Hutto? (Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park: school district, taxes, to live)

[feddymike]

Thanks HT. Hey to Aunt Bea

[whateverwhatever]

Originally Posted by Jenbar

Anyone have any opinion on the live-ability in upcoming Hutto?

We are potentially thinking of going there, as house costs are still pretty low. However, I love Round Rock (as far as suburbs go) - and hesitate to give up the 1) School district 2) Accessibility to Austin and other areas 3) Close shopping. 4) Diverse population.

Thoughts?

I have been living in Hutto for a few months now. I bought a brand new house which would have cost significantly more in Round Rock, allowing me to spend the extra money on home improvements and other things. A _big_ plus is the tranquility. Just don't live near the train tracks! I'll touch on your concerns:

1) Don't have children here but have a friend who substitutes in Hutto ISD. Never heard a complaint about the schools. If more parents move to Hutto who want a top-performing school district, it is entirely plausible that Hutto will achieve that. Hutto has been very aggressive about managing growth (just look at how they approached 130). On that note...

2) The proximity to 130 is great if you're willing to pay tolls, and even without getting on the toll road, I can get to work in south Austin in 45 minutes to an hour. The longest it has taken me on a rainy day was an hour and a half (there were two accidents)--this is equal to the longest time to work when I lived in Round Rock. Traffic from Hutto to Round Rock is incredibly light.

3) Shopping is popping up in Hutto and will keep doing so; until then Round Rock is not very far and the HEB Plus is close enough for me, just get groceries once a week and I'm set.

4) Hutto has a nice diversity, a nice mix of races and ages. Definitely not as diverse as Round Rock but as Hutto continues to grow explosively I'm sure the diversity will only increase.

All in all, the only con to me as young professional is the distance from downtown Austin, but the pros outweigh this.

[newrrmom]

Hutto clay leaves some homes needing repairs (broken link)

[love roses]

Lennar just had bad building practices. Of all the homebuilders out here, they have been the only one with such problems. I'm in a Legacy and have had no foundation or structural problems at all. Neither have any of the Capital Pacifics or Cobblestones or DR Hortons. We have the same soil as RR, Manor, Pflugerville, Elgin, and Bastrop and yes, special care needs to be taken with the foundations and it seems that Lennar just didn't know how to do that. HuttoParke is having such a huge problem as a whole because Lennar is the sole builder there. It's sporadic in Legends of Hutto since Lennar isn't the only builder in that neighborhood.

[spock7]

You may want to reconsider Hutto as an option. We are currently moving out due to what we perceive as a pervasive overzealousness to "clean up"
Hutto or perhaps just an intolerance to different types and races of people. We are an interracial husband and wife from Plano and the vibe and treatment we got was pretty ugly; it is a real backwoods place and they don't seem to like those who are "not their type". We casually heard that a number of times from people in the neighborhood. The police force is pretty suspicious and pull folks over left and right. A policeman was at my front door within 5 minutes of moving in, which unnerved me a little.
I wondered if that was a foreshadowing of bad things to come.It was.
Be sure you want a redneckish, "law and order", anti-minority place to live before moving to Hutto. We are moving back to Plano after a very unpleasant stint in this unfriendly environment.

[love roses]

Really??!! I know a lot of people around here...White, Mexican, black, mixed race, mixed race couples...One of my daughters best friends is bi racial. Everyone I know is NOT backwoods rascists around here and I've never heard any people of mixed race marriage that I know around here complain about anyone giving them a hard time. The police, who knows....there are some hotheads around here, but you don't say why the cop stopped at your house. What did he say?Many times they will stop to remind you to be careful of leaving garage doors open at night. Sometimes they actually stop and just chat with people. Yes, people want this town to stay free of trouble. We want it to be a low crime safe place to live but that doesn't mean that everyone is rascist and redneckish. With all the transplants here, it's hard to imagine that people from the West, Midwest and East Coasts with a smattering of locals are ALL rednecks. You get what you put out a lot around here though, but that's anywhere in Texas. Did people treat you suspiciously because you viewed them that way too? If it was truly that way for you, sorry. Good luck in Plano.

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

Bye

[capcat]

Originally Posted by spock7

You may want to reconsider Hutto as an option. We are currently moving out due to what we perceive as a pervasive overzealousness to "clean up"
Hutto or perhaps just an intolerance to different types and races of people. We are an interracial husband and wife from Plano and the vibe and treatment we got was pretty ugly; it is a real backwoods place and they don't seem to like those who are "not their type". We casually heard that a number of times from people in the neighborhood. The police force is pretty suspicious and pull folks over left and right. A policeman was at my front door within 5 minutes of moving in, which unnerved me a little.
I wondered if that was a foreshadowing of bad things to come.It was.
Be sure you want a redneckish, "law and order", anti-minority place to live before moving to Hutto. We are moving back to Plano after a very unpleasant stint in this unfriendly environment.

That's unfortunate and I wouldn't even try to deny that it happens. Closed-minded people are everywhere. In the smaller pool of a small town they have the advantage of playing a more prominent role and poorly representing the social views of other residents. Too, I would be interested in the story behind the police visiting you so soon after moving in to learn whether or not that was an inhospitable act.

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

I did notice as I was exploring that Legends subdivision has really nice, BIG sidewalks. If you're going down Carl Stern you see where it starts. I love whoever built those sidewalks. There is enough room, there are inclines for wheelchairs, bikes, connecting the sidewalks, and the sidewalks are smooth. Those are the kinds of walkways we need all the way downtown to Hutto. Actually, a walkway like that long Front street, connecting to downtown would be sweet.

Cheers to the builders.

[love roses]

I read somewhere that that is going to happen, since a lot of kids walk across 79 and down Front St. It may be part of the bond election coming up, but not sure. I know the YMCA is in the bond proposal.