Moving to Austin next year (Houston, Round Rock: HOA, motorhome, neighborhood)

[MaltnHops]

Hello! I’m a Southern California native. My company is expanding into the Austin area in 2020, and I’ll be leading the new division there. Still a lot of unknowns; exact timing of my move, where the office will be located within Austin, etc.

My wife and I have never been to Austin before (have visited Houston), and plan on making a few weekend trips in the coming months to do some recon of different areas. Any help you could provide on recommending different suburbs to look at would be helpful.

Our kids are grown, so we don’t have that to worry about. My wife wants a brand new home. It would be nice to have a 1/4 acre lot (or up to an acre) and a single story is a must. House budget is up to $500K (can afford more, but I’d like to be able to retire someday too). Also, we have a motorhome - do most people keep them at their house or pay to store them somewhere? Would like a commute of under an hour to get to downtown.

We are actively involved in the homebrewing/craft beer scene now and would like to be close to some breweries and/or a local homebrew club.

I saw some new homes that would fit our needs in Round Rock and we plan on visiting there. Please recommend any other areas that you think we should see and feel free to ask any questions. Thank you in advance!

[El Chingaso]

Originally Posted by MaltnHops

Hello! I’m a Southern California native. My company is expanding into the Austin area in 2020, and I’ll be leading the new division there. Still a lot of unknowns; exact timing of my move, where the office will be located within Austin, etc.

My wife and I have never been to Austin before (have visited Houston), and plan on making a few weekend trips in the coming months to do some recon of different areas. Any help you could provide on recommending different suburbs to look at would be helpful.

Our kids are grown, so we don’t have that to worry about. My wife wants a brand new home. It would be nice to have a 1/4 acre lot (or up to an acre) and a single story is a must. House budget is up to $500K (can afford more, but I’d like to be able to retire someday too). Also, we have a motorhome - do most people keep them at their house or pay to store them somewhere? Would like a commute of under an hour to get to downtown.

We are actively involved in the homebrewing/craft beer scene now and would like to be close to some breweries and/or a local homebrew club.

I saw some new homes that would fit our needs in Round Rock and we plan on visiting there. Please recommend any other areas that you think we should see and feel free to ask any questions. Thank you in advance!

Limiting to brand new will eliminate your options.

Also, not knowing where the job location is eliminates the ability to remotely ballpark commutes.

My advice. Give up on the “brand new” you REALLY don’t want the garbage they’re building right now.

The motor home will also be a huge no go in every HOA around all the brand new builds.

Step one: figure out where you’re going to work.

Step two-infinity: figure out the rest

[ashbeeigh]

Come and visit and see first.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by MaltnHops

Hello! I’m a Southern California native. My company is expanding into the Austin area in 2020, and I’ll be leading the new division there. Still a lot of unknowns; exact timing of my move, where the office will be located within Austin, etc.

My wife and I have never been to Austin before (have visited Houston), and plan on making a few weekend trips in the coming months to do some recon of different areas. Any help you could provide on recommending different suburbs to look at would be helpful.

Our kids are grown, so we don’t have that to worry about. My wife wants a brand new home. It would be nice to have a 1/4 acre lot (or up to an acre) and a single story is a must. House budget is up to $500K (can afford more, but I’d like to be able to retire someday too). Also, we have a motorhome - do most people keep them at their house or pay to store them somewhere? Would like a commute of under an hour to get to downtown.

We are actively involved in the homebrewing/craft beer scene now and would like to be close to some breweries and/or a local homebrew club.

I saw some new homes that would fit our needs in Round Rock and we plan on visiting there. Please recommend any other areas that you think we should see and feel free to ask any questions. Thank you in advance!

this will be challenging as austin is mostly built out. Since you dont care about schools I would look out east. You can get little acreage for a little money. That will put you in a short commute to downtown.

There is a community in leander called greatview estates that are on acre lots and all one story plans. They are still building it out so you can get a new home. A 1000 unit mixed use development keeps getting denied next door so be aware of that.

As far as mobile homes, many master planned communities ban them, but some in the country dont. Your best bet is to search for 1 acre lots out east. Construction cost with something like david weekly build on your lot can be around 150/sq ft.

use austinhomesearch.com and set the filter to farm/lot

[riaelise]

I live in far east Round Rock. My commute to downtown is 50-55 minutes, leaving at 9:15 and coming home at 6.

There's a plethora of new home subdivisions at that price point but expect to have a postage stamp sized lot. I know .25 is huge where you're from but I dunno, we had a lot that size before and it felt cramped. no more neighbor on top of neighbor for us. The tradeoff is the larger lot communities tend to have older housing stock. I'd also recommend getting an updated older home in an established community.

Since all new home communities have HOAs, you'll be storing your RV.

Round Rock's craft beer community is definitely growing and it's not terribly far from Austin too.

I'd throw my neighborhood out there, half acre to acre lots, but the homes are pushing 30 easily. Another plus is that they're custom and you won't see the same house anywhere. a lot of original owners in the community. lots and lots of trees. There's a nice one story at 425,000, but it isn't updated.

[Snowpacked]

Your shortest commute time will be your first day and get worse as the days pass. Like you, everyone moving here is ruining commute times.
Also, there are a million posts, hence everyone moving here, to read through. Stop creating the same posts.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by Snowpacked

Your shortest commute time will be your first day and get worse as the days pass. Like you, everyone moving here is ruining commute times.
Also, there are a million posts, hence everyone moving here, to read through. Stop creating the same posts.

his post was substantially different and very specific. He had useful information that heavily narrowed down options.

Based on his info, I cant recall any posts in the last few years that would give him answers to his specific questions

Under 1 hour commute
New build
larger lot
allows RV
one story home

[Snowpacked]

Originally Posted by Austin97

his post was substantially different and very specific. He had useful information that heavily narrowed down options.

Based on his info, I cant recall any posts in the last few years that would give him answers to his specific questions

Under 1 hour commute
New build
larger lot
allows RV
one story home

Not really. I could easily find similar questions here. Legitimate copies of the information is easily found on the development website or internet in general. If there are restrictions they will be in the documentation. Reliable sources here are as good as a shoulder shrug.

[Campbell21]

Originally Posted by Snowpacked

Not really. I could easily find similar questions here. Legitimate copies of the information is easily found on the development website or internet in general. If there are restrictions they will be in the documentation. Reliable sources here are as good as a shoulder shrug.

Why answer if it bugs you? I’m just wondering. Some people don’t have a choice about moving to Austin. They aren’t trying to ruin people’s lives. They are just asking questions as one tends to do in a forum such as this. I don’t know why people have to be so snarky. It isn’t nice or helpful or necessary.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by Snowpacked

Not really. I could easily find similar questions here. Legitimate copies of the information is easily found on the development website or internet in general. If there are restrictions they will be in the documentation. Reliable sources here are as good as a shoulder shrug.

actually you cant on the internet or on this site. Good luck trying.

Feel free to find posts for looking for one story, new builds on this site.