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We live in Grant Park and work at Coke and Ga Tech so we don't have to put up with much traffic. Homes in our neighborhood are selling pretty well. I had one friend sell in 3 weeks a few months ago and last week a friend had a contract in 5 weeks. When you're intown and you have one of these completely rennovated craftsman bungalows, the market isn't as bad. Still the market isn't as good as it used to be! Houses used to be under contract within days of listing back in the day.
My husband wants to work at UT -- so if we lived at Anderson Mill and he drove to UT every day in rush hour, is it ever as long as an hour? Ideally the commute wouldn't be longer than 30 minutes most days.
I have a friend that lives in Athens and drives to Coke every day. He gets up at 4 am to drive in. It's a crazy life!?! I'd rather have less of a home than more of a commute! Life's too short to spend a lot of it in your car.
Yea, I didn't think Austin traffic could compare to Atlanta's. I've spent 2 hours commuting from downtown to Alpharetta sometimes.
fil, thanks for the info from a former Atlantan...I've been following hope around these boards for a couple of weeks and getting plenty of 'free' advice. We believe our Sandy Springs rancher will be a fairly easy sell since the new city has become so popular...doesn't hurt to have UPS and many others within a couple of miles.
I wonder about some of the Austin neighborhoods that have only one or maybe two entry/exit roads. Sure looks like you could be stuck behind a couple dozen cars all trying to get out of the neighborhood and on to a main road(looking mainly out 2222 and others out to west/NW areas). I know a lot of planners don't like the one-entry, cul-de-sac style subdivision for that reason(among others). Makes it a little tricky for emergency vehicles, as well. As you know, north Atlanta traffic is defined by the river but Austin has all the hill country and greenspace to deal with AND the rivers. Do folks ever feel like they are stuck in their neighborhoods and can't get out?
I lived in a neighborhood with only two exits, and they exited on the same street about a mile apart. It was great! NO through traffic. Occasionally, I had to wait behind a couple other cars, but the exit road (Duval) is a 35 mph speed limit, so it was not that bad. Most of the neighborhoods are either a) not that big or b) controlled by traffic lights. I suppose there are some with issues, though, so others may have some experience with traffic backup in a neighborhood.
AM to UT could reach a 1 hr commute on a bad day and/or the worst travel time. The morning drive down 183 to MoPac is affectionately referred to on the radio as the 'March to MoPac', but at least the lights have been replaced by freeway. If there is a wreck on 183 (somewhat common) or one on MoPac (less common) then the drive could easily take an hour. I would suspect that most days it is 35-45 minutes, but I do not drive that side of town much anymore, so not sure.
Easily an hour? Hmmmm, that's kinda crappy. Do they expect the light rail to help ease traffic woes? I don't know much about it but maybe I need to do a little research.
So would it be an hour from Slaughter and Mopac to downtown in bad traffic?
Well, it is kind of an interesting discussion. From Slaughter/MoPac to MoPac/15st exit in rush hour is probably 20-25 minutes, less during off-peak hours. This can vary greatly by leaving a little early or a little late - the peak rush hour is very narrow. I travel from Slaughter/MoPac to 360/Mopac around 7 am and it takes 5 minutes. It would probably only be another 5 minutes to the dowtown exits at that time. The time required to get to Slaughter and to get to downtown from these points on MoPac can add anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 mintues. The south Austin rush hour from inside the 'Y' is very manageable. The 'Y' works as a defacto bottleneck, somewhat limiting the traffic closer in. I believe that the toll road will only move the traffic from the 'Y' to the river crossing on MoPac .
Anyway, having lived both S. and N. in Austin, the S. Austin traffic currently seems much less stressful and a little quicker to downtown. Btw, 'the easily an hour' is only when there is a wreck .
Yeah, if you work N., you really should live north of the river, and ditto for S.. If you work downtown or E. or W., it doesn't make that big of a diff. Shady Hollow is a real nice area, one of my co-workers has lived there forever, it seems. I will have to go wee what her commute is to where we work (NE side of MoPac/360).
Edit: okay, she says it is about 20 minutes to where we work during peak rush hour, probably about double that to get downtown (40 minutes). If she leaves ~7am, it takes here <10 minutes to get here, and probably about 20 minutes to downtown.
Last edited by Trainwreck20; 10-29-2007 at 08:43 AM..
I wonder about some of the Austin neighborhoods that have only one or maybe two entry/exit roads. Sure looks like you could be stuck behind a couple dozen cars all trying to get out of the neighborhood and on to a main road(looking mainly out 2222 and others out to west/NW areas). I know a lot of planners don't like the one-entry, cul-de-sac style subdivision for that reason(among others). Makes it a little tricky for emergency vehicles, as well. As you know, north Atlanta traffic is defined by the river but Austin has all the hill country and greenspace to deal with AND the rivers. Do folks ever feel like they are stuck in their neighborhoods and can't get out?
Our neighborhood has only one main exit (we live off 2222). There is a back way through another neighborhood that dumps us out farther east on 2222 and closer to 360 but of course those are residential streets with slower speed limits. We also have a corporate park, a new elementary and 2 preschool/daycares at the front of our subdivision and happily, for the most part we rarely have problems being "stuck". When there's an accident, sure, there are backups, but in the last year I can only think of 2 or 3 where people were hating life
Our neighborhood has only one main exit (we live off 2222). There is a back way through another neighborhood that dumps us out farther east on 2222 and closer to 360 but of course those are residential streets with slower speed limits. We also have a corporate park, a new elementary and 2 preschool/daycares at the front of our subdivision and happily, for the most part we rarely have problems being "stuck". When there's an accident, sure, there are backups, but in the last year I can only think of 2 or 3 where people were hating life
Thanks! We are expanding our search as far north as the Great Hills CC area(looks like access to 360 and 183 is a little easier than some of the neighborhoods off 2222). The aerial views look much like those of our Highlands, NC mountain house in that the roads are necessarily shaped by topography.
We won't have a regular commute but will make frequent trips to Mopac & 2222 area as well as Balcones Woods. We are planning a trip out next week(mayhaps only DW on this trip) to begin a more serious, up-close search.
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Houses used to be under contract within days of listing back in the day. 
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