What's Shady Hollow like? (Austin, Highland Park: hardwood floors, real estate, houses)

[gimme it]

Pretty? Family oriented? Upscale? Down to earth? Convenient? Any feedback would be welcomed.

[LoveATX]

Shady Hollow is very big and it has homes that very in price from 200's to as high as 400 I think in the newer areas. The Neighborhood itself is more established with several different areas inside Shady Hollow. To answer your questions:
1)Yes its pretty
2)Yes its family oriented
3)No, its not upscale
4)Yes its down to earth
5)Convenient is a relative term, there is shopping, highway access, and the schools are close. But the schools are AISD, not the best around. Now the elementary school is rated well, but I have friends that tell me otherwise. Hope that helps!

[atlanta hope]

Originally Posted by LoveATX

But the schools are AISD, not the best around. Now the elementary school is rated well, but I have friends that tell me otherwise. Hope that helps!

How is that? Baranoff rates high on greatschools.net and on AISD's site they rate it as Exemplary. Bowie is the high school and it rates good as well.

Austin Independent School District : TAKS Results

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Austin's distinguished campuses for 2007 are:

Exemplary - Baranoff, Casis, Gullett, Highland Park, Hill, Kiker, and Mills elementary schools.

Recognized - Bailey and Small middle schools; Barton Hills, Blanton, Bryker Woods, Clayton, Cowan, Cunningham, Davis, Doss, Joslin, Lee, Metz, Oak Hill, Ortega, Pillow, Summitt, and Zilker elementary schools.

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I'd be interested to hear what your friend has to say... we're looking at Shady Hollow. When I visited in the summer I really liked it a lot. I thought it was a really nice neighborhood to raise a family. I liked the older part of the neighborhood that has big trees and nice lots.

[Trainwreck20]

Pretty? Family oriented? Upscale? Down to earth? Convenient? Any feedback would be welcomed.

Yup.

This is an older neighborhood, so there are large lots and lots of people have lived there for a long time. For a 'suburb', it is about as convienent as you can get - local shopping on S. Congress via Wm Cannon or Slaughter, box stores just up Brodie in Sunset Valley, very good AISD schools.

I would say that, as true for most older neighborhoods, there is not the high concentration of young families with kids that you find in the newer neighborhoods (e.g. Circle C). Not that there aren't any, it is just more of a 'natural' distribution of ages vs. the high influx of elementary of younger.

Upscale is a very vague term. I would say that most of the people in there have a few bucks in the bank (but not all) but are also very down to earth. So it certainly does not look like a 'planned' community, it that is what comes to mind when you think upscale.....

[pilotskid27]

We looked at Shady Hollow when we moved here from Chicago in 2000. We had 12 hours to pick a house, and ended up in Circle C in a house that is not a perfect fit.

So, every couple of weeks, I find myself surfing the web for real estate listings for a house that would better suit our family: 2500 - 3000 sf., one story with a yard large enough for a pool (if there is not a pool already), and a 3-car garage, around the $300K price point.

Every time, I find great candidates in---you guessed it--Shady Hollow! The lots are nice a level, many quite a bit larger than the lots in Circle C (impacts the available space for a pool), and the trees are beautiful.

While it is not really a "master planned community" like Circle C, I know there is a small community pool, and newsletter for the residents...so there appears to be a sense of community anyway. (Besides, I have vowed never again to get near the madhouse that is the Circle C Easter Egg Hunt....whew!)

As other posters have pointed out, the housing stock is older, but the "bones" of the houses are good, and lend themselves easily to cosmetic updates to make them more "current". I have a former employee who lives there and has made a real gem out of her home by making smart "DIY" updates like scraping the "popcorn" off the ceiling, opening a wall between the kitchen and living areas, installing hardwood floors, updating light fixtures---stuff any reasonably handy homeowner could do if so inclined.

So, why haven't I made the move?

The traffic at Slaughter and Brodie is brutal. It's worse at rush hours, but I always dread going through that intersection. The shopping center with the Randalls on the NE corner is very convenient for residents, but it draws even more traffic from nearby neighborhoods.

IMHO, the stretch of Brodie on the south side of Slaughter should be widened. It is quite congested now, and will get worse as development continues further south.

I'm told there are other ways to get in and out of that neighborhood, but I haven't made an effort to find them as I don't go there very often.

I don't know anything about the schools, but, I agree that the lots are great, the houses are good (or have good potential), and if you can find other ways in and out that avoid the Brodie/Slaughter tie up, it might be a good place to land.

[LongTimeAustinite]

Originally Posted by pilotskid27

The traffic at Slaughter and Brodie is brutal. It's worse at rush hours, but I always dread going through that intersection. The shopping center with the Randalls on the NE corner is very convenient for residents, but it draws even more traffic from nearby neighborhoods.

IMHO, the stretch of Brodie on the south side of Slaughter should be widened. It is quite congested now, and will get worse as development continues further south.

I used to live In Oak Parke right behind Bowie. I have many friends that live in Shady Hollow. The traffic IS brutal.

Some of the houses in the back (south) part of the neighborhood have had foundation problems.

[Phisch]

I know someone who lives there and I love the look and feel of the neighborhood. I thought "wow...we should have looked over in this area" until I had to leave their home. Brodie is very busy as is Slaughter at that intersection.

If you don't stress over waiting, it's not a big deal. It was a little nerve-wracking for me to cross Brodie to get to the north bound lane, though. If there were a center lane, it would sure help.

[achtungpv]

I drive through the Brodie/Slaughter twice a day to and from work. It is not that big of a deal. It adds maybe 5 minutes total.

What would suck is living on the west side of Brodie and not having access to an intersection with a traffic light. You'll never get somebody to let you to turn left towards town in the mornings.

[atlanta hope]

Aren't they supposed to extend 45 over to alleviate some of the traffic problems?

TexasFreeway > Austin > Newsflash > Proposed highway drives debate

Not sure if that helps get people off of Brodie though...

[achtungpv]

Originally Posted by atlanta hope

Aren't they supposed to extend 45 over to alleviate some of the traffic problems?

Not sure if that helps get people off of Brodie though...

Yes. SW 45 will connect the south end of Mopac to I-35. It'll cross near the intersection of FM1626 & Brodie. I know if I'm still in my house I will use it to get to Mopac. Currently, 15-20 minutes of my 25-30 minute commute is driving up Brodie and over to Mopac. Once 45 is built, it'll take about 3-4 minutes to get to Mopac from FM 1626.