LOST NORTHERNER Advice on Moving to Cedar Park PLEASE HELP! (Austin: new house, neighborhoods)

[NH2TX]

Hi, we just recently moved to Cedar Park area from NH. We are a young couple in our upper 20's early 30's. We have been looking at houses to buy in the Cedar Park/Leander/ Round Rock Area. We were just wondering which neighborhoods/developments are known to have a great family atmosphere with children. Preferably middle class area to upper middle class. We do not have children yet but we are planning on having children. We would like a neighborhood that is known to have other young couples. I know the radius of Cedar Park/Leander/ Round Rock is Huge. Our preference is Cedar Park area as we feel it is a little bit more urban than Round Rock is. But any advice regarding this Cedar Park/ Leander/ Round Rock is greatly appreciated. Our price range for homes is between 200k to 400k. But we would like to stay in the middle. Also a school district/ schools that have enthusiastic and dedicated teachers is a must / state test scores do not have to be super high, but do not want a school with very low test scores. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! As we have seen many homes but having a hard time narrowing down areas as our realtor is not able to tell us the up and coming areas or nice areas due to law. Thank you in advance for all your help!

[libbykt]

I'm originally from Maine, and moved to Cedar Park from California 4 years ago. CP was the city most like "home" for me. Look at Westside Preserve in Buttercup Creek. I've been really happy with the elementary school right in the neighborhood (Westside Elem in the Leander ISD). The houses are mostly in the middle of your range. It's easy to get to HWY 183 from here for my husband's commute, although the rush hour traffic on Lakeline is kind of a PITA. Other neighborhoods in this area are Twin Creeks (country club community), Deer Creek, or Crystal Falls. All have very good schools, although my only personal experience so far is with elementary. You can buy bigger, newer houses if you go a little further into Leander but for me personally, the area around Anderson Mill/Cypress Creek/Lakeline works well. Avery Ranch is another neighborhood in your price range, with tons of families, but I just don't like how the neighborhood is divided into 2 different school districts. We are looking to move to Twin Creeks just for a bigger house and lot, and the country club, but have been happy here in Westside.

[NH2TX]

Thank you so much Libbykt.We definitely will check those areas out. Your post has been very helpful. It definitely makes trying to pinpoint where to move to much easier, as to us as new people in town all the places look rather nice.

[riaelise]

I just want to add that Cedar Park is NOT more urban than Round Rock. It is as suburban as suburban gets. Where did you get that idea? Both are basically the same, with maybe Cedar Park having slightly better schools. I wouldn't write Round Rock off if I were you.

[NH2TX]

Ok thanks.. Yeah maybe we were looking at the wrong part of Round Rock then. I just remember going near the Outlet Shopping Area. Thank you for the Advice!

[janineg]

We've been happy with the Silverado Ranch neighborhood. It straddles either side of Vista Ridge Blvd. with one of the cross streets being Henry Rifle. It feeds into Reagan elementary (a new-ish school that supposedly scooped up a bunch of great teachers when it started), Henry middle, and Vista Ridge high. In fact, you can easily walk to the middle and high school, and maybe the elementary, but that would take about 15 minutes to walk to. Right now, the pool is a hub of activity. Every time I go I see neighbors that I know, and my kids find people to play with. The streets generally have lots of kids out playing (except when it's really hot). And even though the neighborhood is pretty new, the developer saved a lot of older trees for front and back yards. And the pool/playground area is heavily treed.
And one thing that I hadn't thought about before was how convenient it is to shops on 1431. There's a really nice HEB and Home Depot very close, and lots of restaurants and such. There will be 2 tiny strip malls going in nearby in the future. I'm hoping that the one planned near the high school will have frozen yogurt or some eatery that we could easily walk to.
I know people in Brushy Creek, and that would be a great choice; probably even a better choice if you can afford it.

[PittsburghAustin]

Cedar Park Town Center In Cedar Park is a nice place to live. Houses are still reasonable and a good mix of all age groups.

[JH6]

We are in Round Rock, near the Hutto border.

Love the area, it has a much more rural feel than any part of cedar park, and cedar park is the suburbs.

Houses are much cheaper here than Cedar Park, prices there are on fire and you will pay top dollar.

Any of the areas you have mentioned are great and perfectly safe.

We looked at a few homes in hutto, and in some developments the low prices have attracted a lot of renters, who aren't keeping up the new houses. That was a turn off for me. So we paid a little more and ended up in round rock.

We are close to 130 toll road if we need to go to the airport or austin, it is worth the money, get a toll tag.

Cedar park is a short drive up 1431.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by NH2TX

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! As we have seen many homes but having a hard time narrowing down areas as our realtor is not able to tell us the up and coming areas or nice areas due to law. Thank you in advance for all your help!

Can you give us any more information? Do you currently have jobs, and if so, where are your jobs located? The area that you're looking at is pretty large and your work commute could be 20 or 30 minutes longer each way depending on where you live in Cedar Park, Round Rock, Leander and where your job is.

What are you looking for in a house? Are you looking for a specific square footage, yard size, or age of home? What else do you like to do?

It might be difficult to pinpoint exactly where you'll want to raise your kids since you don't have them yet. Personally, if I was in your position, I would try to find the area that is closest to Austin proper, but still in your price range. Avery Ranch would be at the top of my list if you're looking for a bit newer home. Avery Ranch does have an Austin address. Davis Spring, Cat Hollow, Stone Canyon, and other areas of Brushy Creek with close proximity to the Brushy Creek trail would be desirable especially if you like to run/bike (Ranch at Brushy Creek, Walsh Trails, etc.) I wouldn't recommend anything North of 1431 other than maybe Cedar Park Town Center as mentioned above (if you get a really good deal) since your price range allows you to be closer-in. If your price range was strictly under $250k, then I would open it up to places North of 1431.

Neighborhoods like Silverado mentioned above, Creekview, and Forest Oaks are all basically walking distance to good schools at all three levels in Cedar Park.

There are other nice areas as mentioned above by other posters in the West side of Cedar Park and also the other side of Round Rock. If one of you worked for Dell for example, then it would make sense to live in Forest Creek or Somona on the East side of Round Rock. Both Forest Creek and Avery Ranch are golf course communities if that's important at all. The Milwood area feels a bit more urban and less cookie-cutter and a portion of it feeds into very good Round Rock ISD schools. But, it has messier yards and less restrictions than a place like Avery Ranch. Some people might prefer that because they have a boat in the backyard or like to work on cars, etc.

[NH2TX]

Thank you everyone for the great advice.

mark311- One of us has a job and it is in Cedar Park for software type job. For a home we are looking for a home that is between 2,500 sqft and 3000. We do not care if the home is a fixer upper or not as we enjoy renovating places. However, with that said the structure of the house must be in good condition. The yard does not matter to us just enough room for a pool, and a place for the dog to have grass to play in. But not a large yard as we walk our dog a lot. Having shopping close by is a plus as we did not have that up north we would have to drive 45 minutes to get groceries. We enjoy hiking, and going to parks with our puppy. We also just enjoy meeting new neighbors having BBQ's and having family/ friends come visit from out of town.

Does any one else have any opinions about BUTTERCUP CREEK? I read the one user above who had nice things to say. Or does anyone have opinion about OAK RIDGE in Leander? These were two place we were looking at places to live.