Home Sweet Huh? (Austin, Spring, Cameron: apartment, rental, condos)

[Harmoni]

I'm so glad I found this forum. My boyfriend and I are leaving Las Vegas for Austin within the next two months.

As I'm less concerned with whether I'll like it more than my fair city of glitter and gutters, I'm still pretty overwhelmed. I've never even been to Austin, and probably won't see the city until our u-haul rolls into town. With that in mind, I'm calling on you to address some of my more pressing concerns:

Can a couple with a dog and two cats rent a house (not an apartment)for under $1000/m that's central (close to stuff and things), reasonably safe (I don't need a guard gate, but it would be nice to know that my neighbors weren't running a meth lab), and not a complete dump (you know, running water, garbage disposal)?

Where's the best place to have a cup of coffee?

The best spot for breakfast at midnight?

Who has the best jukebox?

The best dog friendly parks?

[txgal78]

As for the apt, yes, you can definitely find an apt (1-2 br) for that price. I would suggest checking out the Arboretum area. It's not necessarily considered "central Austin", but its very convenient to everything and only about 10 miles from downtown.

Coffee - I like Mozarts on Lake Austin and Cafe Medici on West Lynn

Breakfast at midnight - Kerbey Lane and Magnolia Cafe are both great (both have several locations around town)

jukebox - not sure

dog friendly park - Shoal Creek Park along Lamar has a nice dog-friendly park

Hope that helps!

[geoquiz3000]

For around $1,000 a month you're going to be at the low end of single family rental in Central Austin, but I understand about wanting a yard and some privacy.

If you check out Statesman.com (local paper) you can search their listings for houses for rent. I did a search within 5 miles of the capitol (you can use any address or intersection I think to base your search) under $1250/mo and it pulled up just 15 properties (several were condos, a few looked like hovels) thinly scattered in an arc from around Anderson Lane & Burnet east and south along Airport Blvd into East Austin around Cameron Road & 51st then continuing south along Springdale Road. Those are moderately safe areas, but some folks would probably warn against the more easterly parts for kids due to the schools and petty crime. Houses ain't cheap to rent here...if you go up toward $1500/mo a few more pop up overall including some closer to the center of town. I was actually shocked that there weren't more in the $1000 to $1500 range, I think the total was less than 25.

If you don't mind being further out there seem to be more homes in the north-central and south-central parts of the city (south of Ben White Blvd/US 290 W and north of Research Blvd/US 183 N)

There may be a lot of other places that don't show up since not all landlords post the addresses of their properties in the classifieds. Craigslist may have some options too (that's where I post when my rent house is vacant)--I actually just looked and there are 2 posted by the same realtor in nice, relatively central areas for <$1300 and the ads note that cats and dogs are okay. I'd check with a realtor if you're trying for central and want to stay on the very low end of the rental house price range. I assume anything that's not a dump goes *fast* at that price.

Make sure you have plenty of $$ for downpayment, pet deposit, first month rent too (up to $2500 total) so you can jump on a deal if you find one.

Can't help with the coffee question, ditto txgal's answer on late night dining and there's also Katz's deli on West 6th which people seem to either love or hate. Also ditto also on Shoal Creek/Pease Park for dogs and there's also a leash free dog park on Riverside just west of I-35. Most parks require your dog to be on a leash but people always seem to let their dogs run free at our local park (Patterson, at Airport Blvd and Wilshire Rd).

[Alexis_Jones]

If you're interested in renting a house you should contact a local Realtor, we can email you properties that fit your criteria and give you advice on what areas to look into.