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I can't find much on the topic, but I'm sure there are A LOT of people in Austin who are experiencing our situation. My husband and I work in North Austin in the technology industry (183 and Oak Knoll area). We're creative, around age 30 and my husband is also a professional musician/audio engineer with a home studio by night/weekend (plays about twice a month and at all big festivals like ACL). We're not your ordinary North Austin citizens and we're looking to buy a house in the $250K-$350K range in a community that supports our artistic and community values. We are also planning on having kids in the next 5 years, so we need an area that is kid-friendly, creative, and less than a 30 minute commute to work.
All of you creative techie's--- is their a community for us in North Austin that we don't know about? We know we belong in 78704, but we're not willing to give up 2 hours a day for a commute north of the river! In addition, we are absolutely in love with jobs so our work location won't change anytime soon.
Here is our ideal housing scenario:
-less than a 30 minute commute
-must have a yard for our dogs to play in + big enough to build a home recording studio (unless the house is bigger than 1,500 sqft in which we can transform a room into a home studio)
-preferably a unique house or neighborhood in an un-masterplanned community
-Not into the cookie cutter suburbs
Facts:
-Work along 183N
-Both of us work from home 1 day a week
-Having kids in the next few years
-Anything unique that isn't cookie cutter within a 30 minute commute is likely acceptable
We've found creative and interesting houses in Apache Shores and in Travis Landing in the Lake Travis area, which seems to be within 30 minutes of our work. We've also kind of considered Crestview/Allandale etc., but not sure how that would work with the home recording studio.
I kind of like the Angus Valley area north of Duval between MoPac and 183. You could walk/ride a bike to work, it feeds excellent schools, and the houses are generally from 1970s and 80s - long before the current master planned community look. The yards are a bit bigger on most of them, as well, and the neighborhood does not have a 'through route' to anywhere, so traffic is pretty limited. It is (for the most part) curb-less and often side walk-less, but there are a few of each here and there. Prices are from around $200k or so (backing up to the railroad tracks and 1800 sqft) and go up to around a million for the 5 acre and larger lots that are near the 183 end of the subdivision. Most are in the $300k and 2200 sq ft range, I would guess (I am not a realtor and have not looked at prices up there in a while). I live there for many years some years back, and I liked the mature trees, quiet streets, and (if not eclectic) at least non-standard houses.
Don't give up on Crestview. It's possible you might be able to find what you're looking for there, even including the recording studio requirement, and it fits your other requirements. As Trainwreck says, Angus Valley is another real possibility.
I can't find much on the topic, but I'm sure there are A LOT of people in Austin who are experiencing our situation. My husband and I work in North Austin in the technology industry (183 and Oak Knoll area). We're creative, around age 30 and my husband is also a professional musician/audio engineer with a home studio by night/weekend (plays about twice a month and at all big festivals like ACL). We're not your ordinary North Austin citizens and we're looking to buy a house in the $250K-$350K range in a community that supports our artistic and community values. We are also planning on having kids in the next 5 years, so we need an area that is kid-friendly, creative, and less than a 30 minute commute to work.
All of you creative techie's--- is their a community for us in North Austin that we don't know about? We know we belong in 78704, but we're not willing to give up 2 hours a day for a commute north of the river! In addition, we are absolutely in love with jobs so our work location won't change anytime soon.
Here is our ideal housing scenario:
-less than a 30 minute commute
-must have a yard for our dogs to play in + big enough to build a home recording studio (unless the house is bigger than 1,500 sqft in which we can transform a room into a home studio)
-preferably a unique house or neighborhood in an un-masterplanned community
-Not into the cookie cutter suburbs
Facts:
-Work along 183N
-Both of us work from home 1 day a week
-Having kids in the next few years
-Anything unique that isn't cookie cutter within a 30 minute commute is likely acceptable
I'm looking forward to hearing your advice.
Thanks.
We know a lot of creative hipster types (mostly graphic design, art, PR, marketing) that live around 32nd street close by mopac (the areas the other posters mentioned). They all have kids. The key thing you sacrifice is 1) schools 2) size of house. With schools you can just go private and be fine, plus the schools may improve by the time you need them. Otherwise you should be able to get everything you are looking for. Key streets are funston, oakmont, beverly bryker etc. On weekends you can find them all hanging out at the playground at central market. Their kids go to preschools in the area so you will also meet a ton of parents that way too.
There isnt a lot of housing available in your price range but they do exist.
After I posted this, we ended up moving to Agave Austin. It's the perfect neighborhood that fit all of our requirements. See my yelp review below:
We purchased our house in Agave earlier this year and we are incredibly happy. We spent about a year looking for a house in Austin that was under $350K and didn't fit the typical cookie cutter model. The first time we drove through Agave, we knew we wanted to live here.
After moving in, we were surprised to find out how amazing our neighbors were. We knew we had scored a deal with our amazing modern house, but the community came as a surprising bonus! My husband is a professional musician and we were pleasantly surprised that many of Austin's musicians call Agave home, which makes for fun neighborly jam sessions. Agave had a very diverse blend of residents that all have a few things in common... They value creativity, sustainability, and community. There are art directors, artists, web developers, marketers, band directors, photographers, chefs, professors, architects, software developers and actors. We fit in perfectly.
We have noticed that development in East Austin has really picked up in the past year. We now find ourselves spending most of our time on the east side at places like Justine's, El Chile, Hotel Vegas, Salty Sow, Contigo, and the Sahara Lounge (some that just opened in the past year). It's nice to be able to see the stars at night from our backyard, but I wonder how long that will last seeing how fast the city is engulfing this area. Currently we have an 8 minute commute to a show downtown and a 15 minute commute to the technology corridor along Mopac/183 where we work.
Our biggest concern with moving to Agave was school districts for our kids (none yet) since Agave is barely across the Manor ISD line. We did a lot of research (and interviewing of neighbors) before buying our house and we found that most of the kids in the neighborhood go to the Austin Discovery School. Many of my friends and acquaintances who live on the opposite side of town have kids that attend or are on the waiting list to be enrolled in the school because of its values (http://www.austindiscove…). We'll be sending our kids there as well (once we have them). The school currently accepts k-6 grade with plans of extended that to 8th grade in the next two years.
All in all, Agave is a hidden gem that is bound to be found soon. I'm just glad we got in at the price point we did (with super low interest rates) before the masses found out about it.
After I posted this, we ended up moving to Agave Austin. It's the perfect neighborhood that fit all of our requirements. See my yelp review below:
We purchased our house in Agave earlier this year and we are incredibly happy. We spent about a year looking for a house in Austin that was under $350K and didn't fit the typical cookie cutter model. The first time we drove through Agave, we knew we wanted to live here.
After moving in, we were surprised to find out how amazing our neighbors were. We knew we had scored a deal with our amazing modern house, but the community came as a surprising bonus! My husband is a professional musician and we were pleasantly surprised that many of Austin's musicians call Agave home, which makes for fun neighborly jam sessions. Agave had a very diverse blend of residents that all have a few things in common... They value creativity, sustainability, and community. There are art directors, artists, web developers, marketers, band directors, photographers, chefs, professors, architects, software developers and actors. We fit in perfectly.
We have noticed that development in East Austin has really picked up in the past year. We now find ourselves spending most of our time on the east side at places like Justine's, El Chile, Hotel Vegas, Salty Sow, Contigo, and the Sahara Lounge (some that just opened in the past year). It's nice to be able to see the stars at night from our backyard, but I wonder how long that will last seeing how fast the city is engulfing this area. Currently we have an 8 minute commute to a show downtown and a 15 minute commute to the technology corridor along Mopac/183 where we work.
Our biggest concern with moving to Agave was school districts for our kids (none yet) since Agave is barely across the Manor ISD line. We did a lot of research (and interviewing of neighbors) before buying our house and we found that most of the kids in the neighborhood go to the Austin Discovery School. Many of my friends and acquaintances who live on the opposite side of town have kids that attend or are on the waiting list to be enrolled in the school because of its values (http://www.austindiscove…). We'll be sending our kids there as well (once we have them). The school currently accepts k-6 grade with plans of extended that to 8th grade in the next two years.
All in all, Agave is a hidden gem that is bound to be found soon. I'm just glad we got in at the price point we did (with super low interest rates) before the masses found out about it.
Uh - 8 minute commute to downtown is a bit of a pipe dream. I wouldn't say it's 8 minutes from Mueller and that's 5 miles closer. It may be 8 miles to downtown - but that's down MLK and then though the city - not on a highway.
20 minutes is more realistic - and that's on an off hour.
Did the builder go bankrupt? The old websites appear to be defunct and re-route to a gambling website. Why hasn't there been any new activity there? It seems very sparsely developed and I can't tell if anything at all has happened since 2007-2008
My brother always wants to buy in Agave. I told him I would pretty much throw myself across the closing table to stop it. It will always be a place where out-of-towners (the greater fools) buy. It looks great in person and it all works on paper but the reality . . . nearly any SFH that you could by along MLK on the drive from UT to Agave will appreciate a faster clip!
If it works for you, great. There is something to be said for buying a house just to live in . . . but any appreciation will be slight.
My brother always wants to buy in Agave. I told him I would pretty much throw myself across the closing table to stop it. It will always be a place where out-of-towners (the greater fools) buy. It looks great in person and it all works on paper but the reality . . . nearly any SFH that you could by along MLK on the drive from UT to Agave will appreciate a faster clip!
If it works for you, great. There is something to be said for buying a house just to live in . . . but any appreciation will be slight.
Looked like there were some relative bargains in there during the 'downturn'; so it may work out for some after all.
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Agave Austin
