Austin Travel Forum

Hi everyone! My bf and I are moving to Austin as he'll be studying at UT Law School. Neither of us are familiar with the city. Can someone please suggest which areas/neighbourhoods we should focus our condo search on. We'd like something within close proximity to the campus.

Also, how is the job market in Austin?
Thank you all in advance.

Chalang

Hi,

Austin is a great city, I'm sure you'll enjoy living here.

As far as where to live that's close to campus, it depends on how much you want to spend. A lot of students live off east Riverside dr. south of downtown. You can find more reasonbly priced apartments and condos there. Austin is not that big, so you could live alomost anywhere in the city limits. You may want to avoid some parts of east Austin though.

As far as the job market, it's pretty tight. The high-tech bust has made it a little more difficult, but not impossible. Plenty of work in bars/restaurants, retail, and service related industries but not to much available in manufacturing anymore. Jobs working for the state sometimes become available too.

Check out the Austin-American Statesman web site for classified ads that could help you in your search.

Happy trails,

Marc

Thank you for your help.
I appreciate it :)

Chalang

South Austin would be a good choice for you. You can look for apartment listings that say they are near Zilker Park and the Hike N Bike Trail area. I live by Barton Springs and it is a great neighborhood. Other good areas are SOCO (South Congress neighborhood), Hyde Park (although expensive!), Riverside Drive like the other poster said and there are lots of nice apartments/condos off Far West Boulevard. Check out http://austin.craigslist.org/ for listings of jobs and apartments and feel free to e-mail me for more info.

I think the job market is pretty good in Austin. If you can get in with the State of Texas, you can get some good benefits. You can look for state job listings at http://www.twc.state.tx.us/customers/jsemp/jsemp.html

Good Luck!

Hello,
Austin is a great town and friendly to newcomers. Depending on where you are coming from Austin is pretty reasonably priced. I would stay west of I 35, the east side has some crime and has lots of younger students. The area is getting cleaned up a bit around the neighborhood of french place.

I would not go west of MoPac Highway 1, that would be pretty far to drive for school. As far as neighborhoods, Tarrytown is upscale and there are nice apartments there. Hyde Park, Clarksville, and Travis heights are nice neighborhoods. South Austin is more hip and can be a little crusty. I really like the south side.

South of Ben White Blovd/290/71 highway gets a little shady and it can be a traffic ridden commute to campus.

www.craigslist.org is a great apt/condo resource.

Hope this helps!

Hey,

Me and my boyfriend are moving out of Austin. Our apartment is located in the Arboretum area, very nice neighborehood, walking distance to grocery store, shopping centers, restaurants and fitness center. Closed to IBM. It will be 15 minutes to go to UT.

We are selling some stuffs like furnitures and electronic appliances, they are all cheap items, got them when we were doing internship here.

If you are interested, please send me an email at beeean@gmail.com

Tks

I would respectfully disagree with Merwest's assesment of housing east of I-35. There are certainly areas that are sketchy...but others are not at all. My wife and I moved here in 2001 so she could start her MA in Rhetoric in the Com department. We previously had lived in Nashville where I bought a house in a "transitional" neighborhood and renovated it with a friend. That worked out so well and was SO much better than just paying rent that we looked for a similar situation in Austin. We moved just east of Cameron Rd. and just north of 51st. Property values in our neighborhood are some of the fastest growing, if not THE fastest growing, in the city. We will end up making money when Amy (my wife) finishes her Ph.D. and we sell (assuming her job prospects take us out of town) AND have very much enjoyed living here. The neighborhood has a great mix...very arty and eclectic...and cosmetic fixer homes can still be found for under $150K. It's also within 3 miles of campus on a bus line and has bike lanes for over 2 miles of the trip.

It's really hard to find a knowledgable realtor who is willing to work in the lower dollar markets. I've found and worked with two who know the entire market very well and who I trust if you're interested:

Steve Scott
kwscotts@kw.com
http://www.steveandjudyscott.com/
(512) 345-7224

Julie Nelson
E-mail: JulieNelson@austin.rr.com
Web: http://www.TheNelsonProject.com
(512) 459-8151

If you're not buying, please excuse my ramblings. I'll be glad to answer any questions I can. I know nearly everyone in Amy's program and where they live. Most rent and they are all over the place.

Congrats to your BF on getting accepted to UT-Law!!! He will want to live within walking/biking distance of campus or on a shuttle route. Parking at UT is nearly impossible and he just will not want to deal with it. Shuttle maps can be found here:http://www.utexas.edu/parking/transportation/shuttle/index.html
I would avoid the student slums in the Riverside/Oltorf/Parker/Pleasant Valley area (shuttles: BD, CP, LS, NR, PL, WL). I refuse to go visit friends there after dark, because I've heard of too many college women getting attacked/raped/assaulted in that area.
On the flip side, I would highly recommend the Hyde Park area just North of campus (IF and RR shuttles). The law school is on the North side of campus, and anything from 26th to 51st street is good. If you're looking to rent, the best way to find something there is to just drive around and look for "for lease" signs. The IF and RR shuttles let off fairly close to the Law School. West Campus (largely greek, but lots of rental property)is a long walk and gets very loud on weekends and is full of students. It's West of Guadalupe from about 19th/MLK to 35th. I completely agree with the above poster about the near east side being good. Lots of grad students there. That area has changed dramatically within the last 5-10 years and is booming right now. If you're looking to invest, this would be a good bet... Anything along North Lamar or South Congress that is served by Capital Metro's #1 route is also a good bet. South Lamar is a hip area right now, and housing prices reflect it.

Hi, thanks a lot for the link to the shuttle site. This will surely help us with locating places!

We actually plan on visiting Austin in mid-July to look for a place.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

Chalang :)