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Tell me about River Place, Jester, Great Hills and Avery Ranch
DH and I are thinking about either moving or remodeling. We currently live near Far West and Mopac. We love our trees, good schools, proximity to downtown and being close to everything (HEB, library, gym, Catholic church). We don't like not having sidewalks, not having a park and pool close by and overall, the fact that there aren't a ton of kids/SAHMs in our hood.
We are going out to look at Jester, River Place, Great Hills and Avery (we'd prefer north side of Austin). Can you tell me about your neighborhood if you live in these areas? I want good schools, a swim team and lots of kids! TIA
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Re: Tell me about River Place, Jester, Great Hills and Avery Ranch
We live in Great Hills and really like it. We live in the South Side of Great Hills. We are actually only about 5 minutes from far west and mopac. I feel like we are close enough to central austin that we can get most places easily.
Our neighborhood has a park and a swimming pool. We have sidewalks and tons of people walk/jog with kids and pets. There are quite a few people with kids. We are slowly getting to meet other families. I'm pretty shy, but I think if I tried a little harder I would meet more people. There is country club as well that has a swim team and gold course (Great Hills Country Club). We aren't members, so I dont know much about the club.
As for schools, most of Great Hills is zoned for RRISD. I think the schools are great (Laurel Mt., Canyon Vista and Westwood). Part of Great Hills is zoned for AISD. Probably the same schools you are currently zoned for. We are in the AISD part of great hills (right on the line actually).
We bought in Great Hills when the market was really high. Property values are really low right now, so it might be a great time to get a good deal!
We are looking into those area (excluding Jester) but these are the Pro/Cons I have on my list:
River Place
Pros:
Really tight knit community
Nice neighborhoods
Great schools
Rapidly expanding
Cons:
(from what friends that live there tell me) it is very much a who's who and keeping up with the Jones
kind of secluded from downtown
commute to DH's work
Avery Ranch
Pros:
Close to DD's current preschool
Good location
Price/SQ is great
Cons:
Very much a planned community
right next to neighbors
not treed
cookie cutter (not my style)
Great Hills
Pros:
Old trees
Nice Lots
Potential for investment
Excellent schools all around
Good commute for DH
Nice parks nearby
Close to shopping
Cons:
Cost/SQ
hard to find a home without gutting it
I live in Avery. We like it (although, if we were to ever move again, it would be to a sans hoa place--that has nothing to do with avery, but hoas in general.)
Our neighborhood is nice. There are several pools and parks. We have a good amount of kids. Avery is in 2 districts--lisd and rrisd. At the moment, most of the east side is rr and the west side is lisd. The schools the students attend are all very good.
Yes it is a little cookie cutter, but you can do things with approval. We wanted to paint our house, we got approved, and it really helps to give our house some difference. It is close to 183 and from there, downtown is a breeze (for the most part--unless it rush hour.) It's close to a few sprinkler parks for the kiddos. Some divisions have bigger yards than others, so that's something that is a negative depending upon where you look.
We lived in Steiner before this and we are much happier here.
That is one thing I dont like about our neighborhood. Our Home Owners Association is nuts! They love to send us notices about random things like cutting our bushes. You also have to get any exterior projects approved. We haven't had a problem getting approvals, but it's a time consuming process. I think are yearly dues are about $300.
My nieces live in Jester along with several friends. Its a great neighborhood with the swim team, parks, pool, tennis courts, etc. Of the six families that I know that live there 5 of the dad's sah. I think that the cons would be the location. 360 is brutal pretty much anytime of day as is 2222 (outside of traffic I really worry about my 16 y.o. niece driving 2222 to get home from friends houses). Also, the schools are great but they are really far away from the neighborhood. That has really been an issues for ex-BIL/SIL.
I live in the Avery area and have a lot of friends in Avery and I love the area. It feels like a small city inside of a city up there. I have met so many people, there are constantly neighborhood activities for the kids, women's groups, men's poker groups, etc. Literally between my neighborhood and Avery, there is an activity every night of the week. My neighborhood and Avery combine a lot of activities. The pool at Avery is great and they have a great swim team. The tennis courts are very nice and you can pretty much always get on. The golf course is one of the nicest for the price in Austin and has great food and activities. It is a little cookie cutter but the East side of Parmer is really not too bad and you will find a lot of lots that have huge trees. The cons would probably be that it is farther north than the others but it is really a straight shot anywhere.
I had a good friend that lived in River Place and hated it. The location makes it very difficult to get anywhere quickly and she was constantly complaining about really bad accidents on that end of 2222. She also had a very difficult time finding her place in the cliques of sahms. She is a very social person but felt like she was back in highschool with the way that the women treated new commers and she felt like it was a constant contest between everyone (keeping up with the Joneses on steriods). They lived there for 5 years and loved loved loved their house, country club, schools, etc. but ended up moving becuase it was so difficult to become part of the social scene there and she felt uncomfortable in her own neighborhood. (They moved to Avery btw, and love it! And they have a house almost twice the size with a pool for way less.)
Despite Avery Ranch being a planned community I will say that another pro is so much community activity in that area. My friends live out there and there is always a social event for parents, kids or both. I wish that my community had events for me to get to know my neighbors.
I live in RP and we don't take advantage of the community at.all. There are definitely lots of kids in the neighborhood but we don't have any on our street so we're pretty secluded when it comes to getting to know neighbors. If I'm being honest, we have a good circle of friends outside the neighborhood and really haven't put much effort into getting to know the people around here.
I will say that the schools are great and (if you can afford it), the country club is excellent. Not having a neighborhood pool SUCKS - it is part of the country club - but we have a great park and there are lots of organized sport clubs that utilize our soccer fields (if your kids are into sports).
Traffic is the worst part of living out here. Being land-locked between 620 & 360 is horrible if you plan to go anywhere during rush hour and traffic on 2222 is getting worse by the day. There was a tragic accident at the entrance to our neighborhood a couple weeks ago - a runner was fatally killed by a car - and I saw another pretty bad accident (a couple cars smashed into each other) at the same intersection this morning when I was out and about.
I'm in Avery Ranch and like it. The schools are good (either side you're on).
We do NOT have a swim team (not sure which one you're thinking of, austx) and the latest on the neighborhood message board is that there are no plans to persue one.
There are a gagillion kids and depending on how much you want to put yourself out there, there are mom's groups and play dates. Honestly, I haven't taken advantage of them, so I can't tell ya all that much.
If you are not opposed to switching churches, St. Williams in Round Rock is about 15 minutes away (if you get caught at all the lights) and is a wonderful church. Plenty of Mass times, plenty of space, nice people. We really like it.
We have two HEBs close by, one at O'Conner and 620 and one at 1431 and Parmer. Downtown is easy, we are right on 183.
The library is a bit of a pickle. *Technically* we are in Austin, so we don't have rights to the Cedar Park library. We still go for story time, etc, but can't check out there. I have read that you can get an exception by going to an Austin branch and getting some kind of special card, but I never pursued that- I just use the branch on Spicewood and 183.
Trees. The neighborhood itself does not have established trees. I am spoiled, though, b/c our house faces Brushy Creek Trail. We literally walk across the street, down a hill, and it feels like you're no longer in a neighborhood.
I don't know if you're interested in new construction, but it's going on on both sides of Parmer right now. On the east side, it is Pearson's Place at Avery Ranch which, technically, is associated by name only. They will have their own pools, own HOA, etc. The west side new construction is still considered AR.
I think that's about all.
The card is the TexShare card. Fabulous, free program that gives you access to 700 libraries statewide. Takes about 5-10 minutes to have a card issued.
Alternately, many libraries will allow you to pay a fee a become a member as a non-resident. So if you didn't want the TexShare card, you could go to your chosen library and ask about how to get non-resident privileges.
I should clarify that when in my mind I think of a planned community (we live in one now) the houses are very similar, they are close together, etc. We like the planned events just not the aspect of the the other things. DH is from the East so we are looking more towards homes like that.
Not to make this an east side / west side thing
but I think the east side has a good bit of established trees. Not GH by any means... but to me if feels like a bit more than some of the other newer planned communities.
I'm betting that my DH will run a team at the AR pool if they don't start one in the next couple years, and he rocks! :-)
We live on the northern end of Great Hills, a block away from a park & green belt. No HOA, which I like. There are tons of SAHMs in the hood, and people walk with their kids or dogs past my front window all the time. Established trees, ~7 miles north of your hood so it's a bit farther to get downtown but not bad. I hear the schools are excellent & know they have exemplary ratings. Where I live there are 2 HEBs equally close and a library very close by. I don't think there's a neighborhood pool close by, but I always go to our gym for that so have never looked either. There's a country club for golf, swimming, tennis, but we're not members so can't speak to that. From the people we've met, we definitely don't get that keeping up with the Joneses vibe.
The downsides for us: we'd love to be closer to downtown. We'd love to be in your neighborhood actually! We lived there before buying this house but kids weren't on the radar then. I just asked DH for other downsides. He said "hailstorms!" but was kidding (kind of). The only other thing I can think of is that our particular street is really wide so people tend to zip down it at high speeds.
Not all the divisions have direct access to the trails. It kinda sucks because in Steiner, we had access down the road, now I don't know how to access them. I wish I could b/c I think L would love to walk on the trails.
We have owned two houses in Great Hills and have lived here for almost 10 years. We love it! People are really friendly and I like that it's a good mix of families, empty nesters, original owners and newbies. I love the trees, the big lots, the hills, the size of the houses. Love the laid back feel. It's just easy to live here.
It's super convenient to Target, Costco, HEB, 183, and 360. I commute to 5th Street and it takes me 20 min in the mornings, usually 30 minutes in the evenings. My husband commutes to RR and it's 20 minutes on the toll road.
There are a couple parks nearby (Great Hills Park and Oak View Park), one with tennis courts. We are AISD. Our kids are only 2 and 4 but our neighbors rave about Davis Elementary and Murchison Middle School.
No neighborhood pool is a drawback. The GHCC has social memberships where you can use the pool, the clubhouse and the tennis courts. They have family night on Friday where they have babysitters so the parents can hang out and relax. We aren't members but several neighbors are and like it.
Also, I feel like the SAHM thing varies street-by-street. On our old street, there were younger kids and more SAHM. On our new street we are the yongest homeowners and there are only two other families with kids similar in age to ours. I have three SAHM friends that live a few blocks away. However, I really think our neighborhood is about to start turning over...we have lots of people with grown children and I think those houses will start to turn over and younger families will move in.
One other con is that there are a lot of chain restaurants around. But I don't think that you can get away from that unless you are central.
Finally, I have noticed that a lot of the houses haven't been updated. Our block was built in the early 90's so it's hit or miss on updates. Of course, if you see this as an opportunity to make a house your own than it is no problem :-)