Wanting to Move to Austin in 2018. HELP!!! (Pflugerville: transplants, apartment)

[DaleAnne]

Hello! I'm brand new and luckily found this thread by googling it lol. So here's our story!!

My husband got his degree in luthery and is now a guitar tech. We want to move to Austin so he can make more money doing what he's doing because Indiana doesn't have much of a demand for anything music related so he's definitely under paid here. I work at a daycare full time. I have no degrees but I do have extensive customer service experience and also supervisor/management experience.

We want to move in June or July of 2018. I have a lot of questions and I'm getting mixed answers lol.

1. Is the cost of living in Austin so high because people generally earn more there?

2. I want both of us to have jobs lined up before we go. How difficult might this be?

3. What areas should we stay away from? Crime, broken down homes, etc.

4. Is it better to live outside of Austin and just commute or can we take advantage of city perks like public transit?

Thanks in advance everyone. Every little bit helps!!!

[Trainwreck20]

The cost of living is high compared to the average salary. Of course, it all depends on you income, not the average, but based on what you have stated it will be hard to live in the city proper.

You will likely be able to find some sort of job without serious problem; I have no idea on the lutherie market, though.

There really aren't any 'terrible' areas of town, imho, but you will likely be forced either to the outer suburbs or into an apartment in a 'rougher' area of town. At least, based on what I assume your combined incomes will be.

I am guessing you will have to be outside of town somewhere, the cost of both renting and buying is a bit extreme at the moment and is based more on the typical hi-tech salary.

[ashbeeigh]

You may want to search the forum a bit. Many of these questions have been answered within the last month.

[mrsb9494]

I will just say...you will probably have no issue getting a job without a degree..but I have seen that lots of jobs in general in Austin want people with college degrees. Not saying you wouldn't be a good employee but that is what I have noticed. So just keep that in mind. I used to work at a daycare as well and the going rate for daycare workers in TX is NOT good.

[DashRiprock]

Originally Posted by DaleAnne

Hello! I'm brand new and luckily found this thread by googling it lol. So here's our story!!

My husband got his degree in luthery and is now a guitar tech. We want to move to Austin so he can make more money doing what he's doing because Indiana doesn't have much of a demand for anything music related so he's definitely under paid here. I work at a daycare full time. I have no degrees but I do have extensive customer service experience and also supervisor/management experience.

We want to move in June or July of 2018. I have a lot of questions and I'm getting mixed answers lol.

1. Is the cost of living in Austin so high because people generally earn more there?
No. The high cost of living is driven by a number of factors, demand of course being the biggest. A disproportionately high number of California transplants flush with cash is another, as is atrocious traffic and road planning which drives people to "close-in" neighborhoods.

2. I want both of us to have jobs lined up before we go. How difficult might this be?
Sorry, I have no idea what those particular fields are like. I would imagine it would be fairly easy to get a job at a daycare. I know we bill ourselves as "the live music capitol of the world" but I don't know how true that is. I guess there are a lot of musicians here compared to Indiana but I don't know if that means there is a big demand for luthers (?) or if the existing musicians already have their own "guys" and don't take kindly to outsiders. I can see that market being pretty cliquish/snobbish. But I really don't know.

3. What areas should we stay away from? Crime, broken down homes, etc.
Lamar & Rutland/Rundberg can be pretty bad. Some areas of Pflugerville I hear have become bad lately. For the most part, though, most everything else is pretty safe and even those areas aren't war zones.

4. Is it better to live outside of Austin and just commute or can we take advantage of city perks like public transit?
Public transit here is atrocious and will never get better. Texas cities are built for cars and Austin has gone out of its way to make it as difficult as possible to use your car. It almost totally depends on where you live vs. where you work; you might be able to make it tolerable if you live along the MetroRail. But with rare exceptions, if you're not a cash flush Cali transplant who can afford to buy in Rosedale, count on the commute/transit to suck.


Thanks in advance everyone. Every little bit helps!!!

my comments in bold above

[ClaraC]

DaleAnne, I think you'd both enjoy Austin. GREAT music scene, and yes, I think he'd find a market in the guitar tech business.

The downside is the reason Austin costs so much is because people want to live here, and there are a lot of people in the high tech industry who make a lot of money.

My guess is, your standard of living in Indiana - what you can afford in housing - will be better than what you could afford here, but you might enjoy a quality of life in Austin that makes up for that.

[m1a1mg]

Visit, visit, visit. Come down for as many days as you can afford. Drive around early morning and late afternoon. See what a pain driving here can be. Start checking the job listings. Visit a guitar shop.

I'm from Charleston, SC. Another "it" city. People move there every day with no idea of what they'll find. Austin can be the same way, although the job market is exponentially better.

I always told people moving to Charleston to have a job, or a lot of money, before they moved. The same advice would be pertinent here as well.

[DaleAnne]

I have read that most renters want 3x the amount of rent. What is that based on exactly or does it vary? Here in Indy if you're married they do your incomes together, but sometimes they want each person to make 3x the amount. I'm just curious since rent is a bit expensive in Austin, I'd hope they'd take our collective income and not individual....

[mrsb9494]

Originally Posted by DaleAnne

I have read that most renters want 3x the amount of rent. What is that based on exactly or does it vary? Here in Indy if you're married they do your incomes together, but sometimes they want each person to make 3x the amount. I'm just curious since rent is a bit expensive in Austin, I'd hope they'd take our collective income and not individual....

At our apartment they wanted everyone to make 3x the rent. But different companies require different things.

[DaleAnne]

So am I better off renting from an owner?