5 Lies About Cedar Park, TX – It’s Not What You Think!

Cedar Park is a superb area around Austin, but people have the wrong opinion of it. Today, we’re talking about five lies about Cedar Park.

The Daily Commute

The first lie is that if you live in Cedar Park, you will have to commute downtown to work, primarily if you work in the tech industry. This just isn’t true anymore. There’s a lot of commerce, business, and industry going up in Cedar Park, especially in the tech world.

A lot of tech companies are moving their headquarters to Cedar Park. They’re starting up there. They’re growing their employee base there. So it’s no longer the case where you will live in Cedar Park and have to drive 45 minutes downtown just to work.

There are companies in Cedar Park that are going to space. So, if you thought Elon Musk and Tesla were the only people near Austin going to space, you are sorely mistaken. There are companies in Cedar Park who were building rockets and satellites and going up there.

I like to tell people that downtown is where the old tech hub was. The Domain is where the new tech hub is, and Cedar Park and Leander is where the future of the tech hub will be in Austin. There’s a lot of growth in Cedar Park in the tech industry. It will continue to grow and expand over the next few years.

Lack of Fun Things in Cedar Park

The second lie about Cedar Park is that you must drive into the city if you want to do anything fun. Again, that’s just not true. The food, beverage, and entertainment industry has a lot of growth.

For instance, on the north side of Cedar Park, there is a huge event center, the HEB Event Center. They have pro hockey games, basketball games, and music shows, like my husband and I saw Tool there a few years ago. It is an incredible place where a lot of acts come into town. If they don’t want to go downtown to a huge stadium or a tiny venue, the HEB center is an excellent middle ground for all of that.

This weekend, they are having the rodeo at the HEB Center and the next weekend, Kumodi and Mace are coming. There’s a cool hip-hop show in October. Judas Priest and Alice Cooper are coming. So this isn’t just like Peppa Pig coming to HEB Center, which she’s coming to. Is it a she? I don’t know. But other cool acts are coming to Cedar Park. You don’t have to go downtown for the live music if you’re moving to Austin for entertainment, for music, things like that. You can live in Cedar Park and still do a lot of that stuff.

There are also a ton of bars, restaurants, breweries, wineries, and stuff like that in Cedar Park, where you don’t have to drive 45 minutes to downtown Austin to do so. One of my favorite places to go to is Red Horn. It’s a coffee shop and a brewery. Their current location has more of a coffee shop vibe, but they’re opening a second location close to the HEB Center. That’s going to be more of a production brewery, and it’s going to have more of a brewery vibe. So super smart. Get yourself a really good local craft beer, go to Alice Cooper, and see Judas Priest. Go to your hockey games or your basketball games. You can do all this stuff in Cedar Park today.

There’s No More Development

The third lie is that Cedar Park went through its growth phase and is now done. You have to go to Leander and Georgetown for all the new developments. That is not true. So yes, Cedar Park’s residential development is tapped out. It ended mostly last year. There may be some tiny pockets here or there, but for the most part, there’s no more new residential development going on in Cedar Park. There’s just no more land. All the land has been developed. It’s been built on. Tons of communities have been built.

The new areas for residential development are Leander, Georgetown, and Liberty Hill. Tons of new communities are being built right now that will continue to be built and developed several years into the future.

But Cedar Park is still going through their commercial development phase, which is usually how a lot of this works. So you’ll start with a residential development, and then once that gets going, it’ll fill in with the commercial and the industrial stuff. So, if you’ve read my other blogs, you may know about this area called the Domain. It’s in north Austin. It’s like a live-work-play area. They’ve got restaurants, shops, apartments, hotels, offices, all that good stuff. They’re building two Domain-like developments within Cedar Park.

The first one is called Indigo Ridge. It is a 1.5 billion development. It’s going to have more than 5 million square feet of space, and it’s going to be 155 acres. This will be one of the biggest multi-use live, work, and play areas in the Austin Zone. So that’s coming to Cedar Park. Also, another development called the Bell District. It’s going to have 16 acres of green space, libraries, parks, and restaurants. They’re going to have an outdoor venue so they can have music outside as well.

All this stuff is going up in Cedar Park, where the residential development is done, but the commercial development is still happening. It’s growing. As we talked about, businesses are moving there, and they’re growing there. But it’s not just office companies. The beverage, food, and entertainment industries are growing within Cedar Park. Okay, these next two lies I will talk about are somewhat controversial. It’s not all Skittles and rainbows. There’s some reality of what’s going on in Cedar Park.

Cedar Park is Affordable

The fourth lie is that Cedar Park is affordable. While this may be true when you compare Cedar Park to Austin proper, Cedar Park is incredibly cheap when you compare it to Austin. If we were to look for a 2,500-square-foot house downtown with three bedrooms or more, we would be paying 1.2 to $1.4 million. This is based on the most recent sales in Austin and Cedar Park.

So, for Austin, we’ll be paying about 500 to 550 per square foot, but in Cedar Park, it will be about 250 to 275. So, literally about half the price per square foot in Cedar Park when you’re comparing Cedar Park to Austin proper. But I still wouldn’t say that $675-700,000 is affordable for a 2,500-square-foot house. It’s definitely better than Austin, but it’s not affordable.

Cedar Park is a white-collar community; 75% of the jobs in Cedar Park are white-collar, and that is what the housing market will reflect.

Cedar Park is Diverse

The fifth lie is that Cedar Park is diverse. I’m sorry to say Cedar Park is getting more diverse, and Austin, in general, is becoming more diverse. We’re definitely growing in that direction. But as it stands today, I wouldn’t say that Cedar Park or Austin is diverse.

Austin is white. Cedar Park is white. 75% of the folks who live in Cedar Park are white. But we are growing in diversity, and it’s been getting better over the years. We still have a way to go. And this isn’t just Texas; Texas overall is relatively diverse. This is specific to the Austin Metro area.

Out of 501 of the biggest cities in the country, Texas has about six towns that are in the top 100 of being the most diverse. Austin isn’t on it at all. Cedar Park isn’t on it; I think it’s just because it’s too small. But I want to tell you what the other cities are that have much higher diversity, and we’re talking diversity in 13 different metrics. So we’re not just talking about culture; I’m talking about culture, education, socioeconomic status, and all that good stuff.

The most diverse city in the whole country is Houston. Obviously, Houston’s in Austin, so that will win hands down. Dallas came in at number four. Arlington was number eight. Fort Worth came in 25. Actually, Austin was 38. And when you compare Austin to Cedar Park, the demographics are pretty similar. And San Antonio came in 66th.

So, like I said, Austin and Cedar Park are becoming more diverse. We’re not quite there yet. We have some ground to make up compared to the other cities in Texas. It is improving, but just to let you know, it is 75% white in Austin and Cedar Park.

So next time you’re at a bar, and someone is telling you how much it’s going to suck to live in Cedar Park and drive downtown every day, that is not the case. You can work in Cedar Park, and you can work from home. There’s lots of tech and other industries growing in Cedar Park. It’s 100% possible never to leave the Cedar Park area. You don’t even have to go downtown if you don’t want to. You’ve got entertainment, food, drinks, all that good stuff. Cedar Park is its own self-contained entertainment mecca, and it’s a cool place to be.

If you’re interested in moving to Cedar Park, please contact me.