Why Everyone is Moving to Austin
Recent chatter on LinkedIn asks the question: "Why Austin? Why not other Texas cities like Dallas? Austin is the most expensive metro in Texas, and just doesn't have the culture, infrastructure and transportation options for people coming from the Bay Area or LA."
My answer is "Yes, but...."
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Austin has high housing costs
Yes, Austin prices are climbing -- 12% in the past year.​ But... Austin is still #26 among US metro areas with a median price of $373,000. That well below San Jose ($1.4M!!), San Francisco ($1.1M), LA, Orange County, Seattle, Boston, Denver, DC, New York and Miami. Even less than Salt Lake City. And for those with families, you don’t have to go too much over that $373k median price to be in a good public school district, saving tens of thousands more per year.
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Austin has a small regional airport
Yes, Austin Bergstrom is not SFO, LAX or DFW. But....
There are now daily nonstops to London, Frankfurt, Mexico City and Toronto, so it’s a long way from the old days of Mueller Airport on 51st Street. Nonstops to Honolulu start in a few months, and assuming life returns to normal in 2021, I’d expect a nonstop to somewhere in Asia a year from now. And let’s face it, after 2020, flying just isn’t as important as it once was. Even so, if air travel is still a big deal for you, consider this -- I live about 20 minutes from downtown, have miles of hiking and biking trails out my back gate, and I can get from my front door and through security to my airport gate in about 45 minutes. Try that at SFO.
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Austin summers are brutal
Yes, they are. No way around it. But....
With the remote working revolution that's going on right now, you can live in Austin most of the year, and decamp somewhere up north for July and August and miss the worst of it. Get creative and use this new way of working to your benefit.
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Maybe it's not for everyone but to Oracle, Tesla, and everyone else headed our way...
Welcome!!