Need help with moving specifics (school districts etc) (Austin, Round Rock: 2014, rentals)

[sojourner77]

But Pflugerville and Georgetown don't have the good schools the OP is looking for, and Georgetown is a long haul - tollroads or not. I would stick with SW Austin, or Onion Creek/Southpark/Estancia and look at private options. Lots of options in those areas from 250-400K

[centraleastaustinite]

Congrats on the new job and welcome to Austin!

Allow me to open your mind to the East Side....I just bought a house in Central East Austin. Blackshear Elementary Fine Arts Academy which is rated 10 on Great Schools is a 5 minute walk from my house. It feeds into Kealing Middle School which is just around the corner. Their Great Schools rating is a 7 but reading between the lines the low scores were complaints from parents/students who said that the curriculum was too demanding. In my mind that's a good problem! And substantially better than many of the options close to downtown around Central / South Austin.

Our local public high school though....can't lie, not great. If Better Half & I were pregnant tomorrow, baby next year, that's a 15 years away problem. Hoping it changes for the positive over time. Maybe we'll generate a genius baby who can go to LASA so we can stay in our gorgeous house!

Otherwise the Mueller area is not a bad commute to COTA. One of our good friends - also a St. Louis native - lives in Mueller / works in COTA. Before he moved to Mueller he was living in Bryker Woods (approx 30th & Mopac) & said he cut his commute time in half moving over to the East Side.

[sojourner77]

Originally Posted by centraleastaustinite

Congrats on the new job and welcome to Austin!

Allow me to open your mind to the East Side....I just bought a house in Central East Austin. Blackshear Elementary Fine Arts Academy which is rated 10 on Great Schools is a 5 minute walk from my house. It feeds into Kealing Middle School which is just around the corner. Their Great Schools rating is a 7 but reading between the lines the low scores were complaints from parents/students who said that the curriculum was too demanding. In my mind that's a good problem! And substantially better than many of the options close to downtown around Central / South Austin.

Our local public high school though....can't lie, not great. If Better Half & I were pregnant tomorrow, baby next year, that's a 15 years away problem. Hoping it changes for the positive over time. Maybe we'll generate a genius baby who can go to LASA so we can stay in our gorgeous house!

Otherwise the Mueller area is not a bad commute to COTA. One of our good friends - also a St. Louis native - lives in Mueller / works in COTA. Before he moved to Mueller he was living in Bryker Woods (approx 30th & Mopac) & said he cut his commute time in half moving over to the East Side.

Solid advice. The central city and AISD have provided good options. We live in suburban southeast Austin (near Southpark Meadows), and send our kids to 78704. The small school size, dual language program, and G+T programs have been a great benefit to our kids thus far. Like Centraleastaustinite said, AISD provides fine arts programs, magnet programs and other great options for motivated parents and students - Fulmore, Kealing, Lamar, Austin High, MacCallum and LASA all have great opportunities that match or exceed what the suburbs have to offer.

The other benefit of the central AISD schools would be the amount of resources available. A stagnant number of students + gentrifying tax base = more resources per student, less need for new schools, and fewer bond payments tacked on to your property tax bill. The average suburban school spends about $5000 per student, whereas the school that our children attend spends about $10,000 per student - even after "Robin Hood" recapture. Our overall property tax rate is about 2.4% - one of the lowest in the Austin metro besides Westlake at 2.1% Pf runs about 2.8% and other fast-growing suburbs can run north of 3%. If you are in a MUD, or a district with huge growth, you'll be paying an even higher rate than that.

[stl2austin]

Pflugerville? Really? I got the impression that that area was not so great.

[centralaustinite]

Can I ask where exactly in STL you are living now? I am STL born and raised (25 years in Austin though) but know STL very very well. I might be able to help you make some comparisons.

Austin is nothing like St. Louis though.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by sojourner77

But Pflugerville and Georgetown don't have the good schools the OP is looking for, and Georgetown is a long haul - tollroads or not. I would stick with SW Austin, or Onion Creek/Southpark/Estancia and look at private options. Lots of options in those areas from 250-400K

Uh, both Pflugerville and Georgetown have "good schools". Murchison and Kelly Lane are highly rated. If she were to pick Pflugerville, I'd definitely recommend homes in that track to either those schools or maybe Dearing. Just like with other districts, there are good and not so good schools.

Originally Posted by stl2austin

Pflugerville? Really? I got the impression that that area was not so great.

Your impression, I'm sorry to say, is wrong. (where did you get that impression?) I lived there for ten plus years and it was an excellent place to live. Low crime, lots of retail options, varied housing stock. It's not a starter home city any longer. In fact, there are more and more $300k+ homes being built due to the overall strength of the economy. North and Northeast Pflugerville are growing at a rapid pace, even more than some other parts of the metropolitan area. The school district itself is decent and can be a mixed bag. There are some great schools (Murchison Elementary, Rowe Lane, Kelly Lane Middle, Timmerman) and some average schools, and some below average schools. The areas with the highest household income tend to have the better schools (except for Timmerman, which has a predominately lower income demographic but has always ranked high for decades). Despite this explosive growth, the crime rate is still very low, it's close to Austin, and quite frankly the Stone Hill Town Center is a pleasurable shopping experience. All of the stores are clean and modern and we still go to them even though we moved farther north in Round Rock. I would have continued living in Pflugerville (we had the same budget as you) if it wasn't for the fact that we were seeking some pretty specific things that much of the newer areas in Pflugerville couldn't provide (these newer areas are masterplanned, and we didn't want that type of lifestyle any longer).

I didn't recommend Pflugerville because you'd be traveling north to south, whereas South might be better for you. But it is an excellent place to live and there are way more people living there now than I like.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by sojourner77

Solid advice. The central city and AISD have provided good options. We live in suburban southeast Austin (near Southpark Meadows), and send our kids to 78704. The small school size, dual language program, and G+T programs have been a great benefit to our kids thus far. Like Centraleastaustinite said, AISD provides fine arts programs, magnet programs and other great options for motivated parents and students - Fulmore, Kealing, Lamar, Austin High, MacCallum and LASA all have great opportunities that match or exceed what the suburbs have to offer.

The other benefit of the central AISD schools would be the amount of resources available. A stagnant number of students + gentrifying tax base = more resources per student, less need for new schools, and fewer bond payments tacked on to your property tax bill. The average suburban school spends about $5000 per student, whereas the school that our children attend spends about $10,000 per student - even after "Robin Hood" recapture. Our overall property tax rate is about 2.4% - one of the lowest in the Austin metro besides Westlake at 2.1% Pf runs about 2.8% and other fast-growing suburbs can run north of 3%. If you are in a MUD, or a district with huge growth, you'll be paying an even higher rate than that.

My property tax rate (Round Rock) is 2.3%. Pflugerville tends to be 2.7% unless you live in a MUD. The values tend to be lower, so it really doesn't matter if the tax rate is higher or lower, though the values in the suburban cities are rising every year, too. The tax rate of our current house is less, but our taxes are way more than our previous house because our current house is double the value of our previous house.

[scm53]

One important fact to remember when comparing parts of Austin is topography. This is a generalization, but the areas west of Mopac tend to have more woods (E of 35 in particular was always farmland for a reason), and more hills as you move further west (i.e., Lake Travis area). Might not matter to you, but looking at property values, it seems to matter to a lot of folks.

Don't worry about the commute to COTA from anywhere S of the river. Maybe from Lake Travis because of the traffic getting to Mopac. But once you get to 290 eastbound, from anywhere S, it is a shot at freeway speed all the time, all the way. Just not a heavily trafficked commuter route.

[stl2austin]

centralaustinite - I currently live in the Ballwin area and work in Ladue School District. One of the top in the State. Since my district has a benefit of allowing faculty member children to attend the district even when not living within the boundaries, having a top notch school district (and not just pockets of pretty good areas) is very important to me. I would love to get your opinion since you know both cities

[stl2austin]

riaelise - my comment was not meant to offend. I was using data from TEA to compare Austin area districts with districts in my current area for a reference point.