> if you want a safe, walkable neighborhood close to the city center next to a good elementary school, expensive salons, and several fine sushi places, you will

> if you want a safe, walkable neighborhood close to the city center next to a good elementary school, expensive salons, and several fine sushi places, you will pay a lot. However, in Houston you always at least have the option of buying a cheaper house farther away. Yes if you wait for others to gentrify a neighborhood you'll pay the price. The third option is to take a risk and be an early adopter in an inner city neighborhood. Midtown used to be shotgun shacks that dated back to late 1800s. Now it's a sea of condominiums. East of Downtown (aka EaDo) was post-wwii starter homes and industrial, it too is now townhomes and condos. Third Ward (my neighborhood) was a mix of rental property and retirees and now has high and medium density housing mixed with condos and townhomes which are slowly pressing East towards TSU and U of H. The same happened to Moody Park area and Acres Homes is next.