Moving to Austin (Bowie, West, Van: real estate, rental, new home)

[Stubbywonderkid]

Hi There,

We are moving to Austin from Switzerland towards the end of this year. We are originally from eastern India. We are a nuclear family of 3 (including a 5 year old). After grazing through various options we chose Austin. There are 2 specific areas where we are getting mixed responses from the internet hence I am fishing for some more insights from locals or people who has moved there.
The questions are : Which are the good areas for living with family, we are especially interested in areas where we have options of outdoor activities (such as hiking, cycling, bush walk etc), good school for our child and a good/decent neighborhood.
Also I am very interested to know about the density of Indian population in Austin as a whole?

Thanks in advance for sharing your insights

[hound 109]

There are many posts on Indian families moving to Austin. You should do a search. Also:

Originally Posted by Stubbywonderkid

Hi There,

We are moving to Austin from Switzerland towards the end of this year. We are originally from eastern India. We are a nuclear family of 3 (including a 5 year old). After grazing through various options we chose Austin.

Why Austin?

There are 2 specific areas where we are getting mixed responses from the internet hence I am fishing for some more insights from locals or people who has moved there.

I can understand why there might be mixed responses. The city of Austin (or metro of Austin) might state that that the % of Indians are 3-5%. But there are areas of NW Austin (that flow into 2-3 HSs) that have % of Indians of 35%-45%.

The questions are : Which are the good areas for living with family, we are especially interested in areas where we have options of outdoor activities (such as hiking, cycling, bush walk etc), good school for our child and a good/decent neighborhood.

Basically any area west of Mopac or north of 45 Toll road would fit the bill. (& a handful of other excellent family neighborhood pockets not in that huge swath)

Also I am very interested to know about the density of Indian population in Austin as a whole?

See above.

Thanks in advance for sharing your insights

More importantly:

- Why Austin?
- Will you rent or buy?
- What will be your budget? (on a rental or purchase)
- Where will your work be located. (give nearby cross streets)


General info to know:

- Neighborhoods that feed into McNeil, Westwood, Vandegrift, Anderson (& possibly Bowie, LT, WL, VR & CP) High Schools will probably hit most of your data points.
- Property tax on a new home in greater Austin could run from 2.7%-3.3% per year.
- Most of the Tech jobs are located north & northwest.

[Stubbywonderkid]

@hound_109

Thanks for your response. One of the main reason why we chose austin (especially the south) is real estate (In switzerland its very expensive to afford a house of our choice), so yes, we have plans of buying a property in an years time (after moving).We have been there a few times and quite liked the place to bring up a family.
Also, I will gather more information about the areas which you have mentioned (Mcneil, westwood etc). And yes, I saw a few threads on the indian community in austin but they are quite old hence I posed the question.

[CptnRn]

http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/def...f_tot_rev1.pdf

[creepy]

Many Indians like northwest Austin and have their kids go to the Harmony school up there. I hear more are moving to south Austin but I know no details other than there are 2 Indian markets on William Cannon now and an Indian restaurant which is a sign of more Asians moving there.