Small town near Austin?

[gy2020]

Also consider Seguin, TX, (pop around 20,000) has good high schools. Both Seguin and Navarro. My sister teaches drama at Navarro and loves the school. Her husband teaches music in one of the elementary schools in Seguin. Seguin is out on I-10 about 40 miles west of San Antonio, 160 from Houston and about 45-50 from Austin. It is in the black soil farm land but only about 10 miles from the hills. Has Lake Placid and Lake McQueeny, Starke Park. New Braunfels may be more geographically centered between San Antonio and Austin on 35, but the traffic is starting to be a grind. Pop about 35,000, Same with San Marcos.

[VickyTexas]

I have to second the vote for Dripping Springs, also Driftwood area. I did an extensive search 4 years ago when we were moving from Seattle to TX. I had many of the same criteria that you did. I was looking for some land, affordable housing, good schools, close enough to Austin that I could commute in for work if needed (30-40 mins), low crime and stable economy. I feel we made an incredibly good choice. I don't feel trapped in Dripping Springs, even though development continues to encroach from the East, it's still wide open to the West--for now. I think the schools here are suffering a little bit from the recent BOOM in Dripping Springs. They've opened and expanded a couple of new elementary schools in the past year and are now planning to expand the Middle School and then swap that with the High School because the growth shows the High School won't be able to support the student body. The Middle School still has land available for building.

The downtown area of Dripping Springs is laughable, but I have hopes that at some point they may actual create a city center... we don't really have any historic old courthouse to make for a charming downtown. A Home Depot and HEB (grocery) are in the process of being built right now. we have a Sonic and a Super S grocery store that anchors our fine town for the moment. The major problem is that Drippin' doesn't have a sewer system - a problem that has limited growth. They are currently working to put this into the city. Most of the homes in Dripping are on wells and septic. That's a treat in itself (smirk).

High school football on Friday nights pull the town together and is the place to go and socialize. I do have to say that I've seen our cheerleaders and well, I've seen better. There are a couple that can do some back flips, but that's about the height of what I've seen out of them. I was chuckling at the last basketball game when the JV cheerleaders were trying to do kicks each time the boys got a basket and they were almost falling over themselves. They just weren't limber enough to get their leg anywhere near respectable heights.

Housing prices have soared in Dripping over the past several years, but seem to be plateauing this year.
Best of luck -- I love our new home here in TEXAS!!
--"Kat"

[S6Sputnik]

Steiner Ranch or River Place

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by S6Sputnik

Steiner Ranch or River Place

Those are subdivisions not towns.

[S6Sputnik]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

Those are subdivisions not towns.

Sure (I have a degree in geography), but they are like little towns without being 30-40 minutes out of town. If the location has to be defined as a seperate town then add, Lago Vista and Lakeway