disenchanted with the burbs, looking to make a change (Austin: apartments, rental homes)

[10scoachrick]

I find this thread interesting. After 3 1/3 years here in Avery Ranch, we're very happy; but I do wonder how we would 'feel' about living closer in. I travel in toward town for bike rides and other events and go through neighborhoods that would have been in our price range. There is no daily commute involved and we had good reasons for staying in north-north Austin for our house-hunt. Things have gotten a bit more flexible now and I wonder if we would ever make the move 'just because'. Kids are not in the picture, so schools are only 'important' to us for their value to the neighborhood. The schools up here are fine and we enjoy being able to get from place to place in relative ease with all the wonderful highways here in north-north Austin and the surrounding area.

No offense to the center-city dwellers, but Balcones Village would be 'closer in' for us. Great Hills area also.

Like I said...interesting thread.
Please carry on.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

I find this thread interesting. After 3 1/3 years here in Avery Ranch, we're very happy; but I do wonder how we would 'feel' about living closer in. I travel in toward town for bike rides and other events and go through neighborhoods that would have been in our price range. There is no daily commute involved and we had good reasons for staying in north-north Austin for our house-hunt. Things have gotten a bit more flexible now and I wonder if we would ever make the move 'just because'. Kids are not in the picture, so schools are only 'important' to us for their value to the neighborhood. The schools up here are fine and we enjoy being able to get from place to place in relative ease with all the wonderful highways here in north-north Austin and the surrounding area.

No offense to the center-city dwellers, but Balcones Village would be 'closer in' for us. Great Hills area also.

Like I said...interesting thread.
Please carry on.

Great Hills and Balcones Vilalge are great neighborhoods.

[orngkat]

I live in the central area and am noticing more and more young families moving in as the older generations pass away. Personally, I would not like living in a master planned community either especially if I had kids. Too "white-bread" but that's just me. We raised our children in central Austin in an older small house and they attended public schools - Gullett Elementary and then magnet schools. They went on to get masters degrees and have stable careers with that education. I think the public schools provided a well-rounded, interesting education for the most part. Parental and community involvement is key no matter where you attend. At the Kealing/LBJ magnet schools, they were exposed to all kinds of children too so they understood that not everyone has what Steiner-like kids have. I don't think parents with young children realize how their kids change as the years go by - adolesence is a whole other ball game - when it comes to friends, schools, etc. It goes by very quickly...and you end up wondering why you took so many things so seriously.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

Well, you may just have to do what we (wife and kids) did, which is to decide if good schools trump all other considerations. For us, it did, and we lived where we didn't want to live for a decade because we valued the school and our proximity to it and our school friends more than anything else during that stage of our lives. We sacrificed. No regrets.

In Steiner, you have what is probably a decent enough house with superb schools. You also will have a built in social network (the real life kind) of other kids and families. As the elementary/middle school years go by, you'll attend dozens, if not 100+ birthday parties, summer camps, play dates, etc. Plus Mommy groups, book clubs, etc. You'll watch other familie's kids grow up along with your own. In other words, Steiner (and other similar areas of Austin) provide the planet around which your "family with kids" and school life will orbit for more than a decade. That's a powerful thing to give up, and it's tough to duplicate in Central Austin past elementary school.

I love central Austin, and with our oldest now in college and the youngest now in high school, we moved back closer in (Eanes ISD) last year. We went from a 3,300 custom built home on an acreage lot in Oak Hill to a small 1970s track home which is unremarkable in almost every way other than location. We are sacrificing creature comforts and spaciousness now for location, while still optimizing our school choice. We are willing to do that at this stage of the life cycle whereas we weren't a decade ago when the kids were small.

Are you willing to move into a smaller, older home and forego all of the lifestyle and social advantages that Steiner offers to families raising kids? Are you willing to expose yourself financially by turning an under water home into a rental property which will introduce instability and risk to your family budget? And do you want to raise your kids in a central Austin neighborhood where other kids are much less concentrated instead of the buzzing bee hive of kidville and all it has to offer?

Those are some of the questions you'll need to answer.

I know I'm making some assumptions that can be debated, namely the premise that kids will thrive and excel more in master planned communities with high achieving schools and high concentrations of families than they will in central neighborhoods, but my belief is that, in general, overall, they will.

Steve

Steve, you forgot to listen. (I'm sure it was a slip, because listening is the most important thing we do in our profession!) The OP said that she'd lived in Steiner for two years - clearly that's long enough for her to determine whether or not that's the right place for her and her family. Also, we've butted heads over this before; it's entirely possible to raise kids in Central Austin or close to it and have them go to good schools and have them grow up to be happy, productive adults. There are many enrichment opportunities pretty close to hand, as well. There are even central neighborhoods with high concentrations of families (many of which have been named here), and schools that are good even if they're not in a master planned community. I also noticed that the OP seemed to be less than enchanted with the schools there, based on her comments about maybe test scores aren't the sole or even best way to go when choosing a good school.

OP, you've gotten a lot of good advice on neighborhoods here. You are right on target in wondering if perhaps test scores aren't the be all, end all of determining a good school. I learned with my own two that a school that is superb for one child might be a disaster for another, and vice versa (this was with both public and private schools), never mind for every student that crosses its threshold. I also attended one of the top ten schools in the country in middle school/high school way back when, and went from a student obsessed with learning to one who hated school and would do anything to get out of it, because of the emphasis on recording and playing back the "right" answers for the tests, and for God's sake not thinking about what we were taught, so that the school's rating would be maintained. Gave me a whole different perspective on such things.

What you need to do is to check out the schools, whether public or private, with your own child in mind, because that's the most important factor of any school - will it work for your child?

[CarnivalGal]

I live in Steiner and love it, but I understand not everyone does. My thing is that unless you are downtown, you are really still a good car drive from anything even if you are in Allendale or other parts of town mentioned. So it just still seems like you are giving up the amenities of the master planned community for a smaller house, but not getting much in return. You still have to drive everywhere.I just don't see how that is more of a "city life." At least in Steiner I can walk to a lot of shops, playgrounds, etc.

I'm from the Northeast, so I'm used to being able to walk everywhere, hop a train, etc. That's one of the things that drives me nuts about Austin is that I can't do that. But it's also one of the reasons we like Steiner so much - because we can do that somewhat.

[centralaustinite]

Oh, no. I know folks who live in Allandale and never get in their car! You can take the trail alongside Shoal Creek all the way into downtown to work by bike. Walk to elementary school, middle school, walk or bike to HEB, Amy's Ice Cream, Phil's Ice House. Tons of local retail and services on Burnet Rd, and 2222, plus the Alamo on Anderson, Terra Toys, Sandy Shoes, not to mention the Walmart, NW park and pool.

Seriously, some of the most hard-core bike commuters (who take their kids to school, and pets to the vet on the bike not to mention ride downtown to work) live in Allandale.

Steiner provokes full-blown anxiety attacks in me.

[1mintjulep]

Originally Posted by orngkat

I live in the central area and am noticing more and more young families moving in as the older generations pass away. Personally, I would not like living in a master planned community either especially if I had kids.

I can sort of understand the appeal of a place like Steiner if you have kids, but if you don't...it sounds like absolute hell, especially for someone who doesn't especially like children. Having to dodge little kids driving in and out of the neighborhood/compound would get annoying for me extremely fast, nor would I care for people knocking on my door five times a day with the latest school fundraiser or church social or whatever.

One of the main draws of condo living for me is that there aren't a lot of families around - it's mostly older people and younger singles and/or couples without children.

[Lije Baley]

I grew up in the 'burbs myself, Spring Branch (here in Houston) in the 70s to be exact, but boy, some of those names for the subdivisions listed for the OP sound so......well, remember those slick ads in many magazines back in the 1950s picturing perfect families in perfect homes staring at their new Fridigaire with unbelievably happy but vacant eyes? I just never pictured Austin having such places, if they exist there that is (I hope not).

Some subdivisions may look great but IMO I would make sure they are good for living in too.

Or as Rush put it in their song "Subdivisions":

Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out......

Regarding grades: I'll stay out of the details to avoid getting this turned into a political discussion, but IMO great scores on standardized tests do not mean as much as you think they would mean. While I'm an education moderate i.e. I believe in memorization, direct instruction, plain old hard work etc and projects, discovery learning and other similar types of "progressive" education processes, schools are under so much pressure to get high grades to make sure their federal funding isn't affected, I believe the standardized tests are causing academics at many schools to be skewed too far in one direction, resulting in kids with only a shallow understanding of the world.

[orngkat]

You still have to drive everywhere.

Here in Allandale, we manage to take care of all our needs and wants - work, grocery,medical, entertainment, etc within a three mile radius, ie 15 minutes tops to get anywhere by car. Most of what we do except for work is within an easy walk or bike ride. I know if I lived out in the boonies, I would spend a lot more time in the car. We did once upon a time, and I think the smartest thing we ever did for quality of life was to move back into town. I know though that some folks don't mind spending a lot of time in the car. And some folks will do anything for a big, new house. Different strokes...

[mimimomx3]

Yep, here in the smoking, single girl, drunk boyfriend 78731 of Northwest Hills, we have pretty much everything we need- HEB, library, post office, starbucks, walgreens, all a bike ride away. We love it, but realize it's not for everyone. I like the inter-generational aspect of living here.