Short-term Housing, 3300 block Richmond Ave. (Houston, Bellaire: extended stay, sublets, apartment complexes)

[renorich1950]

My wife has accepted a position at a business in the 3300 block of Richmond Ave. This is at the intersection of Buffalo Speedway. This has all happened very quickly and right now she is need of an apartment sublet or other short-term housing option from June 7 for several months. She won't have a car at first, so walking distance or public transportation is a must. I am looking on craigslist but it doesn't help that we are not familiar with the locations and neighborhoods.

Any ideas or leads?

Thanks in advance. We're looking forward to making Houston our home. I plan to move out from Reno in several months.

[potato head8]

Unfortunately, I don't know of any sublets personally.

Regarding the area, I live not too far from that location, and I would say most of that area is good. Buffalo Speedway & Richmond is in the Upper Kirby district, and the district north of US59 is sandwiched by River Oaks, Highland Village, and Greenway Plaza. There are several apartment complexes on Buffalo Speedway and Kirby, but I feel almost any area within that zip code will be fine. A quick search shows at least 3 apartment complexes at that intersection. The nearest grocery store is either the Whole Foods at Kirby & Richmond or Central Market at Westheimer & Weslayan (there is also a Kroger & HEB south of US59 at Buffalo Speedway & Westpark).

Regarding public transportation, unfortunately, I am not at expert on that either. There appears to be a few lines that run near there on the METRO system map. Specific bus schedules can be accessed here.

I hope this helps somewhat.


Edit. I would speculate that more sublets might be found south of the Medical Center near Holly Hall Street, as many graduate students live there, and may be away for the summer. The area can be hit or miss though.

[Malvie]

That is broadly the "Greenway Plaza" area. The good news is, the 25 bus runs up and down Richmond, which puts "The Galleria" or "Galleria area" in play. From the intersection of Richmond and Buffalo Speedway, she can take the 75 bus to the Galleria and change for any of the westbound buses.

No, getting around on the bus in Houston isn't ideal---but it is what it is, thousands of people ride it safely daily, and it is a large and relatively easy to use network. Purchase a "Q" card at a nearby grocery store (most sell them). You can refill online with debit or credit card. I can ride the bus to work; I can pick it up one block from my house in West Houston and make only one change, downtown. Now, that's 19 miles, Ihave to go all the way through downtown, and the trip takes an hour and a half, but it CAN (and if gas gets to $6 a gallon, WILL) be done. A 15-20 minute bus ride? No big deal.

You can craigslist search "Greenway Plaza" "Upper Kirby" "Galleria Area" "Montrose" "Medical Center" "Museum District" "Uptown" "Midtown" for sublets. ("Westchase", while doable, is pretty far for her purposes. "Heights" is a great area, lots of garage apartments (apartments over a detached garage in back of a home), but again, you're now talking about transfers on the bus). "West University Place" and "Bellaire" (note: "Bellaire Blvd" is a very long street, which does run through Bellaire but is not limited to that city; I'm talking about the actual city of Bellaire) might possibly have a garage apartment or two left, but those are going to be expensive and hard to find.

Unless the craigslist poster just gives a street address, those are the well-known names for -relatively- safe areas. It gets tricky in "Galleria Area" and "Medical Center", because those areas feature multi-million-dollar neighborhoods next to slummy apartments, and because they're not that well-defined; lots of people hopefully call their property "Galleria" or "Medical Center" when they're pretty far away. Ask how far they are from the bus line, then look it up on the Metro map potatohead provided. Honestly, it's going to be a tradeoff--the further away from the bus line, the more walking, BUT, living directly on Richmond, Westheimer, any of the major thoroughfares is less than optimal.

The good news is, all of those areas feature accessibility (by bus and/or walking) to nice grocery stores, drug stores, cleaners, and lots and lots and lots of restaurants (many). So, she wouldn't have to feel like she was isolated. The other good news for her (bad for us) is that there's not that much rain in summer. There should be, but this summer is starting out like last summer: dry.

There is one of those "executive apartment complexes" in the Galleria, Oakwood at 2300 McCue (google "Oakwood Temporary Housing". That would be a good place for her, if you can afford it (you didn't mention a price).

Good luck, and welcome to Houston!

[Oildog]

There is an extended stay hotel at 59 and Shepard, next to Academy that may not be a bad bet.