New to the site.. Looking to move to Austin (Houston: new home, find a job)

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by BitViper

Most of us have visited once or twice and love the city and its vibe...and are just tired of the crush of people here in San Diego....

Austin really does remind me of Sand Diego of 15- 20 years ago.. laid back cosmopolitan and friendly..

You plan is to get to Austin in 8 years time...which leaves you about 7 years left before the 'crush of people' in Austin will be exactly the same 'crush of people' as San Diego is right now

Not to discourage anyone from Austin, as there are a ton of great things about it. But moving to a far fast-growing ever-expanding city with no ends in sight of that stopping anytime soon....for someone who has stated numerous times that they are escaping San Diego EXACTLY because of those reasons seems paradoxical.

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

You plan is to get to Austin in 8 years time...which leaves you about 7 years left before the 'crush of people' in Austin will be exactly the same 'crush of people' as San Diego is right now

Not to discourage anyone from Austin, as there are a ton of great things about it. But moving to a far fast-growing ever-expanding city with no ends in sight of that stopping anytime soon....for someone who has stated numerous times that they are escaping San Diego EXACTLY because of those reasons seems paradoxical.

or you could just move to Japan, like TB....nothing more pleasant than getting forcibly stuffed into the subway in the morning! LOL!

[BitViper]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

You plan is to get to Austin in 8 years time...which leaves you about 7 years left before the 'crush of people' in Austin will be exactly the same 'crush of people' as San Diego is right now

Not to discourage anyone from Austin, as there are a ton of great things about it. But moving to a far fast-growing ever-expanding city with no ends in sight of that stopping anytime soon....for someone who has stated numerous times that they are escaping San Diego EXACTLY because of those reasons seems paradoxical.

yeah.. but I'll be in teh boonies... or at least on a 5 acre lot.. and my neighbors will be 200 ft away.. Vs 25 feet as they are now... Im not expecting th ecity not to grow... and when I got ito the city.. thats the attraction.. I love NYC precisley because of the crush of people.. same with San Francisco.. but just not at home... Right now Im working in the crush and LIVING in the crush...

[hsc2]

i came from london where there is permanent traffic and i still think by california standards the commuting isnt terrible here particularly if you avoid the worst of rush hour. we have friends who live in dripping springs and like it.

i find also that humidity while bad is only bad part of the year and doesnt compare to florida

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by inthecut

or you could just move to Japan, like TB....nothing more pleasant than getting forcibly stuffed into the subway in the morning! LOL!

I'm not in Tokyo though! If he came to my area of Japan, he'd just see a lot of rice fields and very large houses with hardly any traffic at all - actually sounds more like what he is seeking

To me, any city that makes 'best cities' lists...is going to be a city that will be getting a crush of people coming to them. When the crush of humanity gets too big, you'll be seeing smaller towns with the 'the way Austin use to be!' slogan in 15-20 years time, and people will end up moving to them...leaving the "undesireables" behind them.

Personally, I love the crush of people...but if I didn't...and I had my heart set on Texas...I'd probably be seriously looking for Western Texas.

Or if a person wants large city amenities without many people...look at the Rust Belt cities where population is declining significantly, but enormous housing stock often very solidly built, infrastructure built for a much more populated city and everything you can imagine with that (professional sports teams, whatever your thing is), without the 'crush of people'.

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

I have willingly lived a good distance from work for 20+ years because I don't want to live in the city. I want some room, more green than concrete, less noise, and I like the lake. Is there something wrong with that?

I'm pretty darn happy where I live. Is that OK with you?

Nothing if you actually work out there. Problem is people want the big yard or acres of land but they also want a quick commute into town. What you will wind up with eventually is something like Houston or Atlanta which only gives you the former, but worse than that it makes for a city where transit is not feasible (because of lack of density) and where you have massive freeways blighting the landscape. Also since nothing walkable or bikeable we are raising a generation of fat children who will be enacting out their road rage when they are forced to drive everywhere.

To the OP: It doesn't matter if you are buying in a new neighborhood or not. Since housing is a market of thousand of individual buyers the person you bought the house from in the hill country only bought there b/c he knew he could sell it to someone like you down the line.

I think there are a lot of people moving to Austin for a quality of life they didn't have elsewhere and if Austin's growth drowns it in the coming decades they'll just move somewhere else that is like Austin now.

[eepstein]

What seasons??? Austin has two, winter and summer. However, I do like the nice string of "California weather" we have been having!! It's so nice!! If you close your eyes you could almost imagine that you are in California--but then you open your eyes and some jackass in his hiked pickup with Longhorn decals on the back gives you the finger. Oh well.

Summer in Austin is very hot. And living in Austin, you really don't get much of a mild winter. It freezes regularly, and ice/snow is almost a yearly thing. Winters are always constantly windy. Last winter it was cloudy and cold for like 90 out of 100 days.

Originally Posted by rickc007

If you're tired of how crowded San Diego is ... I can't see how moving
to Austin solves that issue

The past week in Southern California has been hotter then Austin ever gets.
The hottest weather I ever had was in Southern California, I just spent 5 years there.

Before that was NY, CT for decades. Both of those in July and August are worse then Austin.

In Austin the heat lasts longer, like into September.
Whatever, ignore it. On average it's great year round, and winters aren't as bad
as the north. It's nice to have some seasons

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by eepstein

What seasons??? Austin has two, winter and summer. However, I do like the nice string of "California weather" we have been having!! It's so nice!! If you close your eyes you could almost imagine that you are in California--but then you open your eyes and some jackass in his hiked pickup with Longhorn decals on the back gives you the finger. Oh well.

Summer in Austin is very hot. And living in Austin, you really don't get much of a mild winter. It freezes regularly, and ice/snow is almost a yearly thing. Winters are always constantly windy. Last winter it was cloudy and cold for like 90 out of 100 days.

Freezes regularly in Austin? You mean the 19 days on average where the temperature is below 32? Is that regularly to you? Anyone who has lived here for more than a few years knows that is the morning low - and for many of those days the high will be in the 50s.

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

Ice/snow a yearly thing? What does that mean? Every year we get some freezing precipitation? That is probably true. A few snow flurries and occasional freezing rain. Almost never an accumulation.

On average Dec-Feb includes 46 cloudy days, and amazingly enough 45 days in that period are partly cloudy or clear.

I agree summer in Austin is hot. But I disagree winter is not mild. I have been out on my boat in January with temperatures in the low 70s.

[eepstein]

Last winter was brutal for this area. Mostly cloudy 90% of the days and numerous freezes--way more than the "normal" you speak of. Wind and rain was the norm. Winters are very up and down here, sure it can be 70's one day, but its almost followed by 40's the next day with a freeze.

Originally Posted by hoffdano

Freezes regularly in Austin? You mean the 19 days on average where the temperature is below 32? Is that regularly to you? Anyone who has lived here for more than a few years knows that is the morning low - and for many of those days the high will be in the 50s.

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

Ice/snow a yearly thing? What does that mean? Every year we get some freezing precipitation? That is probably true. A few snow flurries and occasional freezing rain. Almost never an accumulation.

On average Dec-Feb includes 46 cloudy days, and amazingly enough 45 days in that period are partly cloudy or clear.

I agree summer in Austin is hot. But I disagree winter is not mild. I have been out on my boat in January with temperatures in the low 70s.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by eepstein

Last winter was brutal for this area. Mostly cloudy 90% of the days and numerous freezes--way more than the "normal" you speak of. Wind and rain was the norm. Winters are very up and down here, sure it can be 70's one day, but its almost followed by 40's the next day with a freeze.

I agree it was brutal. I had to wear a windbreaker for like 5 days, and that's 5 days too long! I almost didn't do my daily run at Ladybird Lake on one of those 40 degree mornings. Brr!