Hancock

Situated in North Central Austin between Hyde Park and Upper Boggy Creek/Cherrywood, Hancock is extremely convenient to the UT campus, and not terribly far from downtown. Mostly single family homes, tucked away on a grid of leafy residential streets, Hancock is a safe and comfortable neighborhood.

A great convenience of living in this neighborhood is the Hancock Shopping Plaza, which houses a 24-hour fitness center and the city’s only 24-hour H-E-B grocery store. This store is huge! They have a great self-serve bulk foods section, and a good selection of organic food in addition to the cheap, cheap mainstream food they specialize in.

Hancock is also home to St. David’s Medical Center and Hancock golf course, as well as Eastwoods Park-- a lovely 9-acre park complete with basketball and tennis courts, playground and splash pad for kids, picnic tables, BBQ pits, half a mile of hiking trails, and a multipurpose field. There is also a statue of Eeyore located here (the donkey from Winnie the Pooh). The statue commemorates the 1963 founding of an annual Austin festival of springtime and hippie-dom called, Eeyore’s Birthday (originally held in Eastwoods Park every April, but held in Pease Park since the mid-70s).

Love golf? Then choosing a place to live in Austin, Texas has never been so easy. The Hancock neighborhood comes complete with a public 9-hole golf course within walking distance of anywhere in the neighborhood. You can get a condominium here for as little as $100,000 and the homes range from $250,000 and up. It is a safe and mostly upscale neighborhood that is quiet and home to many professionals and students associated with the University of Texas.

It's only a few minutes ride in a car or Capitol Metro bus to downtown, so it's perfect for the professional who works in that area. The area is served by the Austin Independent School District and there are a number of private schools in the area, Concordia Academy and St. Paul Lutheran, to name two. There are plenty of shopping options in the area with Hancock Center, which houses an Old Navy store, Marble Slab Creamery, and many others. There are a few great dining options in the area and locals can be found at Longhorn Poboys or the Crown and Anchor Pub.

If you have a family, or a are a single professional, the Hancock neighborhood of Austin is one of the city's better choices.

This modest-sized neighborhood in central Austin shares many of the characteristics of its well-known sibling to the west, Hyde Park. Situated in prime central real estate just north of the University of Texas, close to downtown, and bordering the main highway of I-35, this neighborhood is largely dominated by the nine-hole municipal Hancock golf course contained within its borders. An older established neighborhood, homes originally date back to the early 1900s.

Bordered by 45th Street to the north and 32nd Street to the south, Duval Street on the west and I-35 on the east, homes tend to run on the pricey side for such an ideal location. Quaint bungalows dominate the tree-lined streets, with a few apartment complexes interspersed throughout. One finds many professionals from the University living here, as well as students and some families. Houses tend to be more modest in size, yet average home prices fall in the mid-$300s. Schools serving this area include Lee Elementary and Ridgetop Elementary, Kealing Middle School and McCallum High School.

Hancock residents can take advantage of the neighborhood shops and restaurants found in Hyde Park. Shipe Park is near the north end with a playground and swimming pool, as well as the historic Elizabet Ney Museum, and Eastwoods Park is located on the south end. It is also convenient to the large Hancock Shopping Center, which contains a newly renovated HEB grocery store, fitness club, chain restaurants and stores that together pretty much provide everything anyone should ever need, making it possible to never have to stray far from the boundaries of this neighborhood.