Considering move to Austin from Silicon Valley (Houston, Dallas: houses, middle schools)

[Willsson]

Texas Travel Guide, now - get thee away for a weekend.

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by Austin97

There are tons of posts like what you posted so you can search for california and get a ton of good information. One thing I would encourage you to think about is that because the cost of living is lower here you can easily get by on 150K (one income). The upside is that your wife can stay home and instead of having low paid day care workers raising your kids, you can raise your kids. California is so expensive that very few people are able to do this.

However rather than spend 800K for a house you might only spend 300-400K for a house. In california when you see people out with kids, they are all nannies. In austin when you see people out with kids they are mostly moms.

Also our property taxes are much higher. The property tax on an 800K house will be about 25K/year. This would be about the same or more than california income taxes on your 300K income.

Thanks for the tips. I'm not sure if my wife would want to stay at home permanently, if we moved elsewhere. But, I do think this would give us some options.

I understand property taxes would be higher $25k vs $10k or so. However, as you mentioned, its pretty much evened out when you factor how much we pay in state income taxes. Another consideration is that we have accumulated a lot of equity in our current townhouse and have saved a lot. With a large down payment, our mortgage itself would likely be a lot lower than it is today (that is if interest rates do not skyrocket in the next 2-3 years). I'm not saying we need a $800k house, but that's probably about the max we would want to go to where we'd come out way ahead.

The humidity would be something to get used to for sure. I think in general, we do better in heat than in cold weather. We're also considering Denver for relocation, so this is one of the things that we think may possibly sway us to Austin (along with the job market).

I understand that unless I'm relocating to somewhere like Chicago or NYC, the sheer number of jobs/companies is going to be less than what we have here. We can accept that as long as there are enough options to where if we wanted to switch jobs/companies eventually, we wouldn't be completely stranded.

I do also understand that from a sheer offering of the Bay Area, we're not going to get that elsewhere, certainly not in a place with a temparate climate (unless we were to move to Australia or something). We can accept going to a smaller city, as long as it has enough to offer us. I guess its going to take some visiting of Austin and thinking through in detail.

I guess there are pros and cons to every place, including here in the Bay Area.

[donnaaries]

It depends on what your requirements are for a "dream house." You can get a lot of house for your money in the master planned communities surrounding Austin, they're large, luxury homes. But you also stated that you enjoy city living with walkability, and while those master planned communities have sidewalks and hike and bike trails, there aren't any destinations for the residents to walk to. They're car-dependent communities.

There is truly a limited area in Austin that can be considered walkable to decently walkable, in these areas the housing stock is simply limited. The homes are older and smaller. Certainly for 800K you can still acquire a nice family home (2000-2500 SF large enough for ya?), but it depends on your measuring stick of "dream home."

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by donnaaries

There is truly a limited area in Austin that can be considered walkable to decently walkable, in these areas the housing stock is simply limited. The homes are older and smaller. Certainly for 800K you can still acquire a nice family home (2000-2500 SF large enough for ya?), but it depends on your measuring stick of "dream home."

Possible. I certainly don't need or probably even want a 4,000-5,000 square foot house. Too much upkeep, costs to heat/cool the place, etc. I'm in a 1,600 sq ft townhouse now, so I could probably get by with a 4 bedroom house in the 2,500 sq ft range. Now, I guess I'd have to decide if I wanted older housing stock and more of a walkable area vs more modern, luxurious with a view, but you have to drive to get somewhere. I'm not opposed to having to drive somewhere, as long as it wasn't too far. Hopefully a Starbucks, grocery store and some eateries within a mile or two. Is that too much to ask?

I guess I'm envisioning my current environment where there are all these towns on the peninsula/Silicon Valley with walkable downtowns and eateries. Maybe that doesn't really exist in Austin, outside of downtown? That's fine. I lived the suburban life in Phoenix, but just don't want to be terribly far from the action.

[jd411]

We moved from Silicon Valley to Austin a few years ago. We have a family with young kids and live in Cedar Park. We like the area a lot.

Depending on how active you were in the Bay Area, you may really miss the mountains, access to snow/skiing, closer access to beaches, etc.

Other than that though, for every day life, I prefer Austin to the Bay Area.

Overall, it has been a good choice for us.

You may just have to plan to spend a bit more on vacationing.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by Austin97

Also our property taxes are much higher. The property tax on an 800K house will be about 25K/year. This would be about the same or more than california income taxes on your 300K income.

You can't look at that in isolation. First, the OP HAS to be paying California property tax, and it would certainly be on a higher valuation than the equivalent house here, even though at a lower rate. Second, no license fees on your cars. Then you can look at the $25K savings in income tax. I will bet dinner at Eddie V's the net-net is a plus towards Texas.

We had a period as ex-pats in Virginia. When we said we were moving back, everyone moaned the. "Oh, the property taxes are SOOOOOOO high there" line. Well, add it all up and we had a $25K positive swing. Every year. Bigger, better, brand new house with pool. Every bell and whistle, for less money. Higher tax rate, but only about $2500 more in taxes here. No vehicle tax. No income tax.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by scm53

You can't look at that in isolation. First, the OP HAS to be paying California property tax, and it would certainly be on a higher valuation than the equivalent house here, even though at a lower rate.

It depends. Prop 13 in CA keeps the property taxes very low for people who bought at a much lower price than the current market value. So not only are they only paying 1%, but they might be paying 1% on only half the current value of the home.

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by mark311

It depends. Prop 13 in CA keeps the property taxes very low for people who bought at a much lower price than the current market value. So not only are they only paying 1%, but they might be paying 1% on only half the current value of the home.

Well, I've only owned my place for 3 years, so the original valuation was high and I haven't been able to take advantage of property tax breaks from Prop 13. Also, at least in Santa Clara County, the property tax is 1.25%, not 1%, due to school bond measures.

I don't know the exact amount, but I think we've paid at around $15k-20k in state income taxes, after deductions for the past few years. I think gas is a lot more expensive, along with everything else, such as going out to eat, vehicle registration fees, car insurance, and services, such as daycare, plumbing and housecleaning. Also, I have no idea how much we spend on sales tax annually, but I can tell you it is substantial.

The only thing that comes to mind that would be pricier out there (other than property taxes) would be A/C and possibly heating in the winter. This would partially be due to the temperature and partially due to the large house I'd be keeping warm. Maybe home maintenance would be more expensive too.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by roadwarrior101

I don't know the exact amount, but I think we've paid at around $15k-20k in state income taxes, after deductions for the past few years. I think gas is a lot more expensive, along with everything else, such as going out to eat, vehicle registration fees, car insurance, and services, such as daycare, plumbing and housecleaning. Also, I have no idea how much we spend on sales tax annually, but I can tell you it is substantial.

I lived in San Diego and in the South Bay (Santa Clara) before moving to the Austin area. Gas is about 50 cents cheaper per gallon so that will only matter if you drive a lot. Going out to eat is the same. Vehicle registration is cheaper. Car insurance is about the same (for me anyway). We have been paying $1170 per month for full time infant care in Cedar Park. Housecleaning and landscapers are about the same. Sales tax is 8.25% here where I'm at in the Austin area.

Cost of housing is really the main difference in my experience.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by roadwarrior101

The only thing that comes to mind that would be pricier out there (other than property taxes) would be A/C and possibly heating in the winter. This would partially be due to the temperature and partially due to the large house I'd be keeping warm. Maybe home maintenance would be more expensive too.

If you stay in the 2,500 sq. ft. range, you probably won't see utility bills in the summer over $250 in the worst case. You will almost certainly have gas heat, and should never have over $100 gas bill. That is if you get in new construction with all of the energy saving advances. Interested in what folks in those size houses see as ours is larger, I am extrapolating and could be off.

Gas will be cheaper, fresh vegtables will be more. Dairy products will be cheaper (no state price controls).

Also, if you are looking for walkable neighborhoods, have you looked at Mueller?