Balancing Two Commutes (Houston, Spring, Bellaire: crime, house, neighborhoods)

[cookiemonster]

I work in Jersey Village, my fiance is about to graduate from med. school and start working in the Medical Center. We are looking to buy a "starter home" <$75k, I wouldn't mind a fixer upper. We would like to both have commutes of 15-20 minutes. I know the Heights is probably out of our price range, so I have been looking in the area South of Westpark Tollway/59, West of 288 and inside the Beltway. I know Bellaire/Sharpstown is ghetto. Any other suggestions of decent neighborhoods in the area I mentioned?

Thanks

[modster]

At the risk of being too blunt, If you are going to be looking at $75,000 price point, not only is it going to be a fixer upper, but let me put it this way, you would lucky to find that fixer upper at that price in something as good as Sharpstown. In fact there isn't anything currently on the market in Sharpstown for that price. You literally could not buy a vacant lot in the Heights for 75k.

You are going to have to get comfortable with "transitional neighborhoods."

Honestly parts of Sharpstown are not that bad. I wouldn't necessarily rule it out as a whole. Its not River Oaks, but with its close proximity to town, eventually it has to come back. There are pockets that are actually still pretty nice, although most of those are over $75k. You might try scanning the Spring Branch area, but I am not real optimistic about finding much there.

There are a lot of people starting to buy up & renovate places at that price point in Broadmoor and Lawndale in the east end. Nice brick bungalows with lots of character, but again, you have to prep yourself for dealing with transitional neighborhoods. One of the more interesting areas is Garden Villas, off the south loop. It would close to the med center but farther for you though and there is some issue with plane noise from Hobby.

If you could up your price point to about $90k, I would suggest looking at Robindell, off of N. Braeswood, and in Westbury South. Westbury is booming right now and while Westbury South is still rough, gentrification is headed that way. If you go on HAR, look up the one on Santa Fe St. in Garden Villas. That section is decent and doesn't get much of the plane noise.

[johnsmith]

The crime in Sharptown is bad. Don't go there. Because of many restaurant on Bellaire.

[cookiemonster]

Thanks for the replies.
Modster,
I'm somewhat new to Houston. Could you please tell me where exactly these areas are: Robindell, Westbury, and Garden Villas? Thanks so much for your help.

[modster]

I will premise this by saying these areas hold promise, but currently do not have a lot of main-stream, broad-based appeal necessarily. Since you are trying to get relatively close in at a bargain price, that tends to be the case for people in the same boat, even if they are looking to spend $150k or more. It will be necessary for you to look at how the neighborhoods are trending moreso than where they are right now.

You are going to need to get in touch with your inner urban-pioneer spirit in a big way.

Robindell is between N. Braeswood & Beechnut, Hillcroft to Fondren, roughly. The sections closer to Beechnut are smaller homes, closer to Braeswood is nicer. It benefits from being positioned on Braeswood and gaining buyers who are priced out of the more affluent neighborhoods that line Braeswood going east. It also has a lot of mid-century modern homes, which are a hot commodity right now. (see web-sites such as lottaliving.com, atomic-ranch.com,houstonmod.org, memorialbendarchitecture.com for more info on the style) Many were designed by William Floyd, who is a noted architect of the period. These factors add up to a lot of promise, plus the area is not too bad to begin with.

Westbury is a large subdivision of about 5000 homes. It runs basically from about the Post Oak extension off the south loop west to just past Hillcroft, from about Willowbend south to old 90. It benefits from sitting adjacent to Meyerland, which usually takes at least $250,000 to buy a near tear-down. Due to its close in proximity hugging the outer edge of the loop, it has become a popular choice for urban types priced out of Heights, Garden oaks, etc. The sections north of Bellfort and east of Chimney Rock are very popular with house "flippers" doing lots of redos in there. The mindset used to be don't go south of Bellfort, now it is don't go south of W. Airport, so that section hasn't heated up yet, and you can still afford it. Eventually the prices and gentrification should/could continue to spread south into Westbury South. The area holds a lot of promise.

Garden Villas is off the south loop and you have to go thru some rough territory to find it, but it is a really interesting place once found. It is west of Telephone Road, south of Sims Bayou. The lots are huge, some over an acre, developed in the 20's - 50's. The streets are lined with huge Pecan trees that canopy the streets. Some sections get horrible plane noise from Hobby, others don't. It is a hidden pocket, but definitely worth checking out. Most people know nothing about it, but prices did rise sharply in there in the last year or so.