77007 is going to the dogs and you can thank millennials for it
Houston has earned a reputation as a Fido-friendly city in recent years, with the opening of state-of-the-art dog parks, running trails and dog-friendly dining options popping up all over the city.
The city got hip to the idea of allowing diners to bring their pets along five years ago (well ahead of other major cities, such as New York, which is just joining the bandwagon this year).
And the neighborhood leading the pack is the Washington Corridor’s 77007 ZIP code, which has 16 restaurants that officially allow dogs, according to permitting information from the Houston Health Department. Here, you’ll find the traditional go-tos, like a Barnaby’s location, as well as Sunday funday spots like Jimmy’s Ice House.
The 77007 ZIP code ties with Montrose’s 77006, which also has 16 dog-friendly restaurants, in terms of saturation of spots you can bring Spot. But census data show that 77007 has a few other factors going for dog owners that 77006 can’t compete with.
For instance, the Washington Corridor is younger. The census reports that the typical resident here is 34.4 years old — about three years younger than the nation’s median age of 37.4 (and a year younger than the median age in Montrose). But while baby boomers didn’t become pet parents until an average age of 29, millennials are expanding their fur families much earlier — at an average age of 21.
And though people may have waited until they could provide their pets with a fenced-in yard back in the day, those attitudes are changing: 47 percent of millennial pet owners live in an apartment building rather than a house.
That’s great news for pet owners in the Washington Corridor. While only 8.6 percent of the national housing stock consists of buildings with 20 or more units, the rate in 77007 is a whopping 30.8 percent.