Moving to Austin area soon and would love your advice on where to live

[DashRiprock]

You can walk to the Domain from the Balcones Woods/Mesa Park neighborhoods - there's a shortcut through the south Mopac feeder road if you know where to look, or at least there used to be. I don't know if you can rent a house there for $1800 any more; you might be able to get a smallish Mesa Park house in the $300K range.

The area south of 183 around Burnet down to I guess Steck or even Anderson might be an option. The commute up Burnet would be relatively easy. Again, I don't know the rents there but they're mostly older, smallish houses that are more suited for singles than families. They've been getting pricey lately too, though. Like everything.

[JaredSD]

Originally Posted by srick123

I assume you don't have to worry much about school districts in which case you can look at new homes beimg constructed in wellsbranch area like landings at wells branch or slightly older homes in techridge(lakes at tech ridge). You have rentals in that area as well.
How much sq ft are you looking at?
If you are ok with living in apartment, you can probably get something in Domain itself at that price point.
Leander is more family oriented and has great schools too and you can catch train for leander metro station to kramer station. (Near domain). Even via car you have tool road access which gets you to domain faster.
Buying in both of these areas would be a decent investment as well, considering how fast north Austin is evolving.

Is Wells Branch and those areas consider "far away" from Austin? I know it is in the normal commute from that area to downtown during rush hour (which I won't be doing), but in general is it considered far away?

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by JaredSD

Is Wells Branch and those areas consider "far away" from Austin? I know it is in the normal commute from that area to downtown during rush hour (which I won't be doing), but in general is it considered far away?

I lived in Wells Branch when I first moved to Austin. My first job was at Burnet and 183. It look me about thirty minutes to get to work. My second job was at 35/Saint John’s. That was about forty minutes. Add another 10-ish to get downtown if that’s a commute you’re interested in. Wells Branch felt very suburban and family oriented to me (which was fine when I was dating someone with kids). I loved the trail they have to run. I actually contemplate driving up from far south Austin every once in a while to run it. After we broke up I moved more central and did much more downtown, ACL, town lake, SXSW, etc. However, there is a train at Howard lane so you can get downtown to those things easily when the train has its extended hours.


As far as “far away” that’s subjective. Some people consider north of the river far away when they live south of the river and vice versa. Others don’t bat an eyelash at driving for 30-40 minutes to get places. There are more “out there” places in the metro though. Steiner ranch, Kakeway, Del Valke, Bastroo, Creedmoor, Wimberley, all come to mind as places I know people who come into the city center for things on a regular basis even though, in my opinion, the drive us horrible.

[srick123]

Originally Posted by JaredSD

Is Wells Branch and those areas consider "far away" from Austin? I know it is in the normal commute from that area to downtown during rush hour (which I won't be doing), but in general is it considered far away?

Wells branch/ Tech Ridge is not actually far from Domain. Wells branch extends on either side of I 35. There are new construction very close to I 35 on the East side. From there you could get to Domain within 20 - 25 mins during Peak times and around 15 mins during off peak times.

Tech ridge has some relatively new built homes ( < 5 to 7 years old homes) as well. Lot of companies are moving to Parmer innovation center which is near Tech ridge. J=Facebook had leased a portion of building at Tech ridge. You already have GM, DELL, 3M, Allergan, Home Depot Tech hub etc.. in that area. It is going to be a pretty big tech hub soon. So might be worthy to get a property near that place.