I read an article in the Austin American Statesman today and this is one of my favorite lines, “it wasn’t so long ago as recently as the mid- to late 1990s that very few people were living downtown and of those that were, about 20 percent of them lived at the county jail.” We have seen a tremendous increase in the number of people living in the Downtown Austin Texas area in the past 5 years. Our last Mayor, Will Wynn, played a pivotal roll in this migration. Looking back it has been really great for the city. Before this push most of what we had downtown was work during the day and night clubs at night. Now when you visit the downtown area we see all kinds of life at any time of the day. It has made the downtown area a very vibrant place to go now. You can also see a change in the cleanliness of downtown Austin. With all the new condo and loft building being constructed and old office buildings being converted to lofts and condos it has had a major affect on the condition of the streets. The people who live downtown take an active roll in making sure their “neighborhood” is clean and safe. I gave up going downtown years ago, but I find myself going more often now. Lots of great new restaurants, and more and it is all walking distance away. I have a feeling if I did not have a 5 year old I would want to move there.
Price of downtown condos range from around $130,000 for about 300-400 sq ft up into the multimillion dollar pent houses. To get into one of the newer buildings in downtown Austin (not one of the converted office buildings) will start in the 250-275K range. If you need lots of space and don’t have a large budget looking into east Austin, east of downtown will help you get a little more bang for your buck.
To read the whole Statesman article click this link: http://www.statesman.com/business/downtown-austin-matures-into-vibrant-residential-area-2454507.html