Thoughts on move to Austin area

If public schools are a priority, the 'best' are in West Lake, Bee Caves, Round Rock, Cedar Park. Your work maybe around Del Valle, not the best schools yet they are newish cuz of all the growth there but much of it we're talking lower end priced neighborhoods, don't know how else to say it.

You wouldn't have any problem driving from the 4 above to Del Valle area for work, especially where tolls are available (mostly north/south on 130 and southern pieces of 183), West Lake and Bee Caves are westish of Austin proper. Our east/west paths by and large do not have tolls, so its a little tougher from there.

Maybe you can visit the area during mid week to get a look for yourself.

 

Anyone recommend a website to understand the toll roads? Found one website on sections of 130 south of the airport but trying to find a website on the section from the airport north to Pflugerville and Round Rock.

 

Here ya' go: https://www.mobilityauthority.com/traveler-info/open-roads

 

Map: https://www.mobilityauthority.com/pay-your-toll/roads/map

In case anyone wonders why we have such in 'incomplete' toll road mess it is because all these roads were authorized/made during the Bush/Perry administrations, then everyone got upset when they learned a Spanish company (not Mexican, from Spain), was doing the work and profiting year after year on revenues generated.

So next administration said "no more tolls" in texas and here we are, ya' gotta love it!

 

Damn this is confusing…

How do I read this chart for 130 going for Pflugerville to the airport area? https://www.txtag.org/txtagstorefront/en/learnmore/austinAreaTolls

 

Coming from a free state, it truly astonishes me that anyone would actually live in Texas voluntarily. I get some (a lot) of people have no choice but there are people MOVING there to mistakenly seek a better life.

 

It's okay, us Texans don't need your understanding or approval. We're good.

 

You assume that people would prefer to move to your state seeking a better life. It may not be for them.

Amazing thing is we all have free will and live in a free country that allows us to seek out opportunities that are potentially better for us and our family. That looks different for everyone and might mean Texas for some or any of the other states.

 

130 south to 71 west. It is a fast and easy drive. The speed limit on 130 is 85.

 

or are you looking for the cost to travel from Pflugerville to the airport?

If so, it looks like you go through 2 plazas. So it would be $4:
https://www.txtag.org/txtagstorefro.../TOLL-0736_Overview_Map_1073x2439px_v4-R1.jpg

For Round Rock (depending on where you get off), it could be an additional plaza, so maybe $6.

 

I'm kinda confused to what qualifies as a "Free" state and what doesn't. It's America.

Not sure if you ever deployed overseas and to where but I'm proud to be fortunate enough to live in this Country, with all of its faults, and within this amazing State, with all of its faults. I gave my health and my future my Country and my Country, especially Texas, has chosen to take care of me.

 

Yes, this is helpful. That is the cost both ways or does the charge flip based on rush hour direction or anything like that?

 

Yes. And that stretch, I THINK, has 4 or 5 plazas that’ll hit you for a around a buck each, both ways.

I’d have to dig on the TXTag website and see exactly how many there are. If you go there you can give it a route and it’ll calculate how much you’re looking at for you. It’ll give you fastest routes, cheapest routes, free routes, etc.

 

That is the cost for one way. The tolls are always the same cost regardless of time of day.
There are only 3 plazas on that route (marked with a 'P'). You don't go through any of the ramps on that route (marked with an 'R') so you don't pay for going past those.

 

Dang, that gets spendy quick! Especially when added to the superb gas mileage of the Tundra.

Thanks for the info, very helpful.

 

I might be wrong about using Houston, or large metro areas as examples of recipients, but I can tell you that it comes up every year that the Fredericksburg ISD is having to send funds out to the state for distribution to other ISDs. Same goes for the other two ISDs in the county, although the funding seems to be balancing out in the two smaller ISDs since the changes made in 2019.

You understand that real estate is really high in the Hill Country, think about the fact that half the county lives in Fredericksburg. That's not rural, not ranches, no ag exemptions there. Out goes the school funds. Kerr County, a few years back was supposedly the richest county in the whole state, per capita. A good chunk of their funds go elsewhere too.

 

Austin housing has been nuts for a long time. My brother sold his little house in SE Austin as we was putting the for sale sign in the front yard. This was probably 25 years ago. He bought a house off Andersen Mill. He sold it last year for over 3 times what he paid for it and moved to Burnet. There are some nice neighborhoods off Andersen Mill but houses in the nicer ones are pretty high. He had a real nice 3/4 acre treed lot. He worked for Dell for about 30 years. When he got laid off he decided to get the hell away from Austin and all the liberals.

 

yeah it does. When my wife and I first moved into the area, we resisted the toll roads. But we soon realized that it made it so much easier when we wanted to go to the airport and to the Domain and Stone Hill shopping centers. I couldn’t imagine having to pay $12 a day to commute on the toll roads. I think that is why I35 is so packed… everyone wants to avoid the tolls; especially the semi’s. I have been stuck in a wall of semi trailers on I35 so many times

 

Is 35 jammed at all hours or does it get better the earlier you hit it?

 

Yes, the earlier the better. I used to commute from Georgetown to downtown Austin and it would take me 30 minutes if I left at 5:30am. If I left at 7-8am, it would take 60-90 minutes. One time, it took me 2 hours to get home when I left at 5:30pm. Is your prospective job in downtown or outside of downtown?

 

My prospective job is at GigaTX with Tesla. So southeast of downtown off 130. This is why I likely would live on the eastern side somewhere Round Rock, Pflugerville, Bastrop, etc.

 

Oh good. Not having to go into downtown will make the commute so much easier.

 

Yeah how they determine which are rich and poor counties is a mystery to me but here's some info on how much the rich ones pay:
https://texasscorecard.com/local/which-texans-paid-the-biggest-robin-hood-tax-in-2018/

List of all the paying school districts:
https://www.myplainview.com/news/ar...hool-districts-sharing-taxes-with-8873266.php

If our state legislature funded public education better we wouldn't have such high property taxes (60-70% go to schools not the cities or counties) and this silly shell game of sharing education monies across the state, oh well.

 

That is what I thought, Tesla - electric is the future for sure. Great for you. My understanding is Tesla is building a neighborhood (or helping out somehow) specifically aimed at its staff, I mean we're talking about over 10,000 folks there and growing right? Its bitter-sweet for those of us here since the 80s. Picked up my first house for 63K back then, it sold recently for 350K (i sold at 200), incredible. Austin has been a high tech town since IBM first set foot here. Even back in the 80s we already had over 4000 high tech companies here, Apple has a large presence a couple miles from my home and broke ground on another section adding another 5K employees, the home prices jumped another 10% just off that news. Don't get me wrong, if you like the outdoors, live music, craft beer, pizza and bbq + friendly folks, you should like it here just fine.

I drove past the Tesla recently, incredible size, the main building seemed over a mile long.

But yeah you have the right idea on where to live, could go apartment at first until you have time to hunt for what you really like and judge the traffic. Its really not near as bad now as precovid, so many folks work from home, self included since march '20 and I never expect to return to office until its time to turn in the 'puter and badge, haha.

35 in the morning is pretty easy to avoid the heavy part, just drive from say RR before 7am, after work its kinda always heavy but you could zip home on the toll then, it is pricey, about $7 for that path, yet boy does it save time.

The only tolls that vary in price is the MOPAC one (west side of austin, travels north/south from downtown to 45), anywhere from .35 to over $14 (for both pieces) at absolute peak times (5pm) and it doesn't help so much cuz so many folks jump on it.

There is a new neighborhood going up near Circuit of the Americas, its just a few miles souch of Giga on 130. Keep in mind all that area is around the airport, so you'll hear lots of planes, they take off mostly south by southeast and land from the north by northwest. Luck deciding.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the dozens and dozens of wineries along 290 from Johnson City west past Fredricksberg, which is a destination of its own.

 

Final offer received yesterday afternoon. Trying to make a decision by EOD Monday.

Tell me about hail storms and the need to have a garage large enough to fit the Tundra.

 

The potential for large hail comes every spring, Mar thru end of May yet could happen other times if conditions are right.

Most times (95%) it is small hail, pea sized that does not damage to homes or autos. It has been about 10 years since the last large hail incident (where many home's roofs are have damaged shingles - not enough to leak yet their corners are broken enough for insurance to payout) and lots of auto sheet metal damage.

In Austin area proper, we've not had any larger hail yet it can happen and has rarely (we're talking baseball size that goes thru windshields).

So if you want to sleep well during our spring thunderstorms (we don't get rain without a thunderstorm), a nice sized garage is a good idea. Hope that helps.

 

I garage my truck every time that there is a high threat of hail. Spring is the hail season, but there can be storms that produce hail any time of the year (you will always know ahead of time). I have been in TX for 8 years now and I have not experienced any damaging hail, but some friends on the other side of the city that I live in have had severe hail damage on their car.

For peace of mind, find a home that has a garage that can fit your truck. 20' long will do.

 

Thanks for all the great replies so far. Another random question.

How does the vehicle inspection and emissions testing work down there? Do they look under the hood at all or is it just a OBDII plug in and exterior look?

 

There is a full vehicle state inspection. Yes, they "check under the hood" . The inspection costs $18 and the registration for my 2016 is about $78.

 

As an Okie, I'm just reading through this going DANG!! My 13 mile commute to work takes me 15-18 minutes in the morning, and 20-22 minutes in the evening. We have ZERO vehicle safety inspections , but that does lead to the occasional hooptie, Coal Runner, and obnoxious Mustang's with no exhaust. I remember visiting Austin in 1996 and thinking it was cool then, but I haven't been back since.
.
.
.
.
If you're a football fan you can hopefully go see OU or OSU come to any Texas town and mop up.....

Sorry y'all... It's Friday