Corpus Area Housing

[Rugby_Guy]

What are the ideal locations and what neighborhoods should I stay away from? I have a 1 year old son and my wife will be staying at home, so a place where he can play in the yard relatively safely. Ive seen a lot about living on the island with other SNAs, but not much geared toward the married folks. Thanks in advance.

 

[Leetwo]

You'll get a brief when you check in to the wing about places to stay away from. I was told anything north of Staples and the downtown area were poor places to live. When you get here, check out the bulletin board in the wing building; there's usually a couple houses advertised for rent there.

 

[Rugby_Guy]

I was hoping to have two or three possible places lined up so we could sign a lease the day we arrive. I've got a 1 year old son, so I'd like to get a place and get moved in pretty quickly.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Generally speaking anything south of the SPID and east of the CTX will probably be okay. The further west you get the more 'suburban' until the cow-pasture developments become actual cow pastures.

Look on militarybyowner.com. Had great luck finding rentals there.

 

[JollyGood]

Give the NASCC housing office a call (Ph# 361-961-3336) and see if they have any places off-base that fit what you want. That's how I found my place in Primary.

For anything on-base, there is a pretty long waiting list for a 2 bedroom but there might be some availability for 3 bedroom places. Downside is that it will take your entire BAH for the 3 bedroom.

 

[Uncle Fester]

By the time to get to the front of a wait-list for base housing, you'll probably be done with Primary.

Anyway, there are some areas where it's worth going for base housing, because it's as nice as out in town, or living on the economy is really expensive, or both; Key West and Pt Mugu come to mind. CC isn't one of them.

 

[zippy]

Live on the island. Avoid the Bluff.

Many houses for rent on the island only have signs in front so it's going to take some driving around on your part to potentially find a place you're happy with. You'll likely have down time when you check in to TW-4, and will be getting TLA. Use them wisely and start searching immediately on day one if you haven't found a place by then.

 

[TimeBomb]

Don't discount base housing entirely. My son was able to roll into a 2BR one immediately on arrival, as were several of his friends from undergrad. He also got to avoid the gate traffic and sleep in an extra few minutes on those early brief days. Add in the safety factor for your wife and child and it may be worth checking out. Might want to give them a call and see what things look like in the time frame when you'll be starting up.
R/

 

[MattWSU]

I have a friend with a 1-year-old and a wife and they live comfortably on the island. Check out http://padre-islandrentals.com/.

 

[Deere1450]

I have a friend with a 1-year-old and a wife and they live comfortably on the island. Check out http://padre-islandrentals.com/.

+1

 

[Uncle Fester]

Any idea if CC base housing is open to GS? Starting my job with Customs there next summer. Some bases will do that, albeit you go to the bottom of the list after all the uniformed fellows.

What I said notwithstanding, I'm taking a big pay hit for the first year in the civil service...Ensign money with grownup bills.

 

[zippy]

Any idea if CC base housing is open to GS? Starting my job with Customs there next summer. Some bases will do that, albeit you go to the bottom of the list after all the uniformed fellows.

What I said notwithstanding, I'm taking a big pay hit for the first year in the civil service...Ensign money with grownup bills.

If it's been privatized then yes, it should be possible. Your best bet is to call the housing office.

I know what you mean about the GS pay cut. The GS Job I interviewed for was a 10% increase in pay with a 238% increase in taxes once I'm a civilian so a take home pay cut.

Looks like most of the JOs I know will have to take a 50k pay cut their first year in transition for having FOSx2. Good thing there's a severance.

 

[JollyGood]

Any idea if CC base housing is open to GS? Starting my job with Customs there next summer. Some bases will do that, albeit you go to the bottom of the list after all the uniformed fellows.

What I said notwithstanding, I'm taking a big pay hit for the first year in the civil service...Ensign money with grownup bills.

The on-base housing is PPV. The waiting list for 2 bedroom is very very long. The 3 Bedroom not so much.

 

[irish28]

I'm not familiar with on base stuff but Island Life is great. Here's a little map I found helpful to visualize everything- http://www.primary-post.com/#!corpus-approach/pqkvw

 

[Rugby_Guy]

So I got on the wait list, I'm #12 for a 3 bedroom and #23 for a 2 bedroom on base. Not too keen on losing all my BAH for a three bedroom, so if that's all they have when I get close to showing up, I'll have to find something else out in town.