New construction at Eanes or Lake Travis ISD (Austin, Round Rock: for sale, real estate)

[wet88]

We are thinking of moving from Colorado to Austin TX for job, we have 2 kids, 4yr old & 1.5yr old. We did some research & found out Eanes ISD is the best school district but we are also open to Lake Travis ISD if there are good school there. From the web research & talking to a couple people, we got the feeling any eanes school will be OK, Lakeway & Lake Pointe elementary are also good. We have not look at the north or Austin ISD.
Bottomline is we are looking at newer & safe neighborhood with exemplary school & school district with budget from 400K to low 500K. We prefer a bigger home too. My question is more like if buying new construction is going to be more expensive than buying existing? Where are the new construction area that I should be looking at? How is the weather exactly? Will there be a lot of things for the kids to do, learn & get involved with? Thanks for your time & your help.

[BevoLJ]

There are tons of new houses going up all over the place in Lake Travis for pretty good prices. I live in Westlake (EISD) and as far as I know there isn't and hasn't been anything new in a long time. Most of the housing is 70's and 80's. The newer homes in Westlake are people buying old homes and replacing them with new ones. They generally go for $1-3 million.

There are some good real estate people on this forum who are good at these sorts of searches, so I hope they can correct me if wrong, but I highly doubt you can find anything less than 30 years old for under $500k for sale in Westlake.

But the LTISD you mention is really good. And it has lots of houses going up. The only bad thing about it in my opinion is it is so far from Austin. The area is beautiful though, and it is right next to the lake. Another good option would be Circle C.

As for the weather... it gets super hot during the summers. The rest of the year it is really nice. This summer has actually been quite nice, but normally it can be pretty brutal from June to mid Sept.

[LakeTravisAlum]

I have family in Fort Collins that comes down to visit during the summer, and they always complain about the heat. The weather here is significantly hotter in the summer, and there's no snow (except for the rare snowfall once every 5 years).

There's almost no new construction in Eanes ISD anymore, so I'd just buy a resale property if Eanes is the path you choose. You can find a nice house in Eanes for your price range. On the other hand, LTISD has several new construction developments right now that would fit your price range. I'd suggest Rough Hollow, Sweetwater and Serene Hills. Any school in LTISD is fine too so you really don't ever have to worry about that.

[balor123]

There are some garden homes in Westlake that you can get (just barely) under $500k that are <20 years old. Largest I've seen are about 3000sf. Options start to increase quickly from that point if you can stretch a bit further and are patient for the right home to appear. Go on to Redfin and search for past home sales. You can see pictures of the homes too, which is cool.

I'm moving to Austin this week as well btw. I thought about Eanes for a long time but decided on AISD (Northwest Hills) instead for the community. Schools there are good enough (Anderson is a top 500 school nationwide). You might consider Great Hills (esp Dominion at GH) AISD or Round Rock.

[austin-steve]

In Eanes ISD right now, there are 243 homes listed for sale in the MLS. 88 of those are built year 2000 or newer. Of those 88 "newer" homes, 1 is priced below $500K, at $499.990.

In LTISD, same search, there are 622 homes for sale. 441 of those are built year 2000 or newer. Of those 441, 200 are priced below $500K, and 121 are below $400K. You can buy an absolutely awesome home new in LTISD for $400K to $500K. There is no such thing in Eanes.

And there you have it. I believe LTISD benefits greatly from the pricing out of people from Eanes. It's the best adjacent alternative for those who can handle the geographic distance from Austin proper.

Steve

[FalconheadWest]

Lake Travis has several new communities, like others have said. In Eanes, Senna Hills would have the newest homes as they just did their close out, but there are very rarely homes under $500k there.

You said you wanted "larger". What does that mean? To some people, that means 2000 sqft. To others, that means 5000 sqft.

You mentioned a couple of schools in Lakeway as being "ok". The ENTIRE district is rated Exemplary so that's better than ok. Where most of the new construction is, you would be looking at Bee Cave Elem and Serene Hills, and then the new Elem going in West Cypress Hills in Spicewood.

My kids are also 4 and 1 1/2 and there is a lot to do around here for kids as I live in this LT area.

[wet88]

Thanks for all the feedback. If we look south, are Circle C & Meridien where we should be looking at for good school & good neighborhood with young kids? Thank you very much again for all the useful info, trying to move from a smaller town to bigger city, suddenly too many choices.

[FalconheadWest]

Yes, both Circle C and Meridian are good neighborhoods. Circle C has more name recognition and Meridian, to an extent, becomes an after-thought when Circle C is exhausted of choices. The area is growing. 45 will complete at some point. More shopping is coming. It's nice.

[clarksvillemom]

i second someone else on this board - look at the areas that feed into Anderson. really nice, more central, can get a lot for your money in the Far West and Cat Mountain neighborhoods

[llkltk]

Originally Posted by FalconheadWest

Yes, both Circle C and Meridian are good neighborhoods. Circle C has more name recognition and Meridian, to an extent, becomes an after-thought when Circle C is exhausted of choices. The area is growing. 45 will complete at some point. More shopping is coming. It's nice.

I heard recently that Circle C has WAY more property crime than Meridian.