Considering a relocation from Northern CA to Cedar Park Area

[love roses]

Same here I'll keep my ears open as my husband is always telling me stories about them. We live in Hutto, which is a small town just Northeast of Austin. There are really lots of areas around Austin that would fit your budget. Renting before you buy or coming for a visit is a good idea to see what parts of town you like best.

[karljodi511]

Well we are coming in 2 weeks, and then if we like that we plan on revisiting in the Spring to narrow down an area, and probably one more time prior to buying. We have a 2 year old and don't want to move into a rental, then move again. So hopefully we'll buy and move in right away.

Thanks for all your help/advice really appreciate it everyone!

[another_hot-day]

I moved here from San Francisco 12 years ago.
It is a great place to raise a family and it's a great place to enjoy easy living.
I am on the border of Cedar Park and I really like this area. You are close to everything but not too close.

The land and the climate are nothing like Nor Cal.
August/September are by far the worst of the worst as far as heat and humidity go.

Leave California in California when you come here. It's best that way.

[another_hot-day]

ALso, I have seen a few episodes of House Hunters that are in Austin. Maybe they have those archived on the channels website? It will give you an idea of areas and property costs.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by karljodi511

We have a 2 year old and don't want to move into a rental, then move again. So hopefully we'll buy and move in right away.

The rent first advice is good advice in my opinion. Having moved from California with my family to the Austin area a little over 6 years ago, renting an apartment for 6 months before we bought a home was the smartest thing we could have done. We ended up in a completely different area than the area we were initially considering, but after being able to drive around and look at the entire Austin area for a few months every weekend, we were able to make a much better decision. We would not be happy if we had gone with our initial choice after just visiting the Austin area 5 or 6 times. It took a few months of actually living here before we really had a good idea on where we wanted to live.

Just a suggestion, but put your house stuff in storage for 6 months and get an apartment while you get to the know the Austin area, determine where work will be, etc. Your 2 year old won't be in Elementary school yet, so you won't have to worry about transitioning to another school yet.

[ScoPro]

Be advised that most of the newer suburban home developments in the $200k range have small lots - usually 50' or 60' wide and 110' or 120' deep.

We built our 2,000 sq.ft. home near Round Rock (it's now in the $200k range) on a 60'x110' lot:

[G Grasshopper]

We moved here almost 2 years ago from Marin County. But we are not raising a young family, as the OP is. (However, we are in the area for Kiker School, which has a super reputation.) We have settled in SW Austin, Circle C, and are happy with it. We got one of the smaller (2,300 sq. ft.) houses in the area, and for under $300,000, so it was right for us. We don't have a big yard, but didn't need it. We back to greenbelt, which is ideal for us. There are some things we miss about California, but it is much better, we find, not to concentrate on that (or complain about it), work instead on enjoying life here.

I should add that we rented a condo for 9 months (6 month lease) before we bought. We ended up buying in a completely different area than we had assumed we would when we were moving from CA. I am really glad that we did that, because I really would not like to have ended up in that first place. It is useful to get to know the area and all the possibilities before buying.