stefaniedurbin

A big "THANK YOU" to everyone who posted advice. I am thinking now that it will either make sense for us to just rent (either a condo or a house) or buy an affordable condo near rice. I think I am leaning towards the renting. From time to time I have seen some nice homes for lease around Rice for between 750-1400+. This might be our best bet considering (as one poster mentioned) there is a big chance we will need to move after my husband graduates. 7575 Kirby is nice huh? Also, I'd be thrilled if one of the Braeswood Park condo's with the large fenced green space went on lease. I can only hope.

My husband and I are moving to Houston this summer. We don't know much about Houston but will be transfering because he was accepted to a Ph.D program at Rice. U. (never visited, I'm from Boston, he's from S. Oregon) I will be teaching high school, probably HISD. We don't have any children yet but have an active dog and we're tired of apartment life so would like to buy a house at least a few months after we move to Houston. It seems like most of the homes we could afford (we will have about 20k for a down payment) and are close to Rice (under 2 miles) are across 288 in Riverside terrace, Wilmoth subd., etc. Mostly zip codes 77004 or 77021. Just by looking at HAR.com and ziprealty (etc.) I've noticed that there seems to be (at least on paper) a huge increase in crime stats. For example, on ziprealty they show a graph that shows these areas to have crime rates that are near 400, with 100 being the national average. Is it possible that the SFR areas I'm looking at have a lower crime rate and the apt/town-home areas have higher rates? I'm living in Tokyo now where I feel safe walking my dog past midnight so safety is important. However, I know we will have to make some sacrifices by choosing to live inside the loop near rice and not being able to afford places west of Rice (like West U.) Any opinions? Are there any other safer neighborhoods that sometime sell for under 140k that are about 2m or less from Rice? Also, if financing goes smoothly what is the avg time it takes to close a house deal? Here are the MLS numbers of some homes I'm interested in so far (though I think they will be gone by August...) 8855715 3205 CHARLESTON 1913058 2605 ARBOR ST 6948117 3010 SOUTHMORE BLVD 4871043 2619 ROSEWOOD ST {{{Also, from the other posts about these areas I've noticed that some people think race makes a difference in what kind of opinion they give soo... I'm half Japanese/half caucasian, my husband is caucasian. }}} Thank you! (((ps. If anyone knows anything about how prevalent dog stealing is in Houston (from backyards) can you tell me??)))