78734 (Austin, Lakeway: houses, neighborhood, buyer)

[reedcm]

It looks like a buyer's market out there for the next year or so. My question is what would be the best area / neighborhood to get into in the 200-300k range, where we would see the most appreciation over the next 5-10 years?

[CarnivalGal]

It's a buyer's market, but you still may be hard-pressed to find anything in that range, depending on what you are looking for of course. With that said, I think that the entire Lakeway area is going to appreciate at a steady pace. All of the development in the area seems to be very high-end homes, which will only help those that are in more modest ones.

I will say to avoid the area formerly known as Maravilla. I believe they just lumped the whole development into Cardinal Hills now. You can do a web search, but in essence, the developer built crappy houses with non-existant drainage, never paid his contractors, and eventually was arrested and filed for bankrupcy. So now the people who own these homes have stuctural problems, swamps for yards, and liens on their property (from the contractors who weren't paid).

[TexasHorseLady]

First, whether it's a buyer's market or not in the Austin area depends on the specific area and the specific price point in that area.

That being said, in LS (the MLS area where 78734 is), the $200-299,000 range is where it just tips over into a buyer's market. But that's a pretty desirable area, so if you're looking long term, it's not a bad place to buy, if you shop carefully.