What No One Tells You About Moving to Pflugerville | Living in Pflugerville, TX

So there’s a city in Texas with an unusual name that you may or may not have heard of, but it has an awesome reputation as one of the best places to live in Texas.

Pflugerville, Texas, is home to more than 60,000 people and is an ideal place to enjoy beautiful, peaceful suburban life. From beautiful trails, parks, and schools to fun places to visit, there is something for everyone in Pflugerville.

But as a suburban city, there are things you need to know when you live in Pflugerville that people don’t talk about and should know about this beautiful city. So, in this blog post, we’ll get into what you should know about Pflugerville.

So aside from its unique name, Pflugerville is a great place to live as it’s close to the big city. It’s about 30 minutes north of Austin, between I35 and 130, and close to the 45 intersection.

Pflugerville is Accessible

So 130 and 45 are both major toll roads in the area, not necessarily roads that you want to take every single day to get to where you’re going, but I’ve talked to some of my clients who have moved here from Seattle where they’re paying $14 a day to commute to and from work.

So if you drive on 130 or 45 to get downtown or go to your office and pay one or $2 a day, it beats a $ 14-a-day toll road. Pflugerville is connected to some of the most convenient highways, and getting anywhere you need to get to Austin from Pflugerville is effortless.

You may not know this, but Pflugerville is a mid-sized city in Travis County, and it has consistent growth with new residents. The city has been ranked as one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. As a suburban area, Pflugerville feels pretty urban, which can be more fast-paced than the surrounding suburban areas but not as big and fast-paced as downtown Austin.

However, with the consistent growth of new residents, it’s no surprise that the city has a booming job market, with many businesses moving to the area. Pflugerville has a workforce that adds significantly to the community’s economy.

Business is Booming

With small businesses and major companies relocating to the city, business is booming in Pflugerville, bringing more development. In the past year, Pflugerville has increased its job market by 3.5%, and things are expected to stay on track and continue growing.

The city has a projected increase of 50.5% in the job market. This is impressive because Pflugerville’s growing job market is higher than the country’s average, and there are many job opportunities in industries like science, technology, manufacturing, and retail.

This beautiful city has an unemployment rate nearly 30% lower than the national average. This means that in Pflugerville, you can find more jobs, better salaries, and exciting opportunities, like lots of room to grow here.

Over the past few months, many new businesses have been opening or are about to soon open in the area. Pflugerville is attracting new businesses quickly, from restaurants to coffee shops to retail. However, it’s no surprise that companies continuously move to the area because it offers development opportunities and incentives and has access to significant distribution channels. There is an Amazon distribution center in Pflugerville because it’s close to all the highways and has effortless access to the entire area.

When it comes to available incentives, the city of Pflugerville offers Triple Freeport Exemption, Texas Capital Fund, and Chapter 380 Financing. These incentives are geared toward businesses to help boost the suburban area’s growth and expansion.

Businesses move to Pflugerville because it offers access to major distribution channels, a huge advantage for this city. This is the first time anyone may have told you this, but Pflugerville has easy access to major US and Texas highways. So, the city is conveniently located in the center of four major highways. We talked about a few of them before. It has major pathways in and out of this city, and with lots of growth and development, it’s easy to see why so many businesses are moving here.

Low Crime Rate

Let’s talk about the crime rate. This is something other than what usually comes up at regular water cooler talk, and you may be wondering, with all the growth going on at Pflugerville, is the crime rate higher? What is it like compared to the rest of Austin?

Something to remember is that Pflugerville has a low crime rate, which is lower than the national average and many other state averages.

We’re talking about two types of crime, violent crime, which includes assault, murder, rape, and property crime, which provides for theft and arson. To put things into perspective, the violent crime rate in Pflugerville is one to a thousand people, significantly lower than the national average. The property crime rate is 13 to a thousand people, which is also lower than the national average.

Still, crime could be a problem in some areas of the city, just like in any other major city or suburb. There are some great neighborhoods and some neighborhoods with higher crime rates.

So, it’s still imperative to do your research when looking at what neighborhood you pick and where you should hang out. Is this one safe? I’m talking about Pflugerville overall, but each neighborhood is different. With more businesses moving to the area and its growing population, crime rates are low, and the city is safe overall.

Excellent Schools

Let’s talk about schools. Pflugerville is a family-friendly city, and this is one of the things that’s made it attractive to live there. This city’s excellent schools are one of the reasons that it’s great for families with kids.

Pflugerville has a ton of schools. The Pflugerville Independent School District operates 20 elementary schools, six middle schools, four high schools, and two alternative schools. The schools are attended by thousands of students who live in Pflugerville, Austin, Manor, and Round Rock.

The school district covers a hundred square miles with several campuses, and they’ve achieved the coveted performance rating by the Texas Education Agency based on academics and graduation statistics.

Recently, the Pflugerville School District received an overall rating of 85 or a B from the Texas Education Agency. So, with a 97.3 high school graduation rate, district schools offer outstanding educational opportunities. On a state level, they’re well above the average.

The city is also just minutes from the University of Texas at Austin, and students can choose from many other public and private colleges within 30 miles of the city.

Parks and Outdoor Activities

So, as far as things to do, Pflugerville is not just well known because of the thriving job market and the excellent schools, but this incredible suburban city is also a great place to live and have fun.

It has tens of parks, trails, and green spaces, and there is something for everyone to do. So, for parks, there’s Pfluger Park, one of the area’s largest parks. It has about 30 acres of trails. It has play areas, cozy picnic spots, basketball courts, volleyball courts, and everything else.

It’s one of the best ways to spend an entire day in this city big enough to do all the activities, tire everyone out, go home, have a pizza, and nap.

The famous Lake Pflugerville Park is another top spot with chock-full stuff to do. From fishing to kayaking, swimming to boating or running trails, there’s something for every person to do at this 180-acre reservoir.

You can also watch the sunset at Lake Pflugerville. Nothing is more calming than exhausting yourself at the park, chilling at night, watching the sunset go down, and going home to have a lovely, relaxing evening.

There are many other natural parks in Pflugerville, like Mirror Lake Park and Pfennig Park. Each park covers 10 acres of land, making it perfect for all outdoor activities.

One of my favorite things to do is go to the parks in Austin, especially when it’s a windy day. I’m out there trying to run and trying not to get my hat blowing off and everything, and usually, on those days, it’s cooler, and there are tons of people out there with kites.

Kites are massive in Austin, especially in the parks where everyone’s room to play, and the kites will stay out of one another. It’s so awesome to go out there and watch people with their kites, and it’s like some people have plain whatever, white construction paper kites it looks like, and other people go all out with these beautiful colorful kites, and they’re just dipping and flying everywhere.

I love the parks here because there’s a ton of parks everywhere in and around Austin, and two, it’s not just like, oh, there’s a playground here, and there’s a mulch you can play on. It’s like a lot of open space. You can go and be outside and enjoy being out there.

In Pflugerville, you can enjoy sporting activities at the Northeast Metropolitan Park. This multi-use recreational area has tennis, soccer, cricket, and baseball fields, and it even has a BMX racetrack and a skate park. So, if you’re into any sports, that’s an excellent spot.

I love that there are a lot of parks in and around Austin that are starting to include skate parks and places for BMX and stuff like that. My husband was a skateboarder, and it was frustrating for him only to find tennis and basketball courts when he was growing up.

So, he had to start the first skate club at our university. We both went to the University of Florida, and he’s like, you know what? We need a skate club. So, he started the first skate club at UF, which is so cool.

Pflugerville also has an outdoor water park, typhoon, Texas, right in the heart of the city, and it’s one of the biggest attractions in Pflugerville. This water park has 30 unique attractions like water slides, wave pools, and everyone’s favorite, the Lazy River.

Many cities around Pflugerville have stunning outdoor spaces, but Pflugerville stands out because of its access to waterfront activities, especially on the east side of Austin. The west side, where the river runs through everything, is gorgeous. It looks just like California when you’re driving through. It’s like hills and trees everywhere, and the river is dammed off to give you just different lakes depending on what dam you’re next to.

That’s on the west side, on the east side, and an affordable side of Austin. You’ve got Pflugerville, which has just a lot of charming waterfront stuff to do. It’s just a beautiful place to live.

Pflugerville is a Foodie City

Let’s talk about restaurants. With many businesses lining up to join this amazing business development area, Pflugerville is a foodie city. I would not have thought this.

I moved to Austin primarily because of the food and the music, not necessarily because of Pflugerville’s food and music. Still, the scene is up and coming, and it’s developing as an area to go to for food and stuff like that.

One of the best places to eat in Pflugerville is this barbecue place called Brotherton’s Black Iron Barbecue, which was voted as the best barbecue in Pflugerville. Of course, they got briskets. Texas is a cow town or a cow state rather. So everything is beef, so it’s briskets or beef ribs. If you’re lucky enough to find somewhere that’s got beef ribs, order them because they’re amazing.

If you’ve never seen a beef rib, it’s not like these little pork ribs. It looks like a Fred Flintstone rib you’d get if you lived in caveman times.

Anyway, this barbecue place has awesome briskets, and most places will have pulled pork, Turkey sausages, and things like that. But, in Texas, it’s like the flagship here is brisket. So wherever you go, you must try the brisket or the sausage.

Another cool thing about Pflugerville is it’s not just growing and increasing as far as the restaurants and the type of food that is here, but it’s also expanding as far as bars, drinks, craft beer, and things like that. The Spirit of Texas Bruce Distillery offers some of the finest crafted cocktails in Texas. You can pick from over 30 cocktails to give you this real Texas vibe.

Also, the Growler Bar and Kitchen is famous for its excellent beer selection in Pflugerville, and it’s kid-friendly with a handful of arcade games and pizza somewhere. You could bring the whole family, and everyone can just chill out and do their thing.

Pflugerville also has a lot of coffee shops that will satisfy your coffee cravings and give you a place to hang out, study, or just be quiet and catch up with friends. The city is so full of activities to do. It’s got parades, festivals, and just a chock-full of stuff for you to do every month. And if the ground activities aren’t your jam, you can get a bird’s eye view of this city with the ATX heli-tours.

This tour allows you to tour the city of Austin and the entire Austin area from a helicopter. This is something that I still need to do. One of my friends said one of these tours in Dallas looked insane. It’s definitely something on my bucket list to try.

If you’re more adventurous or just a gun-friendly person, you can stop by Red’s indoor range and practice your marksmanship skills. So, at this range, you can learn how to shoot a gun in a 100-yard indoor range from trained firearm experts.

You might have heard me talk about how I don’t love how Texas is so gun-friendly and that you just see guns everywhere on the street, in the library, etc. That’s all true, but I am totally for learning how to use a firearm safely and according to protocol.

Everyone should practice their marksmanship and learn how to operate their gun in a safe way. The range has a bit of history itself as this is the oldest shooting range in Austin, designed for indoor rifle and pistol practice.

Pflugerville’s Old Town

Pflugerville is also home to a historic downtown area called Old Town. It’s got about 30 businesses there, and it’s great for shopping for residents, for people who are just visiting somewhere to kind of meander around and get a sense of what the town is all about, who lives here, what businesses are here, stuff like that. It’s a vibrant space for dining, drinking, entertainment, or just taking a walk around and entertaining yourself.

So, as a plus, Pflugerville recently undertook a revitalization project to improve and upgrade this little old town’s downtown area. This project has helped preserve the old town’s historic charm while attracting more people to the area. So totally a win-win.

There is so much to do in Pflugerville that you can’t get bored. There’s something for kids and adults, and it’s perfect for the whole family.

What’s the Weather Like?

So what about the weather? With so many fun outdoor activities, you might wonder what the weather is like. Can I do these things year-round?

For most of the year in Pflugerville, it’s sunny. The city has about 231 sunny days a year. This is above the US average, which is only 205. So Pflugerville has got an extra month of sun built-in.

The city gets some precipitation for about three to four months in the year. It’s mostly going to rain.

It only snows in Austin once a year, and even on that one day, it’s probably not going to stick. You may remember we had a snowpocalypse in February of 2021. The snow and ice sit on the ground for several days. That is not normal. If it snows at all, it will only snow for one day. It’s usually not going to stick. So when we talk about precipitation, we mainly talk about rain, fog, and things like that.

It gets sweltering when it is summer in Pflugerville and Austin. And the winters are pretty short, cold, and windy, nothing compared to what you’ll find in New York, Minneapolis, and Boston. It gets down to maybe the thirties. It’s gotten into the teens and twenties a couple of winters. Those are rare, and it’s not like that all day. When the sun comes out, it returns to 30 again.

The weather is mild other than the summers, and it gets boiling in all areas around Austin. This year was scorching. We started at a hundred degrees on June 4th and lasted through early October, the most extended, hottest summer we’ve had.

I think it’s on record as the hottest summer that we’ve had. Hopefully, it’s not that bad next year, but that’s what we get when the rest of our weather is mild, so it’s got to give somewhere.

Demographics

Let’s talk about demographics in Pflugerville. Who lives here? Who is here? So no one may tell you what the demographics are like, but for a city booming with the business development and filled with many young adults, many people are looking to move here, start a family or grow their family.

So, most of the population is between 18 and 65, with an average of around 37. It’s important to know the city’s demographics, especially if you want to start a business there. So this is why companies are moving to Pflugerville. The young population has allowed businesses and jobs to survive and thrive.

Because of Pflugerville’s vibrant economy, the cost of living in Pflugerville is lower than the national average. In most cities in the state, the overall average housing costs, utilities, transportation, healthcare, and other services are less expensive.

Housing Cost

Let’s talk about the housing costs in Pflugerville for a minute. As a general rule of thumb, the further away you are from downtown Austin, from Austin proper, the more affordable homes are going to be and the further your dollar is going to stretch, Pflugerville is pretty close to downtown.

It’s about 20 minutes from downtown Austin, so it’s not as far as where they’re building new construction like Leander, Liberty Hill, Georgetown, or all those places. But it’s more affordable than in this city.

What’s interesting about Texas and Austin in general is the only thing that makes Austin’s cost of living high or higher than the national average is the housing. Everything else is either at or below the national average and Pflugerville is no exception.

For things like utilities, transportation, healthcare, everything else, all that’s below the national average, I’m afraid I have to disagree that the housing costs are below the national average. I’m not sure where this data company is getting their information, but Pflugerville is above the national average because it’s tied to Austin, and Austin is so expensive. So, it’s just something to keep in mind.

So, according to PayScale, the cost of living in Pflugerville is 4% lower than the national average. However, transportation costs, like bus fares and gas prices, are 5% higher than the national average. But groceries and utilities are all lower.

There’s little wonder why this city is bustling with new businesses and new residents, and with it being so close to all the major highways, your commute into town for work is not even going to be that bad. So, if you’re considering moving to the Austin area or interested in the suburbs, contact me. I’ll be glad to help you out.