Young Family Looking to Relocate to Diverse Area of Austin (San Marcos: condo, houses)

[BevoLJ]

Originally Posted by Eshakc

My husband and I are in late 20s with a 4 year old and looking to relocate to Austin area from San Antonio and buy a home. We are African American and coming from a very diverse (in race, culture, economic status), military middle to upper middle class suburb of San Antonio (Converse). We have been looking in Kyle/Buda because it seems to be a good halfway point but the schools are not racially diverse at all. It seems we need to go more north in Austin (Round Rock, Pflugerville) to find a location comparable to what we are coming from.

Some things we are taking into consideration in location are:

My husband will begin at ACC this semester and transfer to a University in the next year or 2.
I will be attending Texas State University for Grad School starting January 2013.
I am currently looking for employment between San Marcos and Austin.
Our son will begin elementary school next Fall.
We would like to purchase a new home (brand new or less than 3 years old/$175k to $225k) preferably out of city limits, lower property taxes in a growing area.

Please help me with your input on an area that will best fit our needs. Thank you!

That is a very long commute even if there was not traffic in Austin. Unfortunately Austin does have traffic. Lots of it. Much more than San Antonio. It is like 50 miles from Round Rock to San Marcos. In Austin traffic it will be at least an hour and a half. Right now (5:15 pm as of this post) both I-35 and Mopac downtown are parking lots and barely moving. If you don't mind using toll roads (130) you could avoid a lot of the traffic and keep the commute to under a hour and a half, but it is going to be a 60-70 mile commute.

[centralaustinite]

My immediate neighbors are AA, military, professional, etc. Sound quite similar to the OP. They also lived in SA and thought that they would retire to Austin. They built a custom house here but they were shocked by the property tax and never moved in. They continue to live in SA. I do not think that they will ever live in Austin, there is just not the same sort of large professional AA community in Austin like there is in SA.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by Eshakc

You are right, everyone has their own priorities. I think you may have misunderstood the purpose of my post. I was not asking about the size of Texas or whether or not I should buy a home, I am buying a home. Hopefully I get some more input from others who are offering help with the questions I asked and not just sitting around to challenge everything said.

Thank you to everyone else for the helpful replies!

I would absolutely not live up north based on what you described. The issue is none of the outlying towns are diverse at all. South austin is probably your best bet from a commute point of view with reasonable diversity.

What type of minorities are you talking about and at what % level? Is it enough to have hispanics and asians or do there have to be african americans?

Austin high, akins and travis are both right around 8-11% AA

LBJ is 48% african american and also contains the liberal arts and science academy so has the brightest school population in austin.

The great thing about that area is that mueller is serving as an anchor, but there is still a lot of affordable housing.

[Eshakc]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

Round Rock & Pflugerville have a higher African American population but you don't want to live up there or in Cedar Park if you are going to Texas State University, that would be a horrible commute.

You an check the demographics of any location here https://www.city-data.com/city/Texas.html

Last time I checked Austin had lower property taxes then most of the surrounding communities. https://www.city-data.com/forum/austi...some-most.html

Onion Creek, in SE Austin is a very nice subdivision and that zip code is pretty diverse, similar to Round Rock. Not many new houses there though and the public schools on the East side are not the best. You can click on any zip code in this Austin area map and see the demographics. https://www.city-data.com/zipmaps/Austin-Texas.html

The links you provided were extremely helpful with giving me a visual of not only racial diversity, but income, education, home buying information, etc! Thank you

[Eshakc]

Originally Posted by Austin97

I would absolutely not live up north based on what you described. The issue is none of the outlying towns are diverse at all. South austin is probably your best bet from a commute point of view with reasonable diversity.

What type of minorities are you talking about and at what % level? Is it enough to have hispanics and asians or do there have to be african americans?

Austin high, akins and travis are both right around 8-11% AA

LBJ is 48% african american and also contains the liberal arts and science academy so has the brightest school population in austin.

The great thing about that area is that mueller is serving as an anchor, but there is still a lot of affordable housing.

It is more than just having minorities, hispanic and asian, and I don't have a percentage in mind. But I am not comfortable with my son being the one and only African American child in his class. When I see numbers like 60% Hispanic, 30% Anglo, 3% Asian, 4% African American, 3% other, it does not reflect a level of diversity that we are accustomed to. I grew up in a military family and was exposed to all cultures, including my own which itself is diverse, which made me a well rounded adult and would like the same for my son.

I willl look into the areas you suggested. Thank you.

[Eshakc]

I should mention that although I will be starting at Texas State, it would mean traveling to campus 1, possibly 2 days for evening classes during the week my 1st year and my 2nd year would be field work at a location I choose (definitely close to home) and travel to campus would be minimal.

Thank you again for all of your replies they have been helpful in my search!

[RowdysMom]

Then I'd opt for Pflugerville.

[love roses]

I live NorthEast of Austin and can't believe people are saying these towns (round rock/pflugerville) are lily white. You guys need to venture out of South Austin from time to time. These areas have a pretty good level of diversity....AA's, Asian, European....I'd choose Pflugerville based on your post.

[CarnivalGal]

Honestly, none of the areas you listed are very diverse. Pflugerville and Round Rock may be marginally more diverse, but not so much that you would really notice it. If these are your only options, I would stick with the points further South (Kyle, Buda). Otherwise your commute to and from San Marcos will be an absolute nightmare.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by love roses

I live NorthEast of Austin and can't believe people are saying these towns (round rock/pflugerville) are lily white. You guys need to venture out of South Austin from time to time. These areas have a pretty good level of diversity....AA's, Asian, European....I'd choose Pflugerville based on your post.

Agreed. Pflugerville easily has twice the number of AA's compared to most other areas of Austin and you can easily notice it. Its close proximity to the 130 toll road would also make it easy to avoid almost all the traffic to San Marcos so I would add the toll road costs to my budget as I wouldn't want to travel on I35 for that commute.