Downtown living (Austin: neighborhoods, movies, income)

[TXJay]

Lived in London for years. It's RR that's not my cupa. Centralaustinite, we did buy as the SD was being built out hence the inflated price. GKids were deciding factor. At 300-1000 sq ft my feet vote NE.
Petro, sorry to disappoint you. I know urban living & love it. As for Austin - meh. Potential yes, reality I think unlikely.

[TXJay]

Originally Posted by petro

Oh man, on second thought, ignore my earlier advice, stay in Round Rock.

You don't know me. How presumptuous.

[TXJay]

WSJ - Austin rated #1 for overpriced housing. Sigh.

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by TXJay

Lived in London for years. It's RR that's not my cupa. Centralaustinite, we did buy as the SD was being built out hence the inflated price. GKids were deciding factor. At 300-1000 sq ft my feet vote NE.
Petro, sorry to disappoint you. I know urban living & love it. As for Austin - meh. Potential yes, reality I think unlikely.

Did you get lost? How does someone who likes cities accidentally end up buying into a suburb as bad as Round Rock?

[RoadWarrior12]

Originally Posted by Komeht

Did you get lost? How does someone who likes cities accidentally end up buying into a suburb as bad as Round Rock?

Sucked right into that troll bait.

[homeinatx]

you can buy an older condo in the north section of downtown for under 200k.

[Shredding_Gnar78]

IRONY: Downtown Austin caters to 22 y/o students and .com ppl

yet people think otherwise until they figure that out themselves

just like Hollywood,CA... a nice place to visit, but not a place for a nice person to live.... maybe years ago, but not now.


oh and

as a musician, the local music 'scene' is a giant clusterf&&K. its COMPLETELY oversaturated with mediocre bands... and not to be 100% cynical, but the people that are there to check out the music all have very different opinions about what they like.. so the only good shows are promoted 4-6 weeks in advance and genre targeted. then we do all the work promoting and the bar/venue makes 3/4 of the money off drinks. some venues even take a cut of the merch sales (i won't name names)

as far as quality bands, the real gems are usually touring bands that come through on weekdays on red river. after being in Austin for 55 months or so, i finally have a great band to play in, and already we've decided though our own experiences that playing downtown Austin is a hassle...

granted its still better than places that don't have a consolidated entertainment district.. but in the interest of progressing as a small business (that's what bands essentially are) this applies for the patrons more than the entertainers

it goes like this: load in our gear from the dirty smelly alley, the 'musician loading zone' on the street is ALWAYS squatted on, get on stage, play, get off, go load out, get out, maybe we don't get a parking ticket from some extortionist cop, we're always watching out for gear thieves and bandits, (my friends band was recently robbed in San Antonio for $5K worth of gear), then we don't get paid much, if at all (unless we bring your own fans and make a sweet deal)

and SXSW? LOL I helped my friends band push gear for 3 blocks on Lavaca to play for 25 minutes. its seriously laughable. even for the bigger bands, the logistics of it all are downright unreasonable.

so we play in san marcos and get 100 people to come to our second show, and they loved us. we're #1 in a local chart...

point being.. as said by myself and countess others on this board.. ATX is great, but its also very hyped for sales purposes... and literally over valued.

[RoadWarrior12]

Originally Posted by Shredding_Gnar78

IRONY: Downtown Austin caters to 22 y/o students and .com ppl

yet people think otherwise until they figure that out themselves

just like Hollywood,CA... a nice place to visit, but not a place for a nice person to live.... maybe years ago, but not now.


oh and

as a musician, the local music 'scene' is a giant clusterf&&K. its COMPLETELY oversaturated with mediocre bands... and not to be 100% cynical, but the people that are there to check out the music all have very different opinions about what they like.. so the only good shows are promoted 4-6 weeks in advance and genre targeted. then we do all the work promoting and the bar/venue makes 3/4 of the money off drinks. some venues even take a cut of the merch sales (i won't name names)

as far as quality bands, the real gems are usually touring bands that come through on weekdays on red river. after being in Austin for 55 months or so, i finally have a great band to play in, and already we've decided though our own experiences that playing downtown Austin is a hassle...

granted its still better than places that don't have a consolidated entertainment district.. but in the interest of progressing as a small business (that's what bands essentially are) this applies for the patrons more than the entertainers

it goes like this: load in our gear from the dirty smelly alley, the 'musician loading zone' on the street is ALWAYS squatted on, get on stage, play, get off, go load out, get out, maybe we don't get a parking ticket from some extortionist cop, we're always watching out for gear thieves and bandits, (my friends band was recently robbed in San Antonio for $5K worth of gear), then we don't get paid much, if at all (unless we bring your own fans and make a sweet deal)

and SXSW? LOL I helped my friends band push gear for 3 blocks on Lavaca to play for 25 minutes. its seriously laughable. even for the bigger bands, the logistics of it all are downright unreasonable.

so we play in san marcos and get 100 people to come to our second show, and they loved us. we're #1 in a local chart...

point being.. as said by myself and countess others on this board.. ATX is great, but its also very hyped for sales purposes... and literally over valued.

Dude. That's not irony. That's life.

In fact, all of your bitching is just "life". I'm a second-generation musician, the hot spots are always harder to crack than the weak towns outside - and loading gear is part of being in a band. That's what roadies and groupies are for.

Serious, this whole thread is a bitchfest based on the entitled belief that people have the right to live wherever they want. Newsflash, you don't. You have the freedom to live where you want, but you're going to have to pay for the space. Some space is just more valuable to the masses. If it's not that valuable to you, so be it. Move on.

[sojourner77]

Why doesn't the OP just rent?

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/bl...expensive.html

Plenty of areas within a stones throw from downtown that are cheap.

[car957]

I see a lot of whining in this post. Look, we lost our affordability 10 years ago with multiple developments following the venture capital dollars to Austin for California. As to TXJAY, sorry but it wasn't any one person's fault. Frankly you need to either wait it out, move on, or rent.

Me, the property taxes are going to be an issue when I retire in 10 years. But, I am treating it as a cost of living at home. I've been through the adjustments on real estate.

This latest round of growth needs to be a wake up call on the whole School Finance issue and property appraisals by Taxing authorities. The Saturday AAS had an excellent article about the inequities from a property owner based on this issue:

Why commercial land values are lagging behind homes in West... | www.mystatesman.com

Until school funding is dealt with no taxing authority will gain my approval on any bonds.