The best areas of houston? (Austin, Sugar Land: real estate, affordable apartments, rentals)

[lusterwings]

I am curious, please give me a rating for the following.... Like say, rating on a scale of 1-10. Please base this on your experience or knowledge of the overall city, such as rental prices, cost of living, quality of neighborhood, sq footage you get for rent, amenities, and quality of apartments/housing. I am looking to pay about $900 for a nice quality place in houston. I am 23 years old, and like to be around shops, and places to walk to. Will that get me something nice?

I am looking to relocate to Houston From Hollywood, CA.
Here are the areas I am interested in you all rating for me. You can add more places of course.

1. Midtown.

2. Montrose.

3. Interloop.

4. Sugarland.

5. Woodlands.

6. West University.

7. Medical Center.

8. Museum District.

9. River Oaks.

10. Heights.

[jfre81]

I'm gonna rate these based on the needs and wants of the typical single 23-year-old.

Midtown - 9, but really only if you're into nightclubs and such. Otherwise, 6-7 for being overpriced IMHO. You might not find enough space for your price range there. It is in the middle of just about everything, from Downtown to the Museum District and more. The light rail line runs through Midtown. Beware of some rough patches near I-45 and Highway 59. Stay west of Main Street if you go there, if possible.

Montrose - 7. I love the Montrose, but it's just not what it used to be. Former GLBT/bohemian/starving artist enclave being gentrified by yuppies and condo developers. Still a bunch of cool shops, clubs and pubs and other good stuff along Westheimer and elsewhere. There are a few low-rent apartments that aren't too bad but not very big at all (think < 500sf 1br units). Since you're looking at up to 1K, you might find something bigger. Very walkable, at least by Houston standards.

The Inner Loop is simply Houston inside Loop 610, although generally when people speak of the Inner Loop they mean the Heights, Montrose, Midtown, Museum District etc. rather than, say, the areas north and east of Downtown. The East End (east of downtown and between the Houston Ship Channel and north of I-45 is on more people's Inner Loop radar these days. I'll give the East End a 7; because the pollution factor's a little higher with the port and large petrochemical complexes nearby. If that doesn't faze you, you may well find a steal over there. Good access to Downtown and Midtown, but no rail - not yet. There will be an East End line about five years from now.

Sugar Land - 1. What's good for married folks with kids and the coin to drop on a big house isn't necessarily what's good for you. Houston is very car-dependent, and that's even moreso in the suburbs. There's a mall there (First Colony) and some shops, and you'll be driving everywhere - including into the center of Houston >20 miles away. Don't bother.

The Woodlands - 4. If you, at your age, had to move to a Houston suburb, this is the only one worth looking at. You've got a good mall and a major concert venue (Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion) and it is rather pretty there. There's a Woodlands photo thread by RGV that just got bumped up, if you want to take a look. No clue on what sort of rental properties you might find there in your range, if any. This is very far outside of town and you will be driving and fighting I-45 traffic to do stuff in the city.

West U - 1. This is not because this is a bad area, because it's definitely not. But it's pretty much all houses and expensive ones at that. Not a whole lot of retail in West U either. This was an early suburb of Houston that was sort of swallowed by the city yet it kind of retained its old feel. Not a subdivision-type burb like what we think of today. Traffic on Holcombe/Bellaire Blvd. can get tiresome at times.

Med Center - 6.5 Not much to do at the Med Center, but there are plenty of rentals around there that might be a cheaper alternative to Midtown, and you can get there or Downtown on the rail line.

Museum District - 7. Lots to see but you're probably not going to live in the Museum District proper. The rail line does go through here and you can get there from Midtown or the Med Center area.

River Oaks - 2, unless you hit the lottery and suddenly have well over a million dollars to drop on a house. This is the wealthiest neighborhood in the city. However, there are affordable apartments not that far away. A good friend of mine lives just east of South Shepherd and pays something like $650 for his place. Just a stone's throw away from million-dollar houses. Go figure.

Heights - 8. It's gotten steep, but the Heights is probably right up your alley if you can find a workable place in your price range, which might be doable - barely. Cool area to walk around in and sightsee. Less retail (like grocery stores) than in a lot of other Inner Loop locations.

Oh yeah...Houston is not the most walkable city in the world. It can be done, but it can be an adventure in some spots.

[lusterwings]

Wow, sounds like it's the heights then, huh? Very cool. Thank you for your inpout, I can tell you put some effort in your answer! if there is anyone else reading this, let me know your opinion of the Houston area! it would really helpme, and others who are thinking of relocating there. It helps to get the general opinion of others.

[lusterwings]

It would be somewhat good to be reasonably close to things, such as supermarket. I don't mind driving. I have lived in cities where everything is within walking distance, and other cities where it is a 15 minute drive to the nearest small store.

[EasilyAmused]

Uptown/Galleria wasn't on your list. It should be, it has a lot to offer the very young.

Sugarland and The Woodlands shouldn't even be on your radar.

[houstoner]

The Heights may be a bit too quiet for you. There are some bars, cafes, and restaurants on Studewood, Heights Blvd., Yale, W. 19th, and Sixth Street/White Oak like Onion Creek and the fabled Fitzgerald's nearby, but these areas are kind of a long walk from each other. Not too bad on the bus though. Bus service is pretty good. In the neighborhood groceries can be gotten on W. 20th at Kroger, E. 14th at Fiesta, or the Fiesta on N. Shepherd and the Signature Kroger on 11th between Durham and Shepherd just outside the Heights proper. That last can be quite the meat market when 5:30 p.m. rolls around. You can find some great eye candy there in the evenings. Something to be aware of is that parts of the Heights are dry and you can't buy alcohol.

Even though Montrose isn't the same as it used to be, it may be quite a bit more exciting and a better location for a 23-year-old guy from West Hollywood. Basically, you should look for an apartment throughout all the areas you listed with the exception of Sugar Land and The Woodlands.

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[lusterwings]

Someone warned me abot Houston. They say the hunidity and the heat is worse then in austin. What are your opinions?


I am also interested in the galleria area, but I wonder if Austin is a better alternative to Houston? What are your thoughts? I need yout thoughts! He he he he.

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by lusterwings

Someone warned me abot Houston. They say the hunidity and the heat is worse then in austin. What are your opinions?


I am also interested in the galleria area, but I wonder if Austin is a better alternative to Houston? What are your thoughts? I need yout thoughts! He he he he.

Houston is close to the coast, so it has more humidity and the air feels hotter.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by lusterwings

Someone warned me abot Houston. They say the hunidity and the heat is worse then in austin. What are your opinions?

Houston feels like a hot sauna. Austin feels like a convection oven with a little bit of steam. It's tomato, tomahto to me. Summer sucks in Texas. Sorry you missed the memo.

Concerning Austin - I'll try to put this in perspective with what I mentioned about Houston (if you're really interested in Austin, they have their own forum). Imagine a huge Montrose/Heights/Greenway Plaza pod fusion (Greenway Plaza is a business district between the Galleria and Montrose with a skyline on par with downtown Austin) with the state capitol and all of the best music venues in the middle of it, surrounded by overcrowding tech yuppie burbs and criscrossed with largely narrow, inadequate highways. Before that last part scares you off, it's much more walkable than Houston - at least in the heart of town, maybe not out in the hills along the Mopac or in North Austin which is about as exciting as watching paint dry anyway. In Austin, anyone who doesn't yield to pedestrians is assumed to be from Houston. If you live near where you work, the bloodbath on the freeways mean jack to you.

For being so "progressive" it's rather segregated racially. Sixth Street - where the music is - is sort of like a more refined version of a honky tonk row (speaking in relative terms of course). It's real-life Saturday Night Fever of the Blackberry age; John Travolta would be playing some IT geek who moonlights as a guitar player in a no-name band trying to be the next Stevie Ray Vaughan. Ixnay on the disco. Austin's restaurants seem to be more about seeing people and tying one on and having a good time rather than the food. It's not Houston, where it's substance over style more often than not. And no matter how much they "Keep Austin Weird," they've still got every big box retailer you might possibly care about.

Back to Houston....

The Galleria area (Uptown) is a traffic-choked cessp----I'm sorry, am I being too negative here? What I meant to say is it gets rather congested at times. The Galleria itself is a huge, pricy shopping mall with an ice rink in it. Nearby is the Williams (nee: Transco) Tower which is a good navigational tool for anyone who is new here and overwhelmed by our....large quantities of concrete strips going every which way. There are places within your range there.

[DCNative]

I just moved here. Though I'm 28, I feel more like 24 physically and mentally

I live just south of the allen parkway 2 miles west of downtown... not really sure if I can give my neighborhood a name, but I'm closest to montrose. Some people warned me that Montrose is a gay community, but after spending a few days here, it really isn't all that "gay". It's pretty diverse and lots of shopping centers and restaurants - I like it. I also like the galleria/uptown area (though traffic is very bad there like jfre81 said), and the rice village/medical center areas are also good.

I haven't been to the heights yet, however. I didn't really look for an apartment in the heights because someone who has lived here for several years did not recommend the heights for a young and single guy. But then, I'll go see and take a look maybe tomorrow or later this week. I'm only 2 miles from the heights anyway.

If you want to be central to everything around you, go for montrose, upper kirby, and maybe rice village. Basically within the 610 loop, south of I-10, west of I-45, and along/north of 59.