Where to live for UT Austin

[biglarryowens]

Ok all you Texas Natives going to Austin-I"m looking for a place to live and was wondering what are the best areas?  I might be interested in buying a home. Thanks in advance.

[jbrooks1]

In Austin, it seems to all depend on your personality...most areas are pretty decent, but different.

North - Suburbia, more hilly and better scenery, more strip malls and chain stores, oftern referred to as South Dallas, can be a bit of a drive to campus or downtown.

Middle/West - Really nice, good location for getting to campus and dowtown, pretty expensive

South - Trendy, more diverse, older neighborhoods, a little more dirty, but more character, usually pretty easy to get downtown or campus depending on how far south.

East - probably the only place you'd want to avoid

[Who's Crowdaddy]

For investment purposes, that East might not be bad.

There is supposed to be a lot of revitilization in certain areas.

My preference by far, South, much more personality. Of course, if you have money, living by school would be nice, but housing is probably expensive.

[biglarryowens]

Thanks for the responses!  This gives me some direction to hunt more seriously.

[Jumboshrimps]

I just sold my house in south Austin. My Realtor begged me to wait three years, because he thinks home prices are going to explode during that time.

Consider yourself forewarned and enlightened  

Don't live North. It's sprawling horribly and traffic in Austin is as bad as anywhere outside of maybe Boston. The traffic is from the northern burbs into town. The east side is the ghetto, but is indeed improving in spots. I'd stay away simply because it's a risk. Downtown Austin is VERY expensive so your best bet is South.

[brutal264]

I live in west campus, which is like a 5-10 minute walk from school, but its teeming with rowdy undergrads and greek houses. From what I know most grad students live in North Campus/Hyde Park area. Its right on a couple of bus routes, and many places still walkable.

[limonjello]

http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw/index.php/topic,25158.0.html

This thread covers it reasonably well.

[biglarryowens]

Wow-thanks for the responses and the link! 

[ElizaB]

East - probably the only place you'd want to avoid

This past weekend I found the cutest neighborhood on the east side of town off of MLK.  They are all houses so they wouldn't do if you are looking for an apartment.  It is a neighborhood built to look like Hyde Park but all of the houses are brand new.  They houses I saw were between $105k and $153k.  I saw quite a few UT stickers so I think quite a few students live there.  The name of the neighborhood is Heritage Park.  A few streets over from the neighborhood is sort of scary, but the neighborhood itself isn't bad at all.