6Why Choose Lake Livingston at Livingston TX (Bryan Wood):
My wife and I always wanted to live on the water. Well at least I did. My wife finally said yes. So just like everyone else who chooses a lake to live on we set out to find the lake in Texas that suited our needs and desires.
For me it was about fishing, boating and swimming so I wanted a lake that you could have waterfront access at your home. Not all lake owners allow that. Most all Corps of Engineers lakes the Corps have bought the land immediately next to the lake, so no waterfront access is allowed by homeowners. Well that cut the list down by over 50% of the lakes in Texas immediately.
Next on my list of what I wanted was a fairly constant level lake. Waterfront access meant nothing the lake went down 25 or more feet and I had to go a mile to reach the water. So that criteria narrowed the number of lakes even more substantially and left a very small number of lakes. Livingston was developed all most entirely for water supply for the City of Houston and they established through the Trinity River Authority (TRA) that manages the lake and has control of the water surface elevation. Their goal is to keep the lake at or near it’s normal pool elevation year round to maximize the water available to the city of Houston at any time. Since Livingston is fed by the Trinity River and there are no dams on it between Livingston and Dallas, almost all of the water from the watershed ends up in Lake Livingston. In the summer of 2011 when other lakes in Texas dropped 20-60′ in elevation Livingston only dropped approximately 4 feet. That gives you an idea of how stable the lake elevation is. Most summer it only drops a foot or two.
That brings me to my next criteria. I wanted a boat lift and dock in the water for enjoyment year round. Not one of those floating docks where you have to constantly have to let cable out or in based on the rise and fall of the lake but a dock with piers in the ground and great swimming, fishing and a boat lift that allows you to get on the water in 2 minutes not a 5 minute trip to the boat launch and 15 minutes or more waiting to launch. Well that cut out a lot more lakes. TRA allows boat docks on piers in the water in front of you land!!!!
Fishing. We it goes without saying that fishing was high on my list. I grew up fishing and have been enjoying all kinds of fishing since I was five and I am in my 50’s now. Livingston really hits the mark. Catfish, white bass crappie, and striper there is not probably any better lakes both in quantity of fish and average size. Of course if you like to wine and dine those largemouth bass it has them too.
Price. We didn’t have an unlimited budget like most anyone reading this list. Livingston had some of the most reasonable waterfront home and lot prices of lake we looked at. We looked for about 3 years on the internet and in person before we decided Livingston was our choice.
Well I am afraid my wife had some criteria as well. I am sure she will add her comments later but she wanted to be near a major city. Some place she could go to shop and we could go to find fine dining or at least a lot of dining choices. This was deal breaker so we set out on our search. She set her maximum limit of an hour away from the lake house. She usually gets her way and I wasn’t arguing since she said lets go look. Livingston is less than an hour from Kingwood/Humble area on the NE edge of Houston. It is about 45 minutes from Huntsville TX and about 50 minutes from Lufkin TX. All of those areas are larger cities with shopping, dining and other major attractions as well. The town of Livingston is small but it has three grocery stores and a box home improvement store as well as a full service hospital and emergency room. It has an array of dining, a movie theater, and it is at the cross roads of US 190 and Us 59/I69 with great routes to and from the lake.
Lake Livingston is not overcrowded with boats. With 83,000 surface acres of water (second largest in Texas) and much of the shoreline still undeveloped we just don’t have too much boat traffic like other lakes close to Houston. That leaves more room for us and more fish to catch as well.
We looked at about 10 different lakes. All within the Houston-Austin-Dallas triangle region. We visited most of them. We took our time and we made a great decision to be at Lake Livingston. We bought a waterfront lot and built our boathouse and we love it. We wouldn’t change a thing and can’t imagine anyone choosing another lake to find that second home, lake cabin, waterfront retreat, or great getaway spot.
Judy and I are both Realtors with Keller Williams Realty NE in the Livingston TX office. We live and work at the lake. We have been at Livingston for over 3 years. We closed over 40 properties last year, many of them at the lake and we helped 9 families either buy or sell a waterfront property at the lake which puts us at near the top of the list of Realtors if you are looking to buy or sell a waterfront property at Lake Livingston. We would love to help you find your dream place at Lake Livingston, whether your dream is like our or a much different dream at the lake.
We found our dream location and it’s a reality. We love it at the lake and you can see a typical late spring morning catch of fish off the boat dock. Boat is in the water in 2 minutes. Kids can ski, dad can fish and mom can enjoy her morning coffee on the boat dock on the best lake in Texas -Livingston Yes, you are right on man’s opinion.
