arrumac

I have read Geordiemama's recent thread with interest, I'm moving to Houston too with my wife and 2 small ones (too young for school now but will be a consideration).

I'll be working downtown a 2 minute walk from the Main Street Square Tram stop. So my Q's are what are the better areas for a commute in directly by car or maybe even just a walk away from a Tram stop, I notice they also do a park and ride at some point, anyone experience of this?

Finally how about taking a dog? He is a small Westie, do rental firms mind dogs in general?

Cheers...

Picnic

A few thoughts from my experience of living in Houston, others may not agree!

I wouldn't recommend living near downtown unless you can afford to rent in the Heights (a little north west of downtown and north of I10) which is a mix of new build and historic homes. Your commute to downtown would be short, say 15-20 minutes. The downtown area is mainly large office blocks, some entertainment and a few expensive loft style apartments.

Not sure you will find a rental within walking distance of the light rail for a family with young children although there are some apartment blocks near the Medical Center which is a few stops south of Main Street on the Light Rail*. In general you will find that families who can afford decent rents/house prices will live out in the suburbs where the schools are better and there are other young families. Look at www.har.com for rentals and homes for sale in Houston.

Renting with a pet may limit your choices but some apartment complexes are flexible, just be prepared to pay a pet deposit. If you plan to rent a house it will depend on the individual landlord. Your HR department should be helping you to get settled, finding a realtor, paying for a "look-see" visit for you to select accommodation?

Commuting by car into downtown can be tedious and time consuming as the main arterial freeways are very congested during rush hour - say at least 45 mins to 1 hour, and quite often longer if it rains, from Katy, 290 area, Woodlands. You can save time by finding a traveling buddy or two and using the HOV lanes, or paying a premium to use the HOV when traveling alone. Using the commuter bus is certainly an option - from memory you can travel in from Katy, W. Little York, HWY 290 area, Spring, the Woodlands, Humble, Atascosita and Friendswood. In my experience Metro buses aren't particularly clean or well maintained (frequent breakdowns, faulty heating/cooling etc. but, if you get into the routine with a good book and ipod, it can be a better option than using your own car, particularly if you have to pay for parking in downtown where a monthly contract can be in the region of $100-120. Google "Houston Metro" for details on commuter buses. Good luck!

* Light Rail not Tram

scrubbedexpat097

Living in Pearland/Sugarland will probably give you a "not bad" commute time to Main.

Pearland has a great school district and has all the amenities for a young family.

Good luck.

Weeze

Hi and welcome!

We have brought our dog over as well. Renting with a pet isn't really a problem. On HAR.com which is the property search for Houston you just select pets on a case by case basis and you get suitable properties to view. Also some of the ones that say no pets often don't mean it. If they have suitable flooring down (i.e. not nice new shining woodern floors) then you can sometimes convince them to take pets. You have to pay a pet deposit and the deposit can depend on how good your realitor is. Ours is $250. Pet deposits aren't really deposits as they are non-refundable. Sometimes you get a refundable part as well, but I think $250 non-refundable is pretty standard. Sometimes you have to write a letter to put into the potential landlords about your dog. You basically say how calm and nice they are and it helps to put in a picture too.
Area to live is more of a tricky one. It really depends what sort of property you want and how much you have to spend. If you want to be near a tram stop, then you are really looking at the medical centre. Bellaire is near by but not on the tram stops. West University and Rice Village are also in the loop. If you wanted a pool though as well as some grass for your dog/kids it would cost a fortune.
We looked at Sugarland but our realitor put us off a bit as crime there has become more of a problem in the last few years.
We were given a pre-trip visit by the company which was invaluable. The realitor took us to any areas we thought we might be interested in and showed us sample houses. I would highly recommend it if you are given the chance.
We have been put up in a serviced apartment for the first few months and that has also helped as it has given us a chance to suss out the areas we fancied.
Anyway, good luck and hope all goes well.

Yorkieabroad

I'd echo what other people have said about thinking about living a bit further out to get more family friendly places with more for your money on the rental. If you can afford the nice areas close in go for it, but it depends what sort of package you are coming on.

There are plenty of options for commuting other than the solitary drive.
We're out in Katy and my wife used to work in Downtown - she used the Park and Ride for about 3 years and reckoned it was the way to go - 10 minute drive, plus 30-40 minutes on the bus depending on which bus she got.

She also used to "slug" a lot - cars with lone drivers swing by the P&R to pick up additional passengers so they can go thru the HOV lanes and get into downtown faster. Bit of a win/win - drivers get the fast drive in, and passengers save their bus fare. I was a bit uncomfortable with this at first, but it seems to be an accepted practice round here...well known "rules" and etiquette must be observed! You never hear of any trouble with it, and she made quite a few friends thru it.

She's in the Galleria now and is in a van pool - heavily subsidized by both Metro and her company, they have a 13 seat minivan that leaves from the local Home Depot at 6.45 and returns from their office at 4.15. The riders split the monthly toll/gas charges (above the subsidy) and it works out less than $10 a month for her commute. Nice. Van pools can operate into Downtown as well.

ChocolateBabz

Hi, We live in Pearland and would recommend it, commute is not too bad and you are away from downtown. I know a lot of people recommend The Heights and Montrose if you want to be closer to downtown but I have never seen the appeal, esp. with young kids - different if you are a young thing in an apartment who wants to be closer to where the nightlife is.

We rented when we first moved here and there were plenty of neighbours with dogs so that shouldn't be a problem - you might just have a larger deposit to put down in case of additional damages.

If you do decide on Pearland there are a couple of newly built apartment complexes where you could probably get a brand new until, unless of course you are looking for a house right away. We rented an apartment while we were having a new house built for us.

Any questions just ask, there are plenty of expats on this forum in Houston.

Bink

Welcome!

I agree with the others. I live downtown (actually pretty much where your office is) and it's great for me, but there are much better places for families in Houston(although a few do live here).

The main routes into downtown do get busy at rush hour (I-10, I-45 etc) but some of the smaller roads in are generally better although can also get busy.

Are you looking to rent a house, or an apartment?

tigerbaywarrior

The Hieghts and some parts of Garden Oaks are good places to look. I'd stay away from west even with the I-10 corridor complete - when it goes bad, it's really bad.

There are some apartments around the medical area but it's pretty busy. If you've got budget, areas around Rice Village are nice.

I'll stay off the rant as I had a release on Geordiemama's thread.