Pflugerville, Round Rock housing (Austin, Spring: house, established neighborhood, buying)

[laguna1995]

I have noticed that the housing in Round Rock, and especially Pflugerville, is less expensive than Cedar Park, Steiner Ranch, etc. Is it because they are further from the lakes and hills? Is Pflugerville in an area that doesn't have many hills or greenery around it? More rural? Since I haven't been there to visit yet I don't really know what the difference is between each of the areas. I have been able to find pictures of Steiner Ranch and the Cedar Park areas and they look beautiful with trees and hills around them. I haven't been able to see what Pflugerville/Round Rock look like.

Thanks everyone!!

[musicman107]

You've got it pretty much right, except none of the areas can hardly be called truly 'rural' anymore (with the grrowth.)
Generally speaking, Austin areas east of Intersate 35 tend to be flatter with fewer trees, but you CAN find some hilly areas w/more trees in both Pflugerville, (pron. 'flew ger vill'), and R'Rock, with perhaps more in R'Rock, which straddles I-35. Starting w/that 'generality', combined w/Lake Travis west of Austin, more folks are drawn to the N & W. side of I-35, and hence the general difference in home market prices.
Of those you mentioned, Steiner Ranch is THE most scenic (very scenic hills and closest to Lake Travis), and hence the priciest.
And depending on if and where you work in Austin...the commute:
From R'Rock and Pflugerville, the often atrociuos I-35 is your main route.
From Leander/Cedar Park area, you've got Hwy 183 (also rather congested), Parmer Lane (road 734), road 2222 , and the soon to be opened toll road, Hwy 183A as routes to Austin. (2222 goes directly from Steiner Ranch to Austin.)
For folks moving to Austin area (or anywhere in Texas, for that matter), I can give you some tips for navigating Tex. Education Agency's website for researching how Texas schools are "ranked"/rated against one another acadedmically on an annual basis, using the AEIS (Academic Excellence Indicator System.)
Doing research from the internet is a great start, and I've seen some excellent, helpful posts by Texan helpers familiar with areas about which people are querying, but a recon visit is a must before deciding. And, I'm sure you've read that 3-4 days is not nearly enough to scout all the numerous possibilites within a reasonable distance of Austin.

Originally Posted by laguna1995

I have noticed that the housing in Round Rock, and especially Pflugerville, is less expensive than Cedar Park, Steiner Ranch, etc. Is it because they are further from the lakes and hills? Is Pflugerville in an area that doesn't have many hills or greenery around it? More rural? Since I haven't been there to visit yet I don't really know what the difference is between each of the areas. I have been able to find pictures of Steiner Ranch and the Cedar Park areas and they look beautiful with trees and hills around them. I haven't been able to see what Pflugerville/Round Rock look like.

Thanks everyone!!

[gigi927]

Musicman, i'd love to get your tips on navigating the TEA website...it's kind of overwhelming. We're set on living in the Leander school district since we've already bought a house there, but it would be helpful to be able to make more sense of the data on the site. Thanks!

[musicman107]

I hope this works for y'all, so here' a try.
Someone let me know if my instructions do not work for you.
(I'll probably have to insert some spaces in url's so they won't be cut...)
http : // www. tea . state . tx . us
1) Click on "Accountability" on the left.
2) Then click top link, "AEIS" (Academic Excellence Indicator System)...NOT a flawless system by any means, but it'll give you an overall idea about particular school districts AND individual campuses w/in each district.
3) Click "AEIS Reports for 2004-05" (latest data available)
4) Now you have to select your "District"...Warning: name of district does not always match up with city; e.g. All of Cedar Park, some of northern Travis County, including Steiner Ranch area, are in Leander ISD)
5) Next, be prepared to view a mammoth PDF file.
Scrolling down this file, you'll be overwhelmed with data!
To discover TEA's "ranking" of an individual campus, keep scrolling until you find a single page with "ranking" for the individual campus...
TEA's rankings, are, from Highest to lowest:
"Exemplary", "Recognized", "Academically Acceptable", "Academically Unacceptable." Names of rankings should speak for themselves, however, as TEA's system is quite complicated, there are quite a number of school campuses that for example, would have been ranked as "Recognized" instead of simply "Acceptable" simply due to literally 2 or 3 students out of the entire campus being a little "out of the norm."....Hence, there are some very good "Acceptable" campuses.
Let me know if this helps!!

Originally Posted by gigi927

Musicman, i'd love to get your tips on navigating the TEA website...it's kind of overwhelming. We're set on living in the Leander school district since we've already bought a house there, but it would be helpful to be able to make more sense of the data on the site. Thanks!

[musicman107]

I tried following my own instructions, and looks like TEA's modified it a bit.
After getting through "AEIS Reports for 2004-05 'now online'...
you've got some new options..
On left side, you may wish to select "District Reports",
then select printable PDF version, instead of HTML,
then (trying to recall....)...select "All campuses" or whatever it is for the entire district report..the mammoth file...unless'n, of course, you know the name of the "Individual Campus" for which you are seeking data...haven't tried that yet, but should provide a quicker, less lengthy file if you're looking for a single campus.

[ocmom]

Laguna/Gigi,

I've checked out the local ISD's on their websites which was helpful but I've found greatschools.net to be extremely helpful. They have breakdowns of just about any information you could want from test scores and teacher experience to diversity and economic backgrounds for each school within the respective districts. There's even an option that allows you to compare the schools within the districts. I think you can look up some of the information for free but to see everything and use all the functions it was $16.95 for a one-year subscription. I used it when researching private schools for my daughter last year (before we decided to relocate) and it's been worth every penny. Hope this helps!

[gigi927]

Thanks ocmom, I had used greatschools.net before on a free basis and maybe I should consider the year subscription to get additional info. Thanks!

and musicman, I think i was able to find the specific file for the school my kid will be attending...thanks!

[laguna1995]

Thanks for the help Musicman and for all of the school info. Congrats Gigi for closing on your house. You'll have to let us all know how the move goes. Are you going to be having a company move you, or are you doing it yourself?

OCmom-Have you decided on what area you are going to move to yet? We haven't made our relo trip yet and it is great hearing the reports from other Cali residents when they get back from their TX trips. Did you see any of the shopping centers/malls when you were in Austin? I wonder if there are any places like Fashion Island or Irvine Spectrum there that are open-air style shopping.

[ocmom]

Laguna,

We've pretty much settled on Dripping Springs but will decide for sure on our next visit in November. Since we were there for only 3 days and with the kids (4 of them), I didn't get to check out the shopping scene. I did, however, notice that they're putting in what looks like a pretty upscale mall near Lakeway. Of course I checked to make sure there's a Costco nearby and there are in fact 2 of them!

We're planning to take in some of the entertainment downtown on the next visit (just hubby and I) and hopefully do some shopping. I'll be sure to let you know what I find!

[gigi927]

Originally Posted by laguna1995

Thanks for the help Musicman and for all of the school info. Congrats Gigi for closing on your house. You'll have to let us all know how the move goes. Are you going to be having a company move you, or are you doing it yourself?

OCmom-Have you decided on what area you are going to move to yet? We haven't made our relo trip yet and it is great hearing the reports from other Cali residents when they get back from their TX trips. Did you see any of the shopping centers/malls when you were in Austin? I wonder if there are any places like Fashion Island or Irvine Spectrum there that are open-air style shopping.

Laguna, we decided to have a company move us. THere was just too much going on to do it ourselves!

There is a place called the Arboretum area that has open air shopping. It's more spread out across a few spots in a localized area, and there aren't as many stores as F.I. or the Spectrum. The arboretum is on the NW part of town, though, so if you're looking to live toward Dripping Springs it might be a bit of a drive.

I def. noticed that the areas around Round Rock were more flat and less treeish than other parts of the area. I found NW Austin, Lakeway, etc. to be the hilliest areas we looked at and the SW part of town to be somewhat hilly but not as hilly. I really liked the trees in Circle C Ranch...it has the feel of a very established neighborhood and we liked that (we did not want new construction due to the general tendency for there to be less trees in a subdivision that's new). The area we picked also has lots of trees, and hills! We feel very blessed to have found exactly what we were looking for. I also just found out from the sellers of the house we're buying that there are kids the age of both of my children right next door on either side...we hit the jackpot!