Austin and surrounding areas for physician and family (San Juan, Lakeway: 2013, HOA)

[Aquamarineblue]

My husband is a physician and we are currently in Europe. We have been here for five years and previously lived in the Seattle area for 12 years. We want to be somewhere warmer and considered the Triangle NC area and California (where my DH is from) but after visiting in fall 2013 we didn't find anywhere that we wanted to move to.

We are now thinking of Texas and especially Austin. We are pretty relaxed and not interested in pretentious areas or "keeping up with the Joneses". Our kids are aged from 8-14 so schools are important. We definitely don't like areas with mile upon mile of new tract homes.

Things that are important to us:
Lots of trees, interesting landscape/neighborhood
Catholic parish and Catholic schools (if they are full need good public schools).
4+ bed home - open on style as long as it is not a McMansion and has enough space to work on cars and hopefully have space for a pool.

The neighborhood can be close in or suburban or small town as long as it is not boring.

My DH is in a specialty that is in demand and so we want to scope out likely areas and then wait for the right job to come up.

My own work is flexible too.

Do you have any suggestions to check out in and around Austin?
He also likes to build boats and we sail.

[blakely]

There are lots of areas that should meet your criteria. The question that's going to be asked is where your spouse plans to work (and/or you, if you plan to work), because Austin is geographically very spread out, and traffic gets worse each year. I would recommend trying to hone in on a location that offers a decent commute to the work location. The second is budget...approximately how much do you plan to spend on your house? That will help us help you find a neighborhood.

There are several strong Catholic schools, but also some great public schools, depending on the area you plan to live. It might be wise to find an area that offers both strong public schools and good Catholic schools, because I know a lot of people that planned on Catholic school and ended up at public schools because of the strength of their programs, the needs of their child, etc.

Some Catholic elementary schools:
St. Louis (near Burnet/Anderson)
St Teresa's (Cat Mountain area)
St. Gabriel's (Barton Creek)
St. Austin (central)
St. Thomas More (on hwy 620, closer to Lake Travis)

The 2 main Catholic high schools are St Michael's (Barton Creek area, around the corner from St Gabriels elementary) and St Dominic Savio, which is north of the city. If you are set on Catholic education for high school, I would pick a home not too far from one of these campuses. These 2 campuses are far from each other.

If you like to sail, Lake Travis is nice when there is enough water in it. (read the multitude of threads about our drought)

If you can provide more specifics, we can help more.

[blakely]

There are lots of areas that should meet your criteria. The question that's going to be asked is where your husband thinks he might work--even if you could narrow it to 2 or 3 areas, because Austin is geographically very spread out, and traffic gets worse each year. I would recommend trying to hone in on a location that offers a decent commute to the work location. The second is budget...approximately how much do you plan to spend on your house? That will help us help you find a neighborhood.

There are several strong Catholic schools, but also some great public schools, depending on the area you plan to live. It might be wise to find an area that offers both strong public schools and good Catholic schools, because I know a lot of people that planned on Catholic school and ended up at public schools because of the strength of their programs, the needs of their child, etc.

Some Catholic elementary schools:
St. Louis (near Burnet/Anderson)
St Teresa's (Cat Mountain area)
St. Gabriel's (Barton Creek)
St. Austin (central)
St. Thomas More (on hwy 620, closer to Lake Travis)

The 2 main Catholic high schools are St Michael's (Barton Creek area, around the corner from St Gabriels elementary) and St Dominic Savio, which is north of the city. If you are set on Catholic education for high school, I would pick a home not too far from one of these campuses. These 2 campuses are far from each other.

If you like to sail, Lake Travis is nice when there is enough water in it. (read the multitude of threads about our drought)

If you can provide more specifics, we can help more.

[Aquamarineblue]

Thank you so much for your reply Blakely. I explored some of the areas around the Catholic high schools you mentioned. I also discovered San Juan Diego Catholic High School which seems to be a newer experimental high school. I really like their philosophy and that many students will the first in their family to hopefully attend college. I see that it is close to St. Edwards University. Can you tell me more about this area? Ideally we would spend about 500k on a 4 bed/2 bath home. We may go higher.

[Aquamarineblue]

Would Circle C fit the bill for us? Is it a planned community; what exactly does it offer? I see the schools are excellent. Could I get the kids to the Catholic High School in the morning? How long would it take? Thanks for all feedback : )

[scm53]

Originally Posted by Aquamarineblue

Would Circle C fit the bill for us? Is it a planned community; what exactly does it offer? I see the schools are excellent. Could I get the kids to the Catholic High School in the morning? How long would it take? Thanks for all feedback : )

We live in the Circle C area. Our next door neighbor's son just graduated from St. Micheal's, and she could get him there in about twenty five minutes, even in peak traffic. There is a back way that avoids most of the congestion.

You will have no trouble finding a 4/2 at your price point. Circle C is a planned community, with a high level of satisfaction among the residents. Many pluses - but one of the main ones is that downtown, with all of the dining and nightlife is directly accessible from the freeway immediately adjacent. One can leave Circle C, get on the freeway, and never see a red light until almost downtown. Twenty minutes outside commute times.

[G Grasshopper]

I also recommend Circle C. There are two swim centers here, as well as some homes that have their own pools. We used to be rather short on medical facilities, but many medical office buildings and large practices have been popping up in the area. There are some houses that have extra work areas on the garage - you would need to look for one of those. We have a small 4 bedroom, and open plan, but I think not enough room for what you want. But there are lots of alternative floor plans, lot sizes, etc. The key is not getting too far from where you want to go. There are some areas of Circle C and the surrounding developments that are pretty far from MoPac (Loop 1.) It would be easy, while house shopping, to get farther and farther away, then falling in love with a house that would make your commute bad. MoPac is very bad at commute times, but really convenient at other times. We are a retired couple, but Circle C, Legend Oak, Western Oaks, and other local developments are definitely good family areas. (We had lots of trick-or-treaters a few nights ago, with lots of parents also in costume - a fun evening.) This area is not by any means the only area that seems to fit your criteria, however. Others may have good suggestions, too.

[Austin97]

I would recommend the neighborhood right along dk ranch road and yucca. The houses are older but have large lots and no HOA restrictions against working on a car in your driveway. It has quick access to the lake via 360/2222.

There are unrestricted areas along city park road that arent too expensive. That area is pretty close in.

Alternately lakeway might be a good choice, but is outside the city and will make it hard to get to downtown austin on a regular basis.

Bee caves/cuernevaca still has large lots available for affordable prices and no HOA type restrictions either.

Any of the masterplanned communities are going to be miles and miles of tract homes on small lots. (circle c, great hills, avery ranch, steiner ranch etc)

[AMJ27]

I live in Circle C and like it very much, but you would have to like living in a planned community to enjoy it. It is very family friendly. I preferred it to the other planned communities because it is closer to downtown. I can get downtown in 15 minutes when it isn't rush hour.

There are two community pools. One is open year round and the other one is open only in the summer. If your kids are interested in sports, there are a lot of opportunities with soccer, swimming, baseball, etc. Within the neighborhood, there is a large grocery store, several restaurants, a movie theater, and many other businesses. Depending on where you live and your tolerance for walking, the business area could be within walking distance.

The elementary and middle schools are excellent, and the high school that we feed into is very good as well. Personally, I think that you would be a reasonable distance (I would guess 30 minutes or under) to St. Michael's and the other school that you mentioned that was near St. Ed's, but everyone has a different tolerance for commuting.

My only hesitation in recommending Circle C to you is that you specifically said that no McMansions and wanting space to work on cars and a pool. I'm not entirely sure that I would call the homes in Circle C "McMansions", but it is a planned community that had a select few builders so the houses have a specific look. They have been building the neighborhood for 25 years, so there is definitely a difference between the homes in the older area of Circle C that was built in the late 80's, early 90's to the ones that are being built now. Most homes are probably in the 2500-4000 square foot area with 4 bedrooms and 2.5-3 baths. Some lots are small (.20 acres or smaller), but most of the homes around us are closer to .33-.50 acres. Depending on how many cars you would be wanting to work on, you'd probably be okay with that here. I know a couple of neighbors have old cars that they are fixing up, but if you were thinking that you wanted a fleet, it definitely isn't the right place for you. We do have an HOA, but it seems to be a pretty reasonable HOA.

[Aquamarineblue]

Thanks for everyone's thoughts and comments so far. OK I would now like to ask you about Lakeway. I see it has good schools and as AMJ27 said I have to say most of the housing stock in affordable areas is not really our style. Very big (3,000-5,000) double height ceilings in the entry, lots of huge open interior spaces is not for us. At Lakeway I actaully prefer the old housing stock from the '60s and 70s and especially as many have views. I like the more relaxed style and more modest space. The fact that you can get to the lake and have moorage is obviously awesome and the homes I like are on the cheaper end in the neighborhood - I guess because most people want newer homes. That would give us left over budget for updating and remodeling. Does older housing stock have any problems we need to be aware of other than the usual? We built a house in Seattle so we are not scared of a project (within reason).

My husband is just very creative and loves all kinds of projects - he wouldn't be fixing a car on the driveway but he has an old Triumph in storage that he wants to fix up. He also loves a shop for all his other stuff: metalwork, woodwork, pottery - you name it and he usually has at least one of the kids involved. So just either a big garage or space/outbuildings for a shop etc. will be big. If we pick the community we want he can find practices close to that area. Would we have problems using our property in this way in Lakeway? Right now he does everything in the garage or a basement room I turned into a general "everyone gets to go and make stuff" room.

Does Lakeway have shopping and schools within the community? How long does it take to get downtown and to the airport?