Which are the nicer suburbs? (Austin, Spring: house, high school, closing)

[llkltk]

How long does it take you, honestly. From Howard Lane in Austin to 5th street, it takes 45 minutes. So from Georgetown, that would take over an hour. That sounds pretty bad to me.

[TexasHorseLady]

You must be going IH35 at rush hour, if it takes you that long. (I NEVER take IH35 at rush hour; there are so many other quicker ways!) The times that I gave you are the average time it takes me to make those trips on a regular basis. Surely you didn't mean to imply that I was telling you times that it took me and wasn't speaking truthfully?

[angielt]

Originally Posted by Minier

"Nicer" as in ....

1 - family friendly, but not ALL about kids

2 - good schools

2 - sense of community (people socialize, not just cooped in their house).

3 - have good commute into Austin

4 - have easy access to outdoor activities (biking, hiking, etc)

5 - are quaint and interesting in and of themselves (not just "bedroom communities")

6 - are between 250k - 400k for 4-5 bedroom home (so far we work from home so need 1-2 offices, plus 3 bedrooms - which add up to 4-5 "bedrooms")

I would suggest Dripping Springs (east side which some is qualified as austin), Bee Cave & Lakeway and all are 30 minutes to downtown (capital). I just drove pflugerville, hutto, taylor & several times last week and I just want to say that all of these take a lot longer than what they appear on a map. I was also in leander & liberty hill and even though toll roads help it is still a heck of a long way from "downtown".

[llkltk]

Yes, I'm talking about rush hour. If it isn't rush hour, Georgetown to Austin downtown will still take 30 minutes, it still gets congested during the weekends and might take longer.

[Minier]

So, let's see if i'm getting it down:


Newer communities that fit most of my descriptions but aren't really quaint and such:

Circle C Ranch or Meridian, Steiner Ranch, River Place, Avery Ranch


Quaint community fitting my description, but possibly a painful commute into parts of Austin:

Georgetown (am I reading correctly that it can take 1 hour to travel 15 miles into Austin from here?????)


And these fit in, but don't know much else about them:

Old Town Round Rock, Bee Caves, Dripping Springs, Lakeway


**I should say that since my husband will be working from home his commute is not an issue during rush hour (though we'd like to get into Austin often and easily for entertainment - we're also considering moving into the city proper but $$ and wanting yard space are an issue).

I am currently at home, but want to plan ahead for two things

1) getting the kids to school (will either go to our local great public school or the Waldorf school ... is there more than one?), and

2) possible future employment either in one of the school districts or at the University of Texas - so rush hour commute might become an issue for me down the road and I HATE commuting LOL.

I appreciate all the heads up regarding traffic.

Where have you looked so far?

We're at the beginning of the process, so not many places. My fantasy is Barton Springs right in Austin - but seems too expensive maybe. It's still in consideration, but I'm trying to learn about the suburbs as well as a nice one would also be an option.

[Raskolnikov]

Originally Posted by Minier

So, let's see if i'm getting it down:


Newer communities that fit most of my descriptions but aren't really quaint and such:

Circle C Ranch or Meridian, Steiner Ranch, River Place, Avery Ranch


Quaint community fitting my description, but possibly a painful commute into parts of Austin:

Georgetown (am I reading correctly that it can take 1 hour to travel 15 miles into Austin from here?????)


And these fit in, but don't know much else about them:

Old Town Round Rock, Bee Caves, Dripping Springs, Lakeway


**I should say that since my husband will be working from home his commute is not an issue during rush hour (though we'd like to get into Austin often and easily for entertainment - we're also considering moving into the city proper but $$ and wanting yard space are an issue).

I am currently at home, but want to plan ahead for two things

1) getting the kids to school (will either go to our local great public school or the Waldorf school ... is there more than one?), and

2) possible future employment either in one of the school districts or at the University of Texas - so rush hour commute might become an issue for me down the road and I HATE commuting LOL.

I appreciate all the heads up regarding traffic.



We're at the beginning of the process, so not many places. My fantasy is Barton Springs right in Austin - but seems too expensive maybe. It's still in consideration, but I'm trying to learn about the suburbs as well as a nice one would also be an option.

Honestly if you're looking for a quaint community I'd look at Wimberly over Georgetown. If you're willing to spend that much time in the car, Wimberly would fit your criteria more. It's a very pretty little town in the hill country and it has a more rustic feel. However, you made another statement about coming into Austin for entertainment, often and easily.. Well, if you move to any of these places not in Austin, you will end up not coming to Austin that often. I've had friends who've done that expecting the same thing, but this is not L.A. People just don't drive an hour here for entertainment. I'm not sure why, I used to live in Dallas and we did that all the time but now that I live here I pretty much stay around 20 minutes within where I live at all times. Maybe it's because of the roads here, it feels more inconvenient to drive great distances, whereas other cities had wide highways and tollways, loops, etc. Even Austin feels kinda like a small town in some ways, so I'd plan on moving where you want your life to be centered. And for that, I'd recommend Southwest Austin. And yes, they weren't lying about it taking 1 hour or much more to get from Georgetown into Austin during rush hour. Basically the northern areas of Austin, including Roundrock and Georgetown, Phlflugerville, etc. all have to use I-35 and the traffic there is a complete nightmare. Sort of the same for northwest along 183 but not as bad.

[traceyr13]

I live in the sw corner of Round Rock, and my husband works downtown on Congress Ave and commutes at rush hour - it usually takes him 45min-1hr, with closer to 1 - 1 1/2 hours if there is a wreck (which there is regularly, it seems). I worked at UT for several months (standard 8-5 schedule) and had to leave by 7am at the latest to be at my desk at 8am (including parking and walking on campus) and I was often RUNNING into daycare at 6-6:15pm to get my kids... hence, the no-longer-working-at-UT.

Hope that helps with an idea of commute/distance. We are about 20 miles from UT, and again, on the SW corner of Round Rock, so keep in mind that Georgetown is quite a few more miles north of us.

[love roses]

Leander is just a tiny bit NW of Georgetown, so it would also be a long commute.

[Minier]

This is really good information. I hate being in the car excessive amounts of time and, during a daily commute, I know it would get to me. Where we live now is about 1 hour from NYC and, yep, we hardly go there - not because of the traffic, outside of rush hour, that's fine, but because we have small children and going anywhere is inconvenient ... add more than a 20 minute drive, and we often just say forget it.

South West Austin .... tell me more. Isn't that where Barton Hills is? Isn't it too expensive for us?

[LoveATX]

This is going to be one of those really juicy "my part of town is better than yours and here is why.." threads. Its a bummer to watch people bash others decisions in order to justify there own.