Pflugerville questions (Austin, Cedar Park, Katy: foreclosure, crime, mortgage)

[RDiane]

Hi there! Long-time Austin-area resident, but mostly Cedar Park/Leander/NW Austin. We're looking into a move to the Pflugerville area for a bigger house at a lower cost.

The house we currently have our eyes on is in the Sarah's Creek neighborhood. Can anyone tell me anything about the area? I'm a stay-at-home mom and we have two young children with one more on the way. I'm not stuck on having parks within walking distance (we don't now) but I'd like to be in a reasonably safe, family-friendly neighborhood where the kids can play in the yard. Where we are now, I can let them out in the fenced backyard and leave a window open so I can hear them. There are neighbor kids to play with, and other moms to visit with. Is traffic very high within the neighborhood? I'm also a little concerned about the undeveloped area on the corner of 1825 and Central Commerce -- is it likely to be something unpleasant? I know 24-hour businesses tend to increase crime in an area, or a fast food restaurant could mean lots of noise and light at all hours. How's the library? We're currently in the city of Austin library system, and I grew up with the Cedar Park library, so those are what I have to base my experience on. I also noticed that the neighborhood is outside of both Austin and Pflugerville city limits. How would that affect us practically? Anyone know what the story is on why the area is unincorporated? And finally, does anyone know anything about the HOA?

Thanks in advance for any feedback on the area!

[love roses]

I just got back from doing a practice run around Pflugerville Lake. It's really kind of pretty back through those roads. I'm not familiar with that neighborhood though. I could google it and see if it rings any bells.

[tfresca]

I'm not aware of any serious crime issues. You get the petty theft from vehicles every once and a while but anything serious is very rare. I'm not familar with the neighborhood you are looking in but I find Pflug very convenient. You dn't have to get on the road to go shopping, have dinner,etc.

[HappyTexan]

If it's outside both Austin and Pflugerville then check on who supplies the water.
IMHO I think you'd find Saxony, Brookhollow or Parkcrest neighborhoods more family friendly.
Kids can walk to Brookhollow elementary/Parkcrest Middle school and you can walk to the park/pool.
These are older established neighborhoods, fairly quiet and full of kids.

[RDiane]

Minor crime I can live with -- we have the occasional car burglaries where we are now, and our cars have yet to be targeted. I just don't want to live somewhere I'd be afraid to let the kids play outside in a securely fenced yard, you know?

It looks like the neighborhood is in the Austin ETJ and on Austin water. Not sure how else that affects us, practically speaking.

We're not too worried about walking to schools since we're planning to homeschool; in fact, I'd rather avoid the traffic from being too close to a school. I'd want to be sure the schools in the area are good enough not to hurt resale value or keep other families from moving to the neighborhood, but beyond that I don't anticipate the schools mattering much to us. The park and pool would be nice, and the quiet, established neighborhoods, but I think they're a little too far out for us commute-wise.

Thanks for the thoughts!

[riaelise]

I second the Saxony/Katymead neighborhoods. They are established, with mature trees and zone to pretty decent schools. You might also consider northeastern P-ville close to SH-45, which is the location that is experiencing the highest growth. Not sure what your budget is, but you can find a nice home in the 135 (foreclosure) to 150K range, be next to shopping and major roadways (685 and the toll road). P-ville has a shorter commute than some of the other suburbs. I am naturally wary of moving into ETJ neighborhoods, as they tend not to get total city services from any city. The plus side however is you are not paying any city taxes. It's up to you.

[RDiane]

We'll definitely take a look... the mature trees are tempting. My husband's commute is to Mopac and Southwest Parkway, though, so the farther north and/or east we go the longer it gets. He feels like most of the Pflugerville area would be too far out.

We expect our current house would sell around $150k (pending talking to a Realtor for a professional opinion) and don't want our mortgage to go up too much. We have less than five years left to pay off the house as is, and we don't want to expand that timeline by too much. We've been looking at listings online off and on for quite some time and this is the first time we've seen something where the combination of the house itself, the price, and the location have seemed worth pursuing.

We'll definitely look into the ETJ thing and decide whether we're comfortable with it. I grew up mostly living outside of city limits, but on property with our own water and septic. This would be a little different.

I think I'm going to take the kids to library story time today and see how the library is and if we run into anyone who lives in the area and might be willing to chat. Worth a shot, and time at the library is never wasted.

[Mikey Bee]

Crime in Pflugerville is really low compared to the national average, and be aware that these numbers can be counted very differently in different parts of the country. In this part of texas any crime is taken very seriously and recorded - even stupid kid stuff. In other parts of the country what's counted here would be completely ignored.