Easy to Love, Easy to Live: 6 Reasons Why Downtown Residents Love Their Neighborhood
Over 9,000 people call the Downtown District home, with those numbers expected to more than double over the next few years. While each has personal reasons for choosing the city’s center as their primary abode, there are common themes continuing to draw new residents into Downtown year after year. Here are just a few.
1. Diversity
Like moths to flame, culture-seekers, urban-dwellers, empty-nesters, singles, families and everyone in between are drawn to Downtown’s density of art, entertainment, dining and access to easy routes into the Museum District and beyond. Their common ground —aside from a desire to live the culture-rich lifestyle—is their lack of homogeneity. The plenitude of perspectives is a concentrated broth from Greater Houston’s larger melting pot.
2. Walkability
Experiencing the city from a feet-on-the-actual-ground view is one of the biggest benefits of living in a pedestrian-friendly, dense area like Downtown. Not having to rely on a vehicle to get you where you need (and want) to go in your daily life is a freedom like no other. The time, energy and money you save from walking can be redirected towards local businesses like that cute neighborhood coffee shop.
3. Accessibility & Proximity
Access is everything and Downtown has it all. The aforementioned culture and walkable areas are just pieces of a larger puzzle. The convergence of all Houston’s major highways: U.S. 59, Interstate 10, Interstate 45 and S.H. 288 mean access extends far into Greater Houston and beyond.
4. Sociability
“Next-door” neighbor has a different meaning when you live in a high-rise. It means you’ll get to know your neighbors on a social level facilitated by proximity and consistency. Because you’ll be coming and going through common areas and frequenting close neighborhood haunts (and so will your neighbors), the likelihood for a friendly conversation—and perhaps even the chance for genuine connection and friendship—is greater. Call-out box:
5. Affordability
According to Zillow, the median home value in Downtown is hovering around $310,000. For comparison, other in-the-Loop neighborhoods came in higher using the same metrics with the Heights averaging $470,000 and Neartown-Montrose at $500,000. Maximum walkability creates the potential to eschew vehicle ownership altogether, creating additional financial flexibility of up to thousands of dollars per month taking into consideration the costs of car payments, insurance, maintenance and parking.
6. Convenience
When everything you need is just downstairs or down the street, life just seems a little easier, a little freer, a little more fun. And ultimately, this is why people love living in Downtown. Life is just more convenient here: Take an elevator up four floors to swim laps on the rooftop pool on a hot summer morning. Drop off dry cleaning downstairs and pick it up the next day in time for that big pitch meeting. Walk to meet friends at a neighborhood bar for happy hour to wind down from the day. Spend weekends exploring new exhibits in Discovery Green instead of mowing the lawn or raking leaves. Ride the METROrail to your office every morning (or heck, maybe even walk!) and spend the time catching up on a podcast instead of melting down in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Convenience is important because it opens windows of time that wouldn’t otherwise exist. Time that can be spent enjoying, experiencing and living a life that’s full of culture, friends, neighbors and connection to the heartbeat of Houston.