Is Manor THAT bad??????? (Dallas, Austin: houses, buying, school district)

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by love roses

"then why are you dragging it out unnecessarily? the OP has asked a specific question about Manor; but you are making it an 'east side vs west side' issue."

Manor is east just like Pflugerville. How can anyone make this an east/west issue ? I can see Austin and Round Rock as they both straddle 35 but not the other two.

Manor started off bad..well maybe not bad, but questionable. The suburban boom started to make it better but that stopped when construction did.

[eepstein]

Manor is an inbred dump. Stay away at all costs!!

Originally Posted by txorbust17

My family will be moving to the Austin area next March. My husband will be a full time MBA student at UT and I am a nurse and will be working in either a North Austin or Round Rock hospital. We definitely want to live outside of Austin, but within a 30 minute drive to work and school. I have done tons of research on Manor, Pflugerville, & Round Rock areas. It seems like Manor would be the closest place for us to live, but I've read TERRIBLE things about the school district. Is it that bad? Our son won't be in school for another 5 years, but I don't want to purchase a home that will be unsellable or have my property value decline.
Shadowglen in Manor seems to be a great neighborhood with lots of nice homes. It seems like a shame to have a nice master planned neighborhood in a terrible school district. Does anyone know if things have improved or if homes are selling in this area despite the poor school ratings? Or can anyone suggest a good subdivision that would be a short commute to the UT campus? I know the traffic on I-35 is going to be brutal in the mornings. We are a military family relocating from Germany. I'm doing my research online ahead of time. We're native Texans, but not from the Austin area. We'd like to keep it under the 200K price range. Thanks!

[txorbust17]

Wow, I didn't expect to get this many comments on my original post. Thanks for giving me some things to think about. I think my husband and I will just have to visit the Austin area and do some driving to figure out what will work for us. I'm especially concerned about traffic on I-35 and whether it's faster to commute from somewhere like Pflugerville and take the toll road. We're both from small west Texas towns, so the whole commute issue is something we're not used to. However, we're looking forward to living in a place that has more than 1 red light and a Dairy Queen.
Thanks again, everyone!

[RowdysMom]

Commuting to UT, live north of the river - you don't want to cross it everyday!

I've lived in a lower middle class neighborhood about 7 miles north of UT for 23 years and I love it. My home value has more than doubled, but you probably wouldn't want to live in my neighborhood - it's not bad or dangerous, just not prissy, e.g., I can leave my trash bins in front of the garage and no one cares. I work at UT and drive I35 everyday. BUT, I can come and go to work pretty much on my own schedule, so I can leave early or late going to UT or coming home to avoid the terrible rush hours. But even if I find myself in the middle of rush hour, it's really not that bad, for me, I only have 7 miles of traffic to negotiate. And if there is a wreck - then I scoot down Lamar or Burnet, and voila! I'm at UT. Now if you live north of Parmer Lane, then it can be a long and frustrating commute.

[mottswife]

thank you austinite45 good job!

[mystatic]

Originally Posted by txorbust17

Thanks for the input. It's nice to hear from people who know the area. I think I'll cross Manor off the list. Now I'm looking into some new Centex neighborhoods. One is called Ashbrook near Manchaca. Anyone heard of this? It looks pretty nice and near the new Southpark Meadows shopping center.
Or what about the Cantarra neighborhood in Pflugerville? I've also considered some of the more established neighborhoods in Pflugerville such as Heatherwilde and Wells Point. Just trying to decide which place would be the most convenient to UT & decent shopping.

I'm a little late on posting about this but I thought I'd put my 2 cents in for future readers. I live at Cantarra and we're pretty happy with what we've got. Cantarra has a "country" feel to it b/c it's away from everything that is concrete, like strip malls and other houses. It's relatively quiet (except for all the new homes being built, and depending on your partying neighbors) and the staff are friendly and honest. We feel that our home is quality built and saves energy as well, and prices are very competitive.

The downside of things: small lots, very close to neighbors, Gregg Lane which is the only road to Cantarra is horrible and currently under construction, still no community trails/pool/rec center as promised. When I grew up neighborhoods had bigger lots, more space, and thus just a few neighbors. At Cantarra, lots are small, thus you have many more neighbors much closer to your home, which increases the liklihood that 1)you will have difficulty finding a parking spot and 2)there will be problems with neighbors.

Howard Lane. I also feel that the "East Howard Lane" scene is slowly spreading eastward toward Cantarra. By that I mean cheap housing/apartments and everything that is associated with it. Do the math...

Bottom line. We like Cantarra now, but we are already planning to move in 2-4 years to find better schools, larger lots and quieter neighborhoods in North Austin.

[8080a]

I live in central Austin, but I've always thought that if I needed to move out a ways, I'd probably pick Manor. In terms of location, it seems like just about the next best thing. You can get into north central Austin and bypass I-35 completely. Your husband can pop in via 290/2222 and zip down Airport to Red River without a lot of headache and will have a more engaging commute. If you end up working in Round Rock or North Austin, you can catch I-35 north from 290 and be on the less packed side of traffic opposite all the poor souls scooting southbound. (Northbound isn't usually too bad in the A.M., if I recall correctly.) If you need to head towards Houston, you're already clear of Austin and I-35. And again, via 290 and 2222, you'll have great access to the local businesses and cool stuff along Lamar and a quick gateway to MOPAC (the other big road in Austin) and the west side as well. From any of those spots, you're just five or ten minutes from downtown.

I don't know anything about the schools there though. I came from a family where parents didn't pick where they lived based on the schools, you just went to school where your parents decided to live. If your grades sucked, it was because you were slacking off, not because the district was underfunded. I guess kids are luckier now, I don't know. I would say that the teacher there posted the positive things is a good sign. They seemed to go into good detail. I don't know what to make of people just saying "the schools are bad" without much explanation as to what that means.

I like the fact that Manor still feels more like a small town. I think they'd do well to keep it about the size it is and not expand too much more. But, its current size and demographics actually make it more appealing to me than some of the other small towns-turned-suburbs. Some of those houses sure look out of place out there though. I hear the rattlesnakes sure are something though.

[jobert]

Originally Posted by mystatic

Bottom line. We like Cantarra now, but we are already planning to move in 2-4 years to find better schools, larger lots and quieter neighborhoods in North Austin.

You plan to move in 2-4 years? What's stopping you, are you waiting for home prices to plummet first? BTW, North Austin will still be a dump with small lots 2-4 years from now, I think you're referring to Round Rock.

[matlock31]

Originally Posted by txorbust17

My family will be moving to the Austin area next March. My husband will be a full time MBA student at UT and I am a nurse and will be working in either a North Austin or Round Rock hospital. We definitely want to live outside of Austin, but within a 30 minute drive to work and school. I have done tons of research on Manor, Pflugerville, & Round Rock areas. It seems like Manor would be the closest place for us to live, but I've read TERRIBLE things about the school district. Is it that bad? Our son won't be in school for another 5 years, but I don't want to purchase a home that will be unsellable or have my property value decline.
Shadowglen in Manor seems to be a great neighborhood with lots of nice homes. It seems like a shame to have a nice master planned neighborhood in a terrible school district. Does anyone know if things have improved or if homes are selling in this area despite the poor school ratings? Or can anyone suggest a good subdivision that would be a short commute to the UT campus? I know the traffic on I-35 is going to be brutal in the mornings. We are a military family relocating from Germany. I'm doing my research online ahead of time. We're native Texans, but not from the Austin area. We'd like to keep it under the 200K price range. Thanks!

Manor is up and coming. I was just reading about a million dollar sub-div out there. There are also close to the New Water Park being built. It has been out with the "OLD" and in with they New. It want be long before house price go higher out there. Good luck.

[eepstein]

Manor is up and coming??? What does that mean?? Manor, Hutto, Kyle, and Buda are all exactly the same. Faceless strip malls, and treeless cookie cutter homes. Many of which are DR Horton "specials". A wind gust of 40 MPH could blow most of these homes over. But, whatever works for some people.

Originally Posted by matlock31

Manor is up and coming. I was just reading about a million dollar sub-div out there. There are also close to the New Water Park being built. It has been out with the "OLD" and in with they New. It want be long before house price go higher out there. Good luck.