Looking to buy house under 150K -- any hot areas? (Austin: apartments, rent)

[claudelle]

My son and his bride are moving to Austin to attend a 5-6 year graduate school program. I think buying a small house makes more sense than paying rent for that time period. I haven't started working with a realtor yet. Was hoping you all could tell me what areas of town we should start looking in.

Points of consideration would be:

1. ease of commute to UT
2. safety of neighborhood
3. resale
4. they are not the "fixer-upper" type people; no ability with power tools

We would like to keep the costs under 150K. They were told by an apt. locator to stay west of I-35 and avoid the south side. I assume this advice applied only to apartment buildings, but since I haven't been in Austin in 30 years, I don't know. Why would a professional tell them this???

Appreciate any and all comments.

[texastea]

May not be ideal commute-wise, but for the house, Leander would work. And they could ride the train or Leander Express bus to UT.

[HappyTexan]

Pflugerville is probably farther north than what you want but there are homes there in your price range.

[claudelle]

What about the Gracy Woods area, or the area south of W. Braker and North of W. Rundberg? Does anyone know what's happening with that area?

[jwb123]

"stay west of 35" is outdated, and only applies for Austin city limits, not the suburbs.

*sigh*

[claudelle]

Thanks. Just from looking online, it looked like there were lots of newish neighborhoods east of I-35...and how one could exclude an entire side of town I didn't understand either....

[HappyTexan]

Cities "east of Austin" or "east of I-35" should be considered.
East Austin is another term completely and it means inside the city of Austin on the east side if I-35 that runs through Austin.

A lot of people get that confused.

[twange]

Originally Posted by claudelle

and avoid the south side.

I've NEVER heard this. The south has some great neighborhoods. The south Central areas are completely un-affordable. Does this "agent" know anything about Austin?

There are many small condos all around town in that price range. N, S, E and west.

[claudelle]

We are beginning to wonder. Which neighborhoods on the south side would you consider "great?" They do not have kids and aren't planning on any until through school, so that is not a consideration.

I probably should add that we live 1200 miles away so are relying a lot on the internet and places like this for information. The kids were in Austin two weeks ago for a recruitment event, but only looked at apartments at that time. We will come back down in a couple weeks and would like to know which areas to focus in on.

[austin_momma]

If you are thinking newer, I would say Round Rock at that price range but that would be too far North.