Moving to Houston, where don't I want to live?

Question

I was recently accepted to Texas Southern's Law School, my wife is graduating with a chemical engineering degree. We currently live in Utah but she is from Colombia and I am from Pennsylvannia. I know my University is in the center of the city, and I was wondering where the best place to live would be because I hear the traffic is pretty bad. Also or probably a better question is where don't I want to live? What are the bad areas i should stay away from? We will probably rent since we don't own a home and have no money to roll into one.

Answer 1

First of all, congratulations!
I live in Houston and can honestly speak about the traffic. Horrible from all corners trying to go downtown. I would recommend living in the Galleria area which is central Houston and relatively close to your school, but is a little pricey. For a cheaper alternative, I would suggest maybe the memorial city area, by memorial city mall. That area would give you access to Katy Freeway (I-10) and Gessner which leads to Westheimer which provides an alternative to congested morning highway traffic. I would stay away from far from central areas like Willowbrook, Pearland, Alief, Sugarland, Fort Bend, Klein and Pasedena. The cheapest area would have to be Bellaire, which has a special tollway that goes directly downtown with minimal traffic, but you have to subscribe to the Ez-Tag system for your car for access to it.

Answer 2

You will not want to live close to the university.

You may want to look out in Pearland, Clear Lake, or in the Galleria, Montrose, Med Center, or Museum district.

Traffic is traffic in any big city. You get used to it.

Answer 3

I don't know, but your situation looks somewhat similar to mine. I currently live in CA and will be moving to TX in the coming months. My wife is also from the same country. And I'm guessing from your tag that maybe you're former military?? I'm also former military. It's a good question. Wish we could chat more, but don't know your email.