Best place to relocate from so cal w/kids... (Austin: house, school districts)

[calimom5]

Hey everyone,
I am new to Texas. My hubby really wants to move to East Texas (his parents are moving in a few months), and he wants some land. We want to spend under $250,000 so we can simplify our lives. We have teenagers and I really have to have good schools. Any suggestions? We hear Austin and the area is awesome...what are the plusses and minuses to the area? Thanks for any and all suggestions.

[gigi927]

hi there!

Well...just so you know, Austin is considered central Texas, not east Texas.

I don't know how big a house you need, but in the really good school districts here in the Austin area, you would probably have a hard time finding a property with some land (I'm saying "some land" is larger than 1/3 acre or so) for under $250,000. I think your best shot at it would be in the Round Rock area. If you're looking for an acre or more, I think that would be a really hard thing to find in that price range.

You can do a search in this forum for Round Rock and get a lot of great info.

Pluses to Austin: great small town feel, fun downtown scene, lots of beautiful topography, great people, housing costs reasonable compared to CA (except keep in mind property taxes here run about 2.5 to 3% of your property value - a significant difference over CA unless you are in an area where Mello-Roos tax is levied), better schools than CA

Minuses: property taxes. Not a great metro-wide transit system. Developments are tending more toward being CA like (small lots). Traffic can be bad (it's relative to where you're coming from). Austin is the most expensive area of Texas to live in. Tough to get direct flights in/out of Austin to other places.

Good luck!

[calimom5]

You helped a lot. I have heard of Round Rock. Looked at the schools...awesome...you are right. What is the weather like there? that is my hubbys main concern. Thanks again.

[gigi927]

Weather is like a lot of Austin...pretty hot in the summer, and generally warmer than most of the U.S. the rest of the year. We did have a pretty good cold stretch here this winter and even some real live ice

I wouldn't call it a true 4 seasons kind of place, but it's more 4 seasons than Arizona (where I came from!). Trees lose their leaves, the grass turns kind of brown in the winter and you can feel a difference in the breeze. What part of CA are you coming from? I lived there too, and can probably help compare for you.