Near Seguin for Recent College Grad? (San Antonio, Austin: apartment complexes, lawyers, buying)

[rynetwo]

Median Home Value (explains higher rents)

New Braunfels
$205,000

San Marcos
$175,000

Seguin
$156,000

[wpme]

I'll second the opinions on Sequin, San Marcos is where you want to look, NB is more of an older folks town. I've owned a home/business in San Marcos for 25 years, I'm a San Martian

[LUMH]

Originally Posted by rynetwo

Median Home Value (explains higher rents)

New Braunfels
$205,000

San Marcos
$175,000

Seguin
$156,000

Truuuuu

Originally Posted by wpme

I'll second the opinions on Sequin, San Marcos is where you want to look, NB is more of an older folks town. I've owned a home/business in San Marcos for 25 years, I'm a San Martian

So as a business owner and/or resident for the last 25 years, can you speak to the "run down college and commuter town" comments from the last page?

[Seguinite]

A lot of the older houses in Seguin will being the median price down. They're just not building that much new to begin with, and especially not in the $250-300K range that's pretty much the low-end new construction in NB. What they ARE building in that range here is selling as quick as they can put it up.

Gruene is lovely, and they're putting up some nice houses. And outside NB toward Canyon lake. But again... you have to be willing to put up with the traffic. It's a personal choice trade-off. Yes, traffic on 46 going into New Braunfels is horrible at rush hour... morning and evening, and on FM306 going west. And there really isn't a fix for it unless they raise either 46 and 306 or I35... either of which will be an absolute nightmare for the years it takes to do the work.

[wpme]

Originally Posted by LUMH

Truuuuu
So as a business owner and/or resident for the last 25 years, can you speak to the "run down college and commuter town" comments from the last page?

No idea what that poster meant by run down, maybe they have not visited in a while. San Marcos is a very nice, somewhat laid back town, and anything but run down. Definitely a college town, and many people commute to SA and Austin for employment.

Sequin has been a run down town for years, has a very blue collar and poor vibe imho, yet I know some people investing in it because they feel its going to change. Best I can say is come visit and see for yourself.

[LUMH]

Originally Posted by Seguinite

Gruene is lovely, and they're putting up some nice houses. And outside NB toward Canyon lake. But again... you have to be willing to put up with the traffic. It's a personal choice trade-off. Yes, traffic on 46 going into New Braunfels is horrible at rush hour... morning and evening, and on FM306 going west. And there really isn't a fix for it unless they raise either 46 and 306 or I35... either of which will be an absolute nightmare for the years it takes to do the work.

I'll have to consider that, then. One of the places I'm looking at is right in town; the others are fairly close to 35 and 46.

Originally Posted by wpme

No idea what that poster meant by run down, maybe they have not visited in a while. San Marcos is a very nice, somewhat laid back town, and anything but run down. Definitely a college town, and many people commute to SA and Austin for employment.

Sequin has been a run down town for years, has a very blue collar and poor vibe imho, yet I know some people investing in it because they feel its going to change. Best I can say is come visit and see for yourself.

Okay, cool. That's what Google made it seem like. You're definitely right about come visit - I'll be down in about 3 weeks' time to scope out a number of spots.

[rynetwo]

If you look around San Marcos and compare that to New Braunfels you can quickly tell the difference. NB has better food choices, shopping, easier access to better amenities, and recreation. Oh and home prices paint a desirability picture.... (I have no skin in the game as i live some 20 miles SW)

[LUMH]

Originally Posted by rynetwo

If you look around San Marcos and compare that to New Braunfels you can quickly tell the difference. NB has better food choices, shopping, easier access to better amenities, and recreation. Oh and home prices paint a desirability picture.... (I have no skin in the game as i live some 20 miles SW)

Ah, understood. I wouldn't be at all surprised if NB had more upscale food/drink/shopping - the home prices and the fact that it isn't a college town would suggest that - but at some point I might feel as though that all might be more appreciated by an older, more "adult" professional. Keep in mind I'll be 23 and not even a month removed from college graduation. For a New York City analogy: I don't need to be in the Upper East Side or Midtown with all the businessmen, when East Village still has food/drink/shopping and is full of likeminded people my age.

Does New Braunfels have a halfway decent young professionals population? Does Seguin or Schertz or Cibolo? Does San Marcos? At this point, that's really what I'm concerned about. I've found places in each town that fit my various criteria, and I'll get to see what each area is like when I visit, but a few hours during the day doesn't really help me figure out if I'll be the only person sub-27 in the apartment complex or at the bar.

EDIT: Now that I look at it, Google is saying that I'd only be tacking on a few minutes of commute time to live in some areas of San Antonio, and rent seems somewhat comparable (based on a quick couple of searches) to all of the places I've listed previously. So maybe I should include some neighborhoods of SA as well... can anyone speak to the accuracy of This Article? Lists Monte Vista, Beacon Hill, Tobin Hill, and Alta Vista (among others) as good neighborhoods for young professionals.

[Azure110]

San Marcos has the shopping outlets, so they have better shopping than NB. If you are brave enough to go there.

[ashbeeigh]

I think if you lived in town San Antonio (maybe Lavaca, Southtown and borderline Pearl/Lower Broadway) it would be an okayish commute..but okayish is like 45 minutes. It took me an hour to get from my parent's home on De Zavala and 10 (think just south of Loop 1604/10) to Seguin. It might take a bit less now that Loop 1604 of the NE/E side is a bit more opened up. But, would I want to do that drive everyday? No way.

The cost of living in those areas mentioned in that article are way higher than those in the areas already suggested. You may be able to find a few apartments here and there for under $1000 in the downtown/south side area of SA. I know someone will post a Craigslist posting or something or have personal experience finding something nice at a lower price, but they are hard to find (I have looked).

You'll also find the young professional vibe mixed in with the college kids in San Marcos. Like I said, Seguin is all undergrad and literally there are like 2 bars. And all of TLU goes there. New Braunfels does have pockets of "young professionals" but all the bars I have ever been in there have been filled with bikers and cowboys. I am going to stick with my original suggestion of San Marcos purely because it is a college town. It has grad programs so not all the students in the area are 18-19 years old.