From Sydney, Australia to Austin, TX (Houston, Dallas: sales, for rent, new home)

[tabnet]

Hi All,
I am planning to move to Austin from Sydney, Australia. I am just wondering if anyone could please help me out finding a good place to live. These are my requirements to help me start searching for a good housing for rent:
# We are a family of five - me, my wife, two kids (9 and 5) and a pet cat .
# I already have a job offer (international posting).
# Our most important criteria is good schooling for our kids, especially my 5 year old is a special need kid who has Autism. So, we definitely want a school or a school district that has good facilities for special need kids. So, please feel free to suggest even a school name if you know one.
# We are most interested for newer areas within any good suburb.
Could anyone please suggest me some areas in and Around? Thanks.

[neddy]

Hi there don''t know it what area of town you are going to be in but I am in the Leander ISD and have an ADHD kid and while not Austism I have met quite a few partents of Austic kids and they all really love Leander ISD and the services they provide. Several of the parents moved from other areas to be able to attend the Leander school. Have no clue what services they provide but everyone likes them.

[gigi927]

If commute is not an issue, I would recommend the Steiner Ranch area for you specifically since the schools in Steiner are very well equipped, from what I hear, to deal with autistic children (it is in Leander ISD). My son has special needs and attends the special ed preschool in Steiner. One of his classmates has PDD-NOS and her mom pulled her out of several expensive private programs because the services at the public school were so superior! I also have a friend whose 15 year old child has Down's syndrome and has been nothing short of impressed with the services she has received for her challenges as well.

You can call the Leander ISD (Leander Independent School District) and ask for their special programs department to get more info.

If you're working on the south side of town, though, Steiner probably wouldn't be the best choice.

Best of luck!

[Trainwreck20]

Very importantly - where will your office be? There are many places that will meet your needs, but you will probably want to minimize your commute somewhat.

[Rae']

I agree with the others, that you want to be on the same side of downtown (especially north or south) as where you work. I also second the Leander Schools. There are many new homes in subdivisions (both brand new and more established...like 7-8 years) along Brushy Creek road. Forest Oaks is where I am at, but there is also other excellent neighborhoods around here, as well as some new ones coming up off of Brushy Creek on the other side of Parmer...all in Cedar Park! There also seems to be a good variety of builders in the area.

[tabnet]

Thanks to all who have contributed so far. Well, I am in sales and will be working from home, though, I will be travelling most of the time. So, commuting is not an issue for now. In most cases, my 'commute' will be from home to the airport! What is important is for my family so that they live near to school, shops, parks, etc. We would prefer newer area.

[Driftwood1]

You might want to double check ABIA the "international" airport Austin has. Depending on where you will be flying to , you might find Austin Bergstrom terribly inconvenient, as compared to a real airport...
You basically have to stop in Houston or Dallas to go anywhere..
Its getting better slowly, but again, if you know which cities you'll be going to regularily I would check out the flights... if for instance you are stopping off in Dallas everytime you fly, you might have a better life just living in Dallas...

Cheers

[Trainwreck20]

If you will commute to the airport frequently, I would recommend either somewhere north along hwy 130 (RR, Plfugerville, or Georgtwon - all good schools) or SW inside the 'Y' (Circle C, Legend Oaks, Western Oaks, Travis Country - AISD but very good schools).

As for the airport, if you travel around Texas, it is very convienent. I do quite a bit of travelling (mainly in state) and SW has frequent access to just about everywhere I go. They also are one of the few airlines that has many direct flights from ABIA. I fly to Baltimore on their NS flight on a regular basis. However, Driftwood is correct in mentioning that AA has most (not all) of their flights go through DFW, and Continental has most go through Houston.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by Driftwood1

You might want to double check ABIA the "international" airport Austin has. Depending on where you will be flying to , you might find Austin Bergstrom terribly inconvenient, as compared to a real airport...

Believe it or not, there are some pluses to a mid-sized airport -- it's often an easier drive to get to/from it, parking is cheap and close, walking to the terminal from your car is easy, and (perhaps the biggest plus) going through security is fast. From a time standpoint, if you save 15 minutes getting from your car to the gate, and save 30+ minutes on security, you easily make up the time of the short hop to DFW or IAH.

[tabnet]

Thanks again all.
Well, I am not too keen on living near any airport. We are currently staying in a place which is more than an hour drive to Sydney Int'l airport and that is OK with me. I will be travelling, say, 3/4 times a month and considering the conveniences that my family would require, I don't mind taking that trouble of commuting to airport. By the way, my travel would require me to travel anywhere within the US and Canada. Why Austin then? That is because most of my colleagues would be based there and my boss lives in Austin as well and I also have searched extensively within the forum and chose Austin.

It looks like I will go for Leander ISD and Cedar Park is probably where we will end up staying (I believe Cedar Park is probably within Leander ISD). Besides, this is initially for about a year and then we will look around, get to know Austin more and then finally decide if we need to move elsewhere within Austin.