Is Round Rock a good place to start? (Austin, Georgetown: house, job market)

[fribee]

My fiance and I both currently live in Bend, Ore. and after we get married this summer we are considering moving and making a start in Round Rock. Bend is a tourist based area and has fallen hard due the economy and is falling apart.
I am a licensed massage therapist that focuses on medical massage and my fiance is a Dental lab technician. We are hoping to find out what the job market is like, how the overall structure of the region is in regards to handling a downfall such as what we are seeing here in oregon. Are there any tips regarding what to do or pursue as starters in this area?

[Shade Tree Mechanic]

Round Rock is a very nice place in my opinion. I lived in Central Texas for six years. North of Round Rock is Georgetown, a fair size city with hospital, a university, and medical facilities of all sorts. South is the Capital city of Austin. Several hospitals, a major university, many medical facilities. In between Round Rock and Austin is a few more small towns (cities if you will) and great oportunties lie there. The distant from Round Rock to Austin is about 25 or so miles, all interstate 35 which makes travel fairly fast. All the cities lie on I-35. There is enough industry and medicial fields, plus other major job markets which will allow a person plenty of opportunity to to employed fairly consistant.

[TexasHorseLady]

There are several medical facilities, some new, in Round Rock (north between Round Rock and Georgetown), and it's just a short drive to Austin. I'd think in your fields you'd not have a great deal of difficulty with employment.

What are your other interests?

[FalconheadWest]

Round Rock is not 25 miles from Austin. It's directly north of Austin. Part of Austin goes to Round Rock schools. They connect. Though, if you're talking downtown, you're still not talking 25 miles, but maybe 10-15 minutes. I don't pay attention to miles as it's the minutes that count.

[TexasHorseLady]

Right, downtown Georgetown (8th and Austin Avenue) is 28-1/2 miles (per Mapquest) from Cesar Chavez & Congress (though I persist in calling it 1st and Congress). It's 19 miles from 620 and IH35 to Cesar Chavez & Congress. Those are both via IH35 - there are many other ways to get there, and there are places, as FalconheadWest said, where you can only tell whether you're in Round Rock or Austin with a map.

[fribee]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

There are several medical facilities, some new, in Round Rock (north between Round Rock and Georgetown), and it's just a short drive to Austin. I'd think in your fields you'd not have a great deal of difficulty with employment.

What are your other interests?

We enjoy bass fishing, hiking and other associated activities. We have several dogs and we try to get out often. Neither of us have family there, but we have been looking pretty seriously at the area and trying to get a good idea of what we are looking at because you can only find so much online. Thanks for the reply.

[TexasHorseLady]

Okay, not too far from Round Rock is Lake Granger and even closer is Lake Georgetown, both of which have bass according to Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Goodwater Trail is in Georgetown, as are several hike and bike trails. There's, of course, lots of places to go hiking in Central Texas. Just throw a rock and you'll find a hiking and/or biking trail. Round Rock has a trails plan, as well.

Round Rock has a dog park as does Georgetown, and Austin has several.

[jobert]

Round Rock is a nice town. It's a relatively conservative city situated about 20 miles north (45-60 rush hour minutes) north of Downtown Austin. If Bend is as liberal as Portland, then you will be in for a culture shock. Round Rock would be the equivalent of say, Beaverton or any of the western suburbs of Portland.

btw, everyone in Austin knows that you can't drive 20 miles in this town in 10 minutes, unless it's 3am on a Tuesday and you're driving 120mph - do your math.

3 minutes for ever mile in rush hour traffic is the norm.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by jobert

Round Rock is a nice town. It's a relatively conservative city situated about 20 miles north (45-60 rush hour minutes) north of Downtown Austin. If Bend is as liberal as Portland, then you will be in for a culture shock. Round Rock would be the equivalent of say, Beaverton or any of the western suburbs of Portland.

btw, everyone in Austin knows that you can't drive 20 miles in this town in 10 minutes, unless it's 3am on a Tuesday and you're driving 120mph - do your math.

3 minutes for ever mile in rush hour traffic is the norm.

I beg to differ with you. I can get from our front door (15 miles north of Georgetown) to our house in South Austin (Ben White/South Lamar area) in an hour during the middle of the afternoon - I've timed it because of just such discussions on this forum. That's on main roads with everyone else.

There are many ways to get downtown from Round Rock besides IH35. You just have to get off the thoroughly beaten path a bit - but not all that much, the alternate routes were main routes before the "newest and greatest" roads were built and everyone decided that's the only way to get somewhere.

But, yes, it would take about 20 minutes to go 20 miles at about 60 mph. That part's right, anyway.

As for culture shock, yes, Austin and environs is not raving liberal, it's more live and let live. If you're an extremist on either end of the spectrum, insisting that everyone else must believe the way you do, you're going to be in for a bit of an upset.

[hoffdano]

For the OP - I kindly suggest Lake Travis is a vastly better lake all around than Lake Granger or Lake Georgetown.

The "South shore" (closer to Austin) of Lake Travis is growing steadily with a new Seton Hospital under construction now. Quality of life can be very high with lower taxes than in Austin city limits. Good schools too.

Lakeway is pretty but stuffy. Lots of other communities near Lake Travis.

Lake Travis doesn't produce big bass but it produces high quantity of largemouth and Guadalupe bass. It is a deep clear lake.

I suggest using Google Earth to get a good view of the areas.