Yet another transplant looking for neighborhood advice (Austin, West: for sale, real estate)

[kirgudu]

Howdy!

We (a married couple in our early- to mid- 30's, no kids) moved to Austin a few months ago. For me this was a 6 year project to convince my wife; I visited Austin 6 years ago (right before these stupid "Top X cities for Y" lists started popping up with Austin at or close to the top) and fell in love, after 6 years my wife finally agreed to visit, fell in love too, and in less than a year we took the plunge.
Currently we're renting a small apartment in Sunset Valley and ready to get a place of our own. Unfortunately, the #1 requirement is reasonable commute to Downtown... If it wasn't for this requirement, we would've probably already bought a house somewhere way up north, as there are tons of houses to choose from, that are within our budget, even with money to spare.
I'm a long-time lurker on the forum and I chuckle every time I see people moving here sight unseen with unrealistic expectations, even without doing some basic fact checking ("why didn't anyone tell me it's HOT here?") - so hopefully what we want is more realistic than "3000 sqft in 78704, within walking distance from Trader Joes (sic), for $250k". Oh yeah, I forgot to add "new construction" and "with a lot of character".

Anyway, being more or less realistic, right now we focused our search on SW Austin suburbs (Travis Country, some parts of Circle C, VAWO - pretty much most of the 78739/78749), as going north is either really expensive (Westlake/Rollingwood), or commute gets brutal. The main question is, are there any other areas we may have missed that match or at least come very close to our oddly specific wishlist?

- Our budget is 550k, 600k max. We got pre-approved for quite a bit more, but I'm not comfortable crossing the 600k barrier, and it doesn't really open that many new neighborhoods until you hit 750-800k mark which we can't afford. The property tax portion also becomes scary large, and we want to leave a little bit of buffer for future property tax hikes. For 600k we'd expect to see a lot of upgrades and not having to invest a lot into the house (except for replacing the carpet maybe) prior to move-in. I do most of the maintenance, repairs and upgrades myself and I don't want to deal with asbestos, so probably not more than 35 years old. Newer is generally better, although I'd prefer a house built in the 1980s with at least some modern upgrades and a newer AC unit(s) to a house built in the 1990s but all original.
- Our ideal size is 2900-3300 sq ft, and we really don't want to go below 2300. Big kitchen is an absolute must, which pretty much eliminates everything built before mid-1980s and a good portion of newer ones as well. We love to cook, and kitchen is where we spend most of our time in the house outside of bedroom. It's really sad to see many 4000+ sqft houses on the market with apartment-size kitchens.
- We're looking for a, obviously, safe neighborhood with educated, but not pretentious people, who respect their neighbors' privacy and, hopefully won't judge us too much for not going to the church.
Also we'd like it to be quiet. As much as I dislike HOAs (after all, I like living in a neighborhood where people don't park rusty cars on cinderblocks on the street not because they aren't allowed to, but because they care about the community), enforceable noise ordnances are a big plus. We really like dogs, but we also really value our sleep, and letting your pooch bark non stop in your backyard for hours starting at 5am is just not cool.
- Lot size is not THAT important as long as I can't shake my neighbor's hand from the 2nd story window Having lots of shade / lots of privacy / backing to a greenbelt would be a huge plus though.
- Public transportation options, sadly, do not matter much, except for maybe resale value. We both work unpredictable schedules, sometimes staying very late, so we'd rather avoid that additional stress.
- Schools do not matter much either with no kids and none in the foreseeable future, but I don't think good schools ever hurt resale value

- Anything wrong with Travis Country West? Right now it sounds like it would be a good fit, prices are within our budget, and, according to Google, commute from Travis Country West is 15 minutes shorter than from Circle C during rush hour, which is enough to make a difference (18-40min vs 20-55min). Traffic-wise, is it easier to get to MoPac north from Southwest Pkwy (I know it's not going to be easy) or from 71 going east?
- Are there any announced projects that may dramatically affect commute time or house values in SW Austin?
- And, since we are on the subject: I've noticed that Travis Country has mostly gas cooktops/ranges, and Circle C is all-electric - is that a fairly accurate observation? What about dryers?

All suggestions are welcome!

[AMJ27]

I don't know anyone in Circle C with an electric cooktop. They all have gas. I don't really know about other people's dryers, but we have a gas dryer.

I think that Travis Country West is very desirable especially if schools aren't an issue. I don't think that the schools are horrible in Travis Country West, but I think that the schools a little further SW are generally seen as more favorable. We know a family who recently bought there. I think that they said it was about $20 a square foot more there than Circle C when they were looking this summer.

[Aquitaine]

Every house in Avana (Southernmost Circle C subdivision) that I've seen has gas cooktops but electric dryers.

[Ariel_Austin]

Travis Country West sounds like a good fit. You may also want to consider The Ridge at Lantana (they have gas cooktops and are also a better commute to downtown than Circle C). Another area you may want to look at is Covered Bridge off 71 though there you'll have to deal with the infamous "Y".

[FalconheadWest]

The biggest problem with Travis Country West is that it's in the middle of nothing. You have to go somewhere to get groceries or gas or restaurants. There's nothing right around the community. If you're ok with that, it's a great community.

Not sure what you're looking at that shows Circle C having electric stoves because it's all gas out there. You might have had someone here or there swap theirs out for a smooth-top, but for the most part, it's gas.

Gas dryers are not common at all out here. It's more a California thing. People in Texas just don't get drying their clothes with "fire" and making the hot summer months even hotter. You will find gas hookups at the dryer in about 1or2 out of 10 houses. It's just not common.

[COCUE]

Originally Posted by FalconheadWest

The biggest problem with Travis Country West is that it's in the middle of nothing. You have to go somewhere to get groceries or gas or restaurants. There's nothing right around the community. If you're ok with that, it's a great community.

Not sure what you're looking at that shows Circle C having electric stoves because it's all gas out there. You might have had someone here or there swap theirs out for a smooth-top, but for the most part, it's gas.

Gas dryers are not common at all out here. It's more a California thing. People in Texas just don't get drying their clothes with "fire" and making the hot summer months even hotter. You will find gas hookups at the dryer in about 1or2 out of 10 houses. It's just not common.

Gas dryers are extremely common here. We have a gas dryer in our fairly newish house in Avery Ranch and a sampling of my neighbors all have gas dryers. I love it. When we went to buy washer dryer set from our neighborhood HD, they had more gas dryers in store than electric and just assumed ours was gas. I didnt know the answer so had to call hubby and had him take a picture of the dryer hook-up and turned out it was all gas. And a lot of the houses we looked at when we were house hunting had the same hook up that turned out to be gas.. The HD lady told me she would have been surprised if it wasnt gas.
I never saw it in our house or any of the houses we lived in the part of CA that we lived.

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by COCUE

Gas dryers are extremely common here. We have a gas dryer in our fairly newish house in Avery Ranch and a sampling of my neighbors all have gas dryers. I love it. When we went to buy washer dryer set from our neighborhood HD, they had more gas dryers in store than electric and just assumed ours was gas. I didnt know the answer so had to call hubby and had him take a picture of the dryer hook-up and turned out it was all gas. And a lot of the houses we looked at when we were house hunting had the same hook up that turned out to be gas.. The HD lady told me she would have been surprised if it wasnt gas.
I never saw it in our house or any of the houses we lived in the part of CA that we lived.

Yep...BIG surprise to have electric only in our Avery Ranch townhouse...right across the hall from our GAS water heater...and above our GAS range and GAS fireplace. I'm not aware of any electric dryers in the SFH in Avery; but I didn't really check all of them!

I don't think the performance difference is as great as it once was. I don't notice much difference between our former Bravos gas dryer(ca 2008) and our Samsung electric(ca 2013). Why they didn't run a gas line to the tiny laundry room is beyond me. Crazy Pulte builders...

[UTCO94]

Sunset Valley maybe? A little bit uber-suburban, but it might hit a lot of your wish list there. You'll find a lot of the giant living/dining/kitchen great rooms in the floor plans ther that lend well to what you're looking for, and most are on big lots.

For example - if you can get past the absolute decorating disaster this place is:
21 Lovegrass Ln, Sunset Valley, TX | MLS# 1658681 | Listing Information | Austin real estate | Homes for Sale Austin | Austin Homes

Don't rush it

[Austin97]

if you skip a master planned community and just use something like redfin/zillow/trulia to do a map based search you can much more easily find houses that meet your criteria. There are some cool developments out east like agave that are only 5 miles from downtown.

Northwest hills has about 6 that meet your criteria and if you go further out to jester or great hills there are even more.

There are 3-4 properties east of I35 that are brand new and look pretty nice as well as a few in 78704.

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by COCUE

Gas dryers are extremely common here. We have a gas dryer in our fairly newish house in Avery Ranch and a sampling of my neighbors all have gas dryers. I love it. When we went to buy washer dryer set from our neighborhood HD, they had more gas dryers in store than electric and just assumed ours was gas. I didnt know the answer so had to call hubby and had him take a picture of the dryer hook-up and turned out it was all gas. And a lot of the houses we looked at when we were house hunting had the same hook up that turned out to be gas.. The HD lady told me she would have been surprised if it wasnt gas.
I never saw it in our house or any of the houses we lived in the part of CA that we lived.

I show houses every day and have for 15 years. Your neighborhood is a small sampling. Overall, gas dryers are not very common in our market.