Northwest Houston · 77070
77070 — Champions / Willowbrook
Mike's home ZIP. Majority-renter, 1970s–90s housing stock, and a corridor most agents still describe using an employer that left in 2022.
What 77070 actually is
The stale claim to watch for. Plenty of pages still name HP or Compaq as the employer here. Hewlett Packard Enterprise sold the two-million-square-foot campus on Compaq Center West Drive in March 2022 to an affiliate of Mexcor International, and moved its headquarters to Spring. The site is a logistics campus now. If a page tells you HP anchors this area, it has not been updated in four years.
Subdivisions in the ZIP
Lakewood Forest · Prestonwood Forest · Norchester · Hunterwood Forest · Tallow Wood · Charterwood · Heatherwood Village · Mandolin Village · Vintage Lakes · Champions Arbor. Housing stock runs mainly through 1970s through the 1990s.
Flooding and drainage
The ZIP straddles two watersheds. The north drains to Cypress Creek — 267 square miles, with Faulkey Gully serving the Willowbrook side. The south drains to White Oak Bayou, which HCFCD says originates northwest of FM 1960. The divide is not published at street level, so it has to be checked per address.
Harvey put 8,750 homes under water in the Cypress Creek watershed and 7,830 in White Oak Bayou, out of 154,170 across Harris County. There is no published flood count for this ZIP specifically, and anyone quoting one is guessing.
The draft 2026 FEMA maps are not final — but they are the reason to check now
FEMA released draft Harris County flood maps to floodplain administrators on 2 February 2026, the first countywide rebuild since 2007. They would add roughly 200 square miles of floodplain: about 175,000 housing units move in and 60,000 move out. County officials are explicit that the maps are not regulatory and nothing changes today about insurance requirements — final approval is estimated November 2028. What the draft maps actually mean for a purchase this year.
What a house here needs, by era
This is the part most listing pages skip. I work in construction as well as holding a real estate licence, so these are the things I price before you write an offer rather than after the inspection lands.
Polybutylene plumbing
Polybutylene supply piping was installed from 1978 into the mid-1990s, in roughly 10 million American homes. It is grey, white, silver, black or blue, flexible, half-inch to one-inch, and stamped PB2110. Look at the water heater, the main shut-off and the stub-outs under sinks. It fails from the inside as water disinfectants attack the material, so a pipe can look perfect and still be near the end of its life.
Roof age and insurance
Texas carriers commonly stop writing replacement-cost coverage on a composition roof at about fifteen years, moving to actual cash value, and decline outright around twenty. A roof can pass an inspection and still make a house expensive or difficult to insure. Ask for the roof's age and the replacement paperwork before the option period ends.
Aluminium wiring — only the oldest pockets
Aluminium branch wiring is a pre-1975 issue — the CPSC dates common installation to between 1965 and the mid-1970s. It does not apply to 1980s and 1990s houses, despite how often it gets repeated. Where it does apply, the accepted fixes are a full copper rewire, COPALUM crimps, or AlumiConn connectors.
None of this is a reason not to buy. It is a reason to know the number first — a house with polybutylene and a fifteen-year-old roof is a fine purchase at the right price, and an expensive one at the wrong price.
Schools
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD and Klein ISD — the ZIP is split. Campuses with a 77070 address:
- Cypress Creek High School — 9815 Grant Rd
- Klein Cain High School — 10201 Spring Cypress Rd — Klein ISD
- Bleyl Middle School — 10800 Mills Rd
- Hancock Elementary — 13801 Schroeder Rd
- Matzke Elementary — 10002 Mills Rd
- Moore Elementary — 13734 Lakewood Forest Dr
Attendance zoning is assigned by address, not by ZIP code, and districts rezone as new campuses open. Verify the zoning for a specific property with the district before you rely on it.
Getting around
The through-routes are SH 249 (Tomball Parkway), FM 1960, Beltway 8, Grant Road and Louetta.
Anchors in the area
- Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital — 18220 SH 249 — 358 beds, open since 2000
- Willowbrook Mall — SH 249 at FM 1960, owned by Brookfield
- Lone Star College–University Park — 20515 SH 249
- Vintage Park — 10919 Louetta Rd
Renting in 77070
Those are apartment averages from the August 2026 Houston Apartment Report across 64 communities. The ACS median gross rent for the whole ZIP, which includes single-family rentals and utilities, is $1,619.
- Studio — $899
- 1 bed — $1,201
- 2 bed — $1,664
- 3 bed — $2,140
Questions people actually ask about 77070
Is 77070 a good area to buy a rental?
It is already majority-renter — 52.5% of occupied units, which is unusual for a suburban ZIP and means the rental demand is proven rather than theoretical. What decides the deal is the systems condition of a 1970s–90s house. Polybutylene plumbing and a roof at insurance age can turn a good yield into a bad one in the first year.
Is 77070 in Cy-Fair ISD or Klein ISD?
Both. The ZIP is split, with Cypress Creek High School in Cy-Fair and Klein Cain High School in Klein ISD, and attendance zoning is set by address rather than by ZIP. Confirm the specific property with the district before you rely on it.
Is Cypress Station part of 77070?
No. Cypress Station is at I-45 and FM 1960 East, in 77090, about ten miles east. It gets attached to 77070 pages often enough that it is worth stating plainly.
Is Champion Forest in 77070?
No — Champion Forest and Champions Golf Club file under 77069. The 'Champions area' is a loose marketing region spanning 77069, 77070 and 77379. 77070 is the Willowbrook and SH 249 side of it, not the golf-course core.
What are property taxes like in 77070?
Cy-Fair ISD adopted $1.0669 per $100 for 2025, its lowest in about 39 years. County-level jurisdictions add roughly $0.63. Many subdivisions also sit inside a MUD — Harris County MUD 200, for example, levied $0.72 for 2025. The MUD is the line that varies most, so pull the actual jurisdiction list for the exact parcel from the county before you budget.
Ask about a specific address in 77070
Send me a street and I will tell you what the house needs and what it costs — before you are emotionally committed to it.