Apartments near workplace in Plano (Richardson, Early: apartment complex, appliances, living in)

[semidevil]

Just received an offer to work in Plano, and am looking for apartment. The workplace is on Chisholm place. Major cross street would be alma drive and park blvd. also, it appears to be near Sam Johnson highway.

For budget, I'm trying to stay under 950. Under 900 and in the 800s will be even better.

Requirements
2 adults. Early 30s age.
Size - studio or one bedroom
Safety

Prefer
Looking for more of a modern style. Open plan, updated appliances.(I.e. Think post east side or brick row in Richardson, post legacy in Plano as examples)

Walkability will be really nice( to coffe shop, basic eatery, etc etc).

We are homebodies so we don't go out too much, so having a nice place to relax and maybe some coffee shops or basic eatery nearby will be nice (not looking for a party scene. Prefer a safe and quiet place)

Reasonable distance to a train station. We will only have 1 vehicle for now, so having a dart nearby will be a plus (but not required)

I spent most of my time in Richardson so I'm not too familiar with Plano. I had a chance to look at post legacy in Plano. It's an option. But it wasn't as 'nice' as post east side in Richardson (the units that I saw at least). Also, legacy is about 9.3 miles from work, while post east side in Richardson is about 5 miles away. Brick row is 8 miles away.

So the first question is for apartments in Plano. Besides post legacy, what is available? Any recommendation based on criteria?

The second question is with commute and living in Richardson. If I do choose to live in Richardson and live in post east side, how long will 6 miles take in the morning? Google maps locks it at 15 minutes, is that about the max? Is this flowing with the traffic jam?

Right now, I'm planning to also consider living In Richardson. Anybody see any concerns Im missing?

And in general for Plano or Richardson and areas I should avoid when apt hunting?

[Big G]

There are plenty of apartment complexes near the work location, but several of them aren't the greatest, to be polite.

Your Richardson options seem solid, so if you're already comfortable with that part of town, I'd lean towards choosing one of those. Commuting from there up to your job shouldn't be any big deal.

The one other area I might put on the plate would be the DT Plano area.

[TheOverdog]

i'd also look at downtown Plano. 15th and K avenue. There is a new apartment complex that will be opening fairly soon, and is a walkable to a bunch of stuff and to DART. Not sure about pricing of the downtown apartments. Downtown Plano is not bad and is growing.

There are bunches of garden apartments on Legacy & Alma area, but they aren't very walkable to anything. I'm sure they'd meet your budget.

If you choose Richardson, that commute will be no big deal. It's a reverse, and there are plenty of side streets that are nearly as fast as 75 Central Expressway.

[MurphyPl1]

Central/75 is only recently named Sam Johnson Hwy, so you may run into lots of locals who have no idea where that is if you refer to it that way. Just a heads up