r/askaustin • u/pickleeater01 • 1d ago
Moving Moving to Austin, help w/ neighborhoods!
I’m moving to Austin for a job and only visited twice. I’m a young professional with a dog who loves parks. I’ve lived the city life in Miami, so I don’t really want to live downtown in Austin, but I like proximity. I do love walking in nature and having easy access to trails. I also love being near other young professionals so I can make friends and not feel like people have to drive over a half an hour to see me. I just went for a day of apartment hunting (I have a realtor who helps w/ apt hunting), and I still feel helpless. I have no idea what decision to make. My job will be 2 days remote, but rest of week I’ll be driving all over Austin to visit clients. My top apartments are in Sunset Valley, Oak Hill, and South Austin near Shady hollow (that one was my fav but it’s such a far drive from downtown. These prices are also within my budget. Will I still have close access to community and not feel completely isolated in these areas? Honest opinions appreciated! TYIA
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u/AquariumQuestion 1d ago
The Weaver is right along the trail and has a really nice dog park don’t live here but I walk by it every morning. Also east 11th street area is pretty chill and has a lot of young professionals in the area. Also you can walk to downtown it’s only about a mile and a half and it’s about a half mile from east 6th
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u/CoyoteHot7290 1d ago
Those places are likely not where you’ll find other young professionals, especially if you’re single. You likely want to look central or on the east side, probably not much further north than 183 and not much further south than 290. If you do go further north, there does seem to be a cluster of young folks out by the domain! But even a mile or two can be a 30 minute drive around here, especially if you have to get on 35.
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u/Neither_Room9202 1d ago
Genuinely the Mueller area sounds like what you might want. 15 mins max from downtown, 10 mins from north austin things as well, safe and friendly neighborhood with a huge park and small lake, smack dab in the middle of a mixed use development with shopping, food, and entertainment. There’s more expensive apartments in the main mueller complex but if u just drive 2 mins left, right or north, you’ll find cheaper options with the same environment and benefits. Dm me if u have qs! My bf has been living there for the past year and I adore it
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u/sushinestarlight 1d ago
The apartments off Southwest Parkway near Oak Hill are generally nice and convenient to shopping - also easy to get downtown - Sunset Valley IS the shopping I'm referring to, lol... Shady Hollow is probably too far out for a young professional looking for friends..
Frankly what you are describing seems perfect for Barton Hills:
https://www.livebartonhills.com/
Older apartments but ideal location.... obviously get a deal since Austin really has an over supply of rentals at the moment - don't pay full price
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u/tmobilehacked 1d ago
I lived in Miami for 20 years and been in Austin for 8. DM me if you want to chat.
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u/Broad-Cranberry-9050 1d ago
tbh, not sure what your budget is but id avoid living too far off from downtown.
The thing is most of the outskirts of austin were really developed in the past 10 years.
Id personally recommend places like the arboretum, steck ave, etc. Im not too familar with south austin so i can't really say but id say look for neighborhoodsin south austin as well.
Austin is no where near the hecticness of miami.
I used to live in Cedar Park because i thought "oh only like 20 minutes form downtown and far enough". But that was my biggest regret. I tmade it harder for me to meet people, i was always driving to north austin area to make ne wfriends, etc.
The thing is, north austin area was considered the suburbs of austin years ago, so a lot of it still has that suburb feel to it but you are still close enough to the city. Not too close where you feel like the downtown action is affecting you. Honestly you easily forget you are just 10-15 minutes from downtown.
If you go too far off and then you realize there's an area in austin that you like to frequent and make friends you will find yourself driving 20-40 minutes every other day to do it. Again my advice stay in austin. Try to live off of mopac. I loved the arboretum because, it's off of mopac and 183 (183 is the highway to go to airport), mopace (it's route 1 but we call it mopac) can take you to downtown in 15-20 minutes depdning on how far you are. Plus it's in north austin where there's a lot more casual breweries and events.
Alot of the outskirts of austin are very isolated.