Moving to Austin- safest/attractive neighborhoods not downtown (Round Rock, Georgetown: best suburbs, apartments)

[Jancan1]

Hey guys- so for reasons to long to explain, I'm moving to Austin from D.C. nxt weekend
Never been there before and won't be living downtown. I'm a single female in my
30s. I'll be working downtown and will initially be renting an apt..from the research
I've done it looks like West Austin-Cedar Park or round rock would be a good
Bet..can anyone help me out with areas? I am I on the right track? Also from what I've
Found on apartments.com n like sites, it looks like u can get a pretty decent place for $850-$950
There..is that accurate? Def dnt wanna live in a crappy building w sketchy neighbors..want something
Nice but not super expensive..any help
Would be really appreciated. Thanks! 😊

[Dabroncos1]

Most of Austin and its surrounding suburbs are safe. Me personally from living here the last 2 years and working and being around the whole city kind of spirit the metro into this - remember it's just my view-

West Austin- parts are beautiful- hills and the lake is a draw. Good schools. Super expensive. Super sterile. Mostly weather crowd or retiring/aging crowd. Probably not gonna work with your budget.

South Austin- I'm not a fan - but plenty of people will tell you it's a great place and has tons to offer- which I'm sure it can and does. I won't pretend to be super knowledgeable about the area other than from my time down there it felt more sketchy. Plenty of older establishments that are beat up. Higher homeless population. And it seems most crimes and burglaries are in many south neighborhoods. Suburb wise Kyle is a nice town- buda a little more rural but growing-

East Austin- first thing that comes to mind is hipster. It's has some of the rougher neighborhoods in the city but also some wih the most character. It's young and upcoming. You can most likely find something close your budget but I can't say with certainty it would be overwhelmingly safe either (again Austin is a safe city but there are parts that are sketchy). East Austin by far has the least desirable suburbs in manor and Elgin.

North Austin- my favorite for a variety of reasons. In terms of in city limits avoid north Lamar and rundberg areA- pretty much the one area that is rough. Lakeline seems like it would be perfect for you. They just built a bunch of brand new super nice apartments over there I believe they are called lakeline west and east. Heb is there, the mall is there, the Alamo is there, bunch of shopping and food options, and entertainment. In my view north Austin has the best suburbs in cedar park, Leander, Georgetown and round rock. Can't go wrong with any of them. If you live in Cedar park or Leander you can use 183 and 183 toll to get downtown- it's a very easy commute by Austin standards but there are closer commutes in previous mentioned parts of Austin.

[scm53]

You can get closer to downtown, in your price range, if you go south, specifically the 78704 zip. You can live right off of Lamar and ride the BRT to work - avoiding traffic and parking charges.

One place is the new Lamar Union development, with live music, Alamo Drafthouse movie theater, and restaurants - including the first Shake Shack in Texas. Easy walking to the biggest urban park in Austin, and home of the ACL festival. Downside is, they are 4-450 sq. ft. studios. But the location is unbeatable - $850/mo.

Go back to apartments.com and look at anything close to S Lamar in 78704. You can't get closer, in a neighborhood you'd like, in your price range, than there.

[MeredithTX]

If you are a single woman in your 30s, you probably would rather live closer to downtown and not out in the suburbs of Cedar Park or Round Rock. Most of Austin is pretty safe anyway.

[DCtoTejas]

Are you doing a long commute in DC? Traffic is bad here but not as bad as DC, if you can handle a long one there you can probably handle a long one into downtown here. As others have mentioned though, if you want to enjoy a lot of the "Austin-y" things like town lake, zilker, festivals, UT games etc it will be a lot easier to do some from somewhere closer in. When I moved here 4 years ago I lived in 78704 and it was a great decision but I get that it is not what everyone wants. I don't know much about the north areas as I have always been south but there are lots of new apartments around slaughter lane on the south side, can't speak to how nice they actually are. In terms of sketchy, some areas of south Austin are rougher compared to the rest of Austin but there is nothing anywhere here on the scale of say, Anacostia.

Edit: Want to add - if you value your sanity avoid any apartments that have large student populations.

[MovingOut2012]

Originally Posted by scm53

You can get closer to downtown, in your price range, if you go south, specifically the 78704 zip. You can live right off of Lamar and ride the BRT to work - avoiding traffic and parking charges.

One place is the new Lamar Union development, with live music, Alamo Drafthouse movie theater, and restaurants - including the first Shake Shack in Texas. Easy walking to the biggest urban park in Austin, and home of the ACL festival. Downside is, they are 4-450 sq. ft. studios. But the location is unbeatable - $850/mo.

Go back to apartments.com and look at anything close to S Lamar in 78704. You can't get closer, in a neighborhood you'd like, in your price range, than there.

I second this. Best place to live and your neighbors will be around your age group. We live off South Lamar and if I feel like going downtown without using my car, I can hop on the bus anytime. There are still apartments to be had in the $1000 range (our apartment community is one of them - I asked and they had apartments about 700-800 square feet that starts at $1000). The only thing is you probably will not be the only one looking for an apartment so it is more of a whoever gets to it first. They don't even have a waiting list.

Most of the apartments in our area are nice and not sketchy. Austin is a pretty safe city.