Austin Primer (San Antonio, Tyler, Cedar Park: apartments, lease, high crime)

[Lucaseve]

I've been lurking the Austin forum for years. I visited a few times when I was a young boy scout, and attended a conference a few years ago, but didn't get to see anything more than the convention center and airport. I am going to be in town next Tuesday through Saturday for the purposes of learning more about the city and touring UT.

I grew up in Tyler, and my family left the state when I was 12. I'm 26 now now and live in Nashville, TN, and I am ready to move on and see other things. I've been researching for years and had at first decided on Denver, but I really don't like snow enough to live there, even though the city itself is beautiful and meets all of the qualifications I'm looking for in a city. I visited San Diego, and while it is beautiful the COL is too high. I rented an apartment in Phoenix for three months to give it a try, and enjoyed my time there. Unfortunately it is just too far from my family, which is scattered between Texas and Tennessee. If it weren't for the family situation, the heat would be my only deterrence from wanting to live in Phoenix. I loved the desert landscape and mountains.

That brings me to now. I'm one year into my accounting degree, and have heard that UT has one of the top accounting programs in the country. My main goal is to find a great place to live while going to school. I couldn't bear to live in Nashville for another three years. Austin, on screen anyway, seems like it would be an exciting place to complete my degree and continue living after I graduate.

I am a freelance web developer, and will continue doing that until I can find something full time. I will begin looking at apartments next week and will put a deposit down on something before I leave town, and will make the move in August. I have a few questions for the locals, to help give me a jump start when I get there. In Phoenix, there were so many malls and shopping areas that no matter where you live you are probably less than a mile for a huge mall or shopping center with restaurants, electronics stores, and movie theaters. How does Austin compare with that? I want to live in close proximity to shopping, but also want to be a comfortable driving distance to the areas where tech companies are. (My normal commute in Nashville used to be between 30-45 mins, and that is comfortable to me.)

Any advice on a good area to live for someone moving without a job and just wanting to start out kind of in the middle of everything? Are there any apartment management companies that have a good rep and are worth looking into? Are there any areas I should stay away from due to high crime? Thanks for any information, I really appreciate it!

[MJinAustin]

You're in a good job field for Austin, but be aware that it takes a while to get a job here because so many jobs are found through networking. This is a "who you know" town. You might be looking for 3-4 months - it's not unheard of.

As much as people tell you that the traffic here is terrible, I don't think it's that bad. It's just worse than it used to be and that's what people are comparing it to. At 5pm driving from North Austin (say Arboretum area) to South (say SW Parkway/Mopac) or opposite, it will be 45 minutes. You could just as easily afford to live South as North. Since you are going to school, you might try to find something in Central Austin which will be convenient to both North (where a tech job would probably be - though there are some downtown and also out west) and South and UT.

Only place to stay away from is East Austin - east of I-35, north of Riverside Drive, South of Pflugerville...generally. Hire a realtor to help you find an apartment. They don't cost you any money - the landlords pay them a placement fee.

Oh and there are restaurants and shopping everywhere, so you'll be close to them no matter where you live. My parents live in Phoenix, and the biggest difference you'll find here is that Austin's so much smaller and not as sprawling at Phoenix.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by MJinAustin

You're in a good job field for Austin, but be aware that it takes a while to get a job here because so many jobs are found through networking. This is a "who you know" town. You might be looking for 3-4 months - it's not unheard of.

As much as people tell you that the traffic here is terrible, I don't think it's that bad. It's just worse than it used to be and that's what people are comparing it to. At 5pm driving from North Austin (say Arboretum area) to South (say SW Parkway/Mopac) or opposite, it will be 45 minutes. You could just as easily afford to live South as North. Since you are going to school, you might try to find something in Central Austin which will be convenient to both North (where a tech job would probably be - though there are some downtown and also out west) and South and UT.



Only place to stay away from is East Austin - east of I-35, north of Riverside Drive, South of Pflugerville...generally. Hire a realtor to help you find an apartment. They don't cost you any money - the landlords pay them a placement fee.

Oh and there are restaurants and shopping everywhere, so you'll be close to them no matter where you live. My parents live in Phoenix, and the biggest difference you'll find here is that Austin's so much smaller and not as sprawling at Phoenix.

45 minutes might be possible on a light day, but it's taken me an hour and then some to go from 183 to Southwest Parkway. The traffic isn't as bad as DC or some other cities, but there are really a lack of alternate roadways, I think that's the most frustrating thing, especially East to West.

As far as living in East Austin, I think that's changing drastically. It used to be a 'do not enter' zone, but gentrification seems to be creeping in, and it is an affordable place to live with a an old Austin funky vibe to it. I can totally see a couple with no kids living there.

You might want to take a drive to San Antonio if you're here. It's got much more shopping and shopping centers, and lots of colleges as well. Good luck.

[Lucaseve]

Thanks for all of the info. I ended up staying in Austin for about two weeks to get a feel for it, and love the city. It is very different from Nashville, that's for sure. The temp was at 100 for a couple of the days I was there, so I got a feel for the summer heat, and didn't find it any worse than that in Nashville. I think the winters will be nicer in Austin, though.

I ended up signing a lease at Colonial Grand at Silverado Reserve in Cedar Park, and move in next weekend. It seems to be a good area being close to 183A, 1431, Parmer, 35, and 620. I'm not sure where I'll work yet but I'll defiantly have no shortage of ways to get there. Hah!

Having 8 years of experience in web development, but no 4 year degree, should I expect to have any trouble finding a $10-15 an hour job working at a call center, or some other type of professional office work? I plan to find a head hunter as soon as I finish my move. I know it'll take some time to find work in my field, but I'm hoping my prior experience will help me at least land something 15ish. I'm making the move with plenty of savings, but I'd really like to save it!

[hal512]

Originally Posted by Lucaseve

Thanks for all of the info. I ended up staying in Austin for about two weeks to get a feel for it, and love the city. It is very different from Nashville, that's for sure. The temp was at 100 for a couple of the days I was there, so I got a feel for the summer heat, and didn't find it any worse than that in Nashville. I think the winters will be nicer in Austin, though.

I ended up signing a lease at Colonial Grand at Silverado Reserve in Cedar Park, and move in next weekend. It seems to be a good area being close to 183A, 1431, Parmer, 35, and 620. I'm not sure where I'll work yet but I'll defiantly have no shortage of ways to get there. Hah!

Having 8 years of experience in web development, but no 4 year degree, should I expect to have any trouble finding a $10-15 an hour job working at a call center, or some other type of professional office work? I plan to find a head hunter as soon as I finish my move. I know it'll take some time to find work in my field, but I'm hoping my prior experience will help me at least land something 15ish. I'm making the move with plenty of savings, but I'd really like to save it!

Austin's unemp. rate is at a 5 yr. low (Under 5%) so finding a job at a call center will be easy. Just googling "call center Austin" pulled up several sites. There is also Craig's list. Some of the big player's here are Time Warner, AT&T, Progressive, Sears, Direct Buy to name a few. A couple years ago door taggers for Time Warner (People who put a tag on the door that service may be out due to work in the area) made $12/hr. I thought about giving up my stressful salaried position for the stress free life of door taggin'.