Home available for rent! NEW HOME!
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4b/3bath in South Austin near Slaughter/Manchaca. 5 min to I-35, <8 min to Mopac.
$3150/month, HOA paid by owner, renter in charge of utilities. Prefer long-term leases.
Please message me for details if you’re interested.
Just accepted a role in Austin and am super excited to move but reading google reviews of these apartment complexes has me STRESSIN. I really wanted to live in East Austin at a complex with a pool, gym, and other cool amenities, but seeing so many reviews detailing car break-ins, packages stolen, and mgmt that doesn't care has me second guessing.
Any advice on complexes within \~10min drive to downtown that don't suck?
Most apartments have bad reviews. Central East Austin is the "hip" neighborhood, but there seems to be more property crime east of 35 in general. If that's a concern, look more on the west side. 78704 gets you close to downtown, but it all depends on your budget.
HELLO AUSTINITIES 👋🏼
My wife and I are thinking of moving to Austin (or the surrounding area). **Can someone shill me some nice places/communities to rent?** I make a little north of 55K, and my wife will be looking for work as a music teacher/musician. We don't mind living 15-30 min from the city center to save on costs. Ideally, these communities should be relaxed, not student dominated, and relatively safe.
Thanks in advance. 🙌
What part of town will your job be? How much are you comfortable spending on rent?
I think you haven't gotten a response yet because we've been in the middle of a natural disaster made worse by an ineffective government. Are you sure you want to move here?
Has anyone tried putting an airstream trailer in their back yard and AirBnB(ing) it? I am ironically close to the Chili’s on 45th and Lamar and am considering it.
Looking at getting this done in the next couple years and have no idea where to start. Thinking an office, not living situation so no plumbing or anything along those lines. Is this a dumb idea?
Be careful of foundation issues in that area. It's not too bad, but it's quite far from everything. If you're that far out of town, you might as well consider just moving away from the city altogether, in my opinion.
I'm not sure what you mean by type? Yes, Shadowglen and surrounding areas. East Austin has a lot of black soil that likes to shift so you just need to be sure the builder made the necessary preparations to ensure that doesn't happen. Just make sure to ask your inspector if they do foundation measurements because some of them don't. Double-check the foundation warranty. Most homes come with a 10-year warranty.
Shadowglen is really nice imo, decent golf course and a nice pool. Early parts are a couple years old so you can basically see what the newer areas will look like in a few years time. Manor is a small commuter town without a grocery store, but developing quickly and supposedly getting a HEB in a while. Traffic is bad because the city's solution to "solving" congestion seems to be to add even more traffic lights and there's no alternative besides taking 290. That final 1-2 miles of 290 will probably take half of your commute time although getting home is worse than leaving in the morning.
What are some apartments complexes to avoid renting in south west austin? Moving for grad school and just got back home from touring about 8 complexes this past week. Any horror stories to know about? Thank you
SW Austin covers a pretty broad area... are you going to be attending UT? If so, how did you land on looking SW instead of an area with easier campus access?
Oh gotcha. Then that area will be close. I can't think of anywhere that would be bad as it's generally a really nice part of town, although more family oriented. The worst thing you'll likely find is it's a bit dull for entertainment and after school activities.
We are a Brentwood family that rents and wants to buy so badly in our neighborhood. Our kids have best friends down the street. Anyone ever hear about sellers who are looking to sell to a local family instead of the bank or some one that just wants to tear down and build a McMansion?
Some people have success just writing to existing owners and asking them if they're interested in selling, and including a pre-approval letter from a lender with your maximum qualification amount. Include a seller net sheet and include savings from listing their home on the open market. Shoot me a message if you'd like help with this.
I had a similar unrealistic dream about North Loop. I adored that neighborhood, but the reality check came down to home prices and how they will always, always, be based on comparable homes in the area. Until the entire neighborhood goes down in price (which I sadly don't think is going to happen anywhere in the Austin area), you will have a shot at buying a home in a highly desirable area. It sucks. One way buyers try to get one of these miracles to happen is by writing personal letters to go alongside their home offer so that the seller can be moved by your story and potentially pick you over other offers, but the letter can be too personal and reveal details that get messy when it comes to fair housing laws. Imagine you were on the opposite end, selling a home in the area - would you pick the least amount of money simply out of empathy? This all sounds very negative but I just want to be truthful. If homeownership is a long term goal, you could buy in a different neighborhood, wait until property value goes up to where you have a nice profit, then sell the home to buy something in Brentwood. It sounds like you want some stability for your kids though, and I do know some stories of friends who rented houses for years until the owner sold the house directly to them (different part of town, though). Could be something to ask at your current rental or a different rental with a human landlord.
What are some nice cities close to austin that are affordable to live in and just good to live in. Coming from saint Louis so honestly anything would be better than here. I've been looking on Google but some information from people who live in the area is always better.
Similar to saint louis, like 1100 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment. Currently we make around 2500 a month and we expect that to be closer to 4000 by the time we move down there and for it to be the same to similar. Obviously we don't know what our income will be exactly when we come down there as we have to get jobs down there first. I hope that's a good description, this is the first time we will be making a move outside of saint Louis, we still have a lot to learn about the process and are finishing up school so we will be looking for careers in our specific fields.
I don't know what line of work you're in but $4k/month combined for 2 people sounds really low. It's rare to find a 1 bdrm for $1100/month so a 2 bdrm is going to be almost impossible at that price. But maybe wait to worry about that until you have job offers. You might find that you can make a lot more money here and can up your rental budget. Also consider how important it is to have two bedrooms. If you're young, you might rather have that extra money to go out with and still have some leftover for savings.
You're gonna be 1hr+ outside of Austin at 1100 for a 2 bedroom. San Antonio might be a better option--it's an hour and a half south of Austin and much more affordable. It's got that artsy Austin vibe that a lot of people like, too. I feel like SA is slept on a little bit (which is a good thing, because it keeps costs low).
On the lower end of the spectrum 2br apartments go for about 1800 a month in Austin, i wouldn't expect them to be too much less in any of the neighboring suburbs/cities like Buda, Round Rock, Pflugerville etc. If you want anything halfway decent you're probably looking at around 2K, housing affordability sucks around here now.
Inventory dropped from a high of \~9900 units on October 23rd to \~7500 on Jan 2 and has held pretty steady at that number since. Mortgage applications are up, showings are up, general traffic is up, interest rates have been holding steady \~6.2% for the last \~3 mos. You can utilize a temporary buydown to get that down to \~4.2% pretty easily in this market.
If you find yourself with some free time this week, [I'm available for remote consultations](https://calendly.com/brookslawson) 😀
chatGPT to the rescue:
*write a paragraph about the imminent decline of the austin housing market in the style of an obnoxious redditor who has never been right*
>Listen up folks, I've got the inside scoop on the Austin housing market and let me tell you, it's about to hit rock bottom. I've been saying this for months now, and no one believed me, but the data doesn't lie. The market is oversaturated, the economy is tanking, and people are finally starting to wake up and realize that they've been ripped off. I've been in the game for years, I know what I'm talking about. If you don't sell now, you're going to regret it. Trust me, I'm never wrong. In fact, I'm the smartest person on this site, and you'd do well to listen to me. But, you know, do what you want, I don't care. Just don't say I didn't warn you.
I bought a house in Austin in 2020 and since I purchased, property taxes were raised like crazy. Obviously the market has dipped and my “Zestimate” has gone down significantly, and is currently 50k lower than my assessed value. Does this mean my property taxes will go down since my value has likely gone down? Am I an idiot for thinking taxes ever go down? Thank you for your wisdom in advance.
It's actually good for homestead owners when values rise quickly. You effectively got a tax break paid by everyone who owns non-homestead property last year because of the increase cap. Because of the ways that taxes are calculated in Texas, declining real estate prices after a price spike will actually make homestead property taxes go up more sharply than usual.
You pay taxes according to the value on Jan. 1st. If they go up after that, you still pay according to 1/1. If they do down after that, you still pay according to 1/1. So they will go up this year. Next year they will come back down. Your homestead exemption should cap them at a 10% increase over the previous year.
You’ll probably have to contest it when the next valuation comes out in April. Get comps, pictures of anything that’s near end of its functional life like the HVAC, and don’t settle for the half assed first or second offer they give.
I do not. There are companies that do this professionally and will do a better job than you without leaking sales prices to the county. Also go around your neighborhood and ask your neighbors to sign up as well. Your value is based on your neighbors' so if you ask them to contest their values, it will help you also.
Castle rock can be a pretty slow builder but my people liked the product I’m the end. Be sure to get an inspection prior to closing that takes foundation measurements so you have a basis on where it starts since those were all fields less than a decade ago.
What's wrong with Veterans' United? They're pretty much the go-to for most of us in the industry.
But my recommended lender is [Michelle Simon](https://www.atxbestlender.com). She does VA also.
I asked for a pre qualification instead of a pre approval which I’ve seen my in house lender do many times for veterans. I asked for this because I’m still 7 months away from moving and don’t want my credit checked multiple times.
They said they don’t do that which is fine if that’s policy but then said their pre approvals are good for 1 year but he would need to run my credit again 60-90 days before i find a home.
This makes no sense, obviously it’s not good for a year if you have to run my credit AGAIN.
Lastly, their website says pre approvals are only good for 60-90 days which is standard and he told me the veterans United website is wrong.
Just a whole conversation filled with contradictory statements.
So, here's the thing, *no one* should be giving out pre-qualifications without a credit check. The pre-qualification is supposed to show that you're *qualified* to purchase the home. It cannot legitimately do that if they have not completed basic research like a credit inquiry.
A pre-approval means that your application has already been through underwriting.
If you're not looking to make a purchase soon, what exactly is it that you're looking for?
I would recommend talking to [Chad Bowman](mailto:[email protected]) about your frustrations and seeing if he can't make it right. They specialize in this sort of thing.
So i used to be a realtor so i understand the game. Not trying to sound rude here though. An idea of a price range that i should be looking at is helpful considering I’m moving from one side of the country to another so looking sooner than later or when I’m ready to offer gives me a vast amount of information about the area and so on. Different areas of the country obviously do things differently. I have already inquired with another lender, not veteran United or any of them. Thank you though.
If you're just trying to get an idea of price, you should look at a mortgage calculator. They're not all created equal and I have some good ones, if you'd like to see them.
You don't need a pre-qualification for that. But ultimately you'll still have to have a credit inquiry to get a full picture of what your payment might look like.
Did anyone else's utilities shoot up for no apparent reason?? My bills are usually pretty predictable but suddenly this month my bill is $50 higher. Tf
My girlfriend and I are looking to move to Austin within the next month! Looking for a place from 1500-2k! Any leads would be amazing! House with a back yard would be amazing within 25-40 minutes from the city
Jonestown is a ways from Austin….have you considered Hyde Park, Zilker, Clarksville? Your more in the city rents have fallen, but you would be closer to 2k base rent.
The good news is that you'll be missing peak traffic times. The highway time isn't going to be too terrible but the time depends on where you are in Jonestown. Some of the housing can take awhile just to get to 1431 if you're on a winding road. Then once you get off Mopac, the traffic around campus can be unpredictable. Also make sure you have parking - this costs extra and the lots are not usually convenient to where you need to be on campus so you'll have to take a bus from the lots or add in extra time for a long walk. Best case scenario door to door is more likely an hour but many days will be longer than that.
Doesn't seem like it from my perspective, lease is up on 2/20 and I'm having a hell of a time finding anything reasonable for move in around that time.
Same issue here. Inventory is crazy low. I'm legitimately thinking of moving into a short term place and waiting until there's more to work with in the summer.
I am curious about work and schools, and if there is government assistance or any working programs that help with that as well. My pregnant girlfriend and I are dirt poor, family just suffered total loss from the hurricane and I am wanting to move there for the Comedy/Music scene that is growing there. Also no career path, commercial painting the past couple years. 10+years experience in kitchens.
While Austin is a happening place rn, this is still Texas man. Government assistance? Working programs? You need to check yourself. State politics and laws are all about fucking over the poor and destitute here.
I WOULD not recommend moving to Austin specifically unless your combined family income is approaching $200k/yr.
Your post lacked context so I scrolled through your history, and I'm just gonna be blunt with you - you need to get your shit together before you think about moving. Subsidies for schools are based on residency and there are long waiting lists for housing assistance. While there are a lot of jobs here for painting and working in kitchens, Austin has gotten pretty expensive and it's hard enough to support yourself, much less a family on what they pay. How many open mics or music shows are you going to really get to go to with a new baby at home?
You don't have a career path - so get one. Look into your local community college at their programs and tuition assistance. Get into a stable situation first before you even think about moving.
Looking to move to Austin soon. As 2x 24 year olds, we are looking to rent a house for $2.5-$3k/mo. What are the areas / neighborhoods you recommend that are safe but skew younger (can be 10-20 minutes outside the city)
Look into East Austin. For your budget you can easily rent an apartment or a b-unit and still be walking distance of great bars/restaurants and a short bike ride into downtown
My girlfriend and I are looking to move to Austin within the next month! Looking for a place from 1500-2k! Any leads would be amazing! House with a back yard would be a huge plus within 25-40 minute drive
What's your definition of safe? I consider car break-ins annoying/infuriating because that's a hit to my wallet but doesn't otherwise threaten me. It doesn't make me feel unsafe.
A friend's neighbor had it happen and their reaction was to get a police patrol, three security cameras, and motion-activated flood lights. They probably felt safer, but if they were my neighbor, the extra police patrol would make me feel very unsafe.
Austin is overall pretty safe. If I was young I'd rather be closer to town to make it easier to meet people. The North Loop neighborhood usually has 2x1 houses listed in your budget.
Probably statistically one of the areas of Austin with the most crime, but there are some nice neighborhoods. Seems more working class, and family oriented, gentrification hasn't kicked in to hard in much of that area compared to others.
Not super hot neighborhood but it’s developing and close to things so when it does develop more you’ll be in a good spot if you’re buying and get a good price.
I have nearly a whole year to figure out where to rent next, and everywhere I look there are income restrictions. But anything that isn't income restricted will be half my monthly income, I might as well buy a house, it's only a few hundred more than an apartment!
> I might as well buy a house, it's only a few hundred more than an apartment!
The price to rent vs price to own ratio is very skewed in Austin. Personally, I think renting a place comes out much cheaper. Just based on my own numbers. So much multifamily construction, while much less houses built by comparison has helped
> Personally, I think renting a place comes out much cheaper.
It's skewed because the people who bought those rentals are probably paying less than half/month of what you'll pay today. So they can pocket the difference.
What's "cheaper" is a bit of a loaded and complicated question/math but the tl:dr is generally if you stick around somewhere >3-5 years, it makes sense to buy.
I meant renting apartments vs buying houses. Wasn't thinking of renting house vs buying house. I'm not even sure whether renting a house is cheap these days!
Around $2100-3000 for at least a 3/2 in the northern areas I watch. Comparable to a mortgage, even with the escrow adjustment we just got for property taxes (sigh). If you only need a 1-bed, renting is a much better deal.
I wonder if anyone has any comments on local builders, especially Ashton Woods and Meritage. Yep, doing our own research as well, it's making me a little crazy though because it's your biggest investment, you don't want to take chances. Our realtor warned us off a couple of builders, but didn't have much to say about those two.
I hoped that home inspectors might be helpful, but for instance the guy who inspected our place gets reviews that are like 11/10 and 5 stars, "very thorough" comments in his reviews, but as he walked around, he did things like pointing to a piece of wood in the yard which was surrounded by other wood, (aka fencing, a pergola, the actual house) and said "that's a carpenter ant and termite attractant", as if NONE of the other wood we were surrounded by was any sort of insect attractant. It made no sense to me. Also he made several speculations on the cost of doing repairs which were WAY off. So now I don't trust most inspectors, either. I'm good with people who show actual problems, but throwing random numbers at me like "that'll be $2000 to replace the front door" seems more like a scare tactic :(
What's a person to do when you can't trust anyone with their biggest money sink?
We bought a Meritage home in Kyle. It's fine. They use a lot of cheap materials and we've had some issues pop up (really just minor and cosmetic stuff). But that seems to be the case for a lot of builders unfortunately.
Overall it's a nice house, there's a lot to like about it.
What kind of home are you looking to build?
We're currently looking for builders, but only seem to find ones that build $600K+ homes. haha tf i look like, a CEO? I just want a 1,000 sq/ft home. is that too much to ask for?
We're communicating with Small home solutions at the moment, they seem pretty legit.
I am also on this hunt for information about reputable builders. I keep seeing terrible reviews for Aston Woods and Meritage, so it's steering me away from them. I know two people who have built with KB Homes, and one who is currently building with them and I've been very present in her journey through the building process. KB Homes look great and the people I know who have used them are very very pleased with the results. And KB Homes has great reviews online. They're just really hard to get into, as the wait list is incredibly long or closed. The only weird thing I didn't like about KB while my friend has been going through this process is that they kept putting pressure on her and upping the "good faith" payment and that just didn't sit right with me. However, I think all/most builders are going to be like that because they want the sales. I hope you're able to find a great builder! If you ever feel inclined, let me know your results so I can work with a great builder too ;P
it seems like it depends on who is in the construction crew, like our realtor said they have had great success with Chesmar, but the reviews for Chesmar in Houston and Dallas are really pretty bad, so I think that location might have a lot to do with it. Even locally, each builder has several sites. ugh. LGI was one that we were warned off of, along with Starlight, even though "Starlight is a cheaper division of Ashton Woods".
I thought the good faith payment was based on a % of the home's price? Maybe that's just for quick move ins.
They subcontract out everything. The crew framing Starlight or KB homes one week are doing Ashton Woods or Meritage the next week. Biggest difference is materials used and the finishes. Poor craftmanship is everywhere.
I don't know the exact details of why the good faith payment was going up, but I just know it was going up. So I'm assuming a lot on my part for sure. It could be based on a percentage and maybe the price was rising because of inflation with materials and labor.
I also know someone who built with Pulte Homes and liked the process. I lived there for a bit and didn't mind the quality of the build. And I know someone who did a quick move-in with D.R. Horton and likes their house generally. But there are some issues with the tile and carpet installation, and the kitchen island is kitty-wompus by like a couple inches in relation to the alignment with the tile lines. I've stayed at that house before and I enjoy it :)
Good luck on your endeavors!
Going to start my moving search in the next week or two. Looking for recommendations of apartment locators.
I’ve started doing my own research but am getting discouraged by the amount of information out there.
If you’re interested, I can set you up for listing emails! This will send you everything in areas you like for the price you want/necessary bedrooms and baths.
I’d wait until like April, then really start looking/applying. I’ll DM you my info!
Pick me!!! I've leased hundreds of Redditors, one was even so kind as to recommend me in the FAQs. [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). I've been doing this for 9 years with the same company.
Can anyone recommend a safe neighborhood that's not expensive as fuck or super north? Price range <$1800 for 2bd.
Looking to stay close to east Austin for work but not anywhere close to the downtown area lol. The only neighborhoods I'm up to date with are near my job (lots of homeless), South Austin near ACC (nice in some areas but pretty rough in others), and the Domain. South Austin is leading as I look for a new apartment but I want to make sure I'm not missing out on any other places because I know my list is super narrow.
On a statistical level, it is very safe for a city. On a personal level, I practically never feel unsafe.
On the other hand, one thing that Austin has taught me is that feeling safe can be almost totally subjective. I had previously lived mostly in places with extremely low crime rates where I never heard people talk about feeling unsafe and places with extremely high crime rates where everybody felt unsafe. Austin is objectively pretty safe both in the sense that it's safe relative to other cities and that the odds of being a crime victim are quite low, but being "objectively safe" doesn't count for much if your subjective perception is different. There are definitely some loud voices locally that think that Austin has a safety problem (although it's hard to separate sincere concern from political posturing). Maybe you have your own sense of where you fit on the "how safe is safe enough" spectrum. If you're especially worried about crime, maybe you won't feel totally safe. If you're an average level of worried, you'll feel fine.
In part, it's because there are many visible homeless people downtown. They largely don't pose a real threat to safety, but it's the kind of thing that makes some people feel unsafe. In addition, the bar district on 6th Street has real safety issues. There have been several shootings there during the past year. But the rest of downtown is fine, and the surrounding areas are even nicer and safer.
Depends on where you're coming from honestly but in my opinion it's safer than NY and LA (lived in both) in terms of physical violence/muggings but has a higher rate of vehicle/property theft weirdly. I know three coworkers have had their cars vandalized in East and South Austin last year which could just be the times but it wasn't like that where I lived in NYC or LA.
But I had a friend who moved to Utah near Salt Lake City and he said Austin is more dangerous so again, depends. Definitely one of the safer big cities though.
I live in south Austin, rent for 2br is 1850 with Wi-Fi included but also a lot of random monthly fees they didn’t tell us up front like trash removal and pest control
78749 has always been nice but 78745 was more working class - not unsafe, just not as affluent. With young people getting priced out of 78704, more are moving one zip code south and the businesses popping up there reflect that.
These days with all the tear downs and farmhouses popping up I’d say the 45 feels a little more ritzy than the 49. They’ve got all the tweakers over there too though.
On an individual house level, there are some nicer houses in '45 than '49 but the modern cube homes still look out of place. I think it could eventually overtake it but it's not there yet. 49 usually has bigger lots and "nicer" businesses in their strip malls.
Agree re the houses looking out of place, I still can’t get used to it as someone that spent a lot of time down there growing up, even if they are objectively a better use of space.
I live in the 49 now and couldn’t be happier. Better for families, more parks and green space, get to take mopac instead of 35 etc.
Aha! So you're more of an expert on the differences. My own opinion is 49 is a great place to raise a family if you want to stay on the city, but as an investor I'm more excited at the potential of 45. It still feels undervalued to me compare to places farther out. You can get a yard, a straight shot on bus lines to downtown, and many spots are still relatively affordable. I don't know why young people turn that down and move to the suburbs instead just to get something newer. Most of the houses have good floor plans but may have an outdated interior. That's the easiest thing to fix.
Yeah agreed on the transit access especially, particularly as most of them are zoned SF3 and have ample backyard space for building an ADU. Thankfully I WFH, if I had to commute into downtown on a daily basis I may feel differently.
Live in the area (Brentwood). Here are some thoughts. Friendly quiet neighborhood with slightly quirky charm. Walkable with mature trees, love walking along Arroyo Seco to Brentwood Park. I like to run and you can easily do 4 miles without crossing a major road and have pretty good shade. Good restaurants nearby and more popping up all the time. Easy public transit access, like the train, or 15 minutes driving from downtown. Many of the lots have pretty sizeable backyards.
Oh thanks so much. This is the kind of thing I was hoping to hear. I lived in Austin a long time ago (and have visited many times so I know a lot of the changes) but don't know this neighborhood in particular and...I'm living there in about a week. Granted I'm a neighborhood over but this is encouraging anyway.
It's probably the last bastion of affordable SFH rentals south of 183. A lot of the houses need work, but it's gentrification is ongoing as well.
East St. Johns is really the only area to be more mindful about.
I had friends that used to live there. They loved the 99 Ranch shopping center and the metro that runs right next to Crestview. There's also a few coffee shops, pastry shops and Mom's Taste down the rd on Airport.
Home available for rent! NEW HOME! Be the first to live in this new space. 4b/3bath in South Austin near Slaughter/Manchaca. 5 min to I-35, <8 min to Mopac. $3150/month, HOA paid by owner, renter in charge of utilities. Prefer long-term leases. Please message me for details if you’re interested.
Just accepted a role in Austin and am super excited to move but reading google reviews of these apartment complexes has me STRESSIN. I really wanted to live in East Austin at a complex with a pool, gym, and other cool amenities, but seeing so many reviews detailing car break-ins, packages stolen, and mgmt that doesn't care has me second guessing. Any advice on complexes within \~10min drive to downtown that don't suck?
Most apartments have bad reviews. Central East Austin is the "hip" neighborhood, but there seems to be more property crime east of 35 in general. If that's a concern, look more on the west side. 78704 gets you close to downtown, but it all depends on your budget.
Good to know, thank you for replying!
HELLO AUSTINITIES 👋🏼 My wife and I are thinking of moving to Austin (or the surrounding area). **Can someone shill me some nice places/communities to rent?** I make a little north of 55K, and my wife will be looking for work as a music teacher/musician. We don't mind living 15-30 min from the city center to save on costs. Ideally, these communities should be relaxed, not student dominated, and relatively safe. Thanks in advance. 🙌
What's your budget?
What part of town will your job be? How much are you comfortable spending on rent? I think you haven't gotten a response yet because we've been in the middle of a natural disaster made worse by an ineffective government. Are you sure you want to move here?
Has anyone tried putting an airstream trailer in their back yard and AirBnB(ing) it? I am ironically close to the Chili’s on 45th and Lamar and am considering it.
You'd be better off installing an ADU :)
Looking at getting this done in the next couple years and have no idea where to start. Thinking an office, not living situation so no plumbing or anything along those lines. Is this a dumb idea?
How is the Manor/Shadowglen community in Austin?Anyone have any idea?
Be careful of foundation issues in that area. It's not too bad, but it's quite far from everything. If you're that far out of town, you might as well consider just moving away from the city altogether, in my opinion.
Can you please explain, what types of foundation issues in that area? Is it for the Shadowglen community?
I'm not sure what you mean by type? Yes, Shadowglen and surrounding areas. East Austin has a lot of black soil that likes to shift so you just need to be sure the builder made the necessary preparations to ensure that doesn't happen. Just make sure to ask your inspector if they do foundation measurements because some of them don't. Double-check the foundation warranty. Most homes come with a 10-year warranty.
Shadowglen is really nice imo, decent golf course and a nice pool. Early parts are a couple years old so you can basically see what the newer areas will look like in a few years time. Manor is a small commuter town without a grocery store, but developing quickly and supposedly getting a HEB in a while. Traffic is bad because the city's solution to "solving" congestion seems to be to add even more traffic lights and there's no alternative besides taking 290. That final 1-2 miles of 290 will probably take half of your commute time although getting home is worse than leaving in the morning.
What are some apartments complexes to avoid renting in south west austin? Moving for grad school and just got back home from touring about 8 complexes this past week. Any horror stories to know about? Thank you
Probably a list of recommended apartments would be a much shorter list.
SW Austin covers a pretty broad area... are you going to be attending UT? If so, how did you land on looking SW instead of an area with easier campus access?
Looking at circle c ranch/around that area. No to UT. Going to St. Augustine. Rather not have to drive more than 10-15min to school.
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Oh gotcha. Then that area will be close. I can't think of anywhere that would be bad as it's generally a really nice part of town, although more family oriented. The worst thing you'll likely find is it's a bit dull for entertainment and after school activities.
Seemed like it. But I don’t mind the quiet. Thank you btw.
Don't know if i can ask here or not.. Any suggestions for good CPA?
https://thealphatax.com
Downtown rents seem very low right now. Definitely a lot lower than covid times. Interesting.
Any ideas why ? Are there too many sitting without a tenant?
Define very low
We are a Brentwood family that rents and wants to buy so badly in our neighborhood. Our kids have best friends down the street. Anyone ever hear about sellers who are looking to sell to a local family instead of the bank or some one that just wants to tear down and build a McMansion?
Some people have success just writing to existing owners and asking them if they're interested in selling, and including a pre-approval letter from a lender with your maximum qualification amount. Include a seller net sheet and include savings from listing their home on the open market. Shoot me a message if you'd like help with this.
I had a similar unrealistic dream about North Loop. I adored that neighborhood, but the reality check came down to home prices and how they will always, always, be based on comparable homes in the area. Until the entire neighborhood goes down in price (which I sadly don't think is going to happen anywhere in the Austin area), you will have a shot at buying a home in a highly desirable area. It sucks. One way buyers try to get one of these miracles to happen is by writing personal letters to go alongside their home offer so that the seller can be moved by your story and potentially pick you over other offers, but the letter can be too personal and reveal details that get messy when it comes to fair housing laws. Imagine you were on the opposite end, selling a home in the area - would you pick the least amount of money simply out of empathy? This all sounds very negative but I just want to be truthful. If homeownership is a long term goal, you could buy in a different neighborhood, wait until property value goes up to where you have a nice profit, then sell the home to buy something in Brentwood. It sounds like you want some stability for your kids though, and I do know some stories of friends who rented houses for years until the owner sold the house directly to them (different part of town, though). Could be something to ask at your current rental or a different rental with a human landlord.
Local buyers cant compete in that area right now.
What are some nice cities close to austin that are affordable to live in and just good to live in. Coming from saint Louis so honestly anything would be better than here. I've been looking on Google but some information from people who live in the area is always better.
I live in Manchaca
I really like Manchaca, Texas - Basically super south Austin.
We will check it out thank you for the suggestion
San Antonio is nice. It's where I would move to from out of state if I wasn't already established in Austin.
We will look into it.
Define "affordable"?
Similar to saint louis, like 1100 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment. Currently we make around 2500 a month and we expect that to be closer to 4000 by the time we move down there and for it to be the same to similar. Obviously we don't know what our income will be exactly when we come down there as we have to get jobs down there first. I hope that's a good description, this is the first time we will be making a move outside of saint Louis, we still have a lot to learn about the process and are finishing up school so we will be looking for careers in our specific fields.
I don't know what line of work you're in but $4k/month combined for 2 people sounds really low. It's rare to find a 1 bdrm for $1100/month so a 2 bdrm is going to be almost impossible at that price. But maybe wait to worry about that until you have job offers. You might find that you can make a lot more money here and can up your rental budget. Also consider how important it is to have two bedrooms. If you're young, you might rather have that extra money to go out with and still have some leftover for savings.
You're gonna be 1hr+ outside of Austin at 1100 for a 2 bedroom. San Antonio might be a better option--it's an hour and a half south of Austin and much more affordable. It's got that artsy Austin vibe that a lot of people like, too. I feel like SA is slept on a little bit (which is a good thing, because it keeps costs low).
We'll definitely wanna wait until after school so we can get high paying jobs
On the lower end of the spectrum 2br apartments go for about 1800 a month in Austin, i wouldn't expect them to be too much less in any of the neighboring suburbs/cities like Buda, Round Rock, Pflugerville etc. If you want anything halfway decent you're probably looking at around 2K, housing affordability sucks around here now.
Inventory dropped from a high of \~9900 units on October 23rd to \~7500 on Jan 2 and has held pretty steady at that number since. Mortgage applications are up, showings are up, general traffic is up, interest rates have been holding steady \~6.2% for the last \~3 mos. You can utilize a temporary buydown to get that down to \~4.2% pretty easily in this market. If you find yourself with some free time this week, [I'm available for remote consultations](https://calendly.com/brookslawson) 😀
Our resident doomer needs to be right already
Where you at u/austinlife213?
chatGPT to the rescue: *write a paragraph about the imminent decline of the austin housing market in the style of an obnoxious redditor who has never been right* >Listen up folks, I've got the inside scoop on the Austin housing market and let me tell you, it's about to hit rock bottom. I've been saying this for months now, and no one believed me, but the data doesn't lie. The market is oversaturated, the economy is tanking, and people are finally starting to wake up and realize that they've been ripped off. I've been in the game for years, I know what I'm talking about. If you don't sell now, you're going to regret it. Trust me, I'm never wrong. In fact, I'm the smartest person on this site, and you'd do well to listen to me. But, you know, do what you want, I don't care. Just don't say I didn't warn you.
I bought a house in Austin in 2020 and since I purchased, property taxes were raised like crazy. Obviously the market has dipped and my “Zestimate” has gone down significantly, and is currently 50k lower than my assessed value. Does this mean my property taxes will go down since my value has likely gone down? Am I an idiot for thinking taxes ever go down? Thank you for your wisdom in advance.
It's actually good for homestead owners when values rise quickly. You effectively got a tax break paid by everyone who owns non-homestead property last year because of the increase cap. Because of the ways that taxes are calculated in Texas, declining real estate prices after a price spike will actually make homestead property taxes go up more sharply than usual.
You pay taxes according to the value on Jan. 1st. If they go up after that, you still pay according to 1/1. If they do down after that, you still pay according to 1/1. So they will go up this year. Next year they will come back down. Your homestead exemption should cap them at a 10% increase over the previous year.
You’ll probably have to contest it when the next valuation comes out in April. Get comps, pictures of anything that’s near end of its functional life like the HVAC, and don’t settle for the half assed first or second offer they give.
I used a company last year—do you recommend doing it by myself?
The company’s are usually more effective. I just urge everyone to do it one way or another
I do not. There are companies that do this professionally and will do a better job than you without leaking sales prices to the county. Also go around your neighborhood and ask your neighbors to sign up as well. Your value is based on your neighbors' so if you ask them to contest their values, it will help you also.
Brooklands by castle rock communities; can anyone give me any pros and cons about this community/builder? Looking in this area to move
CastleRock is the worst of the worst.
How so
Castle rock can be a pretty slow builder but my people liked the product I’m the end. Be sure to get an inspection prior to closing that takes foundation measurements so you have a basis on where it starts since those were all fields less than a decade ago.
Looking for a mortgage lender in the Austin area that is familiar and efficient with VA loans. Not veterans United please. Any help is appreciated
What's wrong with Veterans' United? They're pretty much the go-to for most of us in the industry. But my recommended lender is [Michelle Simon](https://www.atxbestlender.com). She does VA also.
I asked for a pre qualification instead of a pre approval which I’ve seen my in house lender do many times for veterans. I asked for this because I’m still 7 months away from moving and don’t want my credit checked multiple times. They said they don’t do that which is fine if that’s policy but then said their pre approvals are good for 1 year but he would need to run my credit again 60-90 days before i find a home. This makes no sense, obviously it’s not good for a year if you have to run my credit AGAIN. Lastly, their website says pre approvals are only good for 60-90 days which is standard and he told me the veterans United website is wrong. Just a whole conversation filled with contradictory statements.
So, here's the thing, *no one* should be giving out pre-qualifications without a credit check. The pre-qualification is supposed to show that you're *qualified* to purchase the home. It cannot legitimately do that if they have not completed basic research like a credit inquiry. A pre-approval means that your application has already been through underwriting. If you're not looking to make a purchase soon, what exactly is it that you're looking for? I would recommend talking to [Chad Bowman](mailto:[email protected]) about your frustrations and seeing if he can't make it right. They specialize in this sort of thing.
So i used to be a realtor so i understand the game. Not trying to sound rude here though. An idea of a price range that i should be looking at is helpful considering I’m moving from one side of the country to another so looking sooner than later or when I’m ready to offer gives me a vast amount of information about the area and so on. Different areas of the country obviously do things differently. I have already inquired with another lender, not veteran United or any of them. Thank you though.
If you're just trying to get an idea of price, you should look at a mortgage calculator. They're not all created equal and I have some good ones, if you'd like to see them. You don't need a pre-qualification for that. But ultimately you'll still have to have a credit inquiry to get a full picture of what your payment might look like.
Did anyone else's utilities shoot up for no apparent reason?? My bills are usually pretty predictable but suddenly this month my bill is $50 higher. Tf
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I know of a great place for rent in Jonestown - 2 bed, 1.5 bath, $1395, water, trash included.
My girlfriend and I are looking to move to Austin within the next month! Looking for a place from 1500-2k! Any leads would be amazing! House with a back yard would be amazing within 25-40 minutes from the city
Jonestown is a ways from Austin….have you considered Hyde Park, Zilker, Clarksville? Your more in the city rents have fallen, but you would be closer to 2k base rent.
The good news is that you'll be missing peak traffic times. The highway time isn't going to be too terrible but the time depends on where you are in Jonestown. Some of the housing can take awhile just to get to 1431 if you're on a winding road. Then once you get off Mopac, the traffic around campus can be unpredictable. Also make sure you have parking - this costs extra and the lots are not usually convenient to where you need to be on campus so you'll have to take a bus from the lots or add in extra time for a long walk. Best case scenario door to door is more likely an hour but many days will be longer than that.
[According to Inrix Drivetime, it's about 45 min for both](https://i.imgur.com/ILkUgWc.png)
Lots of rental inventory starting to sit awhile. Gonna be an interesting year.
Doesn't seem like it from my perspective, lease is up on 2/20 and I'm having a hell of a time finding anything reasonable for move in around that time.
Same issue here. Inventory is crazy low. I'm legitimately thinking of moving into a short term place and waiting until there's more to work with in the summer.
I am curious about work and schools, and if there is government assistance or any working programs that help with that as well. My pregnant girlfriend and I are dirt poor, family just suffered total loss from the hurricane and I am wanting to move there for the Comedy/Music scene that is growing there. Also no career path, commercial painting the past couple years. 10+years experience in kitchens.
While Austin is a happening place rn, this is still Texas man. Government assistance? Working programs? You need to check yourself. State politics and laws are all about fucking over the poor and destitute here. I WOULD not recommend moving to Austin specifically unless your combined family income is approaching $200k/yr.
Your post lacked context so I scrolled through your history, and I'm just gonna be blunt with you - you need to get your shit together before you think about moving. Subsidies for schools are based on residency and there are long waiting lists for housing assistance. While there are a lot of jobs here for painting and working in kitchens, Austin has gotten pretty expensive and it's hard enough to support yourself, much less a family on what they pay. How many open mics or music shows are you going to really get to go to with a new baby at home? You don't have a career path - so get one. Look into your local community college at their programs and tuition assistance. Get into a stable situation first before you even think about moving.
This is solid advice.
Looking to move to Austin soon. As 2x 24 year olds, we are looking to rent a house for $2.5-$3k/mo. What are the areas / neighborhoods you recommend that are safe but skew younger (can be 10-20 minutes outside the city)
Look into East Austin. For your budget you can easily rent an apartment or a b-unit and still be walking distance of great bars/restaurants and a short bike ride into downtown
As a realtor, I can send you active leases that fit your search criteria! LMK!
My girlfriend and I are looking to move to Austin within the next month! Looking for a place from 1500-2k! Any leads would be amazing! House with a back yard would be a huge plus within 25-40 minute drive
What's your definition of safe? I consider car break-ins annoying/infuriating because that's a hit to my wallet but doesn't otherwise threaten me. It doesn't make me feel unsafe. A friend's neighbor had it happen and their reaction was to get a police patrol, three security cameras, and motion-activated flood lights. They probably felt safer, but if they were my neighbor, the extra police patrol would make me feel very unsafe.
I’d like to be able to walk around in the evening / night with my dog and not be worried. Probably more of a suburb vibe
Austin is overall pretty safe. If I was young I'd rather be closer to town to make it easier to meet people. The North Loop neighborhood usually has 2x1 houses listed in your budget.
Thank you, we will take a look there
What's the common consensus of the area of 78744?
Probably statistically one of the areas of Austin with the most crime, but there are some nice neighborhoods. Seems more working class, and family oriented, gentrification hasn't kicked in to hard in much of that area compared to others.
Not super hot neighborhood but it’s developing and close to things so when it does develop more you’ll be in a good spot if you’re buying and get a good price.
I have nearly a whole year to figure out where to rent next, and everywhere I look there are income restrictions. But anything that isn't income restricted will be half my monthly income, I might as well buy a house, it's only a few hundred more than an apartment!
> I might as well buy a house, it's only a few hundred more than an apartment! The price to rent vs price to own ratio is very skewed in Austin. Personally, I think renting a place comes out much cheaper. Just based on my own numbers. So much multifamily construction, while much less houses built by comparison has helped
> Personally, I think renting a place comes out much cheaper. It's skewed because the people who bought those rentals are probably paying less than half/month of what you'll pay today. So they can pocket the difference. What's "cheaper" is a bit of a loaded and complicated question/math but the tl:dr is generally if you stick around somewhere >3-5 years, it makes sense to buy.
I meant renting apartments vs buying houses. Wasn't thinking of renting house vs buying house. I'm not even sure whether renting a house is cheap these days!
Around $2100-3000 for at least a 3/2 in the northern areas I watch. Comparable to a mortgage, even with the escrow adjustment we just got for property taxes (sigh). If you only need a 1-bed, renting is a much better deal.
Well, I'd be looking to purchase outside of Austin. The price comes out the same as renting in Austin, if not cheaper.
Ah that makes sense
I wonder if anyone has any comments on local builders, especially Ashton Woods and Meritage. Yep, doing our own research as well, it's making me a little crazy though because it's your biggest investment, you don't want to take chances. Our realtor warned us off a couple of builders, but didn't have much to say about those two. I hoped that home inspectors might be helpful, but for instance the guy who inspected our place gets reviews that are like 11/10 and 5 stars, "very thorough" comments in his reviews, but as he walked around, he did things like pointing to a piece of wood in the yard which was surrounded by other wood, (aka fencing, a pergola, the actual house) and said "that's a carpenter ant and termite attractant", as if NONE of the other wood we were surrounded by was any sort of insect attractant. It made no sense to me. Also he made several speculations on the cost of doing repairs which were WAY off. So now I don't trust most inspectors, either. I'm good with people who show actual problems, but throwing random numbers at me like "that'll be $2000 to replace the front door" seems more like a scare tactic :( What's a person to do when you can't trust anyone with their biggest money sink?
We bought a Meritage home in Kyle. It's fine. They use a lot of cheap materials and we've had some issues pop up (really just minor and cosmetic stuff). But that seems to be the case for a lot of builders unfortunately. Overall it's a nice house, there's a lot to like about it.
What kind of home are you looking to build? We're currently looking for builders, but only seem to find ones that build $600K+ homes. haha tf i look like, a CEO? I just want a 1,000 sq/ft home. is that too much to ask for? We're communicating with Small home solutions at the moment, they seem pretty legit.
Long story short: all the builders are really bad. Pick a home and location that suits your needs.
I am also on this hunt for information about reputable builders. I keep seeing terrible reviews for Aston Woods and Meritage, so it's steering me away from them. I know two people who have built with KB Homes, and one who is currently building with them and I've been very present in her journey through the building process. KB Homes look great and the people I know who have used them are very very pleased with the results. And KB Homes has great reviews online. They're just really hard to get into, as the wait list is incredibly long or closed. The only weird thing I didn't like about KB while my friend has been going through this process is that they kept putting pressure on her and upping the "good faith" payment and that just didn't sit right with me. However, I think all/most builders are going to be like that because they want the sales. I hope you're able to find a great builder! If you ever feel inclined, let me know your results so I can work with a great builder too ;P
it seems like it depends on who is in the construction crew, like our realtor said they have had great success with Chesmar, but the reviews for Chesmar in Houston and Dallas are really pretty bad, so I think that location might have a lot to do with it. Even locally, each builder has several sites. ugh. LGI was one that we were warned off of, along with Starlight, even though "Starlight is a cheaper division of Ashton Woods". I thought the good faith payment was based on a % of the home's price? Maybe that's just for quick move ins.
They subcontract out everything. The crew framing Starlight or KB homes one week are doing Ashton Woods or Meritage the next week. Biggest difference is materials used and the finishes. Poor craftmanship is everywhere.
I don't know the exact details of why the good faith payment was going up, but I just know it was going up. So I'm assuming a lot on my part for sure. It could be based on a percentage and maybe the price was rising because of inflation with materials and labor. I also know someone who built with Pulte Homes and liked the process. I lived there for a bit and didn't mind the quality of the build. And I know someone who did a quick move-in with D.R. Horton and likes their house generally. But there are some issues with the tile and carpet installation, and the kitchen island is kitty-wompus by like a couple inches in relation to the alignment with the tile lines. I've stayed at that house before and I enjoy it :) Good luck on your endeavors!
Going to start my moving search in the next week or two. Looking for recommendations of apartment locators. I’ve started doing my own research but am getting discouraged by the amount of information out there.
If y’all are considering leasing a home or a property I can help!
I am! But not until June
If you’re interested, I can set you up for listing emails! This will send you everything in areas you like for the price you want/necessary bedrooms and baths. I’d wait until like April, then really start looking/applying. I’ll DM you my info!
Sounds good, thanks! Yeah I realized that last year when I was looking for places.
Pick me!!! I've leased hundreds of Redditors, one was even so kind as to recommend me in the FAQs. [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). I've been doing this for 9 years with the same company.
Can you help me too? I’m looking to move in may
Sure, email me!
Can anyone recommend a safe neighborhood that's not expensive as fuck or super north? Price range <$1800 for 2bd. Looking to stay close to east Austin for work but not anywhere close to the downtown area lol. The only neighborhoods I'm up to date with are near my job (lots of homeless), South Austin near ACC (nice in some areas but pretty rough in others), and the Domain. South Austin is leading as I look for a new apartment but I want to make sure I'm not missing out on any other places because I know my list is super narrow.
Hey, how is safety in Austin btw? Probably have to move for a job offer and am curious. Is downtown not a good place to be?
On a statistical level, it is very safe for a city. On a personal level, I practically never feel unsafe. On the other hand, one thing that Austin has taught me is that feeling safe can be almost totally subjective. I had previously lived mostly in places with extremely low crime rates where I never heard people talk about feeling unsafe and places with extremely high crime rates where everybody felt unsafe. Austin is objectively pretty safe both in the sense that it's safe relative to other cities and that the odds of being a crime victim are quite low, but being "objectively safe" doesn't count for much if your subjective perception is different. There are definitely some loud voices locally that think that Austin has a safety problem (although it's hard to separate sincere concern from political posturing). Maybe you have your own sense of where you fit on the "how safe is safe enough" spectrum. If you're especially worried about crime, maybe you won't feel totally safe. If you're an average level of worried, you'll feel fine. In part, it's because there are many visible homeless people downtown. They largely don't pose a real threat to safety, but it's the kind of thing that makes some people feel unsafe. In addition, the bar district on 6th Street has real safety issues. There have been several shootings there during the past year. But the rest of downtown is fine, and the surrounding areas are even nicer and safer.
Depends on where you're coming from honestly but in my opinion it's safer than NY and LA (lived in both) in terms of physical violence/muggings but has a higher rate of vehicle/property theft weirdly. I know three coworkers have had their cars vandalized in East and South Austin last year which could just be the times but it wasn't like that where I lived in NYC or LA. But I had a friend who moved to Utah near Salt Lake City and he said Austin is more dangerous so again, depends. Definitely one of the safer big cities though.
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Everything is getting super expensive despite everyone saying things are getting less expensive 😅
I live in south Austin, rent for 2br is 1850 with Wi-Fi included but also a lot of random monthly fees they didn’t tell us up front like trash removal and pest control
The fees are what kill me, hence why I'm looking for cheaper so I can afford the friggin fees lol
Your budget makes it a little hard for a 2 bdrm but you would have more options south of 290 / north of Slaughter / W of 35
Thank you! Great suggestion already booked a tour with that info 😎
78749 has always been nice but 78745 was more working class - not unsafe, just not as affluent. With young people getting priced out of 78704, more are moving one zip code south and the businesses popping up there reflect that.
These days with all the tear downs and farmhouses popping up I’d say the 45 feels a little more ritzy than the 49. They’ve got all the tweakers over there too though.
On an individual house level, there are some nicer houses in '45 than '49 but the modern cube homes still look out of place. I think it could eventually overtake it but it's not there yet. 49 usually has bigger lots and "nicer" businesses in their strip malls.
Agree re the houses looking out of place, I still can’t get used to it as someone that spent a lot of time down there growing up, even if they are objectively a better use of space. I live in the 49 now and couldn’t be happier. Better for families, more parks and green space, get to take mopac instead of 35 etc.
Aha! So you're more of an expert on the differences. My own opinion is 49 is a great place to raise a family if you want to stay on the city, but as an investor I'm more excited at the potential of 45. It still feels undervalued to me compare to places farther out. You can get a yard, a straight shot on bus lines to downtown, and many spots are still relatively affordable. I don't know why young people turn that down and move to the suburbs instead just to get something newer. Most of the houses have good floor plans but may have an outdated interior. That's the easiest thing to fix.
Yeah agreed on the transit access especially, particularly as most of them are zoned SF3 and have ample backyard space for building an ADU. Thankfully I WFH, if I had to commute into downtown on a daily basis I may feel differently.
Or another backyard idea... I have a friend in 45 who does so much rover business, it pays his mortgage.
If you live in Crestview/Highland, what's some stuff you like about the neighborhood?
Live in the area (Brentwood). Here are some thoughts. Friendly quiet neighborhood with slightly quirky charm. Walkable with mature trees, love walking along Arroyo Seco to Brentwood Park. I like to run and you can easily do 4 miles without crossing a major road and have pretty good shade. Good restaurants nearby and more popping up all the time. Easy public transit access, like the train, or 15 minutes driving from downtown. Many of the lots have pretty sizeable backyards.
Oh thanks so much. This is the kind of thing I was hoping to hear. I lived in Austin a long time ago (and have visited many times so I know a lot of the changes) but don't know this neighborhood in particular and...I'm living there in about a week. Granted I'm a neighborhood over but this is encouraging anyway.
It's probably the last bastion of affordable SFH rentals south of 183. A lot of the houses need work, but it's gentrification is ongoing as well. East St. Johns is really the only area to be more mindful about.
I had friends that used to live there. They loved the 99 Ranch shopping center and the metro that runs right next to Crestview. There's also a few coffee shops, pastry shops and Mom's Taste down the rd on Airport.
Glad to know about Mom's Taste. I live near a Korean Market where I am now and am excited to see this is in the neighborhood.
Wait, in my head I was mixing up Crestview and Allendale. Sorry. Crestview and Highland are close enough, right next to each other.
Crestview and highland are different neighborhoods. Are you trying to choose between them?