Moving to Austin. Office is on Southwest Parkway where 290 and Mopac intersect. Looked at neighborhoods today (Steiner, circle c, dripping springs, lake Travis isd). Neighborhoods around lake Travis high appear to be no. 1 option. 10 miles from office. Have a 5 and 8 year old boy.

Anyone live in that area and can give me the good, the bad and the ugly? On the surface seems too good to be true. Great schools, beautiful area, nice homes. What am I missing?

Looks like a great plan.

620 traffic at/around rush hour is AWFUL. If you aren't dealing with normal work hours maybe. I think bee cave is where you would rather be if moving out west

ConsolTigerAg92 said:

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What am I missing?

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Driving down 71 to S-W Parkway will more than likely be backed up. S-W PKWY will more than likely be backed up.

Download the Waze App and plot out your drive at 0700 to see what you are up against.

Just remember the folks around here that plan roads and road improvements are typically 15 yrs behind.

Good suggestion. Thanks. Hopefully not much longer than about 40 minutes or so.

I live in Steiner, and work downtown. That is a cluster**** of a drive when school is in session (620 to 2222 to Mopac). For various reasons, I occasionally take the 620 to 71 to SW Parkway to Mopac (or reverse).

The bottleneck in that route is through Lakeway, which seemingly out of spite refuses to do anything to properly time their stoplights. Heading south on 620, once you get past Lake Travis HS, it's clear. 71 to SW Parkway and on SW Parkway is easy. Same coming back the logjam is getting through Lakeway.

School-wise, the Steiner/River Place schools are better than Lake Travis or Dripping. But it's not a quantum leap. If you check the US News, etc. rankings, for public schools in Austin area, it's Westlake, then Westwood, then Vandegrift (which Steiner feeds to). There's actually a drop to Lake Travis, but that's still a great high school. Dripping is up and coming, but there are also commute issues from that area. 290 to the Y in Oak Hill is a mess, and RR 12 cutting to 71 is a 2-lane road. You mentioned Circle C, which is a nice area, but Bowie HS (though great for Austin ISD) is a far drop from the others.

You can make the commute from Steiner in 40 minutes barring a wreck. The easiest commute would be to get south of Lake Travis HS, to maybe Falconhead, Falconhead West, or areas around there. Just depends on where you want to live and what schools you want.

The best location is the downtown side, less than ten mile commute, preferably five. Ideal is not having to commute on a freeway. Unfortunately, Austin is stupid expensive for those locations.

Unless your kids are academic uber over achievers, there's not a huge difference in ISDs.

Let's say they are pretty smart. Then what? Do you exclude Travis ISD? Oldest tested high enough to be placed in GT program. Looks like 5 year old will as well. Schools are a high priority but Westlake ISD would be tough financially. I don't want to live in a 1700 sqft house or have an hour commute. I thought Travis ISD was rated a little higher academically. Hmmm.

Thanks. Lots of good info.

Westwood looks like a good option but man that would be a long commute. Ugh. The US NEWS reporting is a little concerning regarding the Lake Travis high school. My kids are smart, not exceptional athletes.

I wouldn't worry too much about the schools you have mentioned. They all should be good enough if you and your kids put enough effort. If you think LT has what you need, I wouldn't let the school change your mind.

LT and Drippin' probably have great AP programs. There are a couple of private schools, one on SW Parkway and one on Barton Creek Blvd. I'm not a fan of private schools, but they are better today than they were in the past (Regents and St. Michaels).

Big high schools with good AP programs are like flagship universities with honors programs, top research, and decent sports, the best of everything.

Bingo on Falconhead. We really liked that neighborhood.

Agree on the AP route. My youngest two went all AP in HS and it's like a school in a school. Their circle of friends were all in those classes and quality kids. They are separated from the general population who have mixed motivations to attend and do well.

ConsolTigerAg92 said:

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Let's say they are pretty smart. Then what? Do you exclude Travis ISD? Oldest tested high enough to be placed in GT program. Looks like 5 year old will as well. Schools are a high priority but Westlake ISD would be tough financially. I don't want to live in a 1700 sqft house or have an hour commute. I thought Travis ISD was rated a little higher academically. Hmmm.

Thanks. Lots of good info.

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If you exclude Westlake and Westwood (as you mentioned), Vandegrift is easily the best school academically, and its athletic and non-athletic programs are great. The elementary and middle schools are highly rated. That would put you in Steiner as the closest place for your commute.

That said, the commute is not going to be fun when school is in session unless you leave early. LT really has very good schools, and your commute would be a lot better.

The commute will be bad, but the rest of the area is nice and has good schools

The one thing to be prepared for is your water bill. There are several providers out there with high(er) rates so you may want to look into that.

My kids are also 8 and 5 (and 3). We live in Highpointe in Dripping. I work a little further east than you will, but I'd say that commute is typically about 30 minutes from the house. There might even be an alternate route up to SW Parkway that could avoid the Y. The Y is always backed up but getting to it and once you get past there isn't bad. We really like the community and the school, which is right at the front of the neighborhood, has been great for us (coming from AISD). Expect either a new high school, or my guess is a 9th grade center at the end of Sawyer Ranch by the time our kids get there.

The "Y" is going to get worse before it gets better. They have decided to move forward with making it a flyover. That will be a cluster til its done.

You may be looking at this wrong. Lake Travis is still maturing as a district. Its going to get better. School ranking has as much to do with the quality of kids as anything. Lots of young families are moving there. If your kids are smart they will be fine.

I'm in Bee Cave and work on SW Parkway. My commute is about 12-14 minutes each way in the 8 am hour and 5 pm hour. I would add 10-15 minutes to live in Falconhead. I've done this drive in the afternoon for different reasons, so I'm not just guessing.

I definitely agree with others about 620, although Falconhead is on the better side because you dont have to go through Lakeway. The bottle neck is the 620/71/Bee Cave intersection area, and you can avoid that. As development continues out 71, its going to get worse.

Thank you. Great stuff. I think we are going to watch the Falconhead, Flintrock, and Bee Cave areas for homes that hit the market.

Thanks everyone.

ConsolTigerAg92 said:

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Thank you. Great stuff. I think we are going to watch the Falconhead, Flintrock, and Bee Cave areas for homes that hit the market.

Thanks everyone.

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I've lived in Lakeway since 04. Great place to live. My kids both graduated from LT and one just graduated from A&M and the other is a JR. The traffic between 7-830 between Lakeway Blvd and the HS is bad. Once past there it moved well. At 4pm till 6 it's bad from 71 to the hospital then breaks up. Falcon head is nice, but some of the backyards are tiny. Flintrock is nice and gated. Have you looked at lake point on bee cave rd? Still LT school district. There are also some new neighborhoods down 71 as well. Hit me up if you have any questions. While I'm a sales Mgr in the Industeial world, I've developed rural neighborhoods and had a RE License since 2004. I've helped a lot of friends and family find homes in Lakeway and Austin. Good luck! You really can't go wrong.

Whatever you do....and it appears you are thinking correctly...don't be one of the IDIOTS that live south and work north or vice a versa..

We live in Circle C area and have considered LT 3 times over the past 8 years and could never pull the trigger.

We enjoy the conveniences and amenities in Austin too much to mess with Traffic out there. The campus at LT high School is unreal, I just don't value the difference of education you get from Bowie to LT to Vandergrift to be all that much different.

Falcon head, lake point, Sweetwater, or anything on 71 is easy commute.

Drip is great as well. Lots of distilleries. You can avoid the Y as well if going SW pkwy.

I would think you could easily get from LTHS to end of SW parkway in under 30 minutes most days. I make that commute a lot - although I mostly work from home in old Lakeway.

I will say that my commute from my home in old lakeway to the other side of LTHS can add a good extra 15 to 20 minutes so the neighborhood does matter in terms of commute. Falconhead, Alta Vista, Lakepoint are all in good spots for commutes into Austin. We love living in old Lakeway and the extra drive time is well worth it.

All the schools in LT are great by the way.

I live between bee cave and Barton creek cc,

The stretch of 620 from the hill country galleria to just north of lakeway is the worst. You would hate it.

Get on google maps starting at about 4:00 and watch the area go red with traffic, everyday.

Good luck

Keep an eye on my neighborhood - Barton creek west. They don't stay on the market long and are within yards of Eanes ISD schools.

Thank you!

Wow. One listing in the whole neighborhood. We like Barton Creek a lot. Probably out of my price range. Can you ever find 3k to 3.5k sqft. In the $700k range?

In Eanes ISD? Probably only off Cuernavaca, or maybe in Lost Creek. Most start at about $900K+ for that square footage, though. I'll just say I'm glad I bought 20 years ago and leave it at that. Last 2 kids are in the spring semester of their senior year at WHS, so I'm just about done.

You could also try Woods of Westlake, Woods of Westlake Heights, or Parkstone, All are a reasonable hop down 360 to your office location. They are roughly the same distance to travel to the elementary school (Forest Trail for these neighborhoods, vs. Barton Creek elementary for Barton Creek West), much further to the middle school (those neighborhoods are zoned to West Ridge, which is *in* Barton Creek West), but *much* closer to the high school (just across 360). Woods of Westlake and Parkstone have direct access to the Barton Creek greenbelt.

Mookie said:

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None of those schools are terrible. Your kids are 5 and 8, you are way overthinking it.

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Yep. My daughter always has straight A"s, 4,7 GPA, in the NHS....and 26% at Vandegrift. Wants to go to A&M next year and has heard nothing from the school. Friends right in front of her got green light.

Great experience at Vandegrift, wouldn't trade it. But her class % in her class is killing her. Dreaded "2nd Quarter".

It isn't the worst thing to NOT go to a "top school". 2nd tier schools will still get the job done.

We just moved from the Uplands after 20 years but that's probably not in your price range - pretty much $1mm now but I would look in Lake Pointe. Elementary School in the neighborhood. My kids went to Catholic Schools in Barton Creek but LTISD is just fine. Have friends kids who went there and ended up at Ivy etc. Area has grown so much but Bee Caves is still relatively close and your commute would not be even close to the worse for Austin. West of Bee Caves adds a ton to your drive as so many developments out there. Dripping Springs has the Y in Oak Hill to get through and it isn't getting any better for a long time.

Good luck to you - my wife and I have 2 more years in Austin and we are gone. Can't handle it anymore and I was born and raised here.

We've been in uplands for 11 years and about to pull our kid from lake pointe and into a Barton creek catholic school (which one did you have kids in, we are looking at st gabe's, would love to get your feedback in the school offline) and I do love this neighborhood for all the reasons you stated as far as being a sweet spot of far west but don't have to deal with 71west or 620, as those are nightmares and only getting worse on 71 as they build and build and build. I would never g any further west than where we are. Too much of a traffic bottleneck with 71 and 620.

Why are you pulling from Lake Pointe?

Yes our kids did St Gabes and St Michaels. You live on Uplands Ridge ? Be more than happy to discuss.