Check out the Cherrywood neighborhood on the east side (north of manor but south of 38 1/2 st). East side gets a bad rap, but crime is nothing like other big cities I have lived in and even the "bad" areas are quite nice here. If you find a decent house you can have rent for less than half what a place downtown might cost, so its definitely worth a look.

I moved to the neighborhood in August (been living in the city for 5 years now) and I find it to be a pretty ideal area to get to most of central Austin with ease. The bike lanes are fairly wide and respected compared to other parts of town (especially Guadalupe, ugh) but the biggest issue is that there are no bike shops in walking distance for those times I manage to really muck things up and can't get my bike to even ride over. I've heard from people around here that Austin has a ways to go to be comparable to NYC, SF or Portland in bike friendliness, so take that for what you will, though from my point of view with nothing to really compare it to, I have found it both easy and fun to commute via bike here for the three months I have been going car-less.

Glad to hear yet another cyclist might be coming to town; here's a pre-emptive "welcome to Austin bud "

edit: to the above post, and to the thread starter, Austin is definitely NOT New York or San Fransisco, and to expect it to be anything like it would be to shoot yourself in the foot. Its a rapidly growing city, but its never going to have the population or history either of these places do. What you will find is a stable job and housing market, nicer attitudes (subjective obviously), more heat and a lot of live music. On top of that you can live in a house with a yard a mile from the university and a few miles from downtown (15 minute bike ride at most) for less than 500 dollars a month per room. I wanted to move to a "real" city for years but I just can't get it to make financial sense.

edit2: and the last one I swear (should have read the entire thread before responding) but I have used car2go numerous times, and its pretty convenient, especially if you have a smart phone. It can get a little pricey though so I am not sure you can affordably rely on it for things like shopping or anything that will take more than an hour or so.