What is the neighborhood right east of I-35 11th str like (Austin: for sale, real estate)

[ocean2026]

I walked around the area right East of I-35 from around 7-12 near the Swede Hill Neighborhood. What are those areas like? I saw a couple of hookers and drug dealers but the houses seemed small but nice and there wasn't much traffic on the side streets. It would be convenient to downtown.

Any thoughts?

[gpurcell]

I love that area. Tried to buy a house for $145K there back in 2003 but was outbid.

Edit: Said house has a view of the Capitol from the back yard!

[petro]

It's a little difficult to figure out exaclty what area you were in. The I35 end of East 11th is entirely commercial and southernmost borer of Swede Hill doesn't begin for 4 blocks north of there. That said, the Swede Hill neighborhood is very nice (and expensive). It was settled in the 1870's, so it's mostly comprised of restored historic homes.

[Komeht]

Flipped. Not long ago it was crack and hookers. Today it's hipsters and cafes. Wonderful little neighborhood in there once a block to two off of the freeway.

[Westerner92]

Completely flipped just east of the freeway. I hang out in East Austin pretty often, and the renovated/new houses/businesses outnumber non-renovated ones. I'm surprised you saw hookers and dealers, but definitely within the realm of possibility.

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by Westerner92

Completely flipped just east of the freeway. I hang out in East Austin pretty often, and the renovated/new houses/businesses outnumber non-renovated ones. I'm surprised you saw hookers and dealers, but definitely within the realm of possibility.

Not recently, but back in the day, yup. It was open and notorious there.

[ocean2026]

They were walking along 12th Street but not a big deal. There are no houses for sale in that area. Further East yes.

[homeinatx]

Two decades ago, the corner of South Congress and Mary would have been ground zero for public sex work in Austin, a decade ago 12th and Chicon. No longer. That stretch of the east side is now trustafarian central: the most expensive rents of any area in Austin, besides downtown proper. There is a house on east 8th and Waller on the market for $2 million, and mushrooming high end condos along 6th, 7th, and 11th.

The recession kept the gentrification in balance but I would say in the last year or so, that part of the East Side jumped the shark. It is kinda insane: You can drop 2K on a bottle of wine at LaV on East 7th (I would never, but obviously some people are). There is a very high concentration of high end restaurants: Qui, Mettle et al. The redevelopment at Saltillo plaza will probably give the neighborhood the one key amenity it lacked - a big grocery store. For a while, in Salt & Time, it had the only yuppie butcher in the city and East End Wines is one of the best wine stores in the city. It has been one of the premiere hipster neighborhoods in the U.S. but I suspect the hipsters are about to be priced out.

East East 6th and South Lamar are the most radically transformed streets in Austin over the last few years. I am ambivalent. The land speculators who ten years ago recognized the relatively good urban bones and proximity to downtown meant that a real estate explosion was inevitable, despite the long-standing, mostly racist "stigma" about areas east of 35, are now cashing in. A quarter acre lot between MLK and the river, and the highway and Chicon, if you can find one, will run you 500K and up??

Those working girls you think you saw on 12th street were either very old and lost, or UT sorority sisters - the fashion is indistinguishable. If you have the coin, and want an urban/ish, walkable lifestyle, it is currently one of the very "best" such neighborhoods: still cheaper than Clarksville, quite a bit more to walk to than Hyde Park. It is where South Congress was ten years ago. North Loop is next.

I hope the long standing African American and Mexican American residents can benefit by either cashing out or finding ways to profit from their wealthy new neighbors, though when one sees churches for sale, as is starting to happen, the writing is on the wall. Hipsterification has been happening for a while, yuppification is now in full swing . . . To find the old east side, you need to go east of Airport, perhaps even east of Springdale.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by homeinatx

The land speculators who ten years ago recognized the relatively good urban bones and proximity to downtown meant that a real estate explosion was inevitable, despite the long-standing, mostly racist "stigma" about areas east of 35, are now cashing in.

The presence of negatives like the tank farm, and the Holly Street power plant, coupled with low performing schools were much more of an influence than "racist stigma". Take those two out, and at the same time a childless market emerges, attracted to the amenities of downtown and the change was inevitable.

Nothing to do with newfound enlightenment.

[homeinatx]

Originally Posted by scm53

The presence of negatives like the tank farm, and the Holly Street power plant, coupled with low performing schools were much more of an influence than "racist stigma". Take those two out, and at the same time a childless market emerges, attracted to the amenities of downtown and the change was inevitable.

Nothing to do with newfound enlightenment.

I agree that there is no newfound enlightenment, but Austin has a long and nasty segregationist history - look at the 1927 city master plan to move all non Anglos east- and it is certainly not over.

Why do you think all those "negatives" ended up on the East Side?