Very Inexpensive Condos in Houston (San Antonio, Galveston: for sale, to rent, mortgage)

[smarino]

We are currently living in Galveston, and were thinking of moving away from the direct path of hurricanes. We like this part of Texas (except for the humidity, but you can get used to most anything), so Houston would be an easy move for us. I was looking on the internet today and saw a LOT of 1 and 2 bdrm condos between $30,000 and $60,000. That sounds awful cheap. Maybe too cheap? Looking at the pictures, some of them looked fine. My question is, could these be in safe areas? Some were in or near The Medical Center area, which seems to be a good area from what I have picked up here on the posts. The others, well, I have no idea where they are as I am not familiar w/ Houston. If anyone can shed some light on this it would be appreciated.

[bch7]

Only lived in Houston for 3 months and looked at several of those inexpensive condos and the may look great but check the police reports take a drive by in the evening. I think you will find that those areas generally unsafe. A good example of this is one of several homes or condos that were for sale on Antoine Drive earlier this year. Best of luck.

[ayannaaaliyah]

I think with the mortgage and housing market in disarray, it's my understanding that the condos and townhouses people invested in did not appreciate in a way that they thought and many people are trying to get rid of them, hence such a low price. Also as the other poster stated, they could be in a "shady" neighborhood.

[modster]

There are a few pockets where there are some affordable condos in good areas. The problem is if the owner occupancy rate isn't high enough, or if one investor owns more than 10% of the complex, people will have trouble getting financing. This can affect resale obviously, and you would have to put a lot down or pay cash going in.

There was one complex at the end of Burgoyne just west of Voss that was cheap. I want to say there are some also back behind Second Baptist over off of Woodway, I can't remember the street.

Over on Wild Indigo, around Newcastle and Westpark, is a very affordable complex that is pretty nice. There is also a nice complex down in the Museum district between Dora & Institute streets. There are a few scattered around Montrose and Greenway Plaza although most of these are on "chillwater" systems. That is the A/C system where the whole building is on basically one A/C system and once it is turned over to heat in the winter, you only have heat, and once it is turned over to A/C, if you have a chilly morning you can't switch over to heat. That and the lack of W/D connections would really be a deal buster for me.

Up in the Champions area there are a few cheap complexes that are okay. Capistrano Villas are in Greenwood Forest, which is a nice area. Wimbledon Pines on Stuebner-Airline in front of Wimbledon Estates is another. There are also some decent townhomes over in front of Ponderosa Forest that can be bought at pretty good prices.

[smarino]

Yes, the condo market here in Galveston did not exactly take off either. Ours went down about 20% in the last year. Thanks modster for the info on specific condos. Houston is such a huge city it will take us quite a while to figure out where to be and where not to be. Galveston, unfortunately, is zoned like Houston. You can be in a nice complex or house, and have fright night people right across the street. Zoning? Never heard of it apparantly. We were in San Antonio for a while, and while I wasn't that crazy about the city itself, I did appreciate the distinct character of the different neighborhoods. When you were in a bad area, you KNEW it was bad. When you were in Alamo Heights, life looked pretty good. I think the best thing to do is to rent somewhere for a while, and take our time looking at neighborhoods before we even look at specific units. Someone once told me that the best plan was to buy the least property in the best area that you could afford. Thanks for all the sound advice.

[SondraElmore]

We moved to Katy in January (my brother came with us) We ended up moving back to FL, and my brother wanted to stay, so we found him a small condo on Holly Hall (he works in the museum district) We were really worried about safety, but the security there is awesome, it is gated and the guards walk the property constantly. Good luck

[smarino]

I appreciate the replies. The condo market looks a little clearer now. I went to the HAR site, and it seems that the easiest way to come up w/ info is to plug in a school district, put in your price range and other criteria, and see what comes up. The Klein district yielded some good looking results. I'd been using realtor.com before this, and it can't narrow down your search criteria nearly as much. I'll focus on researching the good school districts now and have a better understanding of where to start looking once we get to Houston. Thank goodness for the internet! Years ago all I had available was the classifieds in newspapers of cities I was thinking of moving to. Come to think of it, that's still a good way to get data on job markets and housing prices. But now I can see where the properties are on the computer by doing a map search, and then do a google earth search and actually get a picture (crummy though it is) of the actual address. It is enlightening when you see that the quiet community the realtor is describing is next to an airport! Or that the "close to town" property is practically in another state, and seems to be sited next to a sewage treatment plant.