Help a young family find a neighborhood to rent in! (Austin: 2014, apartments)

[movingtoaustin_27]

My husband & I are in our late twenties and may be relocating to Austin for his job with our large dog and toddler. We would like to rent to get to know the city. Can you help us think of some neighborhoods to look at?

Budget: $1300-1500/month in rent. Hoping to keep it on the lower end of that, but I am interested to learn if we can find what we are looking for on that budget. We may be able to push closer to $1600 but only if what we are looking for is impossible on our budget.

Type Of House: 3 bedroom / 2.5 bath single family home with a small yard. Old is fine, but if it is older we would like updated. We don't need granite countertops, but we don't want a place that is in bad shape. We currently have a home with a garage and we are used to that so that might preclude us from many older homes.

Commute: I would be a stay at home mom but I would like easy access to things to do with my toddler. My husband would be commuting to Google and I think keeping his commute under 30 minutes is preferable but not required.

Neighborhood: Schools are not a concern because we would be renting short-term. We would like a very family-friendly and social area. We live in the suburbs now and we are happy with that but we would be excited to try out city living if it was a family-oriented, safe neighborhood. Safety is key because of our daughter.

We are a mixed-race couple and lean left politically/socially so if possible, we would love an area where we would not stand out like sore thumbs. Proximity to cool restaurants and shopping would be awesome (we are more Trader Joe's than Walmart) but again, we live in a pretty white, conservative, suburban subdivision now and are happy so it is not a requirement at all.

Thanks!

[movingtoaustin_27]

I should add that right now the frontrunners for us are Round Rock & Cedar Park because of our price point. They seem fairly similar to where we live now. My husband would not have a bad commute because Google seems to be on that side of town. But I wonder if they are too far out from all the "action" in Austin. We'd like to go to cool restaurants once or twice a week, that sort of thing.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by movingtoaustin_27

I should add that right now the frontrunners for us are Round Rock & Cedar Park because of our price point. They seem fairly similar to where we live now. My husband would not have a bad commute because Google seems to be on that side of town. But I wonder if they are too far out from all the "action" in Austin. We'd like to go to cool restaurants once or twice a week, that sort of thing.

Here's the challenge you are going to face: Right now, Google is in two locations, both north of downtown. But in January, 2017, they will consolidate all into a single building right in the middle of downtown Austin. Certainly, there are homes in RR and Cedar Park (I'd also look in Pflugerville) at your price point. But any of them will be impossible to get downtown from in 30 minutes after 1/2017. In fact, probably closer to 45 minutes to an hour, door to door, depending on location.

The other challenge is that the further you go out, the harder it is to be part of the "action" in Austin. Where you might find yourself is, renting N for two years, then after the Google downtown move, look at areas closer to downtown -- either to rent, or to buy after you've had time to sort the place out. A place that would work is the 78745 zip code (S of downtown), just for an example.

Good luck!

[mark311]

Your budget for a single family home isn't high enough to be picky in the Austin area. Austin rentals are in very high demand and command a premium right now. Honestly, since it sounds like you are renting short term, you would be able to get a much better location all around that actually fits within your budget if you went with an apartment rental. There are a few single family home rentals in your budget, but the majority of them that would really meet your criteria are in the $1800 and up range even in Round Rock and Cedar Park. We were recently paying just over $1400 for a 2 bedroom apartment in Cedar Park less than two years ago while we were in-between houses and the rental market hasn't slowed down at all since then.

I'd look at apartments in the Great Hills/Arboretum area.

[clarksvillemom]

Wherever you live, if you make the effort you can go downtown on the weekends for cool restaurants, festivals, concerts. But there are some other "cool" areas as well that you can either try to live close to or get to when traffic isn't bad - Burnet Road, East side, etc. I second Great Hills/Arboretum area. There are some very family-friendly neighborhoods around Spicewood Springs and Mopac. I wouldn't worry too much about safety - vast majority of Austin is safe. I also wouldn't worry about politics - lots of lefties here (many on this board! ;0)

[eirenecat]

OP, if you just want to rent for a year or two until Google moves, I would suggest the neighborhood in Gracy Farms/Metric area between Kramer and Parmer. There are some nicer smaller homes in there which might meet your $1500-ish price requirement, and that neighborhood is not too far from the Kramer train station for going downtown to the "cool restaurants" when you want to. It would be no more than a 10-15 minute drive to Google from that neighborhood. (I'm thinking of the Google building that is along North Mopac, as that's the only one I know.)

Gracy Farms area is also very close to the Domain, which has a lot of nice stores and restaurants. That neighborhood is racially diverse and all of Austin is pretty left-leaning. You can also zip down Lamar or Burnet pretty easily from that area and get to some other fun areas of Austin without a long drive.

The schools there are, sadly, mostly terrible but since that's not a concern it might be a great place to rent for a while. As someone else suggested, once Google moves downtown you might consider 78745.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by mark311

Your budget for a single family home isn't high enough to be picky in the Austin area. Austin rentals are in very high demand and command a premium right now.
...

This is correct. $1,500 is the bottom end of anything decent now.

As a property manager, I have squealing on both sides. Renters complaining about 3-5% renewal increases. Owners complaining that those rent increases don't even cover the annual property tax and insurance increases.

I just has a tenant throw a hissy fit on the phone yesterday over an increase from $1,550 to $1,625 (about 5%, but still below market). I explained that if he moves I'll lease it for even more than his renewal and he'll pay the same or more for a worse house.

He called back at end of day and said "never mind", he's sending in his renewal. I know he spent all day searching online and calling around.

OP, up your budget to $1,800 and/or increase your parameters to Kyle, Hutto. Anything in Austin will be a no go at $1,300 unless it's a dump. $1,500 is doable if you get lucky, but low probability of that.

Steve

[eirenecat]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

This is correct. $1,500 is the bottom end of anything decent now.
OP, up your budget to $1,800 and/or increase your parameters to Kyle, Hutto. Anything in Austin will be a no go at $1,300 unless it's a dump. $1,500 is doable if you get lucky, but low probability of that.

Steve

In the neighborhood I mentioned (Gracy Farms as well as Quail Creek) you should be able to find something around $1600ish that isn't terrible.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by eirenecat

In the neighborhood I mentioned (Gracy Farms as well as Quail Creek) you should be able to find something around $1600ish that isn't terrible.

I guess I'll be the first one to say it. I wouldn't recommend that area because of this statement by the Op: "We live in the suburbs now and we are happy with that but we would be excited to try out city living if it was a family-oriented, safe neighborhood. Safety is key because of our daughter."

Yes, it's getting better, but it's not an area that I would personally want to be in with a young daughter. It's one of those, "you get what you pay for" things. I would live there if I didn't have young kids.

[eirenecat]

Originally Posted by mark311

I guess I'll be the first one to say it. I wouldn't recommend that area because of this statement by the Op: "We live in the suburbs now and we are happy with that but we would be excited to try out city living if it was a family-oriented, safe neighborhood. Safety is key because of our daughter."

Yes, it's getting better, but it's not an area that I would personally want to be in with a young daughter. It's one of those, "you get what you pay for" things. I would live there if I didn't have young kids.

Gracy Farms is nicer than Quail Creek, but Quail Creek is rapidly gentrifying. I lived there for 8 years (we just moved in December 2014) with a small daughter, and while I wouldn't have sent her to our neighborhood school at all, I never felt unsafe just living there, walking, or going to the elementary school park with her.