Pleasant Valley

The Pleasant Valley neighborhood of Austin, Texas is located just south of Lady Bird Lake and has the Montopolis neighborhood to the east. This has historically been a struggling area of the city though there is some hope for a rebound in the near future. This neighborhood has long been home to students from the University of Texas at Austin and students today can take a shuttle bus to campus. New condominiums are under construction in many parts of the area and they carry a reasonable price tag of around $150,000. Still, with the neighbor this area has to the east, it still has a stigma it is working to overcome.

One of the best hopes for the area is Roy G. Guerrero Park. Currently under construction, when finished, it is designed to have baseball fields, picnic tables, playgrounds, softball fields, hiking trails, and volleyball courts on 362 acres of land. On the down side, there are several run-down apartment complexes that fuel a high crime rate and downgrade property values. This is not the place to raise a family at the present time, but an investment today could pay dividends later as the plight of this neighborhood improves.

This southeast Austin neighborhood covers a large area just south of Lady Bird Lake and a few miles east of Interstate 35. It contains a great deal of new construction, many of them apartment complexes and condominiums, with some residential areas as well. This neighborhood gets mixed reviews, partly because some areas are considered less safe than other parts of Austin, and there is not much in the way of Austin’s character and charm to be found here.

The boundaries for the Pleasant Valley neighborhood include Lady Bird Lake on the north, E. Oltorf Street to the south, S. Pleasant Valley Road to the west and Grove Boulevard to the east. Because of its mixed reputation and location in southeast Austin, housing prices are lower here than in many other parts of the city. Almost all homes, both old and new, can be found for under $200K, many of which were built between the mid-1970s and mid-1990s. But it is the rental properties that dominate this area, largely to accommodate the student population which finds this neighborhood conveniently located. The East Riverside campus of Austin Community College is found within the Pleasant Valley neighborhood, and many University of Texas students can be found along E. Riverside Drive. Area schools include Allison Elementary, Martin Middle School and Eastside Memorial High School at Johnston, which has had a troubled history.

Despite its bland reputation, residents in the northern part of the neighborhood have easy access to underutilized parts of Lady Bird Lake as well as up and coming Roy G. Guerrero Park, for which the city has grand plans. Housing is cheap here, and students will find themselves in good company. It’s probably not ideal for families. But for those willing to put up with the negatives, this neighborhood has potential.