Austin neighborhoods (Cedar Park, West, Meridian: rent, house, landscaping)

[AustinTraveler]

Hi emski,

I would like to help but your question is a little too broad. There are tons of good neighborhoods with parks and good schools. Everything really depends on your budget. If you are moving here without jobs then I would suggest you rent for a while, which I know you said you don't mind doing. Schools won't make a difference for you yet so you really don't need to take that into consideration when renting. Once you know where your husband will be working and you get to know the city better, you will have a better idea of where you want to live.

Once again, budget is the really big factor here.

Good luck!!

[emski]

Thanks!

I guess our budget would be anywhere from $125k to $175k. By the time we get there our soon will be almost 2, so he'll probably be close to getting enrolled in pre-school. My husband will be looking for a job in the finance field (I work from home). Oh, and he's very into paintball, so if anyone knows anything about the local paintball culture, he'd love some info.

Hope this helps. If you need more details, let me know.

[AustinTraveler]

Hi again emski!

With that budget you will have to look at communities well outside of Austin proper and prices are going up every day (sorry). I wish I could steer you toward some of those communities but I honestly don't know much about them. I live in Central Austin just about 5-10 minutes from downtown.

Again, I would go ahead and rent for a while until you know where your husband will be working. You don't want to end up buying a house somewhere north of Austin and then he ends up getting a job downtown or in S. Austin. There are so many communities popping up around Austin that I know you'll find something within a reasonable (whatever that means!) commute to his job. Just my opinion but I would not live in an area where your husband will have to commute using I-35.

Renting in Austin is really easy. There are tons of really nice apartment complexes all over town. Most allow pets too and they offer short-term leases. One of the easiest ways to find a rental is to contact an apartment finder/locator. Just Google Austin Apartments and you'll see plenty of them. You tell them what you're after and in what area and they take you around and show you the apartments. The service is free as they are paid by the apartment complex you end up choosing.

As for paintball, I know there are paintball places around town. Austin has a very young population and I know he'll find plenty of paintball people to play with.

[peanut666]

I would reccomend looking in SouthWest Austin. I have lived in Circle C Ranch for a while now and love it. It is hill country and greenbelt area with lots of mature landscaping. It is an easy 15-20 minute commute to downtown and shopping is very convenient and the traffic is much better than in the north part of Austin. There is a new master planned community going in across from Circle C by the golf course called Meridian. Me and my husband went over there to check it out, for a possible move for ourselves, and its going to be incredible. There are 4 major builders in there including Wilshire, David Weekley and Meritage. They have big lots and lots of greenbelt. In fact, I think it was David Weekley, where all of there lots backed to greenbelt. The prices in the 55' lot section start around 280,000 and then in the 80' lot sections prices are around the 500,000 mark. They said that there was going to be a million dollar state of the art amenity center that will start in the spring. The area is going to be very prestigious!

[musicman107]

Texas Education Agency (TEA) rates individual campuses by their AEIS (Academic Excellence Indicator System) annually...of course, they're usually about a year behind in their reporting....hopefully you'll be able to open the below website....it's a long list of lots of info for each campus in the entire state, listed by district...but key in on ratings: Academically Acceptable (min. stds, I'll abbreviate AA); Academically Unacceptable (AU)...of course, the schools of preference would be "Commended" or "Exemplary"...
Go to:
http://www.tea.state.tx.us website.
Then, click on "Accountability" on left.
Then click on top link with acroynym AEIS in it.
Then click "AEIS Reports for 2004-05 [latest data available]
Then click on "Districts" (Since you're interested in Cedar Park/Leander area, I'l try to direct you to Leander ISD (of which the entire city of Cedar Park is...
LISD covers 200 square miles!)
Forgot what next, but maybe either type in Leander ISD, or scroll until you find Leander ISD.

In any case, if you can get that far, you should have arrived at a humongous PDF to scroll down a LONG ways to find elementary schools, for they are very numerous...although Exemplary and Commended are the highest ratings, a great many of the Academically Acceptable schools are indeed quite good.

Hope this may be of assistance to you.
Again, as a 30 year teacher, and having friends who have taught in the district, I never once even considered teaching in the Austin District....there are too many surrounding safer communities with fewer gang problems, etc....and surrounding school districts with greater numbers of "Commended" and "Exemplary"-rated campuses than does Austin ISD.

I hope this may be of some help to you.... and let me know if you have trouble navigating through my hopefully accurate instructions.
or message me back if you I may be of assistance for any other questions you might have about the whole Central Texas Area!
Welcome the Lone Star State!
Respectfully yours,
Larry

[jessdine]

Hey! We just moved to NOCA! We love it. You can find housing that is affordable and there is still fun things to do. It's not LA but the traffic is a little better and the air is a million times better! (Lived in LA before NOCA)

We took a short term rental in North Austin so we could decide where we wanted to live. (If interseted in where e-mail me and I will tell you the complex) There are a ton of good options it all depends on where you are working and what you like to do. We found a house up here because it is close to a place called the Domain, an office complex and a mall. My hubby's office will be moving there in a year.


We close on our house on Friday and it takes me about 18 minutes to get downtown.

We have a little girl and there is a great Mother's group for NA. Just went to my first meeting today and they were all really cool. Several people just moved here for all of the reasons on moves to Austin.

We also looked in South Austin but it would be a commute to work. There are some great areas there. It all depends on where you are going to work. Comming from LA you might not mind the commute BUT that also might be a reason to leave LA.



Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions. We just did this move so everything is fresh in my mind!

Jessica

[readymade]

Sorry, but what is "NOCA"?

[GANKS]

Make sure you are figuring in the tax man as you budget for your new home. Coming from Seattle, we too were thinking we would be looking at what $500-700K could get us here. Once we realized that Austin has a freaking huge 3% property tax rate average that made us rethink our plan.

Still, you should really get to know the area and commute times to see what fits with your lifestyle. Many of the places mentioned are worth looking but vary with their location to Austin, shopping, schools, etc.

[llkltk]

Originally Posted by peanut666

I would reccomend looking in SouthWest Austin. I have lived in Circle C Ranch for a while now and love it. It is hill country and greenbelt area with lots of mature landscaping. It is an easy 15-20 minute commute to downtown and shopping is very convenient and the traffic is much better than in the north part of Austin. There is a new master planned community going in across from Circle C by the golf course called Meridian. Me and my husband went over there to check it out, for a possible move for ourselves, and its going to be incredible. There are 4 major builders in there including Wilshire, David Weekley and Meritage. They have big lots and lots of greenbelt. In fact, I think it was David Weekley, where all of there lots backed to greenbelt. The prices in the 55' lot section start around 280,000 and then in the 80' lot sections prices are around the 500,000 mark. They said that there was going to be a million dollar state of the art amenity center that will start in the spring. The area is going to be very prestigious!

Are you planning to move to Meridian. We are looking to purchase there in the 55' section. It's a wonderful investment especially with all of the bigger more expensive homes going in. We are looking to buy, live there for 5-7 years and then make a big profit to buy our next home!

[another_hot-day]

Outlaw paintball in Pflugerville