental on the 1991 to 2020 normal, with 120 mm of rain
- Highs near 28.2 °C and lows near 16.1 °C at Bush Intercontinental on the 1991 to 2020 normal, with 139 mm of rain, the second wettest month
- Highs fall below 30 °C for the first time since April
- The Harris County Tax Office mails the bills around mid-November
- The hurricane season ends on 30 November
- Highs near 22.6 °C and lows near 10.8 °C at Bush Intercontinental on the 1991 to 2020 normal, with 98 mm of rain
- Highs near 18.5 °C and lows near 7.6 °C at Bush Intercontinental on the 1991 to 2020 normal, with 102 mm of rain, and about three nights at or below freezing
Every photograph in this guide's library is above
This library holds 4 photographs and the page has already printed all of them, each once. The credits are in the footer.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Alief, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Houston library.