Cedar Park or Round Rock for relocation? (Houston, Dallas: rent, house)

[Jason4225]

My wife and I were planning on moving to the Austin area in June. Now we have been delayed, possibly for a year. We did visit the area and look at some homes around New Year's, but didn't get to see much of Cedar Park and Round Rock. I have done a lot of research about both the areas, but wanted to get and idea of what people here thought.

[Jason4225]

Just a little more info. We are looking for great schools, around $200k for a home, and decent commuting times.

BTW, what is the status of the Cedar Park Town Center (other than the housing development)? Sounded like a great plan that would give Cedar Park a nice downtown.

[Austinitegirl]

My husband and I have lived in Round Rock for almost 8 years and we love it here. We don't actually own a home, but we've done a lot of shopping recently and I know you can find something really nice for under $200K.

As for commute times - well... good luck with that one. Living in EITHER Round Rock or Cedar Park means a serious commute if you work in Austin. Traffic here is - challenging. It's not as bad as those mega cities like Houston or Dallas, but it's pretty serious considering Austin's size. Fortunately, TXDOT just opened up a toll road (yay! paying to drive on a road because the other roads were too _______ to fix), which cut my commute time from over an hour from my house to UT campus (where I work) to about 30 minutes. I originally thought I would boycott the toll road because it offended my delicate sensibilities, but then I decided I'd rather have 1-2 hours/day of my life back.

I have friends who live in Cedar Park and they love it. It's pretty comparable to Round Rock in terms of atmosphere and culture (that would be the shiny, new, clean, suburban minivan soccer mom culture), but it's an area of high growth, so the property values are also high - you may not be able to get as much house for under $200K. In fact, you may be pressed to find anything decent at all for under $200K. But the housing market is in kind of a slump right now, so you could get lucky. Commute times to Austin are also not small, but the massive toll road projects extend out there too, so if you don't mind paying ~$1.50 each way - it's all good.

I VOTE FOR ROUND ROCK - but I'm biased.

[jwb123]

I know not everyone shares this opinion, but Cedar Park seems really far away to me.

My husband works at Dell, and Dell is in RR, so RR is a no-brainer... but I really do like Round Rock. So it gets my vote!

[gigi927]

I like Cedar Park due to the hillier topography and more trees, but you will not get much for under $200K in CP (perhaps a smaller starter house) and your commute is not great from either place.

[psychotiger]

I have lived in both Round Rock (12 years) and, presently, Cedar Park (2 years). You did not give any real specifics about what you expect for $200K but if you are truly considering CP then you may wish to investigate a neighborhood called The Villages of Forest Oaks in the Forest Oaks subdivision. That is a community that looks a bit like the "desparate housewives" TV show neighborhood. White picket fences and all. Most appear to be 3BR/2B homes starting about $150K. Nice water park. Close to schools K-12.

Having children that have gone to both RR ( RRISD) and CP (Leander Independent School District), I must say the our experience in LISD has been superior although RRISD is quite good.

I agree with above posters that the new toll roads have made commuting much easier. Personally my commute time was cut in half.

[mark311]

In regards to your Cedar Park Town Center question, we looked at the Cedar Park Town Center community last year and ended up bying just a few miles east of that on the edge of Round Rock. I drive by there a lot and haven't seen much in the way of building a "downtown". Just to the east of it they are building a large retail shopping center with Target, Circuit City, and Petsmart as the anchor stores that should be finished in the Fall of this year.

The DR Horton homes in Cedar Park Town Center just seemed a bit weird to us the way that they are laid out and most seemed to be on tiny lots.

As I posted in another thread, it's tough to make a general statement about Round Rock since it is so big and covers so much area. There are a lot of nice neighborhoods, some elite neighborhoods, and some neighborhoods that I would never live in. I live in Round Rock, but the section that I'm in is in the Leander ISD for example. There are areas of Round Rock in the Pflugerville school district as well. If you can come out here and rent for a short time before you buy, that would give you some time to drive around all the areas.

[Judyh007]

I grew up in the RR school district, back when it had only one high school. Now RR is a huge area, encompassing 4 or 5 high schools. Our family has moved back East several times and twice returned to this area. We have currently lived in CP for 7 years and LISD is tops. RR is good too, but my kids are in LISD, so I obviously prefer that. We thought about moving to RR when we returned, but the traffic was so intense and congestion at every venue really bothered me. They are building an entertainment complex in CP that will have concerts etc. and there is much being built for entertainment and shopping. I dislike the traffic here as well, but my job requires me to be all over Austin and surrounding areas and I must say that the toll way has made life so much simpler here. They do still have to work out some kinks on several traffic lights in the area, but I prefer the less crowded shopping in this area to that of RR. There are numerous new developments starting with prices around 200 K. Someone mentioned Forest Oaks-really beautiful-so is an area on the Anderson Mill Road/Volente area. Not sure of the development name, but near Deer Creek elementary. Sendero Springs off FM 1431 (a main thoroughfare) is also beautiful. Good Luck to you!

[l8blumr]

If you are a small business owner that is not retail, I highly recommend Cedar Park or Leander. Both Chamber of Commerces understand and support small businesses. RR Chamber is run by bureaucrats and is very disappointing.

[musicforme]

Originally Posted by Judyh007

I grew up in the RR school district, back when it had only one high school. Now RR is a huge area, encompassing 4 or 5 high schools. Our family has moved back East several times and twice returned to this area. We have currently lived in CP for 7 years and LISD is tops. RR is good too, but my kids are in LISD, so I obviously prefer that. We thought about moving to RR when we returned, but the traffic was so intense and congestion at every venue really bothered me. They are building an entertainment complex in CP that will have concerts etc. and there is much being built for entertainment and shopping. I dislike the traffic here as well, but my job requires me to be all over Austin and surrounding areas and I must say that the toll way has made life so much simpler here. They do still have to work out some kinks on several traffic lights in the area, but I prefer the less crowded shopping in this area to that of RR. There are numerous new developments starting with prices around 200 K. Someone mentioned Forest Oaks-really beautiful-so is an area on the Anderson Mill Road/Volente area. Not sure of the development name, but near Deer Creek elementary. Sendero Springs off FM 1431 (a main thoroughfare) is also beautiful. Good Luck to you!

Thanks for all the details about CP in your post.

I'm waiting to hear from the HR dept at my employer whether I'm going to be offered a position in Georgetown. I was debating whether we should include RR in our possible future house search, but believe CP will be it for us. My wife is a former educator and plans to go back into teaching once our daughter is a bit older and it sounds like LISD would be a good district for her to work in.

What would traffic be like commuting from Cedar Park to Georgetown? Since I'll be going against most of the traffic, I would think it shouldn't be too bad. Google maps says it would take approx 24 minutes to go the 15 miles. Is this a good estimate?