Where to Live in Austin as a Young Professional (2026)

“Where should I live in Austin?” is one of the first questions people ask us when they’re moving here for a new job. We’re Ali and Muizz. We lived in Austin through college and a few years after, and we now run four shared homes around the city. Here’s our honest take on the neighborhoods that come up most, with the numbers to back it up.

Do you need a car in Austin?

Yes, for most people. Austin as a whole has a Walk Score of 42, and most jobs, grocery stores, and neighborhoods are spread out and built around driving. Downtown is the exception: you can get by without a car if you live and work there.

Even downtown, we’d still recommend having a car. Many of the best things about Austin, like the lakes, the Hill Country, and good food all over town, are a drive away. With a car, you aren’t tied to one neighborhood, and you can live wherever makes sense for your job and budget.

What are the best neighborhoods in Austin for young professionals?

Here’s how the neighborhoods people ask about most compare:

Downtown

Downtown is great if you work downtown. You can walk to the office, to dinner, and to Lady Bird Lake, and it’s the one part of Austin where going without a car really works. It’s also the most expensive place to rent in the city, at about $2,841 for an average one-bedroom. In our experience, the people who live downtown mostly work there. If your job is somewhere else, you’re paying a premium to then drive out of downtown every day.

East Austin

Central East Austin, east of I-35 around East 6th Street, East Cesar Chavez, and Holly, has changed a lot. Many of its older houses have been renovated, and new bars, coffee shops, and food spots keep opening, which makes more of it walkable. Rents have followed: one-bedrooms average about $1,800 to $2,150, well above the city average.

Mueller

Mueller is a nice in-between. It’s a planned neighborhood on the site of Austin’s old airport, about 7 minutes from downtown, with walkable streets, shopping nearby, a lake and park, and a farmers market on weekends. It comes with a premium price, about $2,129 for an average one-bedroom. If you work outside Mueller, you’ll want a car.

Zilker and Barton Springs

Zilker is a relaxed, outdoorsy neighborhood just south of Lady Bird Lake, next to Zilker Park and Barton Springs Pool. It’s one of the nicest parts of Austin and one of the priciest outside downtown, at about $2,028 for an average one-bedroom. We drive over from our homes all the time, and you can too if the rent there doesn’t fit your budget.

South Congress

South Congress, or SoCo, is just south of downtown across Lady Bird Lake. South Congress Avenue is lined with restaurants and shops and has a view of the Capitol, and the streets around it are fairly walkable. It also draws a lot of tourists, especially on weekends. One-bedrooms in the neighborhoods on either side, Bouldin Creek and Travis Heights, average about $1,800 to $2,000.

The Domain

The Domain is a mini-downtown in North Austin, with lots of shopping, restaurants, and nightlife. Most of the housing there is apartments, and one-bedrooms in the surrounding North Burnet area average about $1,613. If you work at the Domain itself, you could get by without a car. It’s also close to many of north Austin’s tech employers, though about 17 minutes from downtown.

East Riverside

East Riverside is usually the cheapest place to rent that’s still close to downtown, at about $1,254 for an average one-bedroom, below the city average. It’s about 7 minutes from downtown and close to the airport. Beyond the location, there isn’t a lot to do there.

East Riverside also has more crime than most of Austin (see the next section), and some of our residents moved out of the area because of problems they’d dealt with there. We don’t recommend it unless you need something central on a tight budget and are comfortable with that trade-off.

Which Austin neighborhoods have the most crime?

Central Austin has more reported crime per resident than the city as a whole, because that’s where the bars, crowds, and visitors are. Here’s how reported property crime in 2025 compares across the popular neighborhoods above, Austin as a whole, and the areas around our four homes:

A few things stand out:

• Downtown and central East Austin have the highest rates, but a lot of that comes from nightlife and visitors, counted against a fairly small number of residents.
• East Riverside has fewer bars and visitors than downtown or East Austin, yet still had more than twice the citywide rate of violent crime.
• Property crime is high across all of central Austin, from about 1.7 times the citywide rate in East Riverside to more than 4 times downtown.
• Around our homes, property crime is much lower. Near Arborside, it’s about the citywide rate. Around Mary Lewis, Caballo Blanco, and Chapala in Manor, it’s well below it. All four are well under every popular neighborhood in the table.

What does property crime mean for you?

Property crime is the kind most likely to touch your day-to-day life: a package taken from your doorstep, a car window broken to grab a bag, a stolen car or bike, and less often, a break-in. It isn’t a reason to avoid central Austin, and plenty of people live there happily. It does mean being a bit more careful wherever you live in the city:

• Don’t leave anything visible in your car, even a gym bag or charging cable.
• Bring packages in quickly, or ship them to a pickup locker or your office.
• Lock your car and your bike every time, and use a solid U-lock for the bike.
• Ask about parking: a garage or a driveway is safer than street parking in the busiest areas.

Should I live close to work or close to downtown?

Unless you work downtown, we’d usually live closer to work if you go into the office, even a few days a week. Most of Austin’s big employers aren’t downtown: Tesla is on the far east side, Samsung and Applied Materials are in the northeast, and Dell, Apple, and many other tech companies are in north Austin and Round Rock. Living near work cuts your daily drive, and the neighborhoods above are still a short drive away for evenings and weekends.

If you work downtown, or fully remote, living centrally makes more sense, as long as the rent fits your budget. Our employer guides show drive times from different parts of town to each big employer.

Where do Amsoo Properties’ homes fit?

Our homes are spread around the Austin area, a bit further out than the neighborhoods above. That’s what keeps them affordable: rooms currently run $700 to $1,050 a month, plus an even share of utilities of about $100 to $150, compared with $1,600 to $2,800 for a one-bedroom in most of the neighborhoods above.

Here’s how far each home is from the popular spots, door to door without traffic:

What you get with a room in one of our homes:

• Lower rent than a one-bedroom in any of the neighborhoods above, with furnished common areas, so there’s less to buy.
• Screened housemates. Every resident meets the same standard (credit, income, and a background check), and our homes are made up of working adults. Residents have worked at Tesla, Samsung, Dell, and Cloudflare, among others.
• Closer to work for many jobs. Our homes are near Tesla, Samsung, Applied Materials, and north Austin’s tech campuses.
• Easy access to the rest of Austin. We don’t have just one favorite part of Austin, and with a car, you don’t need to pick one either. Our own weekends include the Mueller Farmers Market, boating on Lake Travis, and swimming at Gus Fruh on the Barton Creek Greenbelt.

See open rooms, or fill out the interest form and tell us where you’ll be working.