Georgetown vs. Austin? (Dallas, Round Rock, Santa Fe: appointed, fit in, house)

[faithr]

Hi,

My partner and I are pretty decided that we are moving to the Austin area. We currently live outside of DC. We had really only considered Austin itself but are a bit disappointed with the housing (prices of course, but also styles as we both really like older homes). So we are currently thinking it might be nice to live in a smaller town, as long as it house SOME nice restaurants and grocery stores and places to go with access to Austin. Neither one of us will commute to Austin but we definitely don't want to be intimidated by the commute (we currently often hate driving into DC for events due to traffic).
According to what we've seen online, Gtown does has some beautiful old homes and are much more affordable with some walking neighborhoods for us and our dogs. We liked the people in Austin we've met and are unsure if it will be different in Gtown. We are both liberal and educated and love going to movies, ethnic restaurants and sporting events.
Any insight that will help us choose would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Faith

[jwb123]

Hmmm...

Well, I think that Gtown, while beautiful, doesn't really sound like what you are looking for.

1) Traffic/Commute - I think it will be a chore to drive in to Austin with any sort of regularity from Gtown. I don't know where "outside of DC" you are... but I grew up outside of DC and commuted into DC on a daily basis. If that traffic/commute isn't for you, then I would think you would be upset with the traffic from Gtown too.

I live in Round Rock, which is probably about 15-20 mins closer to Austin than GTown, and still. It's not bad here and there, but it's unpredictable meaning, there could be a huge jam in the middle of a Sat afternoon... and not bad at 4:30 on a weekday. I am used to heavy traffic, having lived in Seattle - but still, it's not something I would want to do daily or weekly even. Plus, for safety - I just hate hate driving down 35, period.

2) GTown is pretty conservative, from all accounts. It's not particularly diverse.

There are really interesting aspects to GTown, the historic homes and main streets, cute shops & restaurants etc - but I wouldn't go there looking at it as a "destination" neighborhood. I think you will still have to commute to Round Rock, Austin, etc for a lot of things & entertainment.

In general (there are some exceptions), outside of Austin, good ethnic restaurants are hard to find... and even in Austin, Austin doesn't do some food ethnicities as well as other areas of the country.

For example, we have replaced our love for good asian, japanese food... with BBQ

There may be some communities south (I don't know where you will be working) that other posters can talk about, that may fit what you are looking for... I am not very familiar with anything South of Austin.

[johnrex62]

Liberal and smaller Texas town are terms that don't often go together very well. I guess it depends on how you define liberal, I suppose....when I hear self description as liberal I think of left wing activism/reactionary. That is pretty limited in Texas to Austin as far as I know. As you proceed toward center you begin to fit in more and more places with small towns very midline to conservative stance.

The second thing you said that picked up my ears is Older Homes. There is a fine line between older and dilapidated. You can find many dilapidated homes in affordable price categories, but I think you are speaking more of historic style homes perhaps? If so, you will be paying a higher price or living in an conservative small town. You are about 20 years late for the gentrification of the historic neighborhoods in central Texas. You can still find them, but their owners now know what they are worth. The smaller towns have not had quite the rush of prospectors for these homes so they are still priced lower.

I would expect you might have to compromise on either the older home or the liberal neighborhood. It will be tough finding both, I think.

[faithr]

Yes, I meant historic homes. Sorry for the miscommunication. And ideally we would like it to already be fixed up!

And by liberal, I am from NYC. I would certainly not claim to be an activist (except in presidential elections) but I am looking for a place of tolerance.

Neither my boyfriend or I commute anywhere (not quite true) as I work from home and he works in NY and will go to NY every second or third week for a week. We'd like to be able to take advantage of Austin but don't necessarily need to be in Austin for work.

It might be that Gtown or the 'burbs just don't have what we are looking for.
Is Round Rock better than Gtown? My uneducated perception of it is that it is a high tech bedroom community like much of Northern Virginia (which is where we live now and are looking to move from).

San Francisco is another place we considered but California is just too expensive for what we would like to have and too congested. It is also farther from NY for my boyfriend's commute, although direct flights abound.
One of the problems for us is that we don't have to be anywhere because of a job. We know we don't want to live where we are now and really don't want a large city. The bf is from Dallas and he has family in Texas. We've been to Austin and liked it, although we were surprised it was not prettier. The first choice for relocation for my bf was Santa Fe, NM which is quite pretty. That choice has been eliminated.

We've lived in Charlottesville for many years as the bf taught at UVA, and think it would be a much more desirable location if it were an hour closer to DC.

Any insight on Austin/Round Rock, etc.. is appreciated. We recently read an article about Wimberly but I think that is too far from Austin.

Thanks

[ilikehouses]

Gtown has a great area of town called "Old Town" with historic homes - you can walk to a small downtown district and a great mexican food dive called Dos Salsas. You can walk to all of the basic things and as long as you don't travel to Austin during rush hour it is a great location. There is also a good cafe called Monument. You would probably drive to that one, but it only takes a minute.

It's not known as an open-minded town like Austin is...but there are plenty of us taking over that part of town.

[texastea]

Southwestern University is a "liberal" liberal arts university and its smack dab in the middle of all those historic homes. The area is populated by professors and they frequent the Monument Inn. I think the area is a blend of humanity and could work for you if you find a house you like : )