Any opinions on Sol Austin? (Howe, Cesar Chavez: real estate, house, buying)

[matclain]

Hi, I'm pretty much in agreement with AngloAustin comment. I'm also buying a house in SOL despite I had some doubts about the price/location combo of the floor plan I liked. However I've been leaving in 78702 in the past and hang out many times further east by springdale/shady lane. The location is becoming better with more art studios, farms... and johnson terrasse area itself is a nice safe pocket. Do it, people living there seems very friendly and intellectually open minded.

[homeinatx]

Originally Posted by tfresca

What about the Mueller airport development? Some nice houses there.

I think the people at Mueller have been massively ripped off. As it stands, it is pretty awful. New Urbanism is what was promised. The town center is years way. There is nothing to walk to, except generic big boxness. The design values are atrocious. What you have is basically Circle C on much smaller lots, with no hills, no trees, a community pool or two, much worse schools, in a slightly better location: All the horror of suburbia with none of the charms, and all the difficulties of urban living with none of the walkability or amenities. Contigo is currently the only saving grace. It might get better, but I am not holding my breath, so far a huge wasted opportunity to do something interesting. Sol, at least, looks cool - Mueller, not so much.

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by homeinatx

I think the people at Mueller have been massively ripped off. As it stands, it is pretty awful. New Urbanism is what was promised. The town center is years way. There is nothing to walk to, except generic big boxness. The design values are atrocious. What you have is basically Circle C on much smaller lots, with no hills, no trees, a community pool or two, much worse schools, in a slightly better location: All the horror of suburbia with none of the charms, and all the difficulties of urban living with none of the walkability or amenities. Contigo is currently the only saving grace. It might get better, but I am not holding my breath, so far a huge wasted opportunity to do something interesting. Sol, at least, looks cool - Mueller, not so much.

I would not compare Mueller to Circle C. They do have other restaurants beside Contigo: sandwich, thai, BBQ, etc. An HEB grocery is coming next year. They have bona fide employers at Mueller so you can live and work in the same development. And if having a big box hardware store in the neighborhood is a bad thing I certainly wouldn't complain.

And the appreciation of Mueller homes since it opened has itself justified its investment. The styles and arrangements of homes including apartments and townhouses is another key difference, but keep in mind that Mueller keeps getting better has more phases are completed whereas Circle C has plateaued.

[homeinatx]

Originally Posted by verybadgnome

I would not compare Mueller to Circle C. They do have other restaurants beside Contigo: sandwich, thai, BBQ, etc. An HEB grocery is coming next year. They have bona fide employers at Mueller so you can live and work in the same development. And if having a big box hardware store in the neighborhood is a bad thing I certainly wouldn't complain.

And the appreciation of Mueller homes since it opened has itself justified its investment. The styles and arrangements of homes including apartments and townhouses is another key difference, but keep in mind that Mueller keeps getting better has more phases are completed whereas Circle C has plateaued.

To be fair, Mueller, at least, is not built over an aquifer, and makes a few gestures towards mixed use principles, and does not have the shameful history of Circle C. But it is easily as ugly, if not uglier - the same witless tract construction - but without trees or the pretty topography of the Hill country. To get back on topic, both Sol and Agave, while in less desirable locations than the other two, minimally, they look like architects were employed and said architects had ideas rather than a bunch of contractors vomited up the same generic, tasteless, cookie-cutter crap that you find in anywhere USA exurbs. I detest Circle C. Mueller depresses me, because it looks the same, but worse.

[ImOnFiya]

Originally Posted by homeinatx

To get back on topic, both Sol and Agave, while in less desirable locations than the other two, minimally, they look like architects were employed and said architects had ideas rather than a bunch of contractors vomited up the same generic, tasteless, cookie-cutter crap that you find in anywhere USA exurbs. I detest Circle C. Mueller depresses me, because it looks the same, but worse.

Mueller was built on an airport with no trees, nearly every tree has to be planted. It is literally 're-terraforming' tarmac, and you know what? They done a pretty darn good job, so far. Plus, Mueller has a wide range of home styles, some cottage, some modern. I'm sure not exactly what you expected out of such a development. However, I do know you've never been there or else you wouldn't be saying what you're saying..

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by homeinatx

To be fair, Mueller, at least, is not built over an aquifer, and makes a few gestures towards mixed use principles, and does not have the shameful history of Circle C. But it is easily as ugly, if not uglier - the same witless tract construction - but without trees or the pretty topography of the Hill country. To get back on topic, both Sol and Agave, while in less desirable locations than the other two, minimally, they look like architects were employed and said architects had ideas rather than a bunch of contractors vomited up the same generic, tasteless, cookie-cutter crap that you find in anywhere USA exurbs. I detest Circle C. Mueller depresses me, because it looks the same, but worse.

Sol is not a great location but it is still way better than Agave. Sol has a walkscore of 48 while Agave has an utterly pathetic 12.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by ImOnFiya

Mueller was built on an airport with no trees, nearly every tree has to be planted. It is literally 're-terraforming' tarmac, and you know what? They done a pretty darn good job, so far. Plus, Mueller has a wide range of home styles, some cottage, some modern. I'm sure not exactly what you expected out of such a development. However, I do know you've never been there or else you wouldn't be saying what you're saying..

I've been there, and I have to say that it was a pretty good description. I was expecting something much more new urbanism from the hype, and what I saw was a variation of your basic subdivision.

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

I've been there, and I have to say that it was a pretty good description. I was expecting something much more new urbanism from the hype, and what I saw was a variation of your basic subdivision.

Imagine what we thought four years ago when we first were looking for a house . We knew much of the area was flat, but when we visited Mueller, all you could see was a very few homes and the control tower 'poking' up out of the ground! Of course, having a tennis center right across the street was a plus for me. . It was a curiosity more than anything, as we didn't 'need' to be close to town and ultimately ended up in w-a-y north Austin---Avery Ranch donchaknow.

It's too bad the 'green'(er) projects had to end up in 'questionable' areas(not speaking of demographics but of actual location, surrounding geography and businesses, etc). One might think a blend of highly energy-efficient construction and attractive location would be in high demand. I've only read online about Sol and Agave and their challenges and figure Mueller has another 4 years to grow into 'itself'. Maybe a mix of cost, location and energy efficiency is still waiting to be 'discovered'. Glad I'm not in the business of trying to figure it all out!

[homeinatx]

Originally Posted by ImOnFiya

Mueller was built on an airport with no trees, nearly every tree has to be planted. It is literally 're-terraforming' tarmac, and you know what? They done a pretty darn good job, so far. Plus, Mueller has a wide range of home styles, some cottage, some modern. I'm sure not exactly what you expected out of such a development. However, I do know you've never been there or else you wouldn't be saying what you're saying..

No, I am there quite often. 2 friends have bought houses there and another one lives in the Mosaic. It totally looks like a compressed version of an exurb subdivision down to the big box strip mall retail surrounding a massive parking lot. It has a walkscore of 35, well below the city's average of 47, so more car-dependent than almost anywhere else in Central Austin, and it was being touted as a New Urbanist development??

While it might get better, when they build the HEB, but it looks like there is going to be no effort to make the HEB any different from lets say the one across 35 at the Hancock Center, i.e surround it by acres of asphalt. The Town Center is delayed indefinitely. So far it is pretty much a failure as a New Urbanist development, and the planning and aesthetic decisions made so far strongly suggest that it will continue that way. The lake looks like a glorified drainage ditch. The swimming pool, however, is great, but otherwise, meh and bleh.

Sol, while much, much smaller, and surrounded by less "gentrified" neighborhoods is greener, more architecturally distinguished and as someone pointed out above, quite a bit more walkable.

[cm4]

My opinion? Well there's a Dan's Hamburger less than 5 minutes away.

1127 Perry Rd, Austin, TX 78721 to Dan's Hamburgers Inc - Google Maps


Someone mentioned riding a bike to Town Lake from there, but I would not feel safe doing that at all. Maybe things in that little development are fine, but the surrounding area is a questionable area for an investment.

Traffic on 183 can be bad. There is a plan to keep extending the freeway through that south section of 183, Ed Bluestein. Maybe when complete it will be good, but during the transition it will probably be a mess.