commute information (Austin, Portland, Avery: sales, house, established neighborhood)

[pdxtech]

Hi everyone!

This site is awesome, specially the way everyone helps each other out.
I am new to this and totally hooked :-)

We are moving to Austin from Portland, OR. My job will be in the Arboretum
area and my wife may work there too. She also has plans of doing an MBA
from UT in future (she may need to commute to campus twice a week).
We are both engineers in the high-tech industry.

We are currently looking at a 4/5BR home in the range of 400-450K. Steiner and
Avery Ranch look interesting but we have heard conflicting reports of long
commute times. Can you please post your experience? Any other neighborhoods
you would recommend?

Thanks!

[AustinGuy]

Why not just live in the Great Hills area near the Arboretum? There are some very nice housing options in your price range in that area, and you will have next to no commute.

[pdxtech]

Thanks! Another thing that we need is a good elementary school. We have a three
year old. Does the great hills area have good schools? Also, any specific
neighborhoods in that area that you would recommend?

[AustinTraveler]

I agree with the Great Hills area - it's great. I would also suggest checking out the Northwest Hills / Cat Mountain area. It's in your price range and the commute to the Arboretum area would be easy.

All of these areas are very nice with established neighborhoods, trees, and hills. Very family-friendly too. Sorry but I don't have specific info on the schools. I'm sure someone else will help with that.

[traceyr13]

Hi! I currently live in Avery Ranch, so I can help you with that (and we will be likely selling our house, built less than a year ago, in a few months if you're looking for a house!)

The Avery Ranch to Arboretum commute is nothing by Austin standards. In off-peak hours, it takes me about 20 minutes - and even with the rush hour traffic, you should be able to make it in 30 minutes or less, because it is a north to north location, if that makes sense. Once they finish all the construction up here (they're doing toll roads between Parmer and 183 that slows things down for the commute you would be doing), it will be even faster, I bet.

The Avery Ranch to UT commute sucks, to put it bluntly. I work at UT, and in the morning (leaving at 6:45am) it takes 30-35 minutes, and in the afternoon, leaving my office at 5pm, it takes 45 min-1 hour, depending if there was an accident. That is why we are looking to leave Avery Ranch and move closer to the city - my husband works further south (on Congress Ave) so we're both stressed out by the commuting time.

Other than that, Avery Ranch is nice - beautiful pool center, lots of kids, etc. The referendum to build a new elementary school just passed, so starting with fall 2008, there will be an elementary school just for Avery Ranch.

Please feel free to ask any other questions about Avery Ranch!

[C93626]

hey pdx tech not sure if you have checked the property taxes for a 400-450k home yet but you might want to, property taxes in texas are much higher than portland oregon. just a bit of info from a california transpant wannabe!

[gigi927]

I'd also recommend checking out River Place (where I live). It's 10 minutes closer in than Steiner and I suspect it's closer to downtown than Avery Ranch as well. We have about a 20 minute drive to downtown in non-peak times. I am not sure what it would be during peak times, but we have several routes we can take, which is nice. We are 10 minutes from the Arboretum.

If you're looking at new construction, River Place is fully built out now, so that wouldn't work, but it is a great neighborhood with exemplary schools. I can think of at least 5 homes on the market right now in your price range - 2 on my street alone! You wouldn't have a problem.

[AustinTraveler]

Originally Posted by C93626

hey pdx tech not sure if you have checked the property taxes for a 400-450k home yet but you might want to, property taxes in texas are much higher than portland oregon. just a bit of info from a california transpant wannabe!

Yup, figure on about $10-12,000K, for a house in the price range you listed.

I was in property tax shock when I moved here, but I got over it!

[pdxtech]

All: Thanks again for your helpful suggestions. I will check out the
neighborhoods you recommend. Also, I did look at the property tax
situation and here's my take on it: we have a 9% state tax in Oregon
which we won't have in Texas. So, if we coose a suitable value of
the house, the taxes get washed out. Since Texas has a sales tax,
we will have to figure that in our calculations. The good thing is
that effective this year, the IRS is letting us take sales taxes as
a deduction (as an alternative to income tax which Texas doesn't have).
So, a little bit more money in the pocket.

But, taxes are a really good thing since they are used to pay the
$150k+ salaries of our congressmen who spend every waking
moment working for our good in Washington, isn't it? :-)

[Trainwreck20]

Schools in the Arboretum area are definitely above the Austina averge, especially at the Elementary school level.