Young Professional Moving from San Diego (San Antonio, Austin: home, income, quality of life)

[hoffdano]

mark311 - I don't see the point in separating the cost of housing from the cost of living - at least not in a general sense.

For a specific person accustomed to a specific lifestyle, maybe cost of housing is comparable for San Diego and Austin. But for most cost of housing is significantly higher in SD than Austin.

San Diego is a beautiful place. I like it a lot - and could visualize living there. But I can't afford to now.

[Aquitaine]

The whole point of the COL index is that it evaluates "a lot of other individual factors". The fact that you can spend a day in SD and spend less is not statistically significant. COL is meant to measure the long-term aggregate impact of what "most people" have to buy.

Naturally, it's possible to live somewhere with a high COL but spend well underneath it. I did this in Manhattan when I lived in a one-room apartment with a shared bathroom (!). But in doing so I was an outlier. If you're willing to sacrifice, you can always get by in a more expensive town, but in generic answers to these questions, we can't make those assumptions.

San Diego is one of the Case-Shiller index cities for housing costs, but Austin isn't, so unfortunately that leaves us with secondary measurements like this:

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

The only metric in which San Diego might be cheaper than Austin is property tax, but the relative cost of housing is higher, so I would conclude that it's not possible to spend 365 days a year in San Diego with an equivalent lifestyle to what you'd have in Austin and spend less, or even the same.

Doesn't mean SD isn't worth it. Just means you're going to pay more. I bet plenty of people in Austin would pay to import San Diego's climate!

But with Gov. Brown now proposing a 13.3% top-level income tax for California, the discrepancy is only going to get larger.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

mark311 - I don't see the point in separating the cost of housing from the cost of living - at least not in a general sense.

Agreed, in a general sense. But, for a 20-something making $100K that lives in downtown San Diego who enjoys night-life, I think it is. This isn't someone that is going to appreciate the great schools of Steiner Ranch, for example. Unless he wants to change how he lives fairly dramatically, he'll end up in one of the more expensive apartments in downtown Austin and his "cost of living" variation won't be what the "general" family would experience. In this case, I think some individual analysis outside of the standards might be in order. Downtown Austin housing compared to downtown San Diego housing doesn't have the same dramatic cost of housing differences, at least the last time I checked.

I guess having grown up in San Diego, hearing that someone currently lives in downtown San Diego is somewhat unusual. It's a different life than what normal San Diegans experience. He currently pays a premium to live a certain lifestyle. I'm making a ton of assumptions here, but it's different than living in Pacific Beach which he could do for much cheaper. It really is similar to living in one of the more premium/expensive apartments in downtown Austin in my opinion. So factoring in a $140K house in Hutto as part of the cost of living index for him just doesn't seem to fit in my opinion.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by Aquitaine

Doesn't mean SD isn't worth it. Just means you're going to pay more. I bet plenty of people in Austin would pay to import San Diego's climate!

But with Gov. Brown now proposing a 13.3% top-level income tax for California, the discrepancy is only going to get larger.

Agreed. Having been someone that spent all of my 20's in San Diego, it's hard for me to imagine living anywhere else during that time as it felt like the ideal place for a young single professional making good money. I'm not trying to say that San Diego is cheaper, because it's not. I'm trying to convey that the value a family gains in moving from San Diego to Austin is much higher than the value that a young 20-something professional gains who already makes a 6-figure salary, especially if that person loves the beach, the mountains, and the climate.

Both the Austin and San Diego areas are great places to live, but if I had my choice, I'd live in San Diego before I was age 30 and after I'm age 55. Between the ages of 30 and 55 while raising a family, I'd live in Austin. I was mainly responding to EZPeterson's second post listing San Diego negative stereotypes and I got carried away. Sorry for derailing the thread a bit.

[Aquitaine]

Hehehe, if you're a 20-something making $100k with no family, you can live wherever you want! Governor Brown would very much like you to remain in California.

Having said that, I think you are underrating Austin's appeal to young people. It is a huge college town and the 2010 census will tell you that it's got a very large young population. It's also true that the burbs hold a lot of appeal to families and that the city in general is family-friendly, but every 20-something I know in the whole country was just in Austin for SXSW. It's true you're not as close to beaches or mountains as San Diego, but you've got plenty of nightlife.

[EzPeterson]

Very true. In my 20's, I loved coming to Austin for work - just for the party downtown. Single, 20's/30's? Not many places better than Austin - SD was great during that time, but I always had more fun in TX.

I still travel back to SD about every 4 weeks for work and the differences are highlighted every time I got out there. Also, the housing expense difference is there. 92101/gas lamp district runs around $3/sf for rentals, downtown Austin is going to run about $2.50/sf. Not a huge difference, but pretty substantial nonetheless.

Sorry about the rant earlier, just a little sad about what has happened to the vibe in San Diego over the past decade. Seems that LA/OC attitudes have crept in over that time - heck, last trip out there Star Bar had a cover, which if you know the place, is ridiculous.

[Cagueno]

To be fair, no matter what area of SD you are in, you will be subject to ridiculous rents. I've had friends from poway, to university city, to PB, to downtown who have to deal with a minimum rent of approx 1200 a month for a one bedroom. It's not like these are incredibly ritzy places either. I don't think you'll find that sort of uniform high cost of housing in Austin, though I could be mistaken.

Additionally, I think that though the beach is beautiful to look at, the pacific is not very practical. It's incredibly cold year round so there is not much you can do but look at it. And the cold evenings and nights along the coast get old really fast. I realize this is highly subjective, but not everything in SD is a paradise, contrary to public opinion.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by Cagueno

I don't think you'll find that sort of uniform high cost of housing in Austin, though I could be mistaken.

It's not uniform, but again a lot of people expect rent in Austin to be dirt cheap and they're surprised at what they actually see when they investigate apartments. The highly desirable, safe, walk-able, night-life areas demand a premium in Austin because there are less areas that meet all of those criteria compared to other larger cities.

You can easily spend $1200-$1500 on a 1 bedroom in downtown Austin if you want to be in a safe area that is close to all the night life. You can also spend $750-$900 per month on a nice 1 bedroom (600-800 square feet) in the Far West/NorthWest Hills area that would be a good location in regards to your work and not too far from downtown.

It sounds like you're probably not from San Diego or you would own a couple of wetsuits (at least a spring-suit) for going in the ocean. And you might wish for those cool nights in San Diego when it's 98 degrees at midnight in the middle of July in Austin. I agree that San Diego isn't paradise, but as you adjust to the climate there, it's definitely better than most of the country (for most people). Again, the Austin area is a great place to live, I just think that this a good forum to get past the top 10 lists to let people know that Austin isn't paradise either despite what the top 10 lists state. However, I think most people can be very happy in the Austin area.

[atxcio]

Somewhat of an indicator of Austin quality of life..

Ricky Williams, who is from San Diego (and that's where his family is), played in a number of NFL cities, and could have continued to make millions for a couple of more years... decided he'd rather move to Austin.

Ricky Williams Happy Hour @ Shady Grove - Happy Hours on Plancast

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by Cagueno

Additionally, I think that though the beach is beautiful to look at, the pacific is not very practical. It's incredibly cold year round so there is not much you can do but look at it. And the cold evenings and nights along the coast get old really fast. I realize this is highly subjective, but not everything in SD is a paradise, contrary to public opinion.

SD is as close to paradise that any place on earth can get.