My cousin is tempting me to buy a new (house)property in Austin. The place is called Round Rock. I am getting tired of the astronomical costs of owning a house here in So Cal. A 5000 sq.ft home for less than the average cost of a 1300 sq. ft home in So Cal is very tempting.
You guys who live there, tell me about the place. What's it like, weather, schools, things to do, good things, bad things, everything.. Thanks

 

Wow I'm thinking of doing the same exact thing in the same exact place, how weird.

 

I don't live in Austin but I went to college nearby and spent a lot of time there. Round Rock is Dell Central. Everyone there works at Dell almost. It is really nice if the sight of rolling TX hill country is appealing to you. The only place nicer, which you can afford after selling a home in CA, in Austin is on any of the lakes. All the rich and famous people are up there in the cliffs (cliffs to us anyway) over-looking the lakes. You could do something custom up there for around $800K or in Round Rock something nice for $350K. If you pick Round Rock, make sure you get a view of the hill country. It would be a waste to pay to live in RR and not get the view. I have to warn you though. The drivers in Austin are all retards. There is a lot of street racing and the police don't ask questions about it. They pull you over, arrest you, impound your car, and you go to jail. All driving in Austin is highway driving, not long distances, but still all highway (poorly designed road system).

 

Wait wait are you saying the homes in Austin are priced high, sorry I misunderstood your post TK??????

 

Be ready to spend hours on the three lane parking lot called i35. Austin is a small town pretending to be a city. The infrastructure wasn't designed to have that many people living there. The city is oval shaped with the long parts going north and south along i35. If you need to get across town, there aren't many alternatives to it. Right now they're scrambling to build a loop but it'll take a few more years. They just got feeder lanes! It used to be really bad because you would drive off the road and onto the highway without time to accellerate or the ability to see if it was safe to merge. Alot of people were getting killed because of it. Last but not least, there ain't **** to do in Austin. sixth st gets old real quick.

 

If you want to live in a nice part of Austin, yes. You can live in the ghetto if you want but I wouldn't move out here from CA to live in a ghetto. Austin is the second Silicone Valley. It's full of young, rich, uppity people in IT. I think 50% of the city is IT and the rest is just normal city support like restuarants, cops, and store owners. North Austin (Round Rock area) is the nice part. Central is where a lot of college kids stay....over 50K students at UT. South is where the less than rich people live. The lakes are in central Austin and people will build around it. Austin is more geared to the outdoorsy type. 6th street does indeed get old. You can always find people running, biking, kayaking, canoeing, and so on. Austin has a young, fit, well off population. Very nice place but don't kid yourself into thinking you can get a mansion for $300K. The prices may not differ too much with CA....you just get a hell of a lot more house and fantastic views and clean air.

 

Interesting info, what about your guys city of Houston-tell me about that area PLEASE.

 

Houston!! I've lived in Orange County for 2 1/2 years. So Cal has way better weather!!! Hands down. It rains hear all the time and the humidity is like 300 % every freegin' day. People with allergies suffer alot here. The summers are EXTREMELY hot! California weather is way more favorable in the summer. It doesn't get cold and breezy at night here either. It is is 101 degrees in the day time, it'll drop to maybe 85 degrees at night(with all the humidity). There is alot to do here. The size of Houston is comparable to Los Angeles. Same traffic, same road rage, and same amount of freeways. By the way, there are no people riding around on horses with cowboy hats on. hehhehe..... Music is different here. We usually get main stream music that California was hearing last year...... Lot of stuff to do, though. Concerts, opera, dancing, clubs, bars, tons of festivals, & outings. You can pretty much find anything you want to do, here.........Houses are not cheap here. Granted, they are not as expensive as So Cal, but still not cheap. Women are nice looking here, also. They look different then Californian women. They Latin women look different here also. I would rather live in So Cal. I plan on moving to San Diego one day.

 

i would live anywhere but houston, and for one reason only. If you live in the poor mexican areas you have to learn how to speak spanish, and for me this is crap i hate spanish but there is no way to communicate with people if you dont know spanish, and if yo live in the good area, well then yeah its nice but houston is becoming too industrialized, which is a problem because the air quality sucks. Happy house hunting

 

You have to remember that Houston is gigantic if you inlcude all the nice areas as well. Sugarland, Katy, Woodlands, Klien, River Oaks, Tanglewood, Memorial. We have as many $10million plus homes as Cali. If you live in a $hithole, then its a $hithole.....no matter what city you're in. I live in Katy. There is no pollution, no idustrialization. The city is owned by a very conservative group. Everything is beautiful. We pay a nice extra tax called MUD tax (Municipal Utility District) to have utilities from the city of Houston run out to us. It is very humid here in the summer. There just is no getting around it but we are in no way the way you explained it. We get down into the 30s too when the cold time comes through. Allergies? You kidding? Who cares. If you got trees and fields, you got allergies. Houston is very diverse much like LA. You have bad areas and you have good areas and sometimes they're not even that far apart. As far as illegal immigrants, you won't see much change from CA. They're everywhere. You don't have to learn Spanish. You can't help but pick it up. I am in Houston because of my friends and family and because there is so much opportunity to make money here. If I had nothing holding me here, I would probably still live here but I would want a home on the lake in Austin as well. I think there isn't a better sight than TX hill country. I'd choose that over beacfront, mountains, farms, skyscrapers. It's all about what you are into and whether or not it's around you. I like CA but just for visiting. It doesn't fit my lifestyle. I like camping, kayaking down rivers, fishing, and when I need nightlife, it's all around here. As far as the comment on the music being different and us being last year...do you believe MTV would allow a popular piece of music to come out without cramming it down all our throats. Everything between the people is basically the same as CA. You guys just have more fit people around because our portion control is insane.

 

^^interesting^^ I guess I'm a little tired of Houston, since I've been here all my life. My allergies are an exception though. What I meant was, people with bad sinus and allergies. The humidity factor and constant change in weather reeks havok on my sinus. California's constant dry climate keeps my sinus cavities in check. You are right about the nicer areas. I'm use to living in the Galleria area, so I only see businesses, titahy bars, and traffic. Katy and Sugarland are very nice areas. It sucks that people have to commute so far to live in a nice area.

 

Man, this is really weird . You live in Santa Clarita? I live in Valencia, lol. How did you find out about the place? I'm looking at the houses built by Toll Brothers Inc. Prices are great. I can sell my house and the equity will just about pay the house there in full.

What is the weather like in Round Rock area? How far from the lake, how big is the lake? I take it cops are not very friendly in Austin. They just think everybody is racing .

 

Check out Houston, no offense, but we have enough Claifornians moved here already.

They already screwed up our bars by passing the damn smoking ban.

Anyhow I am from Austin, TX friendly cant ya tell LOL. Austin is pretty awesome, laid back, traffic can get bad... unless you use I35. We have some fun roads, out west in particular. Lots of river stuff too, so get a jet ski or boat. What else... oh, it gets HOT here and HUMID. Lots of local music, hopefully the smoking ban wont hurt that... and we grow our women like the weather. Hot.

 

Cops in Austin are John Wayne cowboys, rough, tough, & don't take $hit from anyone. There's a county in Austin, can't remember which one, but those smokey's will haul your **** off in a heart beat. My uncle lives near Roundrock, he tells me about them all the time.

 

Williamson County... Round Rock territory.

 

The weather in Austin is just a little better than Houston. Living in Houston and driving great distances for everything has numbed my driving sense of distance. Nothing is far in Austin and you get to drive highway speeds all the time, just watch for people merging because they can't see you. Lakes are huge...miles and miles of lakes. There used to be some nude areas on the lakes but gay people took over that. Cops aren't bad but have zero tolerance for street racing. If you have the body kit and graphics and loud exhaust, expect to get pulled over occasionally. Most of the time you never notice them. If you like live music then Austin is great for you. I don't like it. You can however make the short trip to San Marcos, where I went to school, and enjoy the never-ending supply of hotties, the rivers that run right through campus, and nearby campsites. Also from there, you are about an hour or so away from the San Antonio race track and about three hours from Ennis race track and Texas World Speedway. You would also be less than 2 hours from Houston if you ever wanted to come out. The only thing about traveling between the cities is watching for our state troopers. They don't give a $hit about you or your story and they know you are on the way somewhere and you'll never show up to their tiny court so you'll just mail the fine in. I got two tickets on the way to San Marcos from Houston in under two hours.

 

Austin is one of the places I want to move also. There are plenty of lakes and rivers to go fishing or jet skiing. I love Live Music. I must agree that the weather is HOT... and so are the women. =) Lived in central texas for 5 years.

 

What all these guys are telling you is like 4 year old info. The tech business in austin has shrank by about 30-40% in the past 5 years. Yes round rock USED to be dell central but now it isnt. Roundrock has become its oun city with its own perimiter town called georgetown. Yes I-35 does suck but there is also mopac and 620. Dont move to roundrock if you plan on working 9-5 in austin or you will be in driving hell. Other than that austin is a pretty cool place. There is 6th street, we have 2 good lakes, lots of parks for dogs and bicycles, an endless supply of college sports thanks to UT (where i went to school), but the girls arent going to be as good as CA and niether is the weather. Austin is the ONLY city to live in for texas IMO. Dallas is too big and houston is just nasty. I lived in san diego till i was 17 then moved here with my fam now 26 and still live here.

 

Sounding better already. Weather, I can take the heat. Hot women, no problem there. Live music, I'm a musician myself. The lakes, gotta get some jet skis, at least there's some bodies of water. I envisioned desert, hills and mountains (no offense guys). So far everything is good except the Rosco P Coltraine's, lol.

What about natural disaster, tornadoes, floods?? any of these crosses Round Rock/Austin area?

 

No natural disasters... only californians that have been moving to Austin in Droves since 99.

They seriously did screw some things up around here...