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Good morning! Like many here, we are looking into moving to the Austin area (from the Bay Area). We are currently looking at the Cedar Park area. My wife works for Cisco and works remotely anyway, and I am in IT and would wait until we settle in before looking for work. I have so many questions, but I'll just start with a few here...
We have begun doing our homework on the schools (education being the number one reason for leaving California), but one thing I think about is how the kids will do making new friends (they are reluctant to leave here). If you have kids and have made a big move like this, what has been your kids experience regarding making new friends?
We also have to consider, do we rent first to really check out the area, or do we go with buying (since the market is rising) before housing gets more expensive?
Being a weather geek, I do like the idea of the occasional severe weather, but quite frankly, the online video footage captured of the 1997 tornado in CP is kind of scary. But my wife loves the heat and I will lean to life with it for the trade off of a better community.
Living in the Bay Area all of my life (San Jose), I have for years wanted to move to a smaller area with a friendlier community feel to it. My wife and I try to stay involved with the school and PTA. Is Cedar Park a good area for this or are there other areas that we should look at as well?
As you can see...at this point in the process...I have many questions running through my head that jump all over the place. I'll just throw this out there and see what kind of feedback we get.
I'm planning a trip with my son out there next month to look at areas and schools. Maybe talk to some schools and possibly start looking at realtors.
Good morning! Like many here, we are looking into moving to the Austin area (from the Bay Area). We are currently looking at the Cedar Park area. My wife works for Cisco and works remotely anyway, and I am in IT and would wait until we settle in before looking for work. I have so many questions, but I'll just start with a few here...
We have begun doing our homework on the schools (education being the number one reason for leaving California), but one thing I think about is how the kids will do making new friends (they are reluctant to leave here). If you have kids and have made a big move like this, what has been your kids experience regarding making new friends?
We also have to consider, do we rent first to really check out the area, or do we go with buying (since the market is rising) before housing gets more expensive?
Being a weather geek, I do like the idea of the occasional severe weather, but quite frankly, the online video footage captured of the 1997 tornado in CP is kind of scary. But my wife loves the heat and I will lean to life with it for the trade off of a better community.
Living in the Bay Area all of my life (San Jose), I have for years wanted to move to a smaller area with a friendlier community feel to it. My wife and I try to stay involved with the school and PTA. Is Cedar Park a good area for this or are there other areas that we should look at as well?
As you can see...at this point in the process...I have many questions running through my head that jump all over the place. I'll just throw this out there and see what kind of feedback we get.
I'm planning a trip with my son out there next month to look at areas and schools. Maybe talk to some schools and possibly start looking at realtors.
Thanks for the help!
Chris
Any city is probably too large to get a "community feel". The level that happens at is probably your particular neighborhood. I suspect you can find great communities in San Jose.
There are some things that are worth considering when you move
1) cost of living
2) amenities
3) proximity to the types of things you do the most (work, fun etc)
4) proximity to family
5) cultural attitudes
6) weather
I think no matter where you go, you can make friends or you could end up not being able to make friends. Pretty much any major metro area has way more people that you are compatible with than you could ever meet.
1) cost of living is lower in the austin metro
2) we are missing a lot of amenities compared to the bay area, but whether that is important depends on how much you currently take advantage of them. For example a lot of people want to be near the beach, but never really went to the beach. A lot of people want to be near the ocean, but never went in the ocean. I personally find lakes a lot more user friendly than the ocean. Make a list of the things you take advantage of the most.
3) Most outdoor hobbies you would do in the bay area you can do here. But if you ski a lot, then you are out of luck.
5) the bay area is pretty hardcore liberal. The austin metro is more conservative. About 1/4 our friends regularly go to church plus go many go to extra things like bible study. There is less of a nanny state attitude here, which manifests as things like voting down affordable housing. Cedar park in particular voted to not be part of the cap metro public transportation system. Low service, low taxes.
6) The weather is pretty nice october to may. Then gets really hot june-sept. Sometimes it is really cold in December/Jan.
We have begun doing our homework on the schools (education being the number one reason for leaving California), but one thing I think about is how the kids will do making new friends (they are reluctant to leave here). If you have kids and have made a big move like this, what has been your kids experience regarding making new friends?
Completely depends on your kids. My only suggestion would be to seek out neighborhoods that have a reasonably high concentration of kids about the same age as yours, this will provide more opportunities and a better probability of finding good matches for the kids and yourselves. Also, be prepared to give the kiddos a hand and do some networking of your own. You can also look into some local after school activities to help them meet more like minded kiddos (e.g. dance, gymnastics, soccer, robotics, etc).
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We also have to consider, do we rent first to really check out the area, or do we go with buying (since the market is rising) before housing gets more expensive?
Well look at it this way. If you purchase and in a couple of years you decide that you don't like where you live, you still have to pay the cost of a house a couple of years from now, PLUS the odds of your purchased house appreciating enough to cover the cost of purchasing and then selling it are pretty slim. Basically the downside of a bad decision can get ugly. You might luck out and find the place you'll spend the rest of your days in, but then again you might not. Renting first would be the more conservative (and some would say fiscally prudent) approach. Generally the real estate market here is not like it was during the Bay Area boom times, so the price differential between now and a year from now isn't likely to be so great that you'll be kicking yourself for not purchasing now. But it really comes down to how much risk are you able to absorb.
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Being a weather geek, I do like the idea of the occasional severe weather, but quite frankly, the online video footage captured of the 1997 tornado in CP is kind of scary. But my wife loves the heat and I will lean to life with it for the trade off of a better community.
If the thought of earthquakes haven't scared you out of the Bay Area, the threat of tornados shouldn't even faze you. I've been through both (Loma Prieta and a smaller local twister), the probabilities of having a tornado affect you is really slim to none. I'd be more worried about the floods and wild fires myself
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Living in the Bay Area all of my life (San Jose), I have for years wanted to move to a smaller area with a friendlier community feel to it. My wife and I try to stay involved with the school and PTA. Is Cedar Park a good area for this or are there other areas that we should look at as well?
This really comes down to neighborhood. If you live in an area that is mainly young single professionals/students, then it'll likely feel a lot more like SJ. I'd focus more on neighborhoods rather than cities (e.g. Cedar Park). For instance Balcones Village is near one of the more highly rated high schools (Westwood, as well as middle and elementary schools) and so it has many families (esp of Asian descent) who are generally professionals with kids. It's a slightly older neighborhood (homes built 70's mainly), you also have some of your newer master planned communities like Avery Ranch (in CP), Circle C (south Austin), Steiner Ranch (NW Austin) if your tastes run to newer communities. If your budget allows, you can look more towards central Austin, again older neighborhoods, but close to downtown.
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I'm planning a trip with my son out there next month to look at areas and schools. Maybe talk to some schools and possibly start looking at realtors.
There is also the whole realm of private schools as well. Even if that wasn't what you were thinking, it would probably be worthwhile just to drop in and talk to them, it's always good to have some additional data points. It might also make you think of things that you weren't originally considering. And finally if there is an impedance mismatch between the area you want to live and the schools for that area, then private schools can be a way to still make things work (though it could make your kiddos integration a bit tougher since many of their schoolmates won't be in the same neighborhood).
Again, another great post. Thanks. I definitely want to look at some of the other neighborhoods that you suggested. This is just the kind of info I was looking for. Thanks again.
A thousand pardons, 'nerd; but in your otherwise insightful post, you stated: " you also have some of your newer master planned communities like Avery Ranch (in CP), Circle C (south Austin), Steiner Ranch (NW Austin)"
For a number of reasons, I'm happy to report Avery Ranch is STILL in the city limits of Austin, not Cedar Park(No offense intended toward those who live in and enjoy Cedar Park).
My best advice is to drive and explore the entire metro with your son going to Austin (Northwest, North, Central, West, South, Southwest parts of town), Lakeway, Lago Vista, Spicewood, Round Rock, Pflugerville, Leander, Cedar Park, Georgetown, if you can - even Dripping Springs. Get a feel of the entire area, see which areas you like and start from there. You are more likely to have a successful move if you focus on home choices based on the 'pleasing' areas of town you visited and homes and/or people you came across. Good luck!
I forgot to mention that I do have a resource in that a family we know moved to Pflugerville about 5 years ago. And yes, we have been bugging them for insight as well.
When you are exploring, I advise that you keep detailed notes of impressions, features, locations, things you liked and didn't, etc. My husband and I did this for a couple of weeks several years ago, and it can be very confusing to look at lots of new places all at once. To this day, I remember neighborhoods and have no idea where they were. Do a lot of exploration, but don't assume you will remember much at all. Having organized notes will make it much easier to make decisions down the line. Pictures might help, too.
How old are your kids?
I grew up in San Jose, my husband and I moved to Reno, NV 20 years ago and then 1 year ago my company relocated us to Central Texas.
We have been here in Texas for almost exactly 1 year - it will be a year in about 2 weeks.
Couple of things we learned. Our daughter was 13 and in 7th grade when we made the move. Our son was a Jr in college and we left him in NV to finish school.
We researched the heck out of the schools in the area where my company is located (Marble Falls-about 50 miles NW of Austin) we read the reviews, we looked at houses and neighborhoods, we talked to the locals and we talked to the schools. We decided to lease a house for 1 year and I am so thankful we did.
We discovered that you can read all you want on a neighborhood and schools but until you actually live in it you don't know if it is a good fit.
After 1 year, we have decided that the neighborhood and the school we so carefully researched are NOT a good fit and we have decided to move in closer to Austin. We have spent the past 3 months really checking out Leander/Cedar Park. We purchased a home in Leander yesterday. It will be a commute for my but its worth it.
We also decided to move during the school year. Many people suggest waiting for the summer but we wanted our daughter to meet some local kids before heading into a long summer. We also felt that being the new kid in March/April was a much better plan than being the new kid on the first day of school when everything is chaos. Our daughter agrees that this method worked well. Being the only new kid had a lot of advantages. The counselors went out of their way to help her feel welcome as did the kids. We will be moving again here in a few weeks and our daughter chose to again move during the school year, she felt that it is an easier transition.
There are several people here who have given me great suggestions and advice on the Leander/Cedar Park area and I am so thankful for all their advice. We really like the area. Its still got a bit of a smaller community feel to it without the isolation of a really small town. The area is on the edge of the hill country which is as it says, hilly and quite pretty.
One of the biggest transitions we have dealt with is the overall slower pace to life.
Also a bit of a warning, the rental market I have been told is super hot in the entire area. As for purchasing, I don't know what your price range is but the inventory in Leander/Cedar Park is low and there was not a lot to choose from. We limited our options due to us wanting a specific high school and it has taken us a lot of house hunting and being quick to jump on new listings to actually get a house.
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