Illinois couple moving to SA for college..need info (San Antonio: apartments, rental)

[John Gillette]

We are a couple from northern Illinois and are wanting to move to Texas, and will be attending college in SA. We really need good honest info about apartments. My girlfriend is from a farm and I am from a cattle ranch. We are not opposed to cities, we go to Chicago all the time. What we don't want is city problems, crime gangs drugs etc. I know there is no utopia, esp in a city, but there has to be something decent that a student can afford. When we look at info like apartment rate web sites, the apartments in our price seem like a bad rap video. Thugs and drugs, which is not an environment for us. We are not party types and like our quiet, so we really don't want dorms. Are we wizzing in the wind here or what? help us. We figured that two country types could find something condusive to our lifestyle in Texas, heck we would consider a small commute. Thank you for your time.

[jimbobvandy]

What school will you be at?

[John Gillette]

UTSA, sorry that might have helped. As I said though commuting is an option..within reason. We are history majors and an older neighbor hood is no problem as long as the build.,is efficient. We don't have to have complex with sauna, pool, workout center, shuttle to mars and elephant rides. Just a safe quiet place to live and cookout on the weekends.

[neddy]

My husband lives at UTSA (gets out in May). Loads of apts out this way. You might want to get an apartment locator service or pull up the list UTSA has on their website and look for any in Boerne. About a 15 min ride to the north of UTSA main campus. There are lots of houses for rent also. The area around the school is nice and for the most part pretty quite. We live one exit away on the freeways and no wild parties here in this neighborhood. We lived in the Highlands on UTSA blvd and it was quite and they are on the UTSA shuttle rt. The only reason I mention this is cause parking at UTSA is really hard (no really really hard) There are some new apts La Mirage down the street on UTSA Blvd that look really nice. The area is a shoppers mecca but not alot of nightclubs in the immediate area. You can go into the downtown older hoods that are cheaper but on a bad day the commute would be long as they are working on the freeway or you could plan to take alot of classes at uTSA downtown campus. if you want to PM mail me do so and I can help you out with some links and such.

GL

[jimbobvandy]

I agree with Neddy. UTSA is in a great part of the city. You will be hard pressed to find thugs and drugs over there. UTSA is on the edge of the city and it doesn't take long to get out to the middle of nowhere. I think you'll love it. My wife and I are going to move back to the Boerne area. Don't know about apartments that far out, but you may be able to find a reasonable rental house. Good luck.

[neddy]

Boerne has a fair number of apt complexes these days so you should find something without to much trouble. I tell ya to head out that way cause its country life pretty close to the city. Nice and quiet out there.

[fierce_flawless]

I second Boerne if you don't mind driving.

What about the UTSA downtown campus? Would that suit your needs for a bit? If so then the housing options get cheaper anyway and the drive time becomes nothing.

Would you mind sharing your price range?

[melacort]

You may want to try apartment guide or for rent websites. You can see floor plans and all kinds of info on the properties. Everyone is right the area is nice and Borene is great. I myself, would probably stay in town. You will love San Antonio.

[John Gillette]

flawless: around 600. a month, I've heard the utilities are very high. I've never had an electric bill over 50.00 and I run AC constantly in summer, I was told those days will be over as San Antonio is much more expensive for AC.

I've looked at an apartment rating site and have read mostly bad reviews, although I have no way to know if they are true. One thing that concerns me is crime. San Antonio police department is great about posting crime for the city, basically just type in an address and all the crimes in the last month or so show up. There seems to be a lot of crime for most complexes I've typed in. I've only tried a few, was hoping for some leads if that is possible.
I've had friends who were from Texas, San Antonio and moved to Illinois, they always said how much better Texas was. They also said that crime was much more common there, but it was mostly gangs. So much conflicting info. I am very positive about moving, I'm a history major and had relatives involved in Texas founding, Austin colony, also the only Illinois vol. at the Alamo was related on the Whitley side. So I am very exited, just don't want to put my girlfiend in a bad neighborhood...as it was my coaxing that is putting us in Texas.
Thanks everyone for the help.

[210]

John, let me be frank.

There are bad people in every city, town, township and what not.

Crimes happen in most of those places.

What you need to do is not live in a state of fear over that. In general most cities are safe, some more than others. Of course they will have your pocket areas where crime is just plain bad.

But more people die from heart diseases and smoking than they do from crime/violence.

Most of the crime you might happen to face in SA will be property. However, you can be proactive and do things to prevent it from happening.

In general you will be safe in SA.