Houston Apartment (and Budget) Suggestions
Hey y'all,
Going to be starting with a bank in downtown Houston in a month. I'm from out-of-state so I don't know the rental landscape well, or what a reasonable budget split looks like for an analyst. Need to be close to the office for obvious reasons.
Ideally I'd like to get a nicer 1BR as I'm 25 and have been slumming it with roommates until now, but I'm not sure if the required spend is financially irresponsible. I believe a rule of thumb is max 1/40th of annual gross on monthly rent. Buildings I've looked at like Catalyst, Hanover, Aris, Camden Downtown, etc. are within that budget but I can't help but feel like actually approaching the upper limit in a LCOL city like Houston is stupid/overkill on my part.
I know I can't have my cake and eat it too, so I would appreciate any opinions on whether having a ritzier place closer to the office is worth the reduced savings vs. something much more modest. Thanks for any suggestions/advice.
Currently a second year. Lived in Catalyst my first year and now live in the memorial heights area.
Both the catalyst and where I live now is the same 5 mins from my office but the reason I moved out was downtown’s basically dead after 5pm on the weekdays and the whole time on the weekend. There’s nothing to do there (whether it be filling up gas, grocery stores, bars, etc.) so you have to step out of downtown anyways.
I would suggest you also look for places in the heights, memorial heights, rice military / memorial park area.
I paid about 1900 for catalyst (studio) and now pay around 1500 for a bigger one bedroom. I think there’s a few different places where you can get a 1BR for sub-2000.
I’m from Houston! DM me if you want to talk.
Can we talk about Paul Wall bro?
Love the peoples champ!!
You'll want to look west of downtown and within the 610 loop. Many different areas to suit your individual tastes, but in that general area, you will be close to downtown for work, close to spots to hang out after work or the weekend, and not pay a lot. I'd look to pay ~$1,500-2,000 a month for a decent 1 bedroom.
Lot of poeple will get one of the really nice apartments with ammenities downtown but they still pay a ton with roomates and then uber to the Heights to go to bars. It is nice to walk to work but much more expensive and you don't really have time to use the ammenities. Downtown isn't quite dead on the weekends, there are a ton of bars and stuff open on the North / North-east side of down-town that are busy, but for what its worth, the Heights is a much more popular area to go out in.
Appreciate the tips. I've read that downtown is a sketchier area to be walking around in once it clears out for the day. Is North Downtown a bit better in that regard? Seeing lots of recommendations around the Market Square area but very few near the Toyota Center/45. Does that track with your experience?
No one really lives downtown. Would just stick to what others have said (west of downtown inside the loop)
North downtown definitely better walking around at night, i never had a bad experience walking there at night. Sometimes the bums are a little sketchy but not terrible. I would walk home almost 100% in the business district so there weren't a ton of bums or anyhting which was nice (not much of anyone or anything at midnight tho haha). We would take the tunnels before they closed at ~9-10 to the garages and leave and finish the day from home usually.
Once you go a few blocks southeast of Market Square it gets sketchy with the amount of bums. And the farther south you go and east you go it gets progressively worse. Like Midtown has a few cool blocks but then it also has blocks that are just total shitholes- very hit or miss. Clubs and bars in Midtown seem to be mostly kinda ghetto too.
Can't speak too much to East of Downtown though, I never have been over there except to drive around the 2nd ward once bc i was curious. Not a nice area and nothing really worth doing over there. I think its starting to get nicer but I have no reason to ever go over there so I wouldn't really know.
I used to live at Hanover Parkview. Very good. Only moved out since I relocated out of state but great apartment, short Uber to all the nightlife whether it's Midtown, Washington Ave, or Heights.
The green area is generally the most popular area to live. 10-15 minute drive to downtown with little or no traffic, maybe 25-30 with bad traffic. Plenty of good restaurants, bars, etc pretty much everywhere in the green.
Green - Bascially pretty good, the more north you go the closer to most bars and stuff, the further south you go the quiter the areas get, can continue on further west but then that gets a bit far.
Yellow - Areas that i am not super familiar with or are very hit or miss (like Midtown). I don't have much to say pro or con here, maybe someone else can chime in or you will have to drive around at day and night to get the vibes
Red- I wouldn't look at this area, you should be making enough money to live in the nicer parts anyway. Caveat that with I have no experience in those areas but I have never met a single person who lived there and I think that's for a reason.
This is unbelievably helpful. Wish I could do more than just give a banana. Thanks x1000
of course, feel free to ask about more specific neighborhoods here too and i can try to talk about those too if you narrow down a couple areas. I think it's been a while since there has been a good Houston aprtments thread.
Very important to note and I almost forgot, Houston does not have have zoning laws pretty much at all, so there can be extreme variability block-to-block within neighborhoods with how they are designed and what's in them. Makes it super easy to have a bar and restaurant close by but you really gotta drive around any areas you are looking into to make sure you like it.
When I moved to Houston I lived downtown since my office was there and walked the tunnels everyday for work. It wasn't really worth it imo. Living downtown sucked and there was nothing to do. I'm in the heights area right below I-10. It's been great, everything is right there (HEB, food options, bars, LA Fitness, etc.) and I only pay 2k a month. Another guy said Hanover Parkview. That's a great area as well if you want to pay a bit more.
Downtowns the best. Can’t go wrong with Brava.
As an intern, where is the best place to live? I don’t have a car, so if I lived anywhere that isn’t walking distance I’d need to buy a car.
Bump
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