Moving from New Zealand to Austin (Earth: to rent, low crime, house prices)

[Steve Mc]

Hi
My family and I are moving from NZ to Austin in six months or so. I am not familiar with the American school system at all which confuses me. Basically we are looking for an area that has good schools and low crime. Not too concerned about commute time or things to do.

I have been looking at house prices and they seem all over the place. Is this because of the school zones?

Is someone able to recommend some areas and give me an idea what house prices will be like for a 3-4 bedroom house? Kinda fumbling around in the dark a bit.

[Austin97]

almost all houses will be 3-4 bedrooms. You can pay anywhere from 250K to 5 million for houses that meet "3-4 bedrooms"

More realistically your range will be more like 300K-800K. That is still a wide range. We really need to know where your job will be, how large a house you want, how new it has to be, and any activities or desires you have about the area.

Schools range from terrible to extremely competitive. Our best schools might not be appropriate for kids that are just average as they will be made to feel inadequate.

[Trainwreck20]

You are fairly accurate in assuming cost of house is related to quality of school; however, that is not the only factor - most notably, closer in houses will have higher values. In addition to the cost of the home mortgage, the property taxes can be very significant, as well. How old are your kids? Not born/toddler, elementary, secondary?

Good schools/low crime covers a huge area. As mentioned above, there needs to be some additional criteria:
- Do you have a job that you will commute to?
- What is your budget?
- Do you want urban or more rural? Does it have to be Austin proper, or are surrounding communities on the list?
- Do you want to be near any specific place (i.e. lake or airport)?

[Steve Mc]

Hi guys

My children are 7 and 11. I am quite happy to commute so living in satellite towns is fine. Would prefer to keep the budget under 450k if possible.

I don't think living near a specific place is a big deal. And no, we don't have jobs yet. I think we will rent for 6 months first and then buy a house in that area if that is something that is relatively easy to do.

Also is there any website that ranks schools?

[Trainwreck20]

There are several '3rd party' sites that rank schools, such as Greatschools (https://www.greatschools.org/) as well as many others.

There are some state ranking sites, as well, which are based on performance metrics, such as https://rptsvr1.tea.texas.gov/perfre...unt/index.html

Take all with a grain of salt, though - and 8 may not be better than a 7 for your kids, etc.

Renting is an excellent choice, as having a house in the wrong place compared to your work may mean a 1.5 hour drive each way.....

Do you have a size house you are looking at as a minimum or maximum? $450k opens up most of the suburbs and some of Austin proper.

[Steve Mc]

Thanks for that. No, house size is not really a big deal. I guess a bit of a yard would be nice but not high on my list.

[77030]

I've never been to NZ, but be careful before you sign up for a long Austin commute. Traffic here can be brutal. You might want to at least let people know what part of town your work is located.

These posts always amaze me - people moving here from somewhere far away, and it appears that they have never even visited here.

My advice, whatever you do, is to rent for a while.

[ashbeeigh]

Get a job first then decide on the part of town you would like to live in based on that. Why Austin?

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by Steve Mc

Hi guys

My children are 7 and 11. I am quite happy to commute so living in satellite towns is fine. Would prefer to keep the budget under 450k if possible.

I don't think living near a specific place is a big deal. And no, we don't have jobs yet. I think we will rent for 6 months first and then buy a house in that area if that is something that is relatively easy to do.

Also is there any website that ranks schools?

How are you able to move here without a job?

Regardless it is pretty much impossible to help you because 450K covers the entire metro area except the core.

[Steve Mc]

Hi guys, I'm not actually from NZ originally, I was born in California but have spent most of my life in NZ. That is why I can work in the US. Currently we live in Auckland (in NZ) and house prices here make Austin look cheap as chips. We're talking 900k USD+ for a house in a good school district so we just cannot really afford to live here anymore.

Will definitely rent first but I would obviously prefer to rent and then buy in the same general area if that is possible. 450k is the upper bracket, so in the 300s would be ideal. We do have savings so can put down a good deposit.

As for "why Austin" well I don't like large cities and Austin is around the same size as Auckland give or take, hence the appeal. Living in NZ I have grown to hate Earthquakes hence the lack of interest in my native California.