Southeast Austin, Texas?? (Spring, Riverside: fit in, apartments, rentals)

[asset]

My boyfriend and I are moving from a small town in Iowa to Austin, Texas. We've heard bad things about Southeast Austin, despite the fact that it's the only place with affordable housing in good condition close to downtown. Should we heed the warnings of crime ridden streets and pay more for housing elsewhere? Or is there another affordable place where two fresh-out-of-college twenty somethings would fit in? Help please!!

[centralaustinite]

are you looking for an apartment? I lived for over a decade in the student apartments off of E. Riverside Dr in southeast Austin. I never encountered any real crime and all of our apartments were very safe, no break-ins etc. I still live close to the area and feel safe there. Where exactly are you talking about?

A bit further south, Dove Springs, can be a bit rough, and further east, Montopolis is quite poor. Have you ever lived in a rough area of Chicago? Trust me, the very roughest area of Austin doesn't even come close to that! (And that would probably be I-35 and Rundburg and a few other neighborhoods in the northeast not the southeast neighborhoods which are mainly Hispanic and working-class but not horribly-crime ridden).

You'll be fine. Give a better sense of your price range and what type of housing you are looking for, and what kind of neighborhood you want, and maybe folks can offer more tailored suggestions.

[traveler guy]

Austin is a pretty safe city for it's size. Don't worry about what some people say about crime cause most tend to make it sound a lot worst then it really is.

[WillysB]

Originally Posted by asset

My boyfriend and I are moving from a small town in Iowa to Austin, Texas. We've heard bad things about Southeast Austin, despite the fact that it's the only place with affordable housing in good condition close to downtown. Should we heed the warnings of crime ridden streets and pay more for housing elsewhere? Or is there another affordable place where two fresh-out-of-college twenty somethings would fit in? Help please!!

Asset, that may really depends on where you're locating 'southeast' in Austin. Foremost tho', there's going to be an immense culture shock from small town Iowa to Austin, regardless of close in or suburban.

You might consider an advance visit to check things out, stay in a weekly rental. Or take a not so close to downtown apartment for a few months with plans to relocate after making your own first hand observations. I'd try for south of downtown or 'central' before southeast.

Try the SmallPlanet Guide, search by area...
Austin Apartments | Better Way to Search Apartments in Austin Texas For Rent

One man's crime ridden street is another's party avenue. Welcome home.

[readymade]

Check out the 78741 area code. I'm moving there myself, so I can't say for sure that it's not crime-riddled, etc... but it seemed pretty nice to me. And 5 minutes (or less) to downtown.

[mwv]

As others have pointed out, Riverside is a bad area but this is again by Austin standards, which cannot be emphasized enough. For people without kids, it's a cheap place and okay. You definitely will want to purchase renter's insurance if you have good stuff (renter's insurance is cheap anyway). There are a fair number of burglaries in this neighborhood but violent crime is rare and it's almost always directed at people who are in a subculture (e.g., drug users/buyers.); random gang type crime other than tagging is very rare.

You can get a 2/2 apartment for $600-$650/mo in Riverside. If you can afford more like $800-$900/mo you can be in Hyde Park, which is infinitely nicer.

Of course, if you go way north into the "safe suburbs" you can get 2/2s for $600... but you're not really living in a place that's "Austin" anymore, even if it's in the city limits.