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I'm thinking about leaving my New Orleans suburb and returning to Texas. And my purple-haired, tattooed, geeky, cheap 20-something self is feeling called to Austin.
I'm taken a one day trip into the city on Friday to make sure this is the right decision, but I'm freaking out. Does anyone here have any experience with the city and would be willing to talk neighborhoods and budget stuff with me?
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I live near San Antonio, but that's about two hours away from Austin.
I do know that one of my really good friends had an amazing apartment in a rebuilt area of the south side near I-35. She was working at the capital so it was really convenient for her. However, most of my friends have always stuck to the north side near Round Rock.
I do know that Austin traffic is pretty awful, so where you want to work will probably be an important factor in where you want to live.
Ack, all this talk of Austin is making me crave a Trudy's Mexican Martini!
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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Shanna, I don't know too much about the area (from Dallas, myself), but I do know that there's relatively affordable stuff in the Suburbs. You might try San Marcos, too. Only about 1/2 hour away.
My wife rented a huge duplex out in Lago Vista for very little and I definitely enjoyed visiting out there on Lake Travis... plus it's only a few minutes to The Oasis from there. Volente (in the same area) has a city water park on Travis, as well.
When I was looking to move down there to join here, I found that Hutto (South of Town) is extremely cheap for housing, but I don't know if they even have apartments there. Hope that's helpful...
Strider, where in Texas, sir?
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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You still in Dallas Jim? I spent two of the best years of my life in Denton, and I always love going back to Dallas. I'm gunna get to go in a couple of weeks as a matter of fact!
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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I'm back in Dallas after a brief but pleasant stint in Greenville, SC. I live in a little town called Red Oak down towards Waxahachie (where Scarborough Faire is).
Unfortunately for me, Strider, you'll be closer to Rivka in LA than me in Dallas
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Hobbes, I'm visiting tomorrow. I'll probably shoot back some questions on Saturday.
I'm trying to stay out of the suburbs. I'm in suburbs now and its driving me insane. With all the married families, its not the best place for me to meet eligible young men. And with gas prices the way they are, its hard to drive into the city to meet up with new people. If Austin is a bust, my backup plan is to move into New Orleans proper and atleast get out of the suburbs.
Right now I'm trying to contact some apartment locators. My ideal would be to find a cheap studio apartment as close to downtown as possible. Tomorrow, I'll be hitting South Congress and Hyde for a look around. I know they're expensive places, but I've heard a few cheap place exists. Just hard to find while living out of state and competing with local students. And I'm not used to dealing with apartment hunting services. In NOLA, apartment complexes are rare and most rentals are listed on craigslist by the owners of the various houses and shotguns.
The other downside to apartments are all the crazy applications and fees. Some places even require proof of income that is 3x higher than the rent. Right now I get by fine on 2x higher. I own my car, my insurance is cheap, I keep my utilities low, and I've never been late on rent. Hopefully, some places will take a referral from my current landlord or let my parents sign on. And my credit is another story. I did make some bad calls on some credit cards when I was in college but my debt is down to $1000. I do plan on getting a second job waiting tables, as I've done in the past, but its hard to prove income when you're paid in tips.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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You might actually try Craig's List too. Alot of people seem to use it for sublets and stuff.
quote:Originally posted by Shanna: Thanks everyone.
Hobbes, I'm visiting tomorrow. I'll probably shoot back some questions on Saturday.
I'm trying to stay out of the suburbs. I'm in suburbs now and its driving me insane. With all the married families, its not the best place for me to meet eligible young men. And with gas prices the way they are, its hard to drive into the city to meet up with new people. If Austin is a bust, my backup plan is to move into New Orleans proper and atleast get out of the suburbs.
Right now I'm trying to contact some apartment locators. My ideal would be to find a cheap studio apartment as close to downtown as possible. Tomorrow, I'll be hitting South Congress and Hyde for a look around. I know they're expensive places, but I've heard a few cheap place exists. Just hard to find while living out of state and competing with local students. And I'm not used to dealing with apartment hunting services. In NOLA, apartment complexes are rare and most rentals are listed on craigslist by the owners of the various houses and shotguns.
The other downside to apartments are all the crazy applications and fees. Some places even require proof of income that is 3x higher than the rent. Right now I get by fine on 2x higher. I own my car, my insurance is cheap, I keep my utilities low, and I've never been late on rent. Hopefully, some places will take a referral from my current landlord or let my parents sign on. And my credit is another story. I did make some bad calls on some credit cards when I was in college but my debt is down to $1000. I do plan on getting a second job waiting tables, as I've done in the past, but its hard to prove income when you're paid in tips.
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My experience is with the North side of town, which I recommend based on experience and tall tales from the South. However, I don't like people and didn't mind staying away from downtown (in my second place I walked 11 miles to school just to keep the rent down :-/) so my knowledge is ... specialized. If you want to stay close to downtown you might want to check out the East, which normally means, in Austin, anything to the East of I-35. Heck I know some girls that are often looking for roomates who live there and are, based on what little I know of you, are the LDS version of you. However, they're still LDS so I don't know that you'd really like living there ...
The trade-off on the East is that it's still reasonably close to down-town and much cheaper but you get a significant drop-off in ... umm ... ability to walk around at night unafraid. Of course I lived far North of there in a 'respectable' neighborhood directly next to a police station and still had my bike stolen so who knows what that means. Point being if you see this before you head down you might want to cruise over to the East to see what you think of the neighborhoods there. Most of the places are likely to be private rentals, like someone's house or something: not full-blown complexes.
Other side-note: I used an apartment locator there who was both unreliable and was my tip-off to the fact that since they're paid by the apartments they only recommend the big complexes that they have deals with.
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Yeah, I'd heard that the East was...patchy? I'd heard that parts of it were being rebuilt and that some are calling it the new hipster (gawd I hate that word) homebase. But its still rough in parts. Where I'm at now, I live literally on the border between gorgeous white trim Louisiana homes and houses with so many broken windows you'd think they'd been abandoned, but they're not. But I've also lived in town for a few years so I know the difference between our poor areas and our ghetto areas. That's knowledge that comes with time and experience.
I wish I could sublet or just move in with strangers but I have a parrot and A) its rare to find people who can tolerate the occasional outburst and B) I don't generally trust strangers around my pets. My bird can be a burden but I've had her for over a decade so we're not parting ways anytime soon.
There's one company I'm calling tomorrow called "Rock and Roll Realty" who have posted a ton of different studio apartments in the areas I'm looking in. I'd sent them an email yesterday (along with a dozen other companies) but haven't heard back yet. My plan is to call them tomorrow. Not sure if they'll let me swing by and pick up a list of available rentals or if they're the type that insists on having a "guide" take us around. Unfortunately, since they pride themselves on letting their employees dress however they like, I'm not keen on scaring off my super-conservative father who is coming with me.
We're also going to hit a couple of grocery stores since they'll sometimes have rental/apartment guides available for free. My parents live 2 hours outside of Austin so if I can find an area that I like, my mom said she's willing to help visit some places in June for me and help get the paperwork finalized. The key reason for my visit tomorrow is to get a feel for the city before I go and break my boss' heart when I request a transfer.
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Well it sounds like a good plan. I tried to do something similar when looking at first and ended up being so overwhelmed just trying to get a feel for where things were that I didn't really accomplish much: I spent the whole time too close to the University where everything was overbuilt and overpriced apartment complexes for undergrads with too much money. Anyways, I ended up in a place a little farther away (though still too expensive) for six months that I took sight unseen and then moved when the lease was up. By then I actually knew the town and where things were (and ended up going from ~$700 a month to ~$200,$250 a month). ::shrug::
You, and your parrot, sound like something my friends would love. But I didn't bring them up to try to get you to room with them (I don't even know if they have a vaccancy) rather just a point of reference for that section of town. It looks kind of sketchy and is compared to some places I suppose, but while every city likes to brag about how terrible certain sections of it are for reasons I don't understand, it's really not bad at all. I think just South of the river it might start to be a real problem with break-ins but if you stay North it's really not as bad as people make it sound. The people I mentioned who live there have never had the slightest problem. They also enjoy the bus system, which is quite extensive all over the city so keep that in mind when you decide how far away from downtown you can live.
Once again, good-luck and feel free to ask me more after your visit.
quote:Originally posted by Jim-Me: Unfortunately for me, Strider, you'll be closer to Rivka in LA than me in Dallas
That's because Texas is so ridiculously big.
I've realized this as I've been doing some research. I think I'll be closer to all of New Mexico and Arizona, and parts of other various states, than I will be to many areas in Texas.
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I lived in Austin six years ago, so I'm not exactly current. I had a lot of friends who lived in duplexes east of I35, in Cherrywood (I think) and French Place. I never knew of them having any issues. I vaguely remember Manor as being the dividing line on the east side - I just don't remember which side was the better side.
Even though I lived in Hyde Park, I spent a lot of time east of I35, and I never felt unsafe there. Then again, I'm from the Baltimore-DC area, so I might not be the best judge of how safe an area is.
Posts: 959 | Registered: Jan 2002
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So I had my visit today. I see what you mean about overwhelming! I didn't even get a chance to visit the East side.
Found one studio in South Congress and one studio in Hyde Park that I like. I prefer the SoCo studio because its bigger but I'm leaning towards the Hyde Park just becomes it seems more natural. SoCo seems like its trying too hard. Fun area to visit but maybe not the best for me to live. The downsides to Hyde Park are all the students! I'm in my upper twenties, not 21 anymore.
Still, there was only ONE in each neighborhood that I felt good about. Some were so small that I wanted to ask the manager how they define "studio" and "efficiency." Personally, I think its ridiculous to ask $650 for a room covered in cat hair, with no windows, and is barely big enough for a bed. Of course, the manager wants to charge me a $300 pet deposit for my small bird who can't even fly much less shed or chew baseboards. Most of the places I saw still had students living in them and they were TRASHED. Half of the apartments had no beds, just piles of blankets on the floor. And if these are the kind of people living in the complex with me...it makes me worry about noise and bugs and those sorts of things.
Hobbes, where'd you first end up moving to?
what's your opinion of North Austin? Like above Hyde and University and all of that? In "yuppie territory" as a few students described. Craigslist has a bunch of true one bedroom apartments up in North Austin. Part of me wonders if I should get a place for cheaper that is farther away until I make friends and learn more about the city. I do alright in the suburbs now so its not like I'd be miserable. Might turn the money I save in rent into more gas money to visit downtown.
And maybe I'll look at renting a room or posting an ad on Craigslist. I will say that for the most part, people were incredibly friendly. A few of the apartments may have been trashed, but one very nice couple actually gave me some great advice on traffic and Hyde Park and places to visit...all while I walked around their apartment checking out their closet space.
Of course this all depends on getting my transfer request done at work. The apartments rent in advance for August but I don't know if I'll be able to submit for transfer this early. I work at a bookstore so most retail places have employees that only work summers which means openings in August, but some just have year-round employees.
Risuena, Cherrywood and French Place look like they're north of Manor. I think I talked about that area with a realtor I saw today and there weren't many things in my price range. I'm going bare minimum so that if I want to go back to school after the new year, I'll be able to save money and work part-time. But I might mention it to him if the places I want get taken. I met up with him kinda last minute so we did mostly apartment complexes as opposed to duplexes or more unique rentals. But the guy now has a sense of what I like and he's willing to email me more information based on what he finds in the next few weeks.
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I liked the North, but I was even farther North than it sounds like you're trying to get. The first place I was in was the Argosy apartments which are about 5 miles N of campus (I was a student at the time so campus is kind of my reference, downtown is, as you know, a bit South of that). It was all right but I can't really recommend it individually. The area itself is all right. Honestly, outside of a few truly yuppie tracts most of Austin is a bit (only a bit) sketchy until you start really getting out of town. Bus service within 5,6 miles of campus in ever direction tends to be excellent so unless you wont ride buses I'd keep that in mind when judging distances. I'm not much into riding but I get around much better on foot and bike than most people. When I did take the bus they were always well kept and and good transport.
I'd say unless you want to pay a lot of money you will want to try to avoid campus by a few miles. It tends to be expensive and, as you discovered, the rooms have other drawbacks as well. If you go North a few miles you enter into lower-middle class type neighborhoods mixed in the lower class. It's hard to to recommend anything specifically, a lot depends on what aspects of an environment are important to you. As you keep going North you hit 183 which has a band of low-class/high-crime that I'd avoid personally. On either side of that band you get some pretty decent places. A lot of grad-students live in the area South of there (which is probably why undergards thought it was yuppie )and it tends to be pretty good for moderate prices without sacrificing personal safety. As you go above 183 the prices drop dramatically and the neighborhood stays nice. That's where I spent the last year up on Parmer and Metric. I went from paying ~$700 a month for my own place (~5 miles N of campus) to splitting with three others, though I had my own room, for ~$230 so that was great. It's also a lot quieter up there in terms of parties and foot traffic which is good for me. However, you really get into that area at around 8 miles from campus or so which is even farther from downtown. A lot of new business are opening up there (and Austin basically runs into Round Rock and various other suburb cities which are becoming their own mini-metroplosis). So there's several places that are trying to become new hang-out places comparable to downtown Austin. None of them are of course but there's still a nightlife you don't have to go downtown for (as well as several book stores ). If you have your heart set on visiting downtown several times a week places of North of Hyde Park by ~2miles is probably your upper limit, maybe not even that far. But that's still reasonable. There's some good places to live there that aren't exorbitant. My suggestion would be that if you're not going to use the buses you don't want to be anywhere that would cause you to have to drive on one of the freeways to get to work or anywhere else you'd visit multiple times a week.
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Hobbes is awesome and I worship at his feet.
I sent you an email with information on where I'll be working with hopes that you could advise me on this whole North Austin thing. Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I love Austin. Been to SXSW two of the last three years (missed this year because I was in Spain). I have a bunch of friends there.
I'm no help on where to live, unfortunately, but I think you'd like Austin, Shanna.
I highly recommend in a cross-country move situation that you sublet a room for a month or two, while conducting a more thorough apartment hunt. It's impossible to do so from out of town, especially if you don't know a thing about the city and have no locals to help you out.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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So I just responded to a Craigslist roommate-wanted ad that sounds like it was written by me.
I feel like a kid who just sent a note to a boy she likes. Gosh, I hope she likes me! I swear, I might actually feel hurt if she turns me down. Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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)and it tends to be pretty good for moderate prices without sacrificing personal safety. As you go above 183 the prices drop dramatically and the neighborhood stays nice. That's where I spent the last year up on Parmer and Metric. I went from paying ~$700 a month for my own place (~5 miles N of campus) to splitting with three others, though I had my own room, for ~$230 so that was great. It's also a lot quieter up there in terms of parties and foot traffic which is good for me. However, you really get into that area at around 8 miles from campus or so which is even farther from downtown. A lot of new business are opening up there (and Austin basically runs into Round Rock and various other suburb cities which are becoming their own mini-metroplosis). So there's several places that are trying to become new hang-out places comparable to downtown Austin. None of them are of course but there's still a nightlife you don't have to go downtown for (as well as several book stores 
