Apartment budget for big law in Houston Forum

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hal471

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Apartment budget for big law in Houston

Post by hal471 » Tue Jun 08, 2021 10:06 am

Hi, entering big law in Houston and am wondering if anyone has advice about where to live or budget. My partner is moving with me but makes around $30K a year and won't be contributing to rent at first.

I'm not sure how much is reasonable to spend or what other first years do. I want to live on the light rail, and I like the museum district and midtown and have seen rents for places that I like ranging, for a two bedroom, from $1900 to $2400. Is this around what others spend on rent?

Any other advice about neighborhoods / places on the light rail would be welcome, and thanks in advance.

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blair.waldorf

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Re: Apartment budget for big law in Houston

Post by blair.waldorf » Tue Jun 08, 2021 10:34 am

I spend $1300 for a 800 square foot one bedroom with an extra room (too small to be a bedroom and there is no wall between it and the living room) that I use as a home office. I'm in the Heights. It's big enough for two people, even with WFH - we have the office room and another desk in the living room. With remote work being more common moving forward, we will likely upgrade to a two bedroom eventually (but only because we would have two people contributing to rent - we would stay with the one bedroom if not).

hal471

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Re: Apartment budget for big law in Houston

Post by hal471 » Tue Jun 08, 2021 12:59 pm

Thanks - will look at the heights and good to know you've got a good space for much lower.

CiscoFlow

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Re: Apartment budget for big law in Houston

Post by CiscoFlow » Sun Jun 13, 2021 6:45 am

Sorry to hijack the thread. I'm planning to move to Houston in a remote working role (California biglaw). The firm has an office in downtown and my plan is to work 3 days in the office, 2 days WFH.

I have a family and we really liked the look of Sugar Land. How realistic is this when working Biglaw hours? The big selling point of Houston for us is low taxes and the affordable suburban lifestyle (the firm is flexible about where we relocate). I am happy to travel to and from the office outside of rush hour - Google Maps says its a 30 minute trip door to door. Many thanks.

singer2001

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Re: Apartment budget for big law in Houston

Post by singer2001 » Wed Jul 21, 2021 5:41 pm

CiscoFlow wrote:
Sun Jun 13, 2021 6:45 am
Sorry to hijack the thread. I'm planning to move to Houston in a remote working role (California biglaw). The firm has an office in downtown and my plan is to work 3 days in the office, 2 days WFH.

I have a family and we really liked the look of Sugar Land. How realistic is this when working Biglaw hours? The big selling point of Houston for us is low taxes and the affordable suburban lifestyle (the firm is flexible about where we relocate). I am happy to travel to and from the office outside of rush hour - Google Maps says its a 30 minute trip door to door. Many thanks.
Sugarland is going to be an hour commute each day if you leave after 7am or before 7pm. I personally just put on a podcast when I was doing this in Houston (live in LA now and same thing applies) but some people find that it grinds their soul to dust. If you dislike traffic, don't live in Sugarland. If you're on a biglaw salary go to piney point place, you'll get to downtown in 15 minutes with no traffic and maybeeeee 30 at rush hour and can find a nice place that's still very affordable depending on what you're looking for. Personally, the appeal of Houston suburbs seems to be the McMansion rather than just having a nice affordable house. You can buy/rent something that's nice and plenty large enough for a family inside the loop fairly easily on a teacher's salary, let alone a Biglaw one.

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Re: Apartment budget for big law in Houston

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:56 pm

How much more convenient is it to live downtown as opposed to 10-15min outside (as in Heights, Montrose, etc.)?

houstontx1000

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Re: Apartment budget for big law in Houston

Post by houstontx1000 » Sat Aug 14, 2021 10:33 pm

singer2001 wrote:
Wed Jul 21, 2021 5:41 pm
CiscoFlow wrote:
Sun Jun 13, 2021 6:45 am
Sorry to hijack the thread. I'm planning to move to Houston in a remote working role (California biglaw). The firm has an office in downtown and my plan is to work 3 days in the office, 2 days WFH.

I have a family and we really liked the look of Sugar Land. How realistic is this when working Biglaw hours? The big selling point of Houston for us is low taxes and the affordable suburban lifestyle (the firm is flexible about where we relocate). I am happy to travel to and from the office outside of rush hour - Google Maps says its a 30 minute trip door to door. Many thanks.
Sugarland is going to be an hour commute each day if you leave after 7am or before 7pm. I personally just put on a podcast when I was doing this in Houston (live in LA now and same thing applies) but some people find that it grinds their soul to dust. If you dislike traffic, don't live in Sugarland. If you're on a biglaw salary go to piney point place, you'll get to downtown in 15 minutes with no traffic and maybeeeee 30 at rush hour and can find a nice place that's still very affordable depending on what you're looking for. Personally, the appeal of Houston suburbs seems to be the McMansion rather than just having a nice affordable house. You can buy/rent something that's nice and plenty large enough for a family inside the loop fairly easily on a teacher's salary, let alone a Biglaw one.
Where exactly in the loop are we talking about affording a decent house on a teachers salary? Maybe in the hood.

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Re: Apartment budget for big law in Houston

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Aug 16, 2021 12:40 pm

How much should I expect to pay for a nice place in the loop? Or a nice place right downtown?

Ultramar vistas

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Re: Apartment budget for big law in Houston

Post by Ultramar vistas » Mon Aug 16, 2021 3:06 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Aug 16, 2021 12:40 pm
How much should I expect to pay for a nice place in the loop? Or a nice place right downtown?
Renting? Buying? Multi-family apartment or garage apartment? Sharing with people in a townhome? Townhome to yourself? What amenities do you want? What do you consider to be “nice”?

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Re: Apartment budget for big law in Houston

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Aug 17, 2021 12:21 pm

Renting, nice as in clean/safe/maybe newish, not looking for super luxurious, don’t really care about amenities besides a gym.

Really want to be close to the office downtown but am flexible if it means way less $$

Ultramar vistas

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Re: Apartment budget for big law in Houston

Post by Ultramar vistas » Tue Aug 17, 2021 12:39 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Aug 17, 2021 12:21 pm
Renting, nice as in clean/safe/maybe newish, not looking for super luxurious, don’t really care about amenities besides a gym.

Really want to be close to the office downtown but am flexible if it means way less $$
Downtown’s not necessarily more money, but it’s honestly not that desirable. You’d have to live practically on top of the office to be walking to work (it’s extremely hot and humid or pouring rain a high enough percentage of the time you’ll be going to or from the office that you will want to drive almost no matter what). Some of the high rises can be a little pricey, and especially since the pandemic the downtown scene is pretty drab. The Rice or Market Square are probably the downtown locations that I know of having the most associates living there, so take a look at what’s on offer at the moment to get a sense. Another “downtown” alternative is living at the ballpark locations - those might be a bit cheaper, and have good access to amenities.

Personally if I were a first year again, I’d focus on locations along westheimer in Montrose, or in the heights. Take a look at Yale at Sixth; that’s the kind of level of “nice” that you probably want to aim at, and is very representative of the type of apartments that dominate Houston. Elan Heights is a bit fancier but has a great location.

If you’re more familiar with the area and comfortable with doing a bit more groundwork, there are some great deals on garage apartments in the heights that can vary from fairly shit to really nice, and very cost competitive with the multi-family units because there’s no amenities. People just don’t really know how to price those, so it varies a lot.

Young people like midtown and rice military too.

You could honestly pay anywhere from $1250-3500 depending on your tolerance for the various factors that bring prices down. Just got to look around on google maps, use street view, read reviews and try and get a deal.

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Re: Apartment budget for big law in Houston

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Aug 18, 2021 1:34 am

Thanks a ton! Really appreciate it!

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