Burbs around the airport?? (Houston, Austin: low income, rent, crime rate)

[Matilda]

I am from the Houston area. We are planning on moving to the Austin area soon. I will likely be working from or near the Intl. Airport as a flight attendant. I'll probably rent first, before purchasing a home if I decide to stay in the area.
I would appreciate any suggestions anyone might have for a nice suburb or town close by the airport to live in. I have been looking into Creedmoor & Mustang Ridge. I am mostly concerned with crime rates & ppl quality etc. A neighborhood or city that is quiet & scenic yet not too far a drive from the airport would be great.

Thanks for your help!

[southaustingal]

It's tough finding good neighborhoods around the airport. The highest crime rate in the city is in the East Riverside area. If you have kids, I'd definitely commute to the airport from another part of town. If you don't have kids, try Bastrop. There are some nice communities out there, and it's so pretty.

[musicman107]

Area around airport is a place I would not choose to live...
Including Del Valle.
Just hasn't had a good reputation for safety (or schools, if that's a consideration.)

[Ron's Prudential R@eltor]

Bastrop is your best bet if you looking for something cheap and nice. It is in the sticks but you should find a nice house in the area with a good school system. Look at area 10 and area SW short trip to the airport and with the new 71 I35 over pass makes your trip very short. Also what i love is that those area are 8-10 miles from downtown (: I live in Circle C and it takes me 14 Min's to the airport.

[musicman107]

Do not have any first hand knowledge,
but the second hand reports about Bastrop public schools did
not sound encouraging.
Have read at least two replies to this forum about either leaving
Bastrop becuase of dissatisfaction with schools; the other about taking kids out of their schools to either private or home-schooling.
Again, I have no first hand knowledge, but might deserve some more research.

[Ron's Prudential R@eltor]

Originally Posted by musicman107

Do not have any first hand knowledge,
but the second hand reports about Bastrop public schools did
not sound encouraging.
Have read at least two replies to this forum about either leaving
Bastrop becuase of dissatisfaction with schools; the other about taking kids out of their schools to either private or home-schooling.
Again, I have no first hand knowledge, but might deserve some more research.

Its 50/50 their are some low income housing but its the county with a different life style. Some of those kids dont have anything to do and get in trouble.

[deeptrance]

I'll echo some of the other comments and add a few.

Forget about Del Valle or Mustang Ridge. Blech.

Check out Lockhart --- a very underrated small town. I happen to own a house in the country near there, and I enjoyed living there for a while but missed being in central Austin.

Bastrop gets too much of a bad rap, I think. It's a beautiful area with a lot of nice developments. I'm 100% sure that by now enough intelligent people have moved there to have created some sanity in at least one of the schools. It has a bad history and there's still a lot of "trailer" living out there, but why not mix it up and enjoy a variety of people while living in a beautiful area?

To me, the biggest problem with both Bastrop and Lockhart is that the roads heading into Austin are death traps with high rates of traffic accidents and fatalities. Thank the good-old-boys who run Texas for the type of mindless development without proper infrastructure to support it all. I wish our so-called planners could be sued for negligent homicide since they are ultimately responsible for creating highways so scary that you NEED to drive drunk just to calm your nerves!