Help with move to Austin (Dallas, Spring: big house, neighborhoods, private schools)

[355spider]

Well I guess this is another help me decide where to live thread. Myself, my wife and 4 kids live just south of Dallas in a town called Cedar Hill off of Joe Pool lake. It's a beautiful area that looks much like Austin with it's hills, cedar trees and lake. I've had a boat on Lake Travis for 7 years and I have been wanting to move to Austin for years. My business is finally in a place where I can move. We live in a the hills now on a heavily wooded acre with everyone else in our neighborhood owning the same. You can run naked across my porch and not be noticed which I like. My kids can play outside all day long without fear and leave their bikes out front which won't get touched. You could tape a $100 bill to our front door and it would be there in a month. I hate hate hate neighborhoods with houses stacked on top of each other. We won't move to one of those. My wife and I are young at heart and frequently hit the town for nice dinners and a bit of dancing(she's Brasilian so it's required). We're about 20-25min from downtown Dallas which is perfect. The kids go to a private Christian school which we love because they truly love the kids and carry our values. Our budget could be up to a million for a house but that would have to be public school. I looked at the two good private schools and it looks like 4 kids would be about 100K a year or around that so that would mean a much smaller house. I'm thinking moving to a good area with a public school system. Looks like Westlake would be out of our range to get an acre. I'd like a minimum 3000sqft house as well. Thanks for any help. I'm new but I love the site. An area you could ride some ATVs would be nice. I know that's a stretch. Kids are 7,5,3, newborn.

[centralaustinite]

I do not think that you can find a big house on an acre of land with the privacy, trees etc that you want within 30 minutes of downtown Austin.

Why move? Your set up sounds pretty sweet.

[355spider]

Thanks for the reply. It does sound like I am leaning towards dripping springs or Leander. My cousin lilves in Leander and likes it a lot. Dripping Springs seems to have better schools but I have never made that drive into town so i have no idea what it's like.

[centralaustinite]

So you are ok with being 45 minutes to 1.5 hours outside of town? That will open up a lot more possibilities, including Dripping Springs and Leander. Maybe look at Liberty Hill too.

[CarnivalGal]

You may want to check out Bee Cave and Spicewood too.