Austin's Bouldin Creek Offers Hip Luxury
This week we jump to Austin, Texas. Boudin Creek, is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Austin, Texas and offers a truly artistic, bohemian vibe!
Austin’s Bouldin Creek Offers Hip Luxury
Homes range from 1920s bungalows to contemporary houses
Bouldin Creek, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Austin, Texas, offers an artistic, bohemian vibe in a sublime suburban setting of streets shaded by Heritage Oak trees.
“With its cool shops, it’s the perfect embodiment of hip Austin,” says Shay Millheiser, a global real estate advisor with Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty. “The residents are well-off, but the atmosphere of the neighborhood is understated, not ostentatious.”
Founded around 1900, Bouldin Creek is named after Col. James Bouldin, an early settler, and the creek that runs through it. Unlike other communities in the city, it’s designed for walking, whether you’re wearing cowboy boots or Christian Loboutins.
It’s a place where longtime residents, young professionals with families, and the occasional celebrity co-exist as equals. “Bouldin Creek,” Millheiser says, “has a little bit of something for everyone.”
A home in Bouldin Creek, one of Austin’s most well-heeled areas. $799,000 Listed by Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty
A Mix of Old and New Homes
The community, which is bordered by South Congress Avenue on the east, the Union Pacific railroad tracks on the west, Barton Springs Road on the north, and West Oltorf Street on the south, offers a mix of housing styles, ranging from newly constructed and newly renovated homes to classic 1920s and 1930s bungalows. Regardless of style or date, single-family homes generally are on 0.15-acre lots.
There is also a variety of prices. While the most desirable newer homes, which have three or more bedrooms, are $1.2 million to $2 million, vintage homes that need a fair amount of updating sell for around $600,000, Millheiser says.
The neighborhood also offers condos of varying ages that, according to Millheiser, range from $275,000 for smaller, older units to $800,000 for modern, new-construction ones.
“It’s possible to get into the single-family-home market for $550,000,” she says. “That would be for a fixer-upper. The land itself on a typical lot is worth $400,000 to $450,000.”
A view of the Texas city from Zilker Metropolitan Park, a highlight of Bouldin Creek
What Makes it Unique
From its flock of wild peacocks to its funky-fare food trucks and clusters of mom-and-pop coffee shops, Bouldin Creek understates its affluence with an eccentric flair. “All the stores are local,” Millheiser says. “You don’t see chains.”
South First Street, the commercial corridor, features the Bouldin Creek Café, which serves meatless meals and what it bills as the city’s best hangover cure—The Leveler, with Guinness, espresso, and chocolate; Seventh Flag Coffee Co., a hangout for locals who stop to sip and chat; and Sway, an award-winning, upscale modern Thai restaurant.
Green Pastures, the onetime estate of the neighborhood’s founder and home base for the roaming peacocks, operates as a restaurant and special-events venue. The gustatory scene is dominated by food trucks with punny names, such as Granarly, which offers hand-crafted whiskey-granola blends; Bananarchy, whose frozen banana concoctions include The GOB, a $10 dessert that features two bananas stuck together, double-dipped in chocolate, and rolled in nuts; and Gourdough’s, which creates funky doughnuts like the Flying Pig, with bacon and maple syrup icing.
Other Austin-centric shops include Texas Custom Boots, which sells handmade cowboy boots; the Martinez Brothers Taxidermist; Turntable Records, which offers vintage vinyl; and Mana Culture, a boho boutique with apparel and jewelry.
What can’t be found in Bouldin Creek can be found nearby. For clubs, residents head to the South Congress neighborhood, an entertainment hub about a half-mile away.
Bouldin Creek includes Nicholas Dawson Neighborhood Park, where community artwork meets nature, and Zilker Metropolitan Park, which covers 350 acres.The South Austin Recreation Center, which offers sports ranging from volleyball to kickball, and Auditorium Shores, an urban park, are within walking distance of the neighborhood.
One of Bouldin Creek’s main attractions, Millheiser says, is its location. “It’s a stone’s throw from downtown,” she says. “And it’s only three miles from the University of Texas.”
