Austin TX bound but so many questions..... (Round Rock, Cedar Park: sales, rental)

[amandaboore]

Alright Austin, we are hoping to be heading in your direction by the spring of 2016. I have family down there and they rave about Austin. I know what you're thinking, OH NO! Another import to our area, not again. Well stop making it such an appealing city! I have been doing tons of research but the written word is not as convincing as a person's opinion. Not to mention my brain is so fogged with all of the information its wicked overwhelming.
We are a little family of 3. My daughter just turned 4 and we are ready to get her out of the choking disappointment of CT. We live in Southeastern CT and it just isn;t for us. This area offers nothing for jobs, education, and the list goes on. Not to mention the cold and snow is beginning to weigh us down.
I have been looking at the Cedar Park/Round Rock area. MY brother in law lives right next to Lake Travis so we are trying to stick close to him.
So let the questions commence:
1. School- My daughter is incredibly gifted and I need a school that is going to nourish her appetite for learning. Something that isn't all sorts of books but a lot of hands on with focus on sciences and arts. I know this sounds like the typical parent gushing over their child but she truly is advanced. The kid hangs out with adults most of the time and struggles with her peers here and there.

2. Neighborhood- sadly when we get there we will need to rent but I am looking for that neighborhood that screams community! I want my daughter to be able to go outside and ride her bike to her friends house without me tagging behind her to makes sure creepies aren't trailing her. A neighborhood with TONS of kids would be perfect. She is a social creature and needs friends! We also have a dog and a couple of cats so I need a fenced yard and a quite street so the idiot felines don't get smushed. They aren't very city savvy.

3. Jobs- I work in healthcare and go to school full time as well to one day get out of this field and head into the literary world. No not the next up and coming author but more of a technical/medical writer. So I need to be close to labs or hospitals. The hubbers is a chef so I really don't worry about his job prospects too much.

What is the public transportation system really like down there? Is it like NY or Chicago where I can hop on a train and be at work relatively quick?
Please help! I am so overwhelmed. I know this is incredibly lengthy and you've probably read it a thousand times in the past, but these are my personal concerns and questions. We just want to get our daughter out of the cesspool our area has become. CT doesn't offer much besides high taxes and high unemployment rates. Not to mention the education system is laughable.
I am pretty flexible when it comes to looking outside of Cedar Park/ Round rock but it has to be SAFE and have fantastic schools.
Please help and thank you so very much in advance!

[Muzzle of Bees]

You will be exchanging problems, not escaping them. It is not paradise here despite the "appealing" notion.
Maybe start by using the search option?

[amandaboore]

Care to elaborate?

[Muzzle of Bees]

Originally Posted by amandaboore

Care to elaborate?

It gets hellish hot here. Texas is a low service state. Despite what people say, taxes are high.
The politicians are just as conniving and corrupt as any other state.
The only thing you are changing is location, not mindset.

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by Muzzle of Bees

It gets hellish hot here. Texas is a low service state. Despite what people say, taxes are high.
The politicians are just as conniving and corrupt as any other state.
The only thing you are changing is location, not mindset.

Compared to CT, taxes are not high. Property taxes in CT are high, and CT has income taxes and high sales tax. The worst of all worlds. Homeowners in CT pay more per year in property taxes than Texans do.

No doubt our weather is vastly different. So trade the northeast winter for Texas heat.

The OP did not mention a budget for housing. If the Lake Travis area is appealing, the Lakepointe area is full of families with children. It has its own elementary school, and many kids walk to school. Lake Travis ISD schools are very good. The new middle school has incredible science facilities (my niece (8th grade) has told me about how amazing her engineering class and lab is). LTISD has strong art programs.

Public transportation is minimal in Austin. Bus service is apparently functional and useful though I have never used it. Metro Rail runs between Leander and downtown.

[sojourner77]

c'mon Muzzle (I love Wilco, btw). The services are poor here, but that is the flipside of the lack of high taxes tat the OP is trying to escape in CT. UR is very low here - about 5% in Austin with a booming culinary scene. I would personally recommend Cedar Park or NW Austin if she is looking for public transportation - the red line runs between CP and downtown, and it's the only rail line we have currently. There are plenty of medical options in North/NW Austin. The schools all over Austin are solid, and there are tons of families. I don't know about G+T in Cedar Park (LISD), but I have two kids in the G+T and dual language program in 78704 (South Austin) and it has been more than we could have hoped for. AISD is pretty solid for gifted children, and the magnet programs and academies are top notch - Fulmore, Kealing, Akins and LASA offer great options for parents with capable children. We plan to enroll our kids at the Fulmore Magnet program over the next few years, and are extremely excited about it. The summers are hot, yes. We built a pool, and planted shade trees around it. Our kids spent 6-8 hours / day swimming outside this summer - not exaggerating. We've only had one summer with the pool, but it was the best summer we've ever had - point being is that you don't "cope" with the summers, you take advantage of them.

[sojourner77]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

Compared to CT, taxes are not high. Property taxes in CT are high, and CT has income taxes and high sales tax. The worst of all worlds. Homeowners in CT pay more per year in property taxes than Texans do.

No doubt our weather is vastly different. So trade the northeast winter for Texas heat.

The OP did not mention a budget for housing. If the Lake Travis area is appealing, the Lakepointe area is full of families with children. It has its own elementary school, and many kids walk to school. Lake Travis ISD schools are very good. The new middle school has incredible science facilities (my niece (8th grade) has told me about how amazing her engineering class and lab is). LTISD has strong art programs.

Public transportation is minimal in Austin. Bus service is apparently functional and useful though I have never used it. Metro Rail runs between Leander and downtown.

I have family in LakePointe, and they are very pleased with the neighborhood. The buy-in would be roughly 350K to get into the neighborhood. It's one of the more affordable locations in LTISD. The taxes in Texas are very low too. No state income tax, and your property tax is what you choose it to be - that is how much you choose to spend on a house. We pay only about 3% of our gross HH income in combined property tax (2.2% of assessed value) and state income tax (0%). That is low compared to practically everywhere else in the U.S.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by amandaboore

MY brother in law lives right next to Lake Travis so we are trying to stick close to him.

Which side of Lake Travis does he live on?

1. Are you open to private schools or just public schools? The public schools have to adhere to the state curriculum to a certain extent so you might find more science/arts focus privately. However, I've found some of the schools in Cedar Park for example mix in a little bit of everything while still adhering to the state testing guidelines. After school science and math clubs are even options in some Elementary schools for example throughout the area.

2. There are a lot of neighborhoods that fit what you want all over Westlake, parts of the Lake Travis area, parts of Cedar park, and parts of Round Rock (as well as Austin). You'll really need to view each neighborhood individually in my opinion as sometimes they can be vastly different even though they are close to each other in the same city.

3. Labs and hospitals are all over, but if you end up getting a job in South Austin for example and live up in Cedar Park then the commute could be horrible (although that could be eased if you don't commute during rush hour).

Public transportation is very minimal and the Austin area (specifically the suburban areas that you are interested in) will require you to have two cars if you and your husband plan to work.

As Hoffdano mentioned, a price range for a rental or buying a home is needed. I would love to send my kids to the top schools in the area like the ones in Eanes ISD for example, but I just can't afford a $600K plus home. You can find everything that you're looking for in the $250K to $400K range pretty easily in Cedar Park for example. But remember that property taxes will still run around 2.6% although that somewhat evens out for a dual income household depending on whether you currently pay state income tax as you won't have any state income tax here in Texas.

And you might need to revisit your thoughts on the schools in my opinion. Check out GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community to get some additional input on the schools and of course take some of the outlying reviews lightly. The "best" rated public schools in the area here come with a hefty housing price tag, but you'll probably find that the ones that are the next tier or two down from the "best" in the ratings could be just as good if not better for your child.

[north2south.]

You should check into the leander/cedar park area. Leander has a train station that'll take into austin although public transportation here is an absolute joke- and I don't even use it. The taxes are much cheaper for us coming from Chicago- and no state income tax which is another plus. Jobs are everywhere- family came down and couldn't believe how someone couldn't have a job here. From postings online, to even retail and resturaunts, and bigger company's nabob postings in the windows. As fAr as schools are concerned.. Don't have kids yet so I can't recommend based on personal experience but they are building a new elementary school In old town village in leander, and leander isd is also one of the best in the austin area. Weather is so overblown.. Ya it gets hot in summer but so does just about everywhere in the country. We can't stand November- March even here so far- its chilly and we are looking forward to summer again,

[north2south.]

There is a hospital in cedar park and handfuls and handfuls of little medical centers everywhere (Scott and white etc) which I would assume have labs as well.