Last semester, I received a question from a reader about where MPA students live. It’s a great topic to get some interesting discussion and suggestions going, so I’m posting my reply to Jay here (with a few small additions) and hoping others will add their insights in the comments.

Hi Jay,

1. I recommend checking out this McCombs Web site. It pinpoints neighborhoods, gives ballpark prices, brief explanations, and more: http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/resources/austin/living-in-austin.asp

2. A purported valuable resource for people moving to Austin is Apartment Finders who don’t charge for their services (they are paid by the apartment complexes). I’ve heard they can be helpful since they get to know Austin’s neighborhoods for a living, and could be your eyes and ears if you live far away.

3. My own experience: I live in a northern suburb of Austin so it actually takes me about 20-40 minutes to get to campus each morning, depending on I-35 traffic (I’ve only ever missed class due to traffic once, and it happened to be the first day of class when the teacher had just explained that he shuts the door right on the hour and doesn’t allow people to come in late because it disturbs the class. When I walked in late and sat down, he stopped his lecture to tell me the rule and forgave this one, first-day occurrence. So, yeah. I stress a little about getting out the door early enough to get to school on time even when there’s a nine-car pileup, but all is good).

My wife and I seriously considered moving to an apartment closer to campus but decided to stay where we are since we like it here (we’ve owned a house here for two and a half years), the commute is reasonable (as long as we’re willing to stay on campus all day rather than going back and forth), and the cost of living is comparable to an apartment, if not better (our mortgage payment is $857 and the apartments we were looking at were around that same price range for less space and no equity).

When we were looking for an apartment, we were most interested in an apartment by the Arboretum (Northwest Austin – there are loads of apartment complexes there, varying from low $600’s to well over $1000/month) because it’s a nice area with a lot of shopping and restaurants, but it also has easy bus/shuttle access to campus, which is free for UT students. The Arboretum was about the farthest we would have wanted to be from campus to make a move worthwhile. It’s also less of a student area, from what we could tell.

Downtown seemed a bit pricey for us and we weren’t interested in West Campus (primarily undergraduates getting less sleep than we like to get, so people say). East of I-35 is rumored to have more crime than other areas, though I know a few people who have lived in nice complexes there with no problems and lower rent. So it’s up for debate.

In summary, check out that McCombs Web site (above), look through the various neighborhood descriptions, and contact an Apartment Finder for more information. Craigslist.com is sure to have some listings for apartments with roommates as you get closer to matriculation.

And remember this is all advice coming from someone who lives far from campus in a house! So take it for what it’s worth.