Plutto Rock (Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park: house, buying, living in)

[txstate]

Looking for some Pflugerville, Hutto, Round Rock love on the thread. Represent for the Far North Austin area with new developments and businesses very diverse all over let me know how you feel about that area of town.

[axorb]

That whole area is flat boring suburbia

[BijouBaby]

Don't like it, no character, try to avoid.

[blameyourself]

Originally Posted by txstate

Looking for some Pflugerville, Hutto, Round Rock love on the thread. Represent for the Far North Austin area with new developments and businesses very diverse all over let me know how you feel about that area of town.

I've always enjoyed living in the suburbs versus the congestion of any major metroplex. You typically get a much nicer house for your money (and that is definitely the case in the Austin area) and you can always visit downtown on those rare occasions with some sort of event. I prefer the serenity you usually get in the suburbs. The only problem is this area (Round Rock) is getting so busy that you actually do have some pretty good traffic during rush hour here (a time I thankfully don't have to drive in). Round Rock will be even busier when the Samsung plant is finished (in particular on 79).

My daughter was in town from North Carolina a few months ago and wasn't all that impressed by downtown Austin (I can't say that I've ever really been either). And excuse me for saying this, but it's always felt like a bit of a 2nd tier city.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by blameyourself

I've always enjoyed living in the suburbs versus the congestion of any major metroplex. You typically get a much nicer house for your money (and that is definitely the case in the Austin area) and you can always visit downtown on those rare occasions with some sort of event. I prefer the serenity you usually get in the suburbs. The only problem is this area (Round Rock) is getting so busy that you actually do have some pretty good traffic during rush hour here (a time I thankfully don't have to drive in). Round Rock will be even busier when the Samsung plant is finished (in particular on 79).

My daughter was in town from North Carolina a few months ago and wasn't all that impressed by downtown Austin (I can't say that I've ever really been either). And excuse me for saying this, but it's always felt like a bit of a 2nd tier city.

Ditto.

There are zealots here that are Austin or nothing. I have no issues with where I live and will not be seeking to move into Austin proper except for maybe buying investment property there if I ever decide to go that route. I have no reason to pay the extra money.

Downtown Austin is nice, but the constant bashing on the suburbs is unjustifiable. They also continuously complain about RR/Hutto/Cedar Park/Leander being suburbia but Austin becomes suburbia pretty much the instance you leave downtown / west campus area. It turns into SFH with activity pockets that are scattered about the city that require a car to transport between. When I think of 'Urban' I think of Chicago which remains high density far outside of Downtown. Same for San Francisco and New York and in some areas even Atlanta (if you stay on Peachtree St). You can take the train, walk, bus or bike all over the city. You can only do that in pockets of inner Austin.

Now here is one thing I will agree with, the suburbs aren't as much of a bargain as they used to be.. They have seen some enormous price hikes. So if attacking it from a perspective of affordability then I would agree that point is more valid now than it used to be.