what part of town are you going to commute to for work? have you considered Westlake? or Northwest hills? Alandale / Shoal Creek area is pretty central.
I live in Rollingwood and love the convenience...I moved from Midtown Houston to Austin about a year ago and haven't looked back...just a great town with tons to do..the biggest downside is Houston has so many more international restaurants whereas Austin is pretty ho hum outside of the Texas staples... Rollingwood also falls in the Eanes school district so you get the best of both worlds - close to Austin and great schools. Btw jayz, didn't you go to Penn? I was class of '99....
You have to consider that the outer parts of town are still much closer in than, say, Spring is to downtown Houston. I live in Round Rock. With no traffic, I can get to downtown Austin in 20 minutes on 35. In rush hour, it would be more like 35 minutes. That said, the area you're mentioning is west of the "Y". That area can be pretty bad in rush hour.
This. And it's about to get much worse. The entire "Y" (and sections of 71/290 through Oak Hill) are about to be under massive reconstruction. Which, by Austin standards, means it will be completed sometime in 2046 (based on the Ben White/35 interchange). Avoid.
if i could live anywhere in austin it would be barton hills. you are essentially downtown, but that neighborhood has its own thing going on - and barton springs, zilker park, alamo drafthouse, tons of restaurants and the greenbelt all w/in a mile radius would really make it easy to keep austin weird brah! before i bought in da 45 i was living in french place - i loved it there and would have loved to have stayed, but its quite expensive. my house was a 60 year old piece of crap, but its valued at like $375.
Off-topic, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you typed this on an iPhone. Am I right? :grin:
yes, people are understating the commute. Round rock and other places to downtown with no traffic is completely different than when it rains and its rush hour. You sound like you don;t want that so stay close since it appears you can afford it. Anything in the Eanes school district is superior to austin so factor that in large Barton springs, tarryton, clarksville, allendale, rollingwood(?) etc. anything in town is great (aisd though) If I were you I would pick some thing in Westlake or off 360 but dont go too far west of 360 to stay within the commute time (eanes schools) there is also the southwest part of town like Travis country and Circle C areas (aisd though) I wouldnt go north past NW hills or the arboretum area, if you are going to stretch your commute, go West
We FINALLY got out of San Antonio and moved to the Austin area in December and love it here. Traffic is pretty beastly, though. I really underestimated the level of suckage on the highways: bumper to bumper beyond 7pm? Ouch.
I can't understand how anyone wouldn't want to move to that part of Texas. I've lived in the Houston area my whole life, and I can't get to Central Texas fast enough. My wife and I love it up there. Congrats on the relocation JZ! I'm jealous!
Don't think I ever responded to this, it's so late I might just ping you with an email. Yes, I was class of 02 officially at Penn. And... Right on. So we've really been focused on what the realtors call 8e. I'm in Austin now, but still haven't figured out housing, so staying with family in Dripping Springs (have to drive past the Y every day on the commute; giving me a good sense of why to avoid it). I just can't bear the thought of spending good dough on a nice house say somewhere else and then potentially sending kids to private school. I'm not a private school snob or anything, and many Austin ISD areas do at least have solid elementary schools, from what I gather, but it's not clear what will happen to all those schools, and the middle and high schools really don't rank that well. So I'd rather pay up to find a place in Eanes district we can call home for quite a while. 8e includes Rollingwood (looking at you Dream Sequence), which we absolutely love.... BUT, apparently people buying in Rollingwood forgot we're still quasi in a recession. It's got to be one of the hottest sub-markets in the country. Pretty much everything is going under contract within a month, and most stuff within a week. I got outbid on a house last week that went pending its 4th day on the market - we didn't love it, but liked it, so bid what I thought was fair value considering work still needed to be done, and got outbid by someone effectively bidding ask. It's kind of ridiculous, and very troubling, as the wife is REALLY locked in on that area. I guess we'll wait and see what pops up... I guess some of the really high end stuff is staying on the market for a while - I don't mind paying up for Rollingwood area, but can't afford any more than 3,000 sf there so that takes me out of the market for a lot of stuff. Everything 3,000 and under moves like lighting. Anyway, trying to figure out radio stations (yes some of us still use old school radio). Looking for suggestions for sports talk radio (1300, 104.9 I think?), list of better music stations (my taste ranges from indie alt rock to hip hop - pretty much have pop, Justin Bieber crap), what is NPR?
also factor in leander isd, its real good and has some weird lines. I think it stretches down to 2222 area. so you might consider that as well. for sports talk its pretty bad these days. 1300 or 104.9/1530 combo (depending on where you are and your antenna you can pick up houston stuff -this helps when you get sick of longhorn talk)
KGSR 93.3 for the hipster stuff. Used to be more Texas based music...still better than the drivel that 101.5, 96.7, etc. put out. You can get 740 am most days for Astros games when 1300 am is playing the UT co-ed intramural water polo match instead. KUT 90.5 is your NPR and indie-alt station wrapped in one...
no love for the east side? it's developing quickly... for a family, i love the new mueller development. the austin urban rail project is slated to run right through it, the houses are awesome (if close together), there's a beautiful park, great community feel... seriously consider it, the other parts of town are pretty saturated and pricey for what you actually get. for a young family, i still believe the east side is safe enough while providing great potential for an investment home. i lived off of cherrywood during senior year of high school and found it to be a really nice older neighborhood, and currently live in northeast hills. the best part about living on the east side is the traffic. i always can make it downtown in 10 minutes via 183/cesar chavez, or manor rd, or 51st/I-35, or springdale/mlk. need to jump to houston? i'm less than 5 minutes from 290. 78723 represent!
tarrytown is the name, and yes it is very nice. i lived in a condo right off enfield about a block from mopac for a little over a year and absolutely loved the location. pretty pricey neighborhood (comparable to west u imo) but it's just outside of downtown and w/in walking distance to town lake/zilker park. i worked in the middle of downtown austin at the time and the commute was never more than 10 mins and i never had to touch mopac (or any freeway) to get there. i'll also agree with baqui that the far west area should definitely be under consideration... a little further out on mopac but the homes are nice and the prices much more friendly. my parents bought my brother and sister a house in the north hyde park area around 51st st. and it is awesome over there, lots of cool little shops and restaurants, less students then hyde park/west u area, more moderate prices, but your commute to downtown would maddening. no real way to get there other than hopping on 35 or taking guadalupe or lamar. you'd go insane. my favorite area is probably the travis heights area but prices there are steep (think montrose).
Where are you talking about? A friend of a friend just got held up on east 6th at gun point 2 nights ago. Another friend lives further north a little east of the Mueller development and they have had multiple car and house break ins. I'm in 78749 and love it. I'm 5-10 minutes from downtown, hop on 71 when I have to go to Houston and rarely if ever have to deal with I-35. The schools in the area are good too.
for safety, i felt really comfortable in the triangle bordered by I-35, airport, manor rd. although i live northeast of mueller, haven't had any problems with break-ins or burglary. have heard neighborhood meetings mention them, but nothing an alarm system and common sense (no visible ipods or phones) can't help to minimize. the gunpoint thing is rare, i think. you don't hear of shootings or agg assault in town very much.
