Here are some pics of where I'm planning to put the tree down.
{{gwi:421146}}
{{gwi:421147}}
{{gwi:421148}}

Don't ask a little tree to do a big tree's job.
You've got space. Put in some bigger shade tree that will cool your home and your yard, get your energy bills down and be there for future generations. Oak and elm a good place to start.

If you are looking for a medium sized tree, a Shantung maple should do ok. From those pictures it looks like you have some space so you could place an oak like a Mexican white oak that would be evergreen or maybe a Nuttall oak. You could also look into a bald cypress or montezuma cypress.

Bald cypress would be ideal. Look for 'Shawnee Brave' for tall and narrow profile so it does not spread branches too far out if you do not want branches to extend far out. It would grow tall enough to provide a lot of shade from afternoon sun. Bald cypress is sometimes referred as hurricane proof.

There's montezuma cypress called 'Nanjing Beauty' that looks to be a narrow profile that could work. Grows much faster than bald cypress. Stayed evergreen all winter long unlike bald cypress in Houston. Would provide significant shade in 5 years. Should tolerate hurricane just as good as bald cypress. You just decide which one you want decidcious or evergreen cypress.

Minimal water requirement? Houston gets average of 45 inches a year. I'd be happy if I break 30 inches any given year. I'm pretty sure you will see a lot of rain in the fall,winter and spring in Houston...

Yeah I'm not really worried about the rain much yet. This year drought got me worry about what might going to come in future years. THis year drought has been the worse. I've live in Houston for almost 17 years now, I'm only 24 lol. My mom want to put a orange tree infront of the house. She already has a satsuma and two other grapefruit trees in the back. I was thinking of a southern magnolia? My grandma neighbor back then had a southern magnolia. I remember that it wasn't that big but provided good shade since we use to play football and it provided some shade. Do you guys think a southern magnolia is good? I read on wikipedia that it gets about 30m tall. Most of the ones I see are pyramidal in shape. THe leaves are also evergreen. Is a southern magnolia consider a shade tree?

Yes they're great trees (southern magnolia)
The only objections I can think of is that they are slow growing and stay on the narrow side for a while.

I probably lived in Houston longer than you did... Anyway We had magnolia at my parents' house and it is not definitely fast grower. I mean after maybe 30 years or so, it's like... 30 feet tall? Probably not even close to that. I don't know which magnolia that is but that is SLOW growing and would never use it as shade tree. Im sure that Nanjing Beauty would catch up with that Mongolia in 5 years.

The only reason you have drought is because of La Nina weather. It's Pacific Ocean that has cooled off that brought less rain to the south area of USA during last winter. We have El Nino now that will bring us above average rain fall during fall/winter... probably something similar to 2007.

I'd be leary of planting any tree within 12' of house. That said the Bald Cypress roots seem to be inobtrusive and the tree is very wind-firm.
I've see several Eastern Red Cedar within 3-4 ft. of house and no apparent problems.
Southern Magnolia sounds like an ok choice. It was ranked as very wind-firm at this site : http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FR010

The southern magnolia magnolia grandiflora) will grow huge! Please note you said 30m-that is meters, not feet! In feet that would be 90 feet. It can easily reach more than 70 feet at maturity. Most in our neighborhood are at least that tall and the branches are way too low to play under. Even though it is slow growing, it will be way too big for that site in 20 years (or less) and it will cost a fortune to take down. A deciduous magnolia would be a better fit size-wise, but may not provide all the shade you want. We put one in a couple of years ago and it is about 12 feet high now and does provide shade beside it, but it is not one we could sit under. It is lovely with a great shape and it provides three seasons of screening for us. I also like the idea of an oak-I might try to place it just a little further from the house than 12 feet. We have quite a few oaks on our property and several are about 15 feet from the house with no problems. We have willow oaks, a nuttall oak we just planted to replace an oak that died, white oaks, a pin oak, and red oaks.Fabulous for shading the house in summer and it will not be as visually filling of the space in the yard as the Southern Magnolia, which will leave you no room for anything under it.

I'm not sure how close this bald cypress is to the house in the picture but fairly close.
{{gwi:421149}}From Cypress tree

Plenty of shade on both house... That's two years ago. They kept pruning it up higher and higher past two years. Probably 15 feet above ground? even 20 feet? Haven't really looked at it closely in a while. Seems like a lot of open space underneath while getting a lot of shade. You won't get the same effect with small tree.

Lou, that looks pretty. I think the OP may want to reconsider planting a "small to average (not sure what that is)" tree.

cyn,

I know. I think OP is a little scared of tree falling on the house. That's understandable but just have to be smart about which tree is suitable to tolerate hurricane better. In a way, I'm glad that I convinced my mom in Houston to take out weak limbed grafted pecans around the house before Hurricane Ike blew through. I planted shantung maples to replace them. Much stronger trees. Gets to maybe 35 by 35 over time. I also planted several cypress trees in the backyard as well. Still would like to get rid of remaining loblolly pine trees. They scare me. Majority of fallen trees are loblolly pine trees.

I always thought shade trees meant sizeable trees to provide shade on the house, etc. That means maybe 25ft or bigger. I guess everybody has their own idea of what shade tree should look like.