looking at downtown now makes me sad. if i wanted to live in houston i would have stayed there! this is the most dramatic comparison i could find, but the 2017 one is already outdated. and whats scary is that even with all the growth we have had, we're not close to done yet. when i moved here in 95 austin was the 36th largest city in the country...we're now 11th!
East Austin has changed a lot since 2011,of course, @DaDakota. There are still rooms to rent in the area near the campus, there has to be, but if that interests you when your son/daughter transfers to UT, you’ll have to be pro-active and jump on whatever you can find that seems suitable. Our kid had no interest in staying in a dorm, it being for the summer anyway (went out of state in the Fall), likely a different situation for you. I assume it’ll be for a full time student. We didn’t want him in a dorm, either. Loads of distractions he didn’t need. A foreign student from Argentina was going home for the summer, didn’t want to lose his room, and did a sub-let. My guess is that students graduating, transferring, or changing addresses will make some available. Cheaper than West Campus, for sure. It was on a nice, tree lined street of old 1 & 2 story houses. A street where I wish we’d purchased a house to rent out as an investment, but missed the boat. Bike riding distance to campus (very easy with an electric bike). Sadly, our excess funds not tied up in investments were flying away to that out of state university I mentioned, or we would have bought a house there. They were certainly available then. Southwest Austin is a world away, isn’t it? “Closer in” all the time, which would be a plus if the traffic on S. Mopac hadn’t become absurdly awful due to criminally bad planning, as you must have noticed. Good luck!
Cool places to live attract people who then attract money. As a flip side I like Austin more now than 10 years ago.
Good lord! I certainly don’t, with all due respect. We live in Southwest Austin, same area DD lives in, and over just the last 2 years, since they completed the tollway down the middle of N. MoPac, the traffic going in both directions from south of 36th to the north, to just north of 360 to the south of the lake has become unbearable. We’ve lived where we are for the last 25 years, and it’s never been remotely this bad. That alone is reason enough to ardently disagree with you, at least for me. Sure, jobs are plentiful, wages have gone up here, but housing costs, both to buy and to rent, have skyrocketed, far out pacing incomes. Our place is paid for, but I don’t envy those trying to buy or rent.
Totally get where you’re coming from. And totally disagree with you as someone that’s kept an eye on Austin for 10-15 years. Right now it’s a nice mix of urban/modern with an undertone of weirdness and fun. I heard it a lot from the locals. How great it used to be and how the culture is giving way to big business (Circuit, hotels, Domain, E7th). I get that argument. I just never really liked that vibe. I would’ve never considered living there before. But I do now. The only issue I have with it honestly is the food lol.
We moved here from Houston in 1980, so I definitely have a different perspective. The city was vastly different then, more so the previous 10-13 years, when I came to Austin frequently for the music, the lakes, and to visit friends. You truly don't know what "weirdness and fun" is, compared to back then. That's, OK, though. I'm glad Austin still has some of that, which we're aware of, and we wouldn't live anywhere else. Not in Texas, certainly. Glad you like it.
That is just freakin insane. I havent been to Austin in about 5 years now and honestly, I just dont really get an urge to. Its just gotten to be too much and too crowded with no elbow room.
Couldn't tell you off hand, but it's been a lot. I protest it every year, which helps. I suggest doing that to anyone that has a house or condo here. If you look around, you can find a comp to throw at them. What really helps us is that I'm so freakin' old. Not all our property taxes are "frozen," but enough to make a noticeable difference.
Having left Austin for Seattle 5 years ago and seeing the homeless problem here, I can tell you that it can and probably will get much worse. It seems like the city leaders in Austin are making the same mistake of trying to be compassionate to "homeless people that are just down on their luck" when it really is a widespread addiction problem in the country. I don't have the answers for it either but it's sad to see that Austin is going this route, I always tell people up here in Washington that Texas would never allow what goes on here.
Next time you’re in Houston go grab a coffee at Tout Suite and let me know if you still think Texas wouldn’t allow that.
Yeah same here. I haven't been back since I moved from Austin over a decade ago. And the worst part is that if you look at the road network, it looks unchanged from the days when I lived there. How is Austin growing at this pace with the same highways and road network that was already getting crowded back then? And the city government seems to lack any leadership focused sustainable urban planning. The planning looks unchanged but the city has exploded with people and growth.
Traffic is horrendous. I rarely go into the city, except for the north side for work. We live to the north east of town. And I frequent Bee Cave / Lakeway, which has changed so much, to visit my folks and spend time @ Lake Travis.
The highway infrastructure was doomed from the very first groundbreaking. Your query is as good as mine on how its still able to handle the mass amount of people touring and moving in.
here is my % increase the last 5 years... 7.0% 1.4% 7.4% 10.2% 9.6% and homeowners insurance over last 5 years... 0.0% -1.4% 13.4% 10.3% 18.8%
I lived in riverside in 2011 for a summer. Had no issues or problems taking the bus everywhere (i didn't have a car at the time) at different times day or night.
I love the north shore of lake travis area. not as congested as 'in town' and I can take the rail in or drive in when I want in 30-45 mins. of course I'm not a college kid riding my bike to school either.
