Downtown Austin

I have taken a particular interest in downtown Austin development. Downtown (or at least a central gathering place) is important to the health of any city. Downtown Austin is the economic, cultural, and political center of Austin. The definition of downtown varies, but most people would agree that downtown is defined by Town Lake to the South, I35 to the east, Lamar to the West, and the State Capital to the north.

There is currently a downtown construction boom. One can see all the construction cranes that are scattered all over the city. The mayor (Will Wynn) and city government are making an effort to promote a denser downtown core by zoning a large number of mixed use, high rise buildings. The idea is to create a pedestrian friendly, dense, urban core where people can live, work, shop, and play all within walking distance (or a Dillo ride) where one is not dependent on their car. The goal is to reduce the amount of urban sprawl and traffic by creating a denser urban core. For this reason, all future high rise buildings now currently under and being planned are mixed use buildings. The general model is to have retail on the first floor with condos, apartments, and/or office spaces on the higher floors.

After living in both a house in the suburbs and currently a downtown, I must say that I prefer the downtown lifestyle. It is incredibly convenient to be able to be able to wake up, and get to work and back within 5 to 10 minutes by walking or riding a bicycle. This saves an incredible amount of time that isn't spent stuck in traffic. Outside of work, it's also great to have all of the city's best activities so close. Even when it is something that isn't going on within downtown, the location is probably ideal to getting there. For example, I currently work at Dell in Round Rock. Commuting to Round Rock from downtown Austin is must easier as I have traveling against rush hour traffic instead of with it. Living downtown is about the convenience, the amenities, and saving time by sacrificing living space and perhaps a bit of privacy, compared with living in the suburbs or country. The lifestyle is certainly not for everybody, especially for those that have large families with children that need living space or for anyone that has a lot of material possessions that they need to store. It is not cheap to live downtown or anywhere close in to the city. A 1 bedroom condo in one of the new high rise buildings can easily run over $300K. Renting 1 bedroom apartment currently costs around $1500/month. That's over twice the monthly rent of a typical 1 bedroom apartment in the suburbs.

Nevertheless, downtown is where most of the action is. The Texas state and Austin City government is located here as well as the University of Texas. These are the some of the largest employers in Austin. You will also find all of the museums, conventions, fairs, festivals, and special events downtown. If you have an active social lifestyle, it is an important place and even if you don't, there is a high probability that your job is here.

Living Downtown - Condos and Apartments

There are dozens of new condos and apartments that have been announced for downtown. It isn't clear at this point how many of these will actually be built. Here are some of the nicer places to live downtown that have already been built, are definitely going to get built, or currently construction: