Advice on areas to avoid in Pflugerville and Manor (Austin: sales, HOA)

[lenajc]

Hi, I just wanted to get some general opinions on Pflugerville & Manor neighborhoods. My background story is that I am not from this area or even central Texas (but have been living in Austin for a few years), I'm a single women, work downtown and am looking for a home with an upper price range of about $140K. My biggest concerns are safety/crime and minimizing my commute to the extent possible. In my general search, it seems like the places to look for a single-family home are Pflugerville and Manor. Are there certain areas to avoid in these cities?

So far, I initially like in Pflugerville: Sarah's Creek subdivision (bordered by Tacon, 1825 and Wells Branch) and Highland Park subdivision off of Pflugerville Pkwy and Heatherwilde. In Manor I like Shadowglen, Presidential Meadows, and Carriage Hills/Bell Farms. Any opinions on these areas or other areas I should consider?

FYI, condos and townhomes generally aren't options. I like quiet and am tired of sharing walls.

[phone man]

I would take Pville over Manor in a heart beat. Better commute and better schools. Shopping is also more convenient in Pflugerville.

[tfresca]

Be mindful of highway access rush hour those neighborhoods can have bottlenecks.

[la60336]

Harris Branch is also in that area. Seem to be homes in that price range. Most of it has an Austin address.

[Salgal1113]

I would definitely go with Highland over Sara's Creek.

Pflugerville is growing to the East, so most of the new development, road improvement, and shopping is happening in that area of town. Highland Park would put you much closer to that.

Downside is if you have to travel I-35 regularly, it's going to take some time to get there. On the other hand, 130 is relatively close, as is 45.

[Orange Moon]

I've lived in Sarah's Creek the past few years and I like it there a lot. It is fairly large - part of the subdivision is in Austin and the other part is in Pflugerville. This becomes important when you go to set up your utilities.

I haven't had any problems with breakins at my property, but others in my neighborhood have. There have been cars and garages broken into, but it seems to happen all at once to a few people then stops for a while. I think the feel of the subdivision changes on a street by street basis, so when you find a home you are interested in, I would drive around it at all times to check it out esp. on Friday and Saturday nights. Some neighbors, and therefore streets, seem better than others.

I've had a mainly positive experience in the neighborhood, but I must mention that I absolutely cannot stand the Sarah's Creek HOA! They seem to do whatever they want and apply rules sporadically only to certain people, which is very important when they are charging residents money for trivial things.

[salmuabe]

I also agree with selecting P'ville over Manor. We used to live in Highland Park North (which is, well, just north of Highland Park) and very recently moved into central Austin. It's a nice conjoined neighborhood and safety was never a concern there.

[vonfirmath]

I work in Manor (3.5 years now) and we just chose to purchase in Pflugerville over Manor.

Going west down 290 to Austin is bumper to bumper every morning. Manor's schools are not hot.

We seriously considered a house or two in Sarah's Creek -- ended up in Springbrook Glen instead. I crossed Highland Park off of my list of possible neighborhoods because it had a MUCH more "Planned" look -- every t crossed and i dotted kind of place. We wanted something not quite so strict on the HOA (Though I never read their documents. Just drove through and decided it was not for me). Sarah's Creek is pleasant and has a laid back atmosphere, but is a bit higher in $ per sq ft than other places in Pflugerville. (we were looking in the same price range as you). If you don't want to deal with a backyard, Sarah's Creek has a couple of streets that don't have ANY backyard at all.

[themother101]

This whole area is disgusting as hell now. It used to be nice and safe but over time its become some kind of small hoodrat central and that's not cute or quaint or any of that ****. There are garage sales that people just take up more than half of the street their house exists on and when you ask the people to move it to more on their property so people can properly drive you get nothing but rude lip and one lady began hitting my car. There are trashcans that absolutely reek up and down the street you can smell it. The sewers smell like straight trash by the park you can smell it like either dead bodies or just disgusting rotten trash. Its absolutely horrible. There are peoples dogs that just wander around and will **** and **** on peoples yards and no one knows whos the dog owner. The HOA is absolutely worthless. There's no actual way to try and contact them for help in any reasonable way (They actually make you login to the website to try and see their contact information). There are entire streets that are blocked off by some sort of gang members and they throw glass bottles all over the street and trash right on the ground. You can hear people screaming and fighting all throughout the night across the town. The HEB that's closest is also incredibly ghetto, it just feels unsafe to go into. The nearby street that surrounds the area is incredibly unsafe, the drivers are absolutely insane on it and its just not well set up, the traffic is completely insane.

There isn't even anything nearby that's worth living near, the Tinseltown smells like ****, the restaurants are disgusting. There is this one homeless man who will openly throw rocks at passing cars. Speaking of homeless there is one begging on every corner (if not more than one) Yet this area is clearly poor as well so why are they here asking other poor for handouts? This entire area is disgusting and is no place to raise a child. Its unsafe, smells deplorable and it is going down and with how the HOA behaves, it gets what is happening to it.

[love roses]

Someone's mad, huh? Total lies though. I don't live in Pflugerville, but go enough to know you aren't telling the truth. Traffic is pretty bad though.