I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you….

Allandale? GMAB. Most definitely NOT walkable – the proto-suburban-sprawl poster-child.

BTW, we could have had great light rail in 2000. Almost did, and it would have been running by now. Commuter rail, which passed in 2004, will not only never work for most of us (2000 per day capacity compared with 46,000 per day predicted on LRT in 2000), it even prevents light rail from ever happening later on.

| ALLANDALE | As an alternative to Far West, the Allandale area is just across the highway and property values are pretty sexy there. There is a house listed right now for $259,000 among homes for more, so there ARE deals to be found! (MLS#8798800)

| HIGHLANDS | The alphabet roads around 51st street (just west of IH35) are great because they are near the Capmetro routes, shopping is nearby (although I’d drive to those instead of walk because of IH35). There’s a super cute house that was just remodeled and is a heck of a deal for that area (MLS#5949913) and because of the Mueller redevelopment, this is a great place to be!

There’s a new tool online where you can check out homes on a map and with a simple slider you can adjust prices, home sizes, even see Google Street View etc. (and search for MLS numbers up top)- check it out and tell us **where YOU think is the best place to live**:
http://www.singlepointerealty.com/search/allcities

@Shilli- the truth is that Austin (unless you’re downtown) is NOT a truly walkable city like Portland or Seattle, you know? It’s tough, but the closest you can get to a walkable city is one with a shopping center nearby that is diverse enough to keep you entertained and fulfill your needs (like groceries) and a nearby bus if you need to get downtown or other areas. I used to live at Far West and didn’t have a car- I *loved* walking down the hill to El Arroyo, HEB, Blockbuster, Quizno’s, the cleaners, Starbuck’s, Wendy’s, the post office and more. I took the bus to downtown and the UT campus and loved it! But the walk was much more of a workout than going down an elevator to a retail district, you’re right!

@Tim- As for pricing, there are awesome deals to be found but like downtown, you’ll sacrifice some space to live here. Plano?

@Stella- Come on, don’t say Austin and Plano in the same sentence, I just might send you to your room. It’s cool that you live downtown, I think I just had a twitch brought on by jealousy. Problem for me is that it’s hard to go from a 3000sf house for the same price as a 900sf loft- call me the crazy cat lady but 3 cats, a dog, 2 kids and my husband would crowd me! I’m cool with hopping in the car OTHERS are not though, and should move downtown (with the only truly good walkability in Austin).

Round Rock is way too damn far away.

Far West is nice, but not the best walkability compared to price. Isn’t it almost as much to buy a house there as closer to downtown?

I’ll give a plug for 78741. We get a 57 walk score and there are still some reasonably priced houses there.

http://austinist.com/2008/04/10/reblogging_live_1.php

Also, I gave the wrong zip for Round Rock in my last comment – I meant 78664.

I think the idea of finding affordable locations with high “walk scores” is a good one, but don’t pretend that you are going to be walking a lot if you live in Far West, Round Rock or Sunset Valley. Any other ideas?

Luckily, Austin isn’t so big and you can go almost anywhere within a reasonable amount of time- as long as it’s not rush hour. But where’s the proper public transportation? how convenient would it be to walk a couple of miles to a train/ light rail/ subway… no driving and no rush hour hassles? I think that would make Austin near perfect and living in the burbs wouldn’t be considered such a bad/ un-hip way of life. Now, can we do something about the summer heat?

I would LOVE living in a loft but I’m cool with the ‘burbs and so are my kids who are grateful we don’t live in a 2 bedroom loft (but if I were single, that would be a different story…).

Thanks for the comment!! If there are real estate tips, analysis or stories you’d like to hear about, let us know!