Neighborhood downtown for under 200k?

[jco]

Yikes! Are there good neighborhoods east of the 35? I've only heard that they are all bad and that there aren't any good schools that direction, but being close to the center of activity is important to us for several reasons.

[love roses]

A lot of that is based on how it was historically, not necessarily how things are currently going. Of course, be careful of where you look, but around the Town Park area east of 35 and just East of 35 near 6th street there are new condo projects going up, and I've personally seen lots of flips in the area and they look really nice. Not every single area of town East of 35 is bad. There is East of 35 downtown and East of Austin. Two different things entirely. You'd have better luck finding something like what you're looking for if you sacrifice some of that 10 minutes from downtown requirement. Someone mentioned South Austin. May have better luck if you give some consideration to that area as well.

[jco]

I was just reading the other thread about south Austin and might look into that as well. I know that it all makes better sense when you drive around and see it for yourself, but we were hoping to have specific areas in mind before we go (if we go).