Downtown
$3K median rent
Rainey, Sixth, and the warehouse blocks live here. Highest walk score, highest nightlife, and a crime rate inflated by visitors.
Austin/East Cesar Chavez
Official planning area: East Cesar Chavez
Data vintage. ACS 2024 5-year · APD Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · OSM Aug 2026 · updated Sep 2026
East of the highway, still close enough to walk downtown. Music, murals, and a nightlife score that is not subtle.
Best in Austin for familiesWalkable AustinUnder $2,500 rent
18 violent · 167 property · 60.6 per 1k (Sep 2025 – Aug 2026)-34 vs city set
Rating 6.4 / 10 nearby-34 vs city set
OSM: 6 groceries · 11 cafes · 27 transit · 11 parks+2 vs city set
$2,907 ACS median vs your rent budget-21 vs city set
OSM: 11 cafes · 51 restaurants · 42 bars · 11 parks+11 vs city set
From East Cesar Chavez, a typical weekday is 18 min to Downtown, 21 min to UT campus, 33 min to The Domain. Not live traffic.
Downtown is the fastest of these three job centers from here.
Rainey, Sixth, Capitol · -2 min vs the city-set median · fastest of these three
Forty Acres · +1 min vs the city-set median
North Burnet tech · +7 min vs the city-set median
Minutes are baked from neighborhood geography to three job centers — not Google, not this hour’s traffic.
The ACS median rent is $2,907 — every occupied rental mixed together, not the 1-bed in the window.
That is 29% of median household income — under the 30% HUD line. A household at this area’s median income ($122K) could “afford” about $3,046 a month at 30% of pay.
41% of households rent. Median home value is $853,600.
ACS 5-year median gross rent for Austin city. Up 71% since 2014. East Cesar Chavez is 68% above the 2024 city median.
Overlapping 5-year ACS windows (B25064), not asking rent. Census does not publish a rent series for each official neighborhood, so the line is the city place. The dashed mark is this area’s ACS 2024 median.
HUD treats 30% of income as the cost-burden line. We do not split ACS rent into 1-bed vs 2-bed. Method.
Within a short walk of this official planning area: 6 groceries, 11 cafes, 11 parks, and 27 transit stops.
Daily errands and coffee are realistic on foot. Parks are close — 11 mapped parks in that radius. Transit is dense (27 stops or stations).
11 cafes and 51 restaurants make this one of the busier food pockets in the Austin set.
OpenStreetMap, 800 meters. Not a Walk Score license. More groceries than 15 of the other 19 areas in this city.
ACS 2024 5-year (2020-2024) · 1 census tract · APD Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · OSM 2026-08-31
Crime is APD Part I reports per 1,000 ACS residents — not a judgment of who lives here. Home and rent figures are ACS medians, not live MLS. Read the method.
What it is like to live here, beyond the scores.
East of I-35 and still a walk to downtown, East Cesar Chavez is the music-and-mural version of central Austin. Reporting on East Austin keeps returning to the same tension: 1940s bungalows and new townhomes sharing blocks, tacos that were here first, and a nightlife score that is not subtle. Veracruz All Natural’s migas are the cliché because they are true.
Visitor traffic and property crime follow the bars. The residential streets a few blocks off East Sixth are quieter than the listings imply, but they are not Hyde Park quiet. Fit this neighborhood if you want to be in the city at night. Down-weight safety if that nightlife is the point; do not pretend the highway is invisible.
Compiled from Zillow neighborhood guides, 5280 Magazine, Chicago and San Francisco resident guides, Mpls With Love, Eastside LA reporting, Seattle Times coverage, Boston planning-neighborhood writing, and local writing, 2025–2026. Editorial — not part of the fit score.
City 311 service requests in this official unit, last 14 days. This is what neighbors filed with the city — not a chat thread, and not part of the fit score.
163 reports
City of Austin 311 public data, last 14 days. Mapped to Neighborhood Planning Areas. No street addresses stored. Method.
Public posts from r/Austin that mention this neighborhood. Not Nextdoor, not people on this block, and not part of the fit score.
No r/Austin posts in this snapshot mentioned East Cesar Chavez.
Last 90 days, snapshot 2026-09-01. Method.
Straight answers from the numbers on this page.
East Cesar Chavez shows more Part I than most of this Austin set (safety 16 vs city 50). APD logged 5.9 violent and 54.7 property incidents per 1,000 residents — 60.6 combined. Visitors count in those numbers. This is not a judgment of who lives here.
ACS median rent is $2,907 — studios through large apartments mixed together. About 41% of households rent. Median home value is $853,600. Survey medians, not a listing you can message tonight.
Walk is 20 here vs 18 for the Austin set — you will likely drive or ride for a weekly shop. Inside 800 meters: 6 groceries, 11 cafes, 27 transit stops, 11 parks. Not a Walk Score license.
There is more night and visitor traffic in the mix — not the quietest family default. Nearby school rating is 6.4 / 10. Median age is 38.8. That rating is not your assigned campus.
18 typical weekday minutes to Downtown. Not the app on your phone this hour. Other job centers are further down this page.
About 3,053 people. Median income $122K. 61% have a bachelor's or higher.
Central East Austin, Govalle, Mueller sit closest on this map. If you are choosing between two official planning areas, start with East Cesar Chavez vs Central East Austin.
Adjacent on the map, ranked with your weights.
East Cesar Chavez vs Central East AustinEast Cesar Chavez vs GovalleEast Cesar Chavez vs Mueller
$3K median rent
Rainey, Sixth, and the warehouse blocks live here. Highest walk score, highest nightlife, and a crime rate inflated by visitors.
$2K median rent
East of I-35, north of Cesar Chavez. Rapid change, strong food, mixed housing, and a walk to downtown.
$2K median rent
A planned town on the old airport: alleys, a lake loop, and a grocery at the center. Newer bones, family default.
$2K median rent
Travis Heights oaks on the east side of Congress. Porches, hills, and a walk to the lake.
$2K median rent
Further east, still in the city. More yard, fewer bars, a value contrast to Cesar Chavez.