Leander & Liberty Hill (Austin, Round Rock: how much, house, movies)

[Runemaster]

Can anyone tell me the pluses & minuses of moving to either of these towns?

How far are they from DT Austin, time wise?

Are they both self sustaining (shopping/hospitals/schools/restaurants)?

Is there a noticable difference in living there as opposed to Cedar Park or Round Rock?

Thanks in advance!

[ROY DUBOSE]

why do you ask? have you never been to either?

[neddy]

Well I live outside of Leander inbetween it and Liberty Hill and Cedar Park is about a 5 min drive away to the local hosiptal (good to have when you have 2 boys!) that is also where the movies are and some places to eat (not fine dining by any means) and the usual big box shops are in that area. Leander itself has a huge grocery store (HEB plus) then Kohls and Lowes that opened up this past year along with a smattering of food joints with a couple of good ones. Takes Mr. about 25 mins to get into the Domain since he works in the area but the train which should start in a few weeks is going to be his way to work since it runs through his area and has wifi so he can get some work down that way. We do drive some into Cedar Park but if I have to go just to Blockbuster or the grocery store I can usually get it done with in the area. I can tell you in Liberty Hill you would have to drive into Leander to get to all of the above. I think they have a small small local store that has a few staples for food but other than that you drive into the other towns.

[jobert]

Originally Posted by Runemaster

How far are they from DT Austin, time wise?

My rule of thumb: 3 minutes per mile in rush hour in this town. Considering Leander is 20-25 miles from downtown, this could add up. From what I've heard, the towns are becoming self-sufficient and they will pretty much need to be. There is a lot of space between Leander and DT Austin that will become more and more dense with people moving in, adding to the traffic with no plans to expand Mopac any time soon. This is the same problem that DS/ SW Austin is experiencing. The lack of infrastructure capacity and planning will make commuting difficult. The one saving grace for Leander will be the commuter rail line that should be ready any day now. From what I've heard, it still will take 45 minutes to get downtown + the time to park, and wait at the station for the train. It's a trade-off, and it's not for everyone.

[TexasHorseLady]

One thing to consider is that the vast majority of people in Austin do NOT work downtown. (Or, for a lot of them, even play there - even when I was living in Barton Hills, I usually went no further into downtown than the Whole Foods area.) So how far it is to downtown is not a big issue for most people. However, since the OP asked specifically about downtown, I drove from Leander to the intersection of 183/Mopac, and it took me 22 minutes, as I recall. (I'd have to go back and check - I posted it here when I did it.) At noon, so not rush hour, but there was pretty solid traffic nonetheless due to the lunch rush. From there, it generally takes me about 20 minutes to get downtown, so figure 45 minutes or so. How long it would take to park would depend on whether you had parking in your building or not.

Liberty Hill and Leander are both small towns in their own right, being approached by the Vast Austin Monster, but still, for the moment, retaining a bit of their small town feel. It's just a few minutes from Leander to Cedar Park, a bit further from Liberty Hill. (The HEB Plus in Leander rocks, by the way - every chance I get that I'm in the area I stop by, plus they usually have CHEAP diesel!)

If you like small town living with relatively easy (but not immediate) access to shopping, and you can plan a bit for your grocery shopping (which we should all be doing right now in this economy anyway), either one would work for you. If you want to be able to run out the door on a daily basis and be walking distance from lots of shopping and entertainment, rather than a 10 or 20 minute drive, likely neither one is for you. Cedar Park would be a nice compromise.

[texastea]

Liberty Hill is a small town with its own school system (a good one)--one elementary (I think), one middle school, one high school. A good dentist, don't know about doctors, definitely no hospital, no large grocery store or shopping. A lot of people move there to have a nice home on a large lot, to have horse property, etc. For awhile, I was driving weekly to downtown Liberty Hill from Leander and it took me almost 20 minutes.

Leander is about 30 minutes to downtown during non-rush hours. Leander and Cedar Park are both Leander ISD, and 2 of its high schools, 2 middle schools and 4-5 of the elementaries are in Leander city limits. There's a new HEB Plus in north Leander, but Target, Super Walmart and a couple of more HEB's are all 5-10 minutes away. The new Cedar Park Regional Medical Center is 5 minutes from my Leander home. And many doctors and dentists have opened offices near here. So if you're interested in northwest Round Rock or Cedar Park, then most of Leander would work for you as well.

[Runemaster]

Thanks for all the great info!

Now, one more OT question: Is Georgetown more self-sufficient than either of these two?

[intmd8r]

Thanks so much everyone for your replies. I'm Runemaster's wife, and we're checking out the Austin area in mid-April, but only have 4 days this trip, so we really want to gather as much info as possible before the trip to use our time wisely.

As TexasHorseLady stated, we indeed will not likely need downtown itself very often, but it's still nice to know exactly how far out we would be from the airport, etc. (I guess I'm assuming the airport is in the downtown vicinity like it is here, but I just realized that could also be an incorrect assumption).

We really appreciate all the input and are very anxious to check out the area - sounds like Leander may be a great choice for us. We live about 30 minutes out of Phoenix (non-rush hour) and have no issues with distance from the city, etc.

We'll be staying in Cedar Park, so we'll definitely be checking that area out as well!

[TexasHorseLady]

Georgetown is a good alternative - as it should be, given that it's the County Seat. It has a nice small town downtown square, Wolf Ranch, Outlet Mall (technically in Round Rock but at the place where the two sort of share space), Georgetown Hospital plus two new hospitals right down the road in north Round Rock (just minutes away).

The airport is NOT downtown (though it used to be a lot closer to downtown than it is before they closed Mueller (after 7 votes, it took them that many to get a "Yes" and I suspect they just wore the voters down). It is southeast of Austin. Georgetown would be an easier commute down SH130 (which starts just north of Georgetown) - it's an hour from my house 15 miles north of Georgetown to the airport. You'd likely take 183 (or 183A) to the airport from Leander.

[LHTX]

Originally Posted by Runemaster

Thanks for all the great info!

Now, one more OT question: Is Georgetown more self-sufficient than either of these two?

Hitting things that haven't really been addressed already:

Liberty Hill and Leander are both on the outskirts of the Austin metro area, but Liberty Hill is still very much a Small Town, more so than Leander, Cedar Park, or the other places mentioned. The highway sign lists pop of about 1400, which is a little misleading - there are a good number of folks who live "in town" but outside the city limits, so they're not counted in that. But it's still a lot smaller than Leander (pop. ~25000), Cedar Park, etc.

Likewise, Round Rock is much larger than the other suburbs mentioned. Large population (pushing 100,000?), major shopping destinations, 2 or 3 hospitals, home to Dell Computer, etc. Much more "stuff", but also much more crowded.

Leander is part of Capitol Metro, while Cedar Park and Liberty Hill are not. However, if you live in one of the other cities and want to take the bus or commuter rail (one day) into Austin, it's easy enough to catch them at the new Leander Park & Ride.

For most people, neither Leander nor Liberty Hill are probably "self-sustaining" in terms of restaurants or shopping. Depends on how often you like to eat out (or how much variety you like) and how committed you are to shop with local merchants (no Big Box stores in Liberty Hill, though they're starting to come to Leander). But Georgetown is relatively convenient to Liberty Hill, and Cedar Park and far NW Austin are to Leander.

If you want to live on a larger lot or on some land, you're more likely to find that in Liberty Hill. Other services may be lacking, though - the city is in the process of putting in a sewer system, but everybody else will continue on septic. No natural gas service. You can get "city" water in a lot of areas, though.

In Leander, you're more likely to find a home on a "city lot" in a subdivision and get all the "city services" like sewer, water, gas, etc. Some larger lots are available, but can get pricey.

Back to comparisons with other cities - Liberty Hill, again, is more a "small town" and does not really compare well with Georgetown, Cedar Park, etc. Not that it's bad - just quite different. If you want life in a small town, it's great. If having to drive 8 miles to the supermarket sounds like a horrible burden, look elsewhere.

Leander and Cedar Park are "neighbors", part of the same school district, and will increasingly become hard to tell apart from each other as more commercial development comes to Leander.

And then Georgetown, which is much more "self sufficient" than either Leander or Liberty Hill. Georgetown is the Williamson county seat, has a hospital, shopping (all the usual suspects - Target/Wal Mart/Home Depot/Lowes/etc. plus local merchants around the courthouse square), and Southwestern University. There's more of a historical "downtown" area than for any other other cities discussed. Also more/better restaurants than CP, Leander, or Liberty Hill. Large retiree population (Sun City). Land is available but no longer "cheap", and at least our perception was that the schools did not have the same reputation as some of the other neighboring districts.

Hope this helps!