Kelly ([info]kelj99) wrote in [info]houstontx,
@ 2008-10-08 13:41:00
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Moving To Houston
Hello there, I'm new here!

Hubby and I will be new to the Houston area around Christmas time. We are currently living in the Amarillo area (yes, its awful ;) ) in a 2000 sq. ft. ranch home and our current house payment is around $1200/mo. (just for reference).

We will be looking for a decent sized 2 bedroom apartment near Clear Lake / Pasadena that isn't going to break the bank but is still nice. We are willing to shell out *a bit* for some amenities.

Any recomendations? I have looked at numerous apartments, but it is so hard to tell online what sort of people you will be dealing with.

Please share your experiences.

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[info]badrahessa
2008-10-08 07:57 pm UTC (link)
For $1200 a month you can get a killer 2 bedroom in Pasadena. In fact, I can't think of any within Pasadena city limits that would exceed that amount.

If you are willing to spend upwards of $1000 a month you might want to just consider renting a nice home in a good neighborhood , if you end up going with the Pasadena option.

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[info]kelj99
2008-10-08 08:52 pm UTC (link)
Thanks for the response!

Do you trust any particular apartment complexes in the area?

Rent houses are comparable in price? I have no idea which neighborhoods are "good".

I like the apartment option because although I absolutely LOVE owning a I home, there are these things to think about:

-My husband and I are still relatively young, and we are childless, so home rental would probably mean we don't have much in common with our neighbors
-Apartment living is normally closer to "stuff" to do and there is generally a younger crowd and more people to meet (which is great in a strange place)
-For what you pay for a rental house, you could normally get a much better apartment and have things like nice swimming pool, fitness center, clubhouse, etc..

I don't know what we will end up doing, but thanks for the input!

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[info]lil_m_moses
2008-10-08 10:41 pm UTC (link)
You might be surprised by subdivision demographics - there's a fair range. I'm single, mid-30s, childless, with the occasional roommate; one neighbor is late 30s, divorced and living with his girlfriend; two neighbors are older couples whose kids are long out of the nest; one neighbor is a mid-30s couple with a young kid, and one neighbor is a mid-40s couple with HS and college kids.

Apartments _can_ be better for socializing, but I've always had far more friends through work and clubbing than from among my neighbors. In this part of town everything's so spread out that the apartments aren't necessarily closer to anything than the subdivisions. It's not like you can really set up much of a walking/biking lifestyle down here. You could do that much better in town.

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[info]lil_m_moses
2008-10-08 10:33 pm UTC (link)
Unfortunately, all my Clear Lake apartment insight ends 8 years ago.

That said, I lived a while in Seatree down in Seabrook, which was decent, and I lived in The Windward in Webster (which has just restyled itself as The Preserve) and it was nice and very central, though I read increasingly bad reviews of it in more recent years. I lived very briefly in the Clear Lake Falls townhomes in Webster, but my unit was way too close to the highway and train tracks and a neighbor with two german shepherds barking on his patio. There's a really swanky place, the name of which is escaping me, on Bay Area out past Middlebrook, that was really nice when we toured, but pretty expensive.

You would do well to hook yourself up with an apartment locator service. They're free (they get a commission if you rent from a place they show you) and they're good at helping you find complexes that meet your requirements and are a good fit for "feel".

If you have time to come down and look at places now, it could serve you well. You'd get a better idea of how places are likely to weather major storms (some did well, some did very poorly), which speaks to overall maintenance and location, and you may be competing for space with all the displaced people whose homes got flooded or washed away or otherwise made temporarily uninhabitable.

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[info]angyllina
2008-10-14 09:22 pm UTC (link)
Feel free to email me anytime. I live in Pasadena. I have a really nice rent house that I pay $900 for and my neighborhood is oldish, and very quiet. Even on the weekends I don't really hear any coming and going.

I've lived in the Pasadena area most of my life so I have pretty good insight if you have found any leads, etc. on houses and/or apartments. In Pasadena, the apartments vary widely, what seems like a good deal, ends up not being so great because of the type of folks you have around you!

Check out HAR.COM for rental properties, as well as the Greensheet (the Southeast and South editions) - new ads come out each Tuesday.

My email addy is angyllina@comcast.net.

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[info]kelj99
2008-10-15 06:04 pm UTC (link)
Thanks!

I didn't know HAR had rental properties and I have never heard of the Greensheet. I'll check those out.

We are going this weekend to look at some and if we have some good leads, I'll ask your opinion. :)

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