Steiner Ranch vs. River Falls? (San Antonio, Austin: HOA, daycare, houses)

[hts]

After a brief detour this weekend when we got side-tracked over the astronomical property taxes, we're back on track with Austin as a possible relo location. The kicker was finding some homes in the $550-700k range that we think will be just fine for us, whereas we had previously thought we'd need to spend $1m+ to get everything we wanted, and the thought of $30k+ in annual property taxes was nauseating.

In any event, after much research, we've albeit eliminated Eanes and I think we're only going to look at homes that feed into Leander. Steiner Ranch and River Place appear to be two very well regarded subdivisions in NW Austin for families. I believe Steiner is bigger, and may offer more amenities. Other than that, can anyone please help me understand the broad stroke differences between the two? Is one generally considered more desirable than the other, and if so, for what reasons?

[gigi927]

I live in River Place....and looked extensively in Steiner before landing here. if you do a search in this forum for river place and Steiner you'll get some good summaries and I'll include a particular one below. But in a nutshell:

1. River Place is about 8 to 10 minutes closer to downtown than Steiner.
2. Steiner is a much larger community - I think several thousand homes when all is said and done; River Place is around 950 homes total.
3. Steiner still has a lot of new construction; River Place is an older community and is almost completely built out so you'd be focusing mostly on resale there.
4. Steiner has 2 (and a third coming, I think) elementary schools within its boundaries as well as the middle school that feeds this part of south Leander ISD. River Place has its own elementary (opened this year) but middle school kids still go into Steiner. Kids in both neighborhoods currently attend Cedar Park HS, but a new high school will be built in the next year or two within a half mile of River Place. Steiner and RP kids are projected to attend that new HS. There's also talk of another middle school going in in that same area but nothing definite yet.
5. Price per square foot is higher in River Place. You get less house for your money than you do in Steiner and what you do get might need updating. I attribute this to River Place just being a more established neighborhood and closer in to downtown. 10 minutes doesn't seem like that much but if there's traffic that 10 minutes can turn into 15 or 20.You might, however, stand a chance of getting a slightly larger lot in River Place, especially in your price range.
6.Both communities have country clubs. River Place's is older and needs updating, but is super reasonable to join. Steiner's club actually just caught fire and burned down and they are rebuilding (it hadn't even officially opened yet) - est. completion I think is end of this year sometime. It is supposed to be a gorgeous club but the memberships are more expensive, especially if you golf.The golf club in Steiner is behind gates and therefore there are also many homes in the gated section also. RP only has one small area that is gated and it is not related to the country club itself. oh yeah, RP's club is part of a group of clubs that gets you privileges at the other clubs, which right now includes Onion Creek in SW Austin and the Dominion in San Antonio. I think UT Golf Club at Steiner is a stand alone club property. In River Place, every single one of my friends is a member of the country club. I'd imagine that well over half of the residences in RP are members of the club. I think just due to the size of Steiner and the cost of membership, not as many folks join Steiner's club as a percentage of the total homeowners. I'd say that in RP the club is really the social hub of the neighborhood, especially with families, whereas probably not the case in Steiner - but I could be wrong!
7. Steiner has public boat access to Lake Austin. RP does not, although we've gotten into a canoe along RP's part of Lake Austin and been okay.
8. Steiner has beautiful community pools and amenity centers that are not part of the country club. River Place only has the pool at the country club - but does have two excellent parks that are very well maintained.
9. Steiner has a lot of shopping kind of in the middle of the development. River Place's doesn't - it's all at the front of the subdivision along the major roads. This thread will give you a nice debate on whether Steiner's amenities trump River Place's
//www.city-data.com/forum/austi...mesa-help.html
10. Both are within good proximity to HEB grocery, Target, mall, etc.


For us, it was a very close call as to where we chose to live. In the end, we chose RP because of the shorter commute time into downtown, the reasonable price of the country club, the fact that the club has a drop in hourly daycare (great if you have little kids), and we liked the more mature neighborhood and intimate feel of River Place. I imagine we could have been just as happy in Steiner, too, but RP was the right choice for us. It is a fantastic community and in less than two years we have made gobs of friends. I also sent you a PM...check your messages and if you have any other questions feel free to ask!!! Hope this helps!

[casualobserver]

gigi, relative to the commuting question.........would you have a knowledgeable guess as to how long from the entrance of RP to the Mo-Pac in morning rush hour traffic?

tnx.

[gigi927]

Casual...my husband's office is actually at Far West and Mopac, and it takes about 15-17 minutes to get from our house (one mile inside RP) to Mopac and 2222. He usually leaves around 8:30 or so...not sure if it's more cranked before that time. The main problem area when there is one is right at 360 and 2222, so once you pass 360 it's usually not a problem to get to Mopac quickly.

HTH!

[casualobserver]

Thanks.......fabulous! Not bad at all! Heck, maybe I could even look at houses at Lake Travis!

[pvaustin]

Just to add our experience about the commute from Steiner:
Both me and my wife starts around 7-7:15AM. My wife gets to her office (360/farwest blvd) around 7:50-8:00 and I get to mine around 7:45 (360/spicewood).

[FromCalitoSteinerRanch]

I live right past the elem. and middle school in Steiner, and I leave at about 6:45, and get to work at Yager and IH-35 S at about 7:20AM. I take 620 to 2222, then to 360N to Mo Pac North and get off on Parmer and take it to Lamar and then shoot down to Yager. It is about 19.5 miles total, and I can't average 60mph, but do have several sections where I am going about 70mph. It is the signals that add time.

I have already learned not to mess with gigi ( ) so I will let her comments stand in terms of comparison. You just need to get into both neighborhoods for more than a few minutes and see how the vibe for you in each is like.

Also, the shopping in the middle of the neighborhood is nice, because the new construction is pretty close to the larger shopping center. Not having to drive out of the neighborhood for gas, or light shopping (i.e. beer, basic groceries, etc) is really a needed convenience we are grateful for.

Further, there will be about 4,300 homes total if I recall correctly, but several thousand doesn't jive with the orientation I attended. The neighborhood is about 75% built out now, I do know that from a Developer's Update in our neighborhood magazine.

We looked in RP after going under contract in SR just to make sure there wasn't a better deal out there, and we had to wait about 6 months anyways for our home to be built. We didn't look too hard though, and yes the homes we saw were somewhat dated. The pricing was about $30K higher as well.

Coming from CA, a dated home was our only chance to have a home back in So. Cal., so when we saw we could afford new here in SR, we stayed with our contract and completed the purchase.

By the way, the amenity centers are very nice, with the newest center placed on a section of hilltop which gives it a great view of the preserve. These centers are included in the yearly HOA fee of ~$650 per year, which includes trash service.

[hts]

Thanks. Comparing Steiner to RP, I do think that we'll prolly prefer SR to RP (sorry Gigi). That being said, I think we'd really prefer RP's country club as it appears to be the social epicenter for the subdivision, something SR appears to lack (despite having the 3 smaller amenity centers). It also doesn't appear that the UT golf course/country club will be the social center (no pool, no tennis courts, etc.) that we're seeking.

Now we've expanded our search to include Lakeway, and Flintrock Falls, as I'm reading/hearing good things about the smaller LTISD. No IB program (only 15 kids managed to get through it in all of Leander ISD this year) at LTISD, but we'd also not have to send our kids from SR all the way over to Leander to attend/participate. Lakeway has 2 country clubs, Flintrock and the Hills, both of which seem to be close to what we're looking for (although we haven't seen either one yet).

I'd be interested in hearing more opinions of Lake Travis ISD.

[pvaustin]

Originally Posted by FromCalitoSteinerRanch

Also, the shopping in the middle of the neighborhood is nice, because the new construction is pretty close to the larger shopping center. Not having to drive out of the neighborhood for gas, or light shopping (i.e. beer, basic groceries, etc) is really a needed convenience we are grateful for.

and there is more shopping/office buildings on its way. 'Villages at Steiner' will include Medical, office and shopping.
Don't know if its a good thing or a bad thing...!!!!

[dfarmer002]

To chime in briefly, I am in Steiner myself and we looked also very hard in River Place. In fact, RP was the first choice. The swing vote came from wat appeaed to be a bit of a younger community and the direct lake access. I might add I that you do not have to be a RP resident to join the club which is very reasonable in proce. The UT golf club is great, but price wise its exclusive. I think a gold membership there is running like 18,000 and a social in the range of 4000. RP in comparison is 8-9 k for the golf and 1k for the social. Point being you can still get into the clubhouse scene if you wish in RP for less of a premium.