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I personally wouldnt send my kids to eanes because of all the rich kids and racists. Same goes for vandegrift and lake travis. There is an instagram page called racists of westlake. https://www.instagram.com/racismatwestlake/
I personally wouldnt send my kids to eanes because of all the rich kids and racists. Same goes for vandegrift and lake travis. There is an instagram page called racists of westlake. https://www.instagram.com/racismatwestlake/[/quote]
Very informative post but I want to make one small correction. I believe the name of the group you're referring to is Racism At Westlake. As the mother of four biracial kids, my heart breaks when I read some of the comments and I am very glad I and my kids didn't have to put up with that nonsense. That being said, I did move out of a town where my biracial daughter's Hispanic boyfriend was pulled over EVERY SINGLE TIME he visited us. Every single time, for no reason other than a "show of strength" from the police force. He was never, not once, ticketed for any offense. He was just pulled over by the police. Several years later, that particular police force got in a whole lot of trouble over some sort of corruption and I can't say I was surprised.
We moved to a much larger small city and I enrolled the kids in good schools and they were fine after that, thankfully.
I did move out of a town where my biracial daughter's Hispanic boyfriend was pulled over EVERY SINGLE TIME he visited us. Every single time, for no reason other than a "show of strength" from the police force. He was never, not once, ticketed for any offense. He was just pulled over by the police. Several years later, that particular police force got in a whole lot of trouble over some sort of corruption and I can't say I was surprised.
"every single time..." sounds like hyperbole. Not sure what your daughter's ethnicity has to do with him getting pulled over, either. Was she in the car with him?
Hi folks - We are moving from Nashville to Austin in a few months ...
Are there other neighborhoods we should be looking at? Thanks for any and all insights you might have!
It would help to have a bit more data.
Age of kids and Budget are the two biggies.
That said, in reading these type of posts on CD since the 2000s, "Southwest Austin" is hardly ever a wrong answer unless the poster works North of the river (Town Lake) further than downtown.
Search real estate online for the zipcodes 78749 and 78739. Homes start in the $500s for the most part. The schools are generally "good enough" to "very good".
I have two daughters who graduated Westlake High (Eanes). The 1800 sqft house I bought there in 2010 for $310k and sold in 2014 for $500k would be $1.1M now and would probably be torn down to built a new $2.5M home. A friend of mine just sold his 1,800 sqft teardown for $1M with multiple offers.
But you really have to define a budget as a starting place, and factor in 2% +/- property taxes annually. So a $500k home would have roughly $10k annual property tax, up to 3% in some areas, as low as 1.6% in unincorporated county areas. Less with the homestead exemption. But still high no matter what.
Steve
Last edited by austin-steve; 02-19-2024 at 03:23 PM..
Reason: egregious tipos
The population center of austin is around 51st and burnet. Lots of new restaurants on the east side and south side. Most tech jobs are north and north west of the river. Most asian food is north and northwest. There are two bigger centers for asian food, airport/lamar and chinatown center (north lamar)
The thing I dont like about cuernavaca is lack of access to the whole of austin. You have one road to get into town - 2244. Getting to zilker and downtown isnt too bad though. Not a lot of interesting restaurants on that side of town.
Along yaupon (laurel mountain/canyon vista/westwood) are homes that were built around 2000 some were built even later, maybe 2011. The westwood neighborhoods have good access to 360, 183, and decent access to mopac. The domain, Q2 stadium, ice skating, roller skating etc are more centered to the north and northwest. The homes in great hills are probably half the price of cuernavaca homes. Laurel mountain is around 60% asian (half are south asian and half are east asian)
A little closer is northwest hills. The homes feed into doss/hill, murchison, anderson. You also can attend the AISD magnets kealing and lasa. LASA is by far the best high school in town but is on the east side. Northwest hills has older homes, but many remodels. It has a decent feel with lots of people walking around and huge halloween street parties.
I personally wouldnt send my kids to eanes because of all the rich kids and racists. Same goes for vandegrift and lake travis. There is an instagram page called racists of westlake. https://www.instagram.com/racismatwestlake/
Thanks for all the info about the Westwood area and general north/northwest! It's definitely an area in contention for us for lots of reasons, and this texture was super helpful in making it more attractive. (Commute to downtown is the primary knock against this area vs the Eanes one.)
We're aware of LASA but don't like gambling on winning the charter lottery.
I appreciate the insight into some of the concerns in Eanes ISD regarding racism. It's sad to hear and simultaneously not surprising, given my own experiences from TX public schools. I hope that the district has made strides since getting a DEI committee with school and community reps.
It would help to have a bit more data.
Age of kids and Budget are the two biggies.
That said, in reading these type of posts on CD since the 2000s, "Southwest Austin" is hardly ever a wrong answer unless the poster works North of the river (Town Lake) further than downtown.
Search real estate online for the zipcodes 78749 and 78739. Homes start in the $500s for the most part. The schools are generally "good enough" to "very good".
I have two daughters who graduated Westlake High (Eanes). The 1800 sqft house I bought there in 2010 for $310k and sold in 2014 for $500k would be $1.1M now and would probably be torn down to built a new $2.5M home. A friend of mine just sold his 1,800 sqft teardown for $1M with multiple offers.
But you really have to define a budget as a starting place, and factor in 2% +/- property taxes annually. So a $500k home would have roughly $10k annual property tax, up to 3% in some areas, as low as 1.6% in unincorporated county areas. Less with the homestead exemption. But still high no matter what.
Steve
Kids will be in 3rd, 5th, and 9th grade, so schools at every level are relevant and important to us. Thanks for the specific zip codes! It looks like the schools zoned to Bowie HS are potentially in the "very good" range?
Our budget will allow us access to the newer Cuerny homes, but we prefer to have more financial flexibility in general, so we truly are considering homes that range from just under $1 mil in some places to $2 mil in Eanes and trying to sift through what is worth it. The realtor we first started talking to has been less than helpful, so I'm starting to interview others. This board has been very helpful and I'm grateful to all who have responded!
Pick a wholesome neighborhood like Hyde Park or Hancock. Many of your children's classmates will have parents who are professors or hold other positions at UT. Close to downtown.
Coming from Nashville, you will have to get used to the fact that UT stands for Texas and not Tennessee :-)
Last edited by sanmiguel; 02-22-2024 at 08:44 AM..
Kids will be in 3rd, 5th, and 9th grade, so schools at every level are relevant and important to us. Thanks for the specific zip codes! It looks like the schools zoned to Bowie HS are potentially in the "very good" range?
Our budget will allow us access to the newer Cuerny homes, but we prefer to have more financial flexibility in general, so we truly are considering homes that range from just under $1 mil in some places to $2 mil in Eanes and trying to sift through what is worth it. The realtor we first started talking to has been less than helpful, so I'm starting to interview others. This board has been very helpful and I'm grateful to all who have responded!
SW Austin area generally feeds to Bowie HS, although there are pockets that feed into Austin HS (via Small MS) and if you get across Mopac then some areas (i.e. Sunset Valley) feed into Crockett. East of Brodie Lane, you run into Akins and Travis HS, but those areas are not generally 'SW Austin'.
Bowie is a very good HS and also very large (I have a sophomore there right now) and is fed by Bailey, Covington, and Gorzycki middle schools. I have an 8th grader currently at Gorzycki. Both kids came up via Mills Elementary. I have almost nothing negative to say about the schools, at least not of substance. I do know that the sports teams are pretty competitive - if you have a 'good' basketball or baseball player at Gorzycki (or whatever), they may not be good enough to make the school team.
The district (AISD) does have 'magnet' schools, as well, and several of my kid's friends opted to go to Kealing MS instead of Gorzycki and will likely end up at 'LASA' (Liberal Arts and Science Academy). Those schools operate on a slightly different daily schedule (start and end earlier) and have buses that run earlier in the day.
You might look at Shady Hollow - it is older homes, but on large lots and good schools. Aesthetically, it is light years better than anything built in the last 25 years.
Circle C north and parts of the Heights of Loma Vista are walkable to both the Elementary School (Mills) and the Middle School (Gorzycki). Very, very convenient. We are in the Villages of Western Oaks near Mills, but the kids have to cross Escarpment to get to GMS, so that is a bit of a barrier - crazy drivers, etc.
None of the above is a non-recommendation for anywhere else, it is just the area I am most familiar with. I will say that Eanes has a bit of an 'elitist' reputation, some of it well-earned, some due to possibly small segments of the population, but it is still there. Not likely to be an obvious issue for kids if they are white and from an affluent background, but if you are in the lower economic bracket for the school body (which might still be making good money), the kids may notice that they are sort of the 'have nots'. This also goes to Lake Travis but in some ways worse, based on friends with kids currently in LTISD. The difference in LTISD is that there are more actual 'have nots' and the social pressure is more obvious.
For comparison, Bowie is probably the least 'disadvantaged' HS in AISD at 13%, with Anderson and Austin HS (also fairly affluent for the district) at 24%+. Westlake HS is at 4% and LT is at 9%. What is more important (to me) is not the level of disadvantaged but rather what the reverse implies - the 'very advantaged' (economically) is inversely proportional to the disadvantaged, most likely.
Last edited by Trainwreck20; 02-22-2024 at 09:35 AM..
Coming from Nashville, you will have to get used to the fact that UT stands for Texas and not Tennessee :-)
Haha, having lived in Houston for many years before moving here, UT has remained Univ of TX in my mind, whereas oftentimes here folks will say "UT-Knoxville" to specify (since there are lots of folks at UT-Chattanooga, for example).
Our experience with living among other working professionals is that they often will send their elementary-aged kids to the local public school, but they then move them to private around middle/HS age, which we won't do for a variety of reasons.
Bowie is a very good HS and also very large (I have a sophomore there right now) and is fed by Bailey, Covington, and Gorzycki middle schools. I have an 8th grader currently at Gorzycki. Both kids came up via Mills Elementary. I have almost nothing negative to say about the schools, at least not of substance. I do know that the sports teams are pretty competitive - if you have a 'good' basketball or baseball player at Gorzycki (or whatever), they may not be good enough to make the school team.
The district (AISD) does have 'magnet' schools, as well, and several of my kid's friends opted to go to Kealing MS instead of Gorzycki and will likely end up at 'LASA' (Liberal Arts and Science Academy). Those schools operate on a slightly different daily schedule (start and end earlier) and have buses that run earlier in the day.
You might look at Shady Hollow - it is older homes, but on large lots and good schools. Aesthetically, it is light years better than anything built in the last 25 years.
Circle C north and parts of the Heights of Loma Vista are walkable to both the Elementary School (Mills) and the Middle School (Gorzycki). Very, very convenient. We are in the Villages of Western Oaks near Mills, but the kids have to cross Escarpment to get to GMS, so that is a bit of a barrier - crazy drivers, etc.
None of the above is a non-recommendation for anywhere else, it is just the area I am most familiar with. I will say that Eanes has a bit of an 'elitist' reputation, some of it well-earned, some due to possibly small segments of the population, but it is still there. Not likely to be an obvious issue for kids if they are white and from an affluent background, but if you are in the lower economic bracket for the school body (which might still be making good money), the kids may notice that they are sort of the 'have nots'. This also goes to Lake Travis but in some ways worse, based on friends with kids currently in LTISD. The difference in LTISD is that there are more actual 'have nots' and the social pressure is more obvious.
For comparison, Bowie is probably the least 'disadvantaged' HS in AISD at 13%, with Anderson and Austin HS (also fairly affluent for the district) at 24%+. Westlake HS is at 4% and LT is at 9%. What is more important (to me) is not the level of disadvantaged but rather what the reverse implies - the 'very advantaged' (economically) is inversely proportional to the disadvantaged, most likely.
I appreciate your insights especially with kids at Gorzycki and Bowie! We're not worried about sports and boy howdy am I glad we're not as we move back to TX. I hear you on the elitist reputation issue - nice to be aware that it can actually be exacerbated in LTISD.
A realtor I spoke with today was saying Anderson, Austin HS, and McCallum HS were all safer bets than Bowie for a strong educational experience. (Her take was that Bowie is getting better and had some good feeder schools, but wasn't quite on par with the other AISD HS mentioned here.) Do you think that's an out-of-date assessment, or accurate? I feel like it's so difficult to get solid info because websites like Niche and GreatSchools don't always reflect what others are telling us. One family friend in K-12 was adamant we don't want to deal with anything in AISD unless we have to... but now I'm wondering if that's some affluenza talking. Thanks again for all that you shared!
There is definitely an 'anything Austin is bad' approach that some people take. I.e. the district went to a gender neutral dress code a few years back and, to some people, that was heinous. It is actually pretty simple but does, however, allow a guy to wear a dress if they want to. In reality, if you went to Westlake HS, LTHS, or Bowie HS, the attire is pretty much identical in style.
Those other HS (Anderson, Austin, and Mcallum) along with LASA are the 'target' schools for most parents worried about academics, although I would include Bowie. Bowie is the biggest (enrollment-wise), generally around 3,000, which can be a positive or a negative depending on your kid. The other three listed here are around 2,000, give or take.
McCallum has a fine arts academy that is sought after - I don't think it is listed as a magnet school, but I think you have to apply for the FAA? Not sure. The downside to the school (imo) is the attendance zone - it is huge, but I do not think what you are looking for is near the school but would rather be out west past 360 and that is just a long way. There are some very 'popular' neighborhoods of older homes (40s/50s/60s). I am 'old Austin' in a lot of ways (been here near 50 years), but some/many of those people are very much the 'go back home' and 'don't change Austin' to the extreme, along with some college kids renting and over-packing some house.
Anderson is a very good school, some of the old-Austin mentality, but not as bad as the McCallum zone (again, in my experience). It is a more compact zone and more affluent than people realize. I suspect the housing is more expensive, and it include Balcones Woods area and Great Hills, as well as the Far West neighborhoods, all of which are 'target' areas for many people. If I was to pick another area in Austin to live with kids in school, this would probably be it. It is old (1970s?) and an interesting design, but not all that different than Bowie (late 1980s).
Austin HS is right on Town Lake (officially Lady Bird Lake) and, similar to McCallum, as a very stretched out attendance zone, from as far west as Bee Cave, circling around westlake and heading north to the McCallum zone and east past the interstate.
If you are in AISD, you can apply to LASA and get bussed service from anywhere in the district - just not from the end of your street. They have collection points, often at the closest elementary school or similar. Their enrollment is around 1500. It is generally considered a top 10 (or even top 5) in Texas as well as top 50 in the US.
Anyway, I think any of those schools - assuming they are the right 'fit' for your kid(s) - will be fine. None of them have inherent issues that will prevent your child from learning. All provide opportunity. Any variation in the test results is more likely due to the demographics than the education provided. I.e. -I suspect (no data that I can find) that a larger portion of the Bowie-slated kids transfer to LASA as compared to McCallum and Anderson. That would shave some of the top achievers out of the 'testing' results for Bowie but not really affect the education provided.
I think in the broader picture, SW Austin is more moderate to conservative leaning than the attendance zones for McCallum and Austin HS, but probably somewhat similar to Anderson.
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