Where to live? (Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park: sale, real estate, apartment complex)

[Orange Moon]

Hello All,

I've been in Austin since 1996 and I am planning on buying my first home sometime in the fall. Although I have been here a while, I am having a hard time figuring out what area to live in. Here are my parameters:

-I work on the Northeast side (290 and 183), so I will need easy access to this area. I would prefer a commute of no more than 30 minutes.
-Safe enough for a single female
-Price limit - no more than $125,000
-Suburban area
-Prefer the north side of Austin, but open to other areas
-Easy access to amenities like the grocery store, gym, post office, etc
-I want a single family home, but it can be a smaller one like a 2/2. I would be open to a nice, well run condo or townhome community with low monthly fees.

Please point me in the right direction!

[Cardiff Giant]

How about Manor? I have a single female friend that bought a house there a few years back and she's happy.

Good luck!

[Orange Moon]

Thanks for the reply! I have pretty much ruled out Manor. It is too far away from any shopping centers and grocery stores. I also heard that investors bought up a lot of the homes there, so the future of the area is rather uncertain.

[CptnRn]

Investors buying up homes is usually a good sign that an area's future is promising.

I see that 82 people have read this OP and few responded, they are probably just as stumped as I am.

$125,000 is less then half the average home sale price in Austin. I have only found two zipcodes in Austin with houses selling in that price range, 78719, in SE Austin south of the airport; and 78724, http://www.city-data.com/zips/78724.html , just SE of there. I don't consider either of these to be a very desirable location.


78660 is a bit farther North of where you work but might have decent access with the toll road. I have heard many people on this board profess that it is a wonderful place to live, and it appears to have lower house prices. http://www.city-data.com/zips/78660.html

I don't have enough information to know if your price is possible in condo's or townhomes in a great location. You probably need to work with a realtor to find out. I suspect it is low even for those, especially in a safe area.

Usually low property prices correspond to high crime areas, old, low quality construction, flood prone areas, crime, etc.

I hope this helps.

[atxcio]

There are older neighborhoods in Cedar Park, Leander, Plflugerville and perhaps even Round Rock that will have some options in that price range... Look up zip code 78613 (Cedar Park) in Austin Real Estate | AustinHomeSearch | Austin Realtors | Austin TX Real Estate with a max price range of $125K. I got 23 hits looking that up. I'm thinking there are some smaller (like 1200 sq ft) homes in Anderson Mill West that fall in the price range. They are nearby other more expensive areas, plenty of shopping, pretty safe and decent schools I think.

[centralaustinite]

Pflugerville!

The mayor of P-ville had a great piece in the Statesman today touting his town.

Coleman: The truth about Pflugerville (http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/2009/06/10/0610pflugerville_edit.html - broken link)

[1mintjulep]

We just bought a condo on the north end Allandale for not much more than $125k. If you upped your price limit to $150k, you could find some nice condos in that area, and also around Far West. We seriously considered some on Yager Lane that were in the $90k-$120k but decided that was further north than we wanted to be. You might check out that area, tho.

Houses are going to be difficult at that price unless you live way out. Our upper limit was $140k - we definitely would not be able to afford $250k.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

Investors buying up homes is usually a good sign that an area's future is promising.

I see that 82 people have read this OP and few responded, they are probably just as stumped as I am.

$125,000 is less then half the average home sale price in Austin. I have only found two zipcodes in Austin with houses selling in that price range, 78719, in SE Austin south of the airport; and 78724, http://www.city-data.com/zips/78724.html , just SE of there. I don't consider either of these to be a very desirable location.


78660 is a bit farther North of where you work but might have decent access with the toll road. I have heard many people on this board profess that it is a wonderful place to live, and it appears to have lower house prices. http://www.city-data.com/zips/78660.html

I don't have enough information to know if your price is possible in condo's or townhomes in a great location. You probably need to work with a realtor to find out. I suspect it is low even for those, especially in a safe area.

Usually low property prices correspond to high crime areas, old, low quality construction, flood prone areas, crime, etc.

I hope this helps.

I'm sorry, I meant to way that 78860 "wonderful place" is Pflugerville! <--- Cool Name!

And every citizen gets a free band uniform! LOL Joke, sorry, for some reason the name makes me think of the Music Man. And 76 trombones in a big parade!

[calel]

I'm basically in the same situation, with a limit of about 150k and an office on the NW end of 183. A limit of around 125k will find you older houses in some parts of Anderson Mill and some portions between MoPac and N. Lamar Rd. If you're ok with living outside of Austin in a surrounding suburb, Cedar Park, Leander, Manor, Round Rock, and Pflugerville all have homes at that price point. If you're ok with condos, you could even find your way into north central parts of Austin below 183 like Allandale.

In the defense of Pflugerville, they have seem to have the best prices per sq. ft and the newest homes at that price.

I am honestly at the beginning of my search and don't know the names of particular neighborhoods in all the surrounding cities yet. Quite a few folks on these boards seem to be better acquainted with all the various housing developments in these cities, so hopefully they'll chime in.

[Orange Moon]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I guess my choices are rather limited. I think I am going to focus on Pflugerville. It is not very far away from where I work.

Another question -- I keep coming across information about foundation issues in Northeast Travis County. What kind of foundation problems could I expect in a home in this area and how expensive would it be to fix? I live in an apartment complex near my job (290 and 183 area) and there are cracks running throughout my apartment b/c of foundation problems there. It was built in 2005.