Politics & Current Events
MeredithE
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Does anyone live in Houston? I have friends who need neighborhood advice
They will be working at MD Anderson? I have heard traffic in Houston is nearly as ridiculous as Atlanta traffic , can you recommend any nice neighborhoods in the area? They are going to rent a house not buy. I know this isn't helpful but I am not sure of their budget. They would like a tad but of diversity if this is possible.
"HOW many US citizens and ranchers have been decapitated in Arizona by roving bands of paperless aliens, and how will a requirement that I have papers on me make that not happen?"courtesy of SueSue
Re: Does anyone live in Houston? I have friends who need neighborhood advice
Traffic here suxaaasssss. The closer inside the loop they rent, the higher the rent will be. Tell them to look into the metro rail system, if they can afford to live near the route. The Stafford/Sugar Land area is nice because there are toll roads and highways nearby that can help lessen the drive (and are pretty diverse). Tell them not to rent near hwy 288 and expect to drive in, it gets stacked and packed as it's the main artery into the medical center from the south. All the major freeways inbound from about 7a to 9a are crummy. HOV lanes, toll roads (The Ft Bend toll road is going to offer bus service to the med center from hwy 6 south, this is new and there are new subdivisions they can look into and maybe cut their drive with a bus route). That is the Frisco/Missouri City area.
Pearland is good on the south side, but you have the 288 traffic to fight. Heights is a good area, historic homes, north side, but expensive. Good luck to them!
Where are they coming from? That could really color their views on space and expense. The Heights is nice and I don't think it's expensive (but we came from NYC). I really like where I live, but it's probably a bit far for Anderson.
I've heard that Houston is not a big rental markets for houses, so that will at least help them narrow things down a bit. I've heard the museum district and around Hermann park is nice.
Take everything I say with a HUGE grain of salt - I've been here two months.
Those are good areas (Montrose, being the gayborhood, is esp. diverse and not very far from MD Anderson. Clear Lake is on the SE side of town and depending on the time of day, will be about an hour drive each way).
A commute from Clear Lake to the Medical Center will not be fun, however, there is probably a park & ride available.
I think Montrose, the Museum District, and Midtown are good places to look if you want to rent. The commute and diversity will be good in these places. Houses for rent may not be plentiful, but townhomes and nice apartments will be available.
Pearland is a good suburban place to look if you work in the Med Center. The commute won't be horrible, and there will be a good probability of finding a house for rent.
It takes 35 min on a Saturday to get out to the Clear Lake/Webster area when you're traveling on I45.
I would think rush hour traffic is at least an hour or more.
To the med center, yeah about an hour - it's packed on the gulf freeway to 610 south, then packed again in the med center. 45 minutes, maybe before 6a or after 8a.
Agreed on Montrose, Midtown, etc. they'll see rent in the $1200+/mo range (give or take a few hundred). There are Metro park and rides around town, if they want to budget for that and maybe save on time/wear and tear on the car. Basically, if they live outside the Beltway and want to get to the med center for work, a 30-45 min. each way commute is the minimum they could expect (with a few exceptions).
I would agree with Midtown, Montrose or Museum District, but I am biased against anything outside the loop (i.e. beltway) as I am SO not a suburb person or someone with the patience to sit in traffic for an hour. I pay $1700 for a 2 bedroom plus a loft in Midtown.
I don't know how all you people are forgetting The Heights. Cheaper than both Montrose and Museum District with a great neighborhood feel, the most pedestrian friendly area in Houston and an all around great place to live! They will find lots of wonderful smaller homes for rent in the North Norhill subdivision, but there are rentals all over the area. I live spitting distance from I45, which will get them to 288 and then the med center in 15 minutes.
Have them check out this blog http://theheightslife.com for a slice of life in the neighborhood. The blog also has a really active FB page where they can ask questions about the area.
Another great resource is the Houston Architecture Information Forum, HAIF. They have neighborhood forums, as well as a "moving to houston forum."
http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/forum/4-houston-neighborhoods/
I wouldn't live in the suburbs of Houston and make that commute for all the tea in China! What's 35 minutes on Sunday morning can be over an hour on a weekday, with no accidents. My husband used to live in Clear Lake area. He got a job downtown and broke his lease 3 weeks later. I also believe in a city this large and this spread out, you need to start central and get your bearings. The burbs can have very different personalities and it's hard to know which will be right for you until you've sat in the middle and looked around.
Hey I mentioned the Heights, but I thought they were still fairly expensive, for the location and historic value if nothing else. I drove from the SW loop and beltway to Nasa for years. Quite glad I'm not doing that anymore!