Place to live near downtown 3bed/1-2 bath close to 1,000 sq ft+ @$1700 or less? Not scary neighborhood? (Austin: apartments)

[Danimarie]

Are there any options like the title specified for rentals? My husband works right in the heart of downtown and it would be nice to live closer. He'd really love to live within 5 miles of work. Is there anything even possible at that price in a not awful neighborhood? If not, what's the closest you could think of? We are currently in Cedar Park and kind of sick of living so far from his work and wanted to see if we could find something closer. We have 4 kids that we homeschool.

Thanks!

EDIT: What is the going rate for something like that in that area? Lower end. Everyone said impossible, so I was wondering what the price would be. We may be able to afford something higher priced after we pay off a stupid car loan. 800-900 sq ft might be okay.

[Trainwreck20]

My cousin has a garage apartment she rents out just west of MoPac. It is one bedroom, one bath, kitchenette...and it rents for 1,800 a month. Others will probably know better than me, but I doubt you are going to find a 3 bdrm anywhere near downtown for <$1700.

[ashbeeigh]

Plain and simple answer is no. Even searching Zillow or hotpads you’d see that the answer is no.

[Danimarie]

Thanks. I didn't really figure so. But, thought I'd ask. Better to have a realistic idea.

After we pay off our car loan, we can look at higher rentals...

What's the cheapest you have all seen for a small 3/1-2 in a decent enough neighborhood?

[Austin97]

typical rates are $1-1.5 square ft once you get out of the downtown area.

Just use austinhomesearch.com and set your price and whatever features. Lots of places will come up (not in central core).

There is a 1300 sq ft duplex (?) on mountain ridge dr for 1550 on a .6 acre lot.

This is northwest hills which is a good neighborhood.

The east side is rapidly gentrifying, I dont see it as that scary. Since you home school you dont need to worry about the schools, I would check there. Lots of restaurants, walkability, and easy access to downtown.

Down south you have to go south of 71. North, around north of braker lane. West has a little inventory west of mopac a little more west of 360

[unihills]

Montopolis neighborhood might be too sketchy for you but it's close in and still has those kind of rents.
Wouldn't call it a nice neighborhood, but I'm not scared there. Does have property crime issues, but you can say that about lots of gentrifying areas. 4 miles to downtown.

[df175]

There are apartments in the "bad" part of Riverside, on Burton and Willow Creek, that are in this price range. The bus to downtown is less than 15 minutes usually. Literally 2 miles from the Convention Center if you could fly there. This area isn't much gentrified like on the north side of Riverside, but it's dramatically better than just a couple of years ago.

Lots of people will tell you how bad it is, but it's mostly construction workers and their families but increasingly downtown workers, too. Definitely a few sketchy people mixed in, but it's nothing like a truly bad neighborhood in many other cities.

[Dynamoo]

East Austin east of Springdale has several houses that meet your criteria.

[austinaggie]

Quite a few options in 78745 like this one: https://www.trulia.com/p/tx/austin/4...45--2072219711. It's 4.8 miles to downtown Austin (according to my quick search). Not fancy but you get what you pay for.