It has come up, in my life, that in about a year and a half I will have a job opportunity in Austin, TX. What is it like there? What is the weather like? How hot in the summer? How cold in the winter? And what is the housing market like? Could a single girl making pretty good money expect to buy a house in a nice-ish neighborhood?
What’s it like? Heaven.
What is the weather like? Summer is HOT. Regular days of 100+ weather, tho I don’t think we had any this past summer. Get’s warm in March, stays warm until early November. I wear a jacket in the winter only occasionally. I think it was in the 60s today. Wearing short sleeve shirts outside all year round. Only snow I’ve seen in 7 years: Last Feb 14, and it was melted by noon.
Housing market: Expensive, I’m told, but all is relative. It looks better than the DC area, from where I came. I’m told HOuston is much better. Better than San Francisco. Worse than Brookville, PA.
A single girl making good money CAN buy a house is a nice neighborhood. My best friend lives in a 20-30 year olds, married, with kids type neighborhood in a house worth about 150,000. When I get hired as a teacher (starting salary: 30,000) I plan on buying a 2 bedroom, 1 bath type house in a decent neighborhood. I anticipate no problems in paying.
Oh, about the housing:
South Austin: funky old Austin, lower income neighborhoods, more affordable housing
Central Austin: Expensive, i think.
North Austin: Increasingly expensive. But not as expensive as…
West Austin: rich folk here.
East Austin: Lower income neighborhoods, with attendant safety concerns.
Never been there, but I hear they’re basically a college town with a really good music scene. I’d live there, given the opportunity.
An Austin native, checking in. Housing inside the City of Austin can be expensive. Property taxes alone are forcing many people out of the central city. Lots of opportunities exist outside the city, particularly to the south and east.
Looking south, you have Buda, Kyle, and San Marcos (home of (formerly Southwest)Texas State Univesity, my alma mater.) San Marcos is a beautiful city with abundant shopping and recreation. It’s about 40 minutes south of downtown Austin (or about 90 minutes, during rush hour). Kyle and Buda are growing towns filling in the spaces between Austin and San Marcos.
To the east is Bastrop County. East Austin is a difficult place, but as you leave the city, things pick up. Personally, I’m not a big Del Valle fan, but some people like it. Moving further east, there is Bastrop (the city) and Elgin. There is also Manor (in Travis County). All of these towns are literally exploding. I’ve heard that the school district in Bastrop enrolls 100+ new kids each month. There are lots of new homes in Bastrop County in the $100-150K range. There are also lots of homes on wheels in Bastrop County, if you’re into that sort of thing.
For a single person, I would think that metro Austin would be a great place to be. There are all sorts of entertainment options, a really huge university, a big university (in San Marcos), and four well-regarded private universities and colleges. All of this makes for lots of well-educated young folks around. There is a large dating pool, whatever your taste.
Austin is politically a very liberal and active city. Expect endless debate on nearly every issue. It generally takes about twenty years to accomplish anything. If it’s a really big deal, expect even more discussion. Austin airport (Austin-Bergstrom International Airport) was in discussions for more than thirty years. Now, the discussion has turned to what to do with the old aiport. That discussion is only about ten years old, so it’s far from a resolution. The hot-button issue for Austin now is transportation. There is a flurry of freeway contruction going on. Most of these new highways will be toll roads. This has caused quite a bit of friction among the various factions in the city. There is also a light-rail project being built.
I am very happy in the small town that we live in, but Austin is easily my favorite big city. Good luck and come on down.
For your sanity, I suggest finding somewhere to live near where you will work. Traffic in Austin is atrocious - the two main ways across town (I-35 and MoPac) grind to a halt twice a day nearly every work day. The problem is two-fold, IMHO - the city and state failed to plan effectively for the traffic growth Austin has experienced in the last 15 years, and people use the interstate highway to get across town. Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that, but that’s what causes the freeway traffic. I’ve found recently that a work commute that should take 20 minutes will often take around 50 . . . no thanks. Capitol Metro is a pretty good bus system, but is subject to the same traffic snarls as the rest of us.
Austin has great restaurants.
I LOVE Austin. It’s just a cool town. “Dressed up to go out to dinner” is jeans and a button-down shirt. And cowboy boots, hehe. It’s a casual town. Great movie and music scene. Fun bars. Festivals.
Horrible traffic, and whoever designs parking lots must’ve been on acid. The traffic here is gobs worse than Chicago (the only other large city I’ve often driven in). But you learn how to deal with it, and which lanes are turn only, etc.
It gets HOT in the summer. Right now it’s 70, but it’s been a warm winter. Typically seems to be rainy in Nov and Feb/March (I got this right, yes? I’ve been gone for 2 years). And we get GOOD rains. Places flooded a few months back.
North Austin/Round Rock apartments aren’t too expensive. I have a 750 sq ft apt with a fireplace, balcony, washer and dryer, and dishwasher for $515.
Housing market’s pretty cheap right now. My 21yr old friend and her fiance just bought a house, and they both work at B&N. If you want a house, check out, again, Round Rock and north Austin. The more into town you get, the more expensive things seem to get (it seems).
Check out Citysearch and Austin Chronicle to get a feel for the city. Especially AC.
I got steered to The Straight Dope via the Austin Chronicle. Ahh, the memories. Although I don’t think they carry it anymore.
Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention the Keep Austin Weird campaign. It’s a support local business kind of thing.
Several months ago, there was some kind of Race for the [something]. They handed out bacon along the length of the race.
There be hippies here. Every year there’s Eeyore’s Birthday Party at Hippie Hollow.
Last I knew, Willie Nelson, Sandra Bullock, and Matthew McConaghgahgsahga (wtfever) lived in Austin. Could be more.
I love this town.
We’ve got:
-Hot, hot summers
-Live music in random locations (suburban streetcorners, grocery stores, tax preparation offices, fast-food restaurants, etc.)
-Some sort of running/walking/bicycling event for (insert cause here) every weekend
-Great BBQ (Ben’s Longbranch being my current favorite)
-Cowboy+Hippie Funkiness
-The Alamo Drafthouse chain of cinema/restaurants
-Geek Culture
-Lots of parks
Hmm. Sounds like I would have to kiss my precious sweaters good-bye…
You don’t want to live in Austin. Trust me. The traffic is horrible. The whole place floods every year or two. Most of the people here nowadays are not native Austinites, or even native Texans, so they surly, rude, assholes. The city government is the most backward group of idiots bent on bespoiling everything that once made this place holy.
Don’t come here. We don’t want you. You’ll only add to the problems that we have no hope of ever solving.
Please. I’m begging you. Don’t come here.
Austin is a great town, but one thing would prevent me from living there again:
The Allergies.
Maybe in time you get used to them, but I lived there for 2 years and never did. I dread visiting my parents because of it.
They aren’t year round for me, but when it’s bad, it is BAD.
FTR, it has been 70[sup]o[/sup] or warmer for the last 3 or 4 days and will be for the next few days. Not bad for January. It did rain alot this year, it was one of the wettest years on record. If you do have allergies this, and most of Texas, is not the best place to be.
I haven’t been here that long, but it seems to me that there is 6 months of summer, four months of nice weather and two months of ‘winter’. It can get cold here however, we have had a couple of nights where there were hard freezes, but so far that is it.
I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned the Bats. Or the Moonlight Towers. Granted, they’re not reasons by themselves to migerate to a specific place, but they do add to the eccentricity quotient.
I must confess that I only spent a week in Austin attending a conference, so I’m by no means an authority. Also, I’m decidedly a cold-climate person, so the weather was disconcerting even in October (from my years in Montana, I grew accustomed to having my glasses fog up when entering a building in winter; but it was a shock to find them fogging when exiting a building). Still, I found Austin intriguing, and I wish I could have stayed longer so that I could get a better feel for it.
And I have to agree about the traffic—the conference was at a downtown hotel, but to save money the company installed me at a motel about ten miles up I-35. That ten miles never took me less than 40 minutes, and usually about an hour.
One last note: if you happen to like classical music, KMFA is a (pardon the pun) “class act.” Their semiannual pledge drive was going on while I was there, and they handled it with so much style and humor that I was moved to stop by and contribute.
I just recently moved from Austin to Oregon. Before that, I lived in Austin since 1987.
The bad:
It’s hot. I mean, take what you know about the word “hot”, and multiply it by about a hundred. It’s so hot in Austin, during the summer, that you’d spontaneously burst into flames as soon as you stepped out the door- if the humidity weren’t 100%. Humidity that high, you don’t combust- you cook. A nice side effect is that shrimp boils are surprisingly easy- you just wave them out the window for a few minutes.
Traffic is hell. Seriously. A few months ago, Satan himself waved at me from a car parked next to me on I-35,… he had the AC on, too, 'cause it was too hot for him. About four hours later we both got to move about 3 feet, and got all excited.
If you move to Austin, just go ahead and have your nose surgically removed. You won’t be using it at all during “cedar season” (which lasts about 11 months), 'cause it’ll be clogged up.
Winter in Austin… just call it the “miserable rainy season” and be done with it. Occasionally you’ll get the rare ice storm (or even just a few flakes of snow), and the entire city will shut down for three days. Make sure you’ve laid in supplies.
Everything in that part of Texas wants to kill you. Seriously. They’ve got scorpions, mosquitos, rattlesnakes… the list goes on. They all exist for one reason only- to try to kill you. Heck, even the cactus will leap out to try to impale you (“flying cactus”) if you get too close. And if you’ve never heard of fireants, get ready to make some new friends. Several million new friends.
If you move to Austin, you’d better have a vehicle. Preferably the largest SUV you can possibly find- I suggest the Canyonero- so you can see over all the other SUVs. Everything in Austin is about nine billion miles away from everything else in Austin, so make sure you’ve got cruise control. Needless to say, AC is a must- pay extra for the “snow blower” option, since you’ll be sitting in traffic for so long.
The people… ah, the people. They’ve all got guns. They all know how to use 'em- and they like to use 'em. That’s why everyone calls Texas “the friendly state”.
The good:
The women in Austin are pretty much all gorgeous. I can’t stress this enough.
The food is incredible. There are more good restaurants per capita in Austin than, well, anywhere else. You could eat out every night for a year, a different place each night, and still not run out of good food. I highly suggest Chuys (and all the Chuys versions), The Salt Lick, La Margarita, Korea House, Thundercloud, Hakato Sushi, and Kim Phung- but it is really hard to find a bad restaurant.
Houses are cheap. Heck, pretty much everything in Austin is cheap. Even gas- I suspect they make up for it in bulk.
Central Market and Whole Foods. Two incredible grocery stores- you know, assuming you want to try cooking at home.
Austin- love it or loathe it. 
This reminded me of something that happened when I was in the eighth grade. A friend had just moved from Boston to Austin. He and I were walking home because school had been let out early. I was wearing a heavy winter coat while Josh had on only a Red Sox windbreaker (and the other usual clothes). He said that he and his family sold all their heavy winter clothing because they thought it never got cold in Austin.
School had let out early because it was snowing. The temp was less than 20 degrees.
I love Lightnin’s list. That was great. I got several good laughs out of it. Especially Satan in the next car. I think I’ve seen that guy.
A few ommissions:
Bad-
The worst legislature in Texas history (they’re coming in January! Hide the children!!) (You think I’m kidding, but I’m not.)
Good-
Leslie. Only in Austin could a bikini-clad cross-dresser run for mayor. And he got votes.
I wholeheartedly agree about Chuy’s. Our favorite is the one on 183 @ Duval. Now my tummy’s a rumblin’.
Dangit, I typed up a loooong reply here and the one freakin’ time I didn’t copy everything, the stupid computer lost my post.
Anyway, here’s a shorter version:
Climate: What you think depends one where you come from. I moved here from Central Florida and the heat doesn’t bother me. (heck, I don’t even have air in my car) It’s humid compared to West Texas and Arizona, nothing compared to the deep South. The winter can get cold but at least it’s usually sunny. If you like those grey, wintery, overcast days, you won’t like Austin.
Allergies: Called “cedar fever”. Austin sits below a higher ridge and a lot of pollen concentrates here. I’ve never gotten allergies (knock on wood, I’ve been here almost 11 years) but it does look miserable.
Traffic: Depends on where you live and work. I live central, work central, hangout central and never deal with it. (truthfully, I put less than 6,000 miles ayear on my car, I coudl almost do without) It’s much worse if you live in the 'burbs and have to commute in.
Stuff to do: Lots and lots. You can play outside all year round and there are lots of organized sports to join. Beautiful river right through downtown with great jogging/biking trail around it. There’s also the famous Sixth Street bars for nightlife. I prefer to hang out on Fourth Street, which is more pub-like and seems to be more for the young working crowd thatn Sixth, which is more collegey.
Real Estate: Expensive compared to other cities this size. Rentals are getting cheaper right now but entry level housing within the city is tough to find. There’s still stuff if you’re handy or willing to locate farther out tho’. Look at www.austinhomesearch.com for current prices and photos of available houses.
Hope any of this helps. I loooove Austin and everytime I think about moving, I find something new to enjoy about it. I think it’s the perfect size, big enough to have cool things to do but not a monstrosity like Houston or Dallas…
Sattua, I think it would help if you added a little info about your interests, your expectations and where you are thinking of moving from. Austin is still a small city, but it is still somewhat diverse. A lot of what you are looking for may not be mentioned unless you say you are looking for it.
What’s Austin, TX like? Well, I like barbecue, my favorite local mexican food restaurant, live music and laid-back living in a kid-friendly inner city, but YMMV. Being a college town, it’s also a great place for younger professional sorts.
Austin was little more than the state capital and a college town until the 1980s. Though it is starting to fade, there is a sensibilty here that culture and politics are participatory sports. The celebrated artists here include mural artists as well as classically trained sculptors (and live musicians, of course.) Politically, a city council meeting in 1990 lasted until early morning as citizen after citizen spoke against development upstream of the local waterin’ hole. The city council has limited public input since then, but there are a lot of average people who take a personal interest in how things are done around here.
People seem to move here in migrations; even today you can sort of place some people by when they moved to town. There are a lot of old hippies from the early Seventies, Willie Nelson era folks from the years after that, punk rockers who moved here in the Eighties and high tech types who moved to town during the Nineties. not that any of that really matters, but people around here seem to remember their salad days and hold them close to their heart. Have you ever seen Slacker? These folks are still around. They’re all married, with kids careers, midlife crises, etc., etc., but they’re still here.
Along with all of the folk culture, there are also all of the things that one might expect from a small city with a lot of younger and educated people, they’re building tract homes as far as the eye can see and people live in the country beyond that, but these are the things that make Austin Austin.
Oh yeah,
Median resident age: 29.6 years
Median household income: $42,689 (year 2000, now slightly higher)
Median house value: $124,700 (year 2000, now about $140,000, I guess)
(By the way, “Bubbaville” (as seen in the location bar) is an old term for South Austin. It was popularized by John Kelso, a feature writer for the daily paper whose articles included stuff like a retrospective of the couches on the front porches of Bubbaville.)
Well, you’re half right.
Eeyore’s Birthday Party is actually held at Pease Park.
Hippie Hollow is a big gay hang-out and nekkid butt swimming hole at Lake Travis.
Okay, don’t want to sound like a broken record, but yes, it gets very hot here, and yes, the traffic is atrocious. Cedar fever sucks, occasional flash floods and tornado warnings are scary, city government is an abomination, blah blah blah.
However, we do have a lot going for us. The University of Texas provides lots of educational and entertainment opportunities, and the huge student population keeps the city vibrant. Sixth Street is a pretty good place to party, I’m told 
, but there’s lots of family-friendly stuff to do, too. Mt. Bonnell, Zilker Park, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the Veloway, the Highland Lakes and McKinney State Falls park are all great for outside recreation if you’re that sort of person. Coffee houses and cozy bookstores abound if that’s your cup of tea, and there’s always lots of live theatre going on. Decent restaurants (try the Salt Lick if you’re willing to drive a bit), okay shopping (outlet malls just south in San Marcos), and mostly friendly people. My husband hates living in Texas but I’ve lived in and around Austin my entire life and I never want to leave
We currently live in a nice subdivision around Buda/Kyle, about 10 miles south of Austin proper. We’re both state employees, so no big bucks, but we were able to purchase a pretty big house, brand new, for around $145k. No way could we have afforded to buy a similar house inside the city, but if you can afford to live close to your job, definitely do it, even if it means a smaller/older house. Our commute (we carpool) takes up almost 2 hours of the day.
It’s hard for old-timers to see the small city Austin we remember slip away as more and more people decide to move here, but I’ve decided to accept the inevitable and be as gracious about it as possible, 'cuz my mama raised me right So if you must come, be welcome and make yourself right at home. Just don’t tailgate, it makes us mad and we might pull out our .22 and teach you a lesson. Just kidding 