Circle C residents--help answer some questions? (Houston, Austin: apartments, foreclosure, houses)

[speris]

We have been looking at moving to Austin from Houston since the spring. In that time we have wavered between Circle C and the NW area zoned to RRISD (right near 183 and Spicewood Springs). Both areas are pretty, and both are close enough in to downtown for our purposes. The houses in Circle C are much much nicer for your money, but the NW has the draw of real hills and the RRISD exemplary schools elem-HS. The NW also seems to have more stuff--stores, restaurants, etc, while I worry that Circle C might feel more remote since it's not as built up between downtown and Circle C as it is between downtown and the NW.

Well, we finally sold our house and now it's time to make a real decision about where to live.

I know from lurking and occasionally posting that there are lots of Circle C people on this forum, so I'm hoping some will help me out and answer a few questions for me. My questions are (1) do you feel like you need to drive more than 10-15 minutes to get to good restaurants and stores you visit regularly? (we love to eat out, even with our 3 year old and 4 mo old, but prefer non-chains and lots of ethnic stuff like Indian, Thai, Sushi etc.) and (2) to you Circle C parents what has your experience been with the schools? Any issues or concerns? What about after the elementary level, can anyone speak from experience?

I really appreciate any help!

[Trainwreck20]

As for restaurants, you will probably get a better offering NW; however, the options have greatly improved over the last few years in the CC area with the construction mainly around Escarpment/Slaughter, as well as the options on Wm Cannon and over near Brodie. Galaxy Cafe, Waterloo, Blue Bamboo, Cypress Grill, Mangeris Pizza, Santa Rita, and multiple others are pretty close now. I don't live in CC, but just north of Slaughter and can walk to many of them. Waterloo has a decent playground that is just about right for the 4 y/o crowd.

I can't tell you about the elementary personally, but we will eventually have our kids in Mills when the get older, and currently have no reason for concern.

NW has a very different vibe, due to being an older, established area (for the most part), and you will not find that down SW, at least not for a while. The Villages of Western Oaks and surrounding area, though, is somewhat similar.

[llkltk]

My vote is for Circle C. NW Austin is very crowded. I used to live up there and now I hardly ever go up there because of the traffic. SW Austin is getting so much shopping, and it's beautiful down here. Whole Foods is coming, and most of the shopping is only less than a 10 minute drive from Circle C. Probably only 5 minutes. The schools are really good in SW Austin.

[shmatbert]

Hi Speris - My husband and I moved to Circle C from downtown Austin about 7 years ago before we had our child. There aren't nearly as many restaurants as NW but we are getting more all the time. We love to eat out and we have some restaurants we frequent in the SW area but it's also a quick trip to downtown if we can't find what we're looking for. SW we have good Mexican, Thai, and some Indian as well as some local chains that many people love like P Terry's, Torchy's and Kerbey Lane. Up north you will have some good choices for Chinese that they don't have downtown or in other parts of Austin.

I can only speak to elementary schools so far. I love Clayton Elementary where my son attends and it is highly rated. The other elementaries are also well rated. If you decide on Circle C, I would encourage you to visit the schools (Clayton, Kiker and Baldwin, even though it isn't in Circle C) and see if you click with one more than another before you buy a home. I have experience with Kiker and Clayton and have friends at Baldwin and each school has it's own vibe and approach, driven by the principal. Though Clayton prepares for standardized testing, they don't focus on it constantly like some schools. It seems to have a very relaxed and happy atmospere.

I didn't expect to love Circle C, but I do. One of the main reasons we chose it is because of the outdoor activities that are easily accessible - the Veloway, the park and trails, soccer fields, the bike lanes and year round lap swimming. I also really enjoy the people in the neighborhood - generally down-to-earth. Shopping is no problem with Barton Creek Mall, Sunset Valley and the Outlet stores in San Marcos depending on what you're looking for.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

[austin-steve]

There isn't going to be a "make or break" advantage in Circle C over NW or vice versa if you don't assign to your criteria list a clear "must have" or two. Usually, when people are stuck between two areas, the house itself picks you, not the other way around. In other words, you look in both areas and find the right house, based on your most important wants, and by default the area in which the house is located becomes your favorite.

One criteria that I'll throw out is being able to walk to the schools. We lived from 1999 to earlier this year in 3 different homes that were all walking distance from our kids' private school in Oak Hill. Now that the youngest is a year away from high school and the oldest in her senior year, we moved a few blocks from Westlake High because we want the walking aspect for our oldest's senior year, and the following 4 years for the youngest.

Not everybody cares about this, but I use it as an example of a long-lasting criteria that pays back year after year and really does affect your lifestyle, transportation logistics and relationship with your kids. The benefits of kids walking to and from school with parents (later with friends) are so enormous, in our opinion, that it literally dictated the last 4 home purchases/builds we made. In our current spot, we're good for another 5 years on that criteria alone, and are thus extremely happy even though the small 1970s house is sub-par compared to what we're use to.

Point being, whether it's walking to restaurants, a bus line, being close to work, near a hike/bike trail, on a culdesac, near the soccer league fields, etc - whatever that "must have" is for your life and lifestyle, it makes the home selection experience much easier when you have a big reason like that to rule in or out candidate properties.

Most buyers suffer from a lack of any clearly articulated "must haves" and instead have a big bucket of "soft wants", none of which are strong enough to dictate the final choice, and they remain confused and uncertain even after picking a house.

Decide your very, very most important criteria, then go find the house that provides it, whether NW or CC, and you'll enjoy the greatest level of after-purchase satisfaction when you do so. If you can't think of anything, default to the kids being able to walk at least through middle school.

Steve

[jobert]

I don't live in Circle C, but I would choose Circle C over NW Austin. NW Austin may have more infrastructure, but it's overcrowded, and if you want to be relatively close to downtown in a new-ish house, you will pay an arm and a leg because you are competing with tech employees for housing up north. In SW Austin, you have the option of getting out of town (Wine Country, Wimberly, Gruene, Fredericksburg, etc.) easily, and closer proximity to downtown Austin as well. Development is ramping up on the southern half of Travis, as investors and developers are turning their attentions away from the NW suburbs (Liberty Hill, Leander, etc.) and are now focusing south and east to move the geographic center of Austin back closer to downtown with the help from local and state government incentives. The prospects for quality of life improvements and new major attractions are greater south of the river.

[austin-steve]

Development is ramping up on the southern half of Travis, as investors and developers are turning their attentions away from the NW suburbs (Liberty Hill, Leander, etc.) and are now focusing south and east to move the geographic center of Austin back closer to downtown with the help from local and state government incentives. The prospects for quality of life improvements and new major attractions are greater south of the river.

I don't disagree that south Austin and SE Austin will continue to develop, but there is in fact no "turning away" from the NW corridor. Leander and beyond will boom as much if not more than southern/SE Travis County, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is it's outside the bureaucratic oversight of the City of Austin and the road infrastructure is stubbed out with decades of foresight whereas everything in Austin is decades of an afterthought.

Take a drive up 183A to Hwy 29 sometime and the capcity for growth along that area becomes evident.

Back to the specific topic, I also think CC is a better choice absent any clearly defined reasons otherwise from the OP.

[sinking]

Originally Posted by llkltk

My vote is for Circle C. NW Austin is very crowded. I used to live up there and now I hardly ever go up there because of the traffic. SW Austin is getting so much shopping, and it's beautiful down here. Whole Foods is coming, and most of the shopping is only less than a 10 minute drive from Circle C. Probably only 5 minutes. The schools are really good in SW Austin.

I've got to say I have found the opposite. I was living off of Slaughter near Manchaca and my father lives in Circle C so I am familiar with the whole far south area. It seemed like no matter what time of the day I went out it was extremely crowded. Too much traffic on the street, too many close calls with accidents, the stores are too crowded. Now I am in the NW off of 183 and it is so much better. The grocery stores are much less crowded, streets have sparse traffic after dark. The first couple times I went to Home Depot I was wondering if it was even open it was so unpopulated.

[jobert]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

Leander and beyond will boom as much if not more than southern/SE Travis County, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is it's outside the bureaucratic oversight of the City of Austin and the road infrastructure is stubbed out with decades of foresight whereas everything in Austin is decades of an afterthought.

Take a drive up 183A to Hwy 29 sometime and the capcity for growth along that area becomes evident.

Capacity for growth? Take a drive along the 45/130 Tollway sometime, it's 4X the size of the 183 tollway, and it it's an actual loop that connect the entire northern and southern half of the Austin metro, not a spur that shoots off 30 miles from downtown. Media articles over the last year outlining developments along 130 corridor outnumber those in NW Austin probably 8:1

[jobert]

Here are a few of the developments announced recently for the south and east Austin metro..

planned $250million mixed use development off of 130 (Southeast):
$250M project for SH 130 | Austin Business Journal

300 acre solar (east):
City council gives Austin Energy the go-ahead for major solar project | Austin Business Journal

$2billion: business park of of 969 (east):
Developer plotting green-tech park along with Bastrop County airport

148 acre horse racing complex off of 45 (southeast):
Land purchased for horse racing track near Creedmoor

$250million F1 track (southeast):
Austin's F1 track gets laid out — Autoblog

250 acres mixed use/concert venue (southeast): http://www.austinbackstage.com/

599 acres mixed use development/corporate HQ complex (south):
Project could bring apartments, offices and more to southern Travis County


I haven't heard a peep out of NW Austin except for the waterpark, and almost every news article about western Travis county is about a large-scale foreclosure...

Google "foreclosure" + Sweetwater, Avana, Hill country Galleria, Spanish Oaks, etc and you'll see what I'm talking about....I also failed to mention, there is a one-year moratorium on construction pretty much west of Mopac that could become permanent.