Neighborhoods within Austin (Houston, San Antonio, Paris: renting, condos, crime)

[MIBS98]

I have been doing a lot of research on this board and have found quite a lot of useful information. Thanks to everyone who keeps posting. From a "where should I live" standpoint, there seems to be loads on what I would consider "suburbs" like Lakeway, Falconhead, RR, etc. Not as much on the city itself.

As in an earlier post I made, we are moving this summer from Bangkok to Texas. I run an Asia-Pacific focused advisory firm here but have been looking to move the family back home to the US for a year or so and as part of that, have built up a new company that is a JV with my current company and a new partnership that includes me. The US partners are all in the San Antonio/Austin area so we decided to make Austin the HQ. That said, the nature of the business is such that I don't necessarily have to be in Austin so long as I am within a few hours. So, we had Austin at the top of our list, started to consider San Antonio but threw it out and are thinking about Houston (where we have lived before).

Anyway, I digress. Both my wife and I have always lived in cities in the urban center. I grew up in Chicago while she grew up in Seoul. We have together lived in Seoul, Singapore, Paris, London, Houston and Bangkok. We have always lived in the center, even in Houston. While Houston is not urban in the sense of the other cities, we were well inside the loop so had easy access to everything the city had to offer. Based on my time in Austin, I would call it a bit similar to Houston in that the city is not "urban walkable" per se, but being close to the middle is nice.

We have kids (7 and 5) and are resigned to private schools if we are not in Eanes, LT, RR or similar school district. In terms of city center, we have spent time in Westlake and Tarrytown. Both are quite pricey, though. I have not been able to familiarize myself with other neighborhoods. If we are paying for private schools, we probably have to limit ourselves to $500k or so on a house. Looking min 3 bdrm. We tend to like newer homes, we always struggle with things that were built in the 1930s and haven't been renovated recently. Neither one of us is much for being a fixer-upper. What other neighborhoods within the center ought we be looking at? For those familiar with Houston, we lived near the Montrose area and were perfectly happy there in a townhouse under $500k. We will of course look at crime stats, but if the neighborhood is generally pretty decent, we tend to feel quite safe given where we are from. Our preference is city center, but if we cannot find something that fits then we are already well armed for looking at areas outside the city thanks in large part to this forum.

[orangetravelerJP]

Sounds to me like you could consider buying or renting one of the many condos that have recently been built in the downtown area. I am fairly certain that some of them are large enough to accommodate a family. There's not a lot of new housing near the downtown area other than condos but if you were willing to take a chance on a renovated home, you could start looking in Travis Heights, South Congress, Clarksville, Rosedale, Brentwood, or Hyde Park areas. Those are places with homes that seem to feel a bit more urban (in Austin terms) than some of the other neighborhoods that you mentioned and seem to be safe. No idea about the schools but you mentioned you could go the private school route if the public schools don't seem to be a good fit for your kids. Other areas that have some concentrations of restaurants and some local shops seem to be along South Lamar or South First, north of about Oltorf St, and along Manor Rd west of 35 to about Chestnut Ave. In those areas you may be more likely to find some new homes (some may be the dreaded McMansions) in established neighborhoods.

[kiacook]

You know what we really need in downtown or the Central area that I don't think we have are row house condos. The narrow format is a better use of space than single family homes, but the multistory layout allows for some backyard space that is more suitable to families. I'm not sure if our zoning doesn't support this kind of build but I've seen it in the revitalizing (new build) downtown areas in other cities.

[TexasHorseLady]

If you'd consider not new, but already renovated/remodeled, you might look in the Barton Hills/Zilker area. Quite a few houses in that area have been entirely redone (while still maintaining their external relationship to the neighborhood), there are some new infill houses, and some should be within your price range. Five minutes from downtown, close to restaurants, shopping, etc., and a good place to raise a family. Crestview/Brentwood/Allandale north would work as well, for the same reasons - older homes that have been remodeled so all that's done for you, or new home infill.

However, I'm thinking, also, you might be interested in an area off of 2222/Mopac. Not right downtown, but 20 minutes away, between Mopac and 360 so you can go either way to get where you need to go. Again, not new, but very nice houses in very good shape.