For the fifty to sixty thousand employees that work in Houston’s Medical Center, it will become much more difficult to find affordable real estate, and apartments in the near future. This is not only from new commercial construction, which will increase the number of employees needed, but the lack of development in the Houston apartment industry. This will cause many new employees to seek housing to purchase or lease much further away in adjacent Brazoria county and other Houston suburbs.

Currently apartment communities have been slowly raising their prices for monthly rentals up to forty percent of what they were charging two years ago. This is in reaction to their units being at or over the ninety percent capacity mark. This phenomenon has been plaguing many cities in the United States recently, since the home mortgage fall out that occurred from 2007 through 2010. Ironically, those that cannot be approved for a home mortgage any longer will have just as much trouble in being accepted for a lease on a home or apartment as property owners have upped their minimum requirements on leasing.

Fortunately, there is a high turn over on real estate in the Medical Center area, that includes condominiums, town homes, single-family dwellings, and apartments because many of these renters are only in Houston to perform the required residencies in their chosen field of healthcare. They then move on to various locations all over the U.S. once their training is completed. This creates a niche industry in real estate much like in areas where college housing is needed such as the Bryan College Station Texas area that caters to Texas A&M.

As the prices for square footage rise, the need for roommates, or even in some cases having two families live in one rental home may be necessary to pay for the convenience of living in the Medical Center itself. This is a very common scenario in California currently as the cost to live in that state makes it impossible for the average head of household to afford monthly mortgage or rent payments.

There are a number of health professionals that do not mind the long commutes, and will choose to live in areas as far away as Katy, and The Woodlands. This makes for a lengthy stop and go drive in to work every morning, which can take over one hour in congested traffic. Nevertheless, for the doctors and nurses in training who work for periods of twenty four to seventy two hours at a time, having a home in close proximity to work is almost dictated, as their discretionary time really does not exist.