Residential Area, easy commuting to Medical Center? (Houston, West: apartment complexes, for rent)

[Fly]

Hi,

I am a German searching for an apartment for rent (not intending to buy one) in Houston, where I will work at the Medical Center. I have looked around the posts and in several other forums to find an appropriate living area - still searching... I will be with my girlfriend, we search for a furnitured 2-bedroom apartment and could go up to about $1500 for rent/mo (even higher if this pays off in terms of safety and else, see below).

Our main criteria are:

1) Safety (willing to spend some 100s/mo more on this one)

2) either in close proximity to MedCenter or easy commuting (<30 min) either by car or by Metro, avoiding traffic jams. (We are both no big fans of car driving, so we would like to keep that in a limit.)

3) It should be a rather quiet residential area - no need for bars, nightlife entertainment or hip buildings. A big 24/7 open supermarket and some restaurants in the neighbourhood would be great, though. If there was a park for jogging closeby, that would be a clear bonus.

So this is the dilemma: From what I have understood, for easy commuting we would have to live in the Inner Loop. Rice and MedCenter areas seem to be interesting in terms of proximity and the Herman Park, but then again I do not have the impression that these are really quiet and safe. Montrose and Midtown would be close to work, but not quiet either.

We also would prefer not to live in an area with skyscrapers, rather smaller houses or communities. This is where I stumbled upon the Heights area. But then again this does not seem to be the best place regarding easy commuting in the morning.

For a while the Reliant Park surrounding sounded fine, but then we read all kinds of bad things on this area regarding safety.


Maybe some of you can take the criteria above together and give me some advice on where to search?

Thank you!

[Poltracker]

Check out the area along Caroline between 59 and the museums. Fairly quiet, close access to Hermann Park and the light rail. Nearest shopping would be the Fiesta store (not undoable) or a ride up the light rail to Randalls in Midtown. I would stick to areas accessible to the light rail in either the area I described or in Midtown. It really is not all that noisy, Montrose off the main streets is actually pretty quiet as long as you are not over near the clubs (ie Numbers).

[jfre81]

The Fiesta on Fannin near 59 is accessible from the rail station - if you're just picking up a few things that aren't heavy, you don't even need to drive...

[texas7]

Rice Village/West University area would be nice and safe with close proximity to work and a lot of the things you are looking for.

[Fly]

By now I have read a lot of threads on Houston residential areas and I think we can narrow it down to Rice U/Rice Village/West University, which seems to be what we are looking for.

That said, are there any apartment complexes in this area, which you can recommend (mostly in terms of safety and being close to the light rail, nice neighbourhood would be a plus)
or are there others, which we should avoid?

[DJboutit]

Check out the south west side right near the loop Willow Meadows Willow Bend Meyerland Wesbury Maplewood nice area close to everything houses $200K to $400K

[Fly]

Originally Posted by DJboutit

Check out the south west side right near the loop Willow Meadows Willow Bend Meyerland Wesbury Maplewood nice area close to everything houses $200K to $400K

Thank you. In fact, we would like to rent an apartment.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by Fly

Thank you. In fact, we would like to rent an apartment.

Ok.....so what's your range for rent you can pay?

[DJboutit]

There is a nice complex @ Meyer Park that is perrty nice right near the loop that fits your needs

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by DJboutit

There is a nice complex @ Meyer Park that is perrty nice right near the loop that fits your needs

Yes, if we're thinking of the same one, it's on Bellfort@Meyer Forest. Never been in them or know anyone who's been in them, but they look really nice from the outside.