Is Austin as great as the top 10 lists say? (Houston: houses, living)

[scongress1234]

Originally Posted by texastrigirl

And to answer the question...I feel Austin deserves a top 10 ranking. I have lived in Denver, Austin, Dallas, Austin and now Seattle and I think Austin is one of the best places you could be!

Does a place have to be bigger than 700K to be a best place to be?
How about unique places off everyone's radar, or little out of the way places? Why are we sheeple, who just follow a handful of cool, large places/

It reminds me of the end of the "Time Machine", when the gong sounded,
and all the people followed enmasse to the building like sheep......

Sheeple and top 10 lists are essentially the same thing!

[Jennibc]

I don't think it's fair to categorize people that prefer large metropolitan areas as "Sheeple" Having been born and raised in one of America's largest cities (Los Angeles) I just cannot handle smaller towns. I've lived all over because of my husband's job, so I've had a taste of small and large.

I've lived in Spokane, WA and Newport RI, both smaller areas and the lack of ethnic diversity in both placed drove me nuts. Lack of good restaurants are a problem. They also tended to lack the excitement and energy of bigger places. (Well, to be fair, Newport in the summer is like living in Disneyland - very crowded and very expensive. It's true, merchants had different pricing from May through September- it was very weird).

Frankly, if we could afford to live in NYC and didn't have children, I'd be on the next plane. Having been there, it is a great place, I don't think I've ever seen it adorn a top ten place list (but then again, I haven't read very many of those)

I now live in Seattle and used to live in Austin. We are hopefully heading back to Austin. Both regularly appear to make top 10 lists from what I have heard. I don't know if people decide to live in either based on top 10 lists or they make top 10 lists because so many people move there. While they are close in size and both are tech hubs, that is where the similarities stop. Seattle is WAY more liberal than Austin (that is good or bad depending on your Pov). Seattle is way more expensive than Austin. People in Austin are way more open, engaged and friendly than in Seattle. Anyone claiming they have a similar vibe has not lived in both places.

It's really funny. Since I discovered this site a few weeks ago, I have been perusing both the Seattle board and the Austin board regularly (probably too much, because I have tons to do to get ready for a move but instead I spend all my time on this darn board - it may be that the rain and 55 degree temps are draining me of packing energy ) But I notice on the Austin Board the posts are upbeat and even the the cranky posters are not that bad. Head over the Seattle board and it is completely different. It is mostly transplants lamenting about the cost of living and the "Seattle Freeze" and natives telling them their difficulty in making friends has nothing to do with any shortcomings in Seattle, but rather personal issues the transplants must have.

Well, I am way off topic. On the Seattle board that would get my post deleted and at least a couple of Seattle posters slapping my wrists. It really is different despite top 10 lists. And hey, the mountains and the gorgeous views here (during our 40 days of sunshine a year) just don't make up for the uptight, sour faces that I have to look at day in and day out. So sorry Scongress, despite all your effort to persuade me and others from coming (back!) to Austin, as soon as employment is secured, we are Austin bound!

[scongress1234]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

I don't think it's fair to categorize people that prefer large metropolitan areas as "Sheeple" Having been born and raised in one of America's largest cities (Los Angeles) I just cannot handle smaller towns. I've lived all over because of my husband's job, so I've had a taste of small and large.

I've lived in Spokane, WA and Newport RI, both smaller areas and the lack of ethnic diversity in both placed drove me nuts. Lack of good restaurants are a problem. They also tended to lack the excitement and energy of bigger places. (Well, to be fair, Newport in the summer is like living in Disneyland - very crowded and very expensive. It's true, merchants had different pricing from May through September- it was very weird).

Frankly, if we could afford to live in NYC and didn't have children, I'd be on the next plane. Having been there, it is a great place, I don't think I've ever seen it adorn a top ten place list (but then again, I haven't read very many of those)

I now live in Seattle and used to live in Austin. We are hopefully heading back to Austin. Both regularly appear to make top 10 lists from what I have heard. I don't know if people decide to live in either based on top 10 lists or they make top 10 lists because so many people move there. While they are close in size and both are tech hubs, that is where the similarities stop. Seattle is WAY more liberal than Austin (that is good or bad depending on your Pov). Seattle is way more expensive than Austin. People in Austin are way more open, engaged and friendly than in Seattle. Anyone claiming they have a similar vibe has not lived in both places.

It's really funny. Since I discovered this site a few weeks ago, I have been perusing both the Seattle board and the Austin board regularly (probably too much, because I have tons to do to get ready for a move but instead I spend all my time on this darn board - it may be that the rain and 55 degree temps are draining me of packing energy ) But I notice on the Austin Board the posts are upbeat and even the the cranky posters are not that bad. Head over the Seattle board and it is completely different. It is mostly transplants lamenting about the cost of living and the "Seattle Freeze" and natives telling them their difficulty in making friends has nothing to do with any shortcomings in Seattle, but rather personal issues the transplants must have.

Well, I am way off topic. On the Seattle board that would get my post deleted and at least a couple of Seattle posters slapping my wrists. It really is different despite top 10 lists. And hey, the mountains and the gorgeous views here (during our 40 days of sunshine a year) just don't make up for the uptight, sour faces that I have to look at day in and day out. So sorry Scongress, despite all your effort to persuade me and others from coming (back!) to Austin, as soon as employment is secured, we are Austin bound!

Frankly, really not trying to discourage anyone....you aren't putting one over on me by coming here. You've been here, and so you are just coming back to a place you've favored in the past....does the world out there care whether I stay here, or you move back here, or we whine or rave about a place? hardly..........My point is that every city has something special to offer, and there is no one place that is perfect, all things to all people, etc. Some regions themselves offer much to people, like Outdoorsy people per the rockies....I think, ultimately, that we are mostly acting out infantile impuses on here airing our gripes and loves on here.....myself included....indeed, Im as infantile as all the rest.....point is, does anyone really care where we are going, that we love or hate a place, anymore than we hate or love a movie, book, etc......hardly...But we persist on here as if one really cared, which people really do not.

Top 10 lists are essentially an infantile fantasy of what are the current in vougue places to aggrandize our selfish, childlike impulses...we are essentially saying on these posts, "Whaaaaaaaaaaa, sniff sniff, my place isn't fulfilling my wants and needs...this place doesn't make me feel like I'm the center of the universe....i need a special place...a place I've dreamed of......"

Just simply a mass projection of fantasy...thats all.....and the top 10 lists change every couple years as well. Seattle was on it actually MORE than Austin, throughout the entire 90's....and look how it really is, according to your description...I bet it really is that awful......and how many people went THERE because of top 10 lists? Just goes to show how insipid they are, and how foolish people are to believe they are anything than PR....


BTW, look back at the title of my post.....this is supposed to be about how meaningless top 10 lists are per relocation moves....for best movies its fine, for major life moves, hard to describe how silly it is.

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by scongress1234

Frankly, really not trying to discourage anyone....you aren't putting one over on me by coming here.

Maybe I am using the incorrectly. I meant the comment as a good natured ribbing about your single-handed "Austin is no place to relocate" campaign. I am sorry if you took in any other way.

I've better things to do than be nasty to strangers on the web - like packing!

[scongress1234]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

Maybe I am using the incorrectly. I meant the comment as a good natured ribbing about your single-handed "Austin is no place to relocate" campaign. I am sorry if you took in any other way.

I've better things to do than be nasty to strangers on the web - like packing!

Good luck.....i think its just how clumsy things come out on the web is all....as long as one does not rely on the web as a total communication source, it works out alright......so much is miscontrued on here, myself included....and I prob spend to much time on here as well.......

Good luck moving back to Austin, Jenn, and stick around here a little longer this time.....

[TexasHorseLady]

I just did a quick MLS search of properties for $250,000 or less, with 3 bedrooms/2 baths, within a 10 mile radius of the center of Austin (which doesn't include ALL of the "neat" Austin places, but includes quite a few of them). I didn't specify the year built, because a lot of the really cool houses were born many decades ago and are in high demand.

I only got 436 hits. Add a swimming pool, and it dropped to ten.

Now, if you do just the very center, you do have to jump up to $300,000.

If you do the same search in LS (Lake South - another traditionally neat part of the Austin area), you get 110 hits. So you could live out near the lake for $300,000 or less (considerably less, in some cases). You could even get a new green-built almost 3,000 sq. ft. home on over half an acre for the top of that range.

So, Austin can be affordable. Not as affordable as it used to be, but there are some nice homes out there for not a lot of money. I know - I see them every day.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

Austin is the most expensive real estate market in Texas in terms of median housing price. Additionally, I think the poster that says a 299K house is what middle class people live in has a distorted view of what constitutes the middle the class, which is pretty common these days.

I was listening to NPR yesterday on report about the increasing cost of groceries and one of the women profiled lamented that she could no longer afford shopping at Whole Foods. When describing herself, she said she owned home in VA, bought a vacation home in Shenandoah for cash and that she and her husband just bought a building in VA for cash, so she thought that made her "upper-middle" class. Frankly, I think someone like that is more accurately described as upper class. I fact, in 2006, the median annual household income was $48,201.00 according to the US Census Bureau.
That's HOUSEHOLD income, not single person income. So I defend my original post that a house at 200K is something that someone in the middle class can purchase

Someone asked about houses in Austin proper. There are less expensive housing options outside of Austin but you'd be hard pressed to find a (2.500 sf +) house in good condition in a good school district for under $300K in North/Central/West/South Austin. There are so many definitions for middle class......

[TexasHorseLady]

I'll take you up on that challenge, mimimomx3!

Of course, there's so many definitions of "good" school district, too. I've heard them all, it seems, in my job! (I've almost seen folks come to virtual blows over that one in forums.)

A search with those criteria limited to the Austin School District and Eanes School District (yeah, I know, laugh at that last one) turns up 48 hits in a variety of areas in Austin currently on the market. Most of them in South Austin (SC, SWE, SWW), but a sprinkling across the rest of the city.

[Topaz]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

People in Austin are way more open, engaged and friendly than in Seattle. Anyone claiming they have a similar vibe has not lived in both places.

That's interesting. I thought maybe it felt that way to me because I was in school in Austin and it is always easier to make friends when you are in school. 12 years later, my best friends are still the ones I made in school in Austin.

The friends I made after 10 years in Seattle only want to be friends if (a) you are willing to limit your social interaction with them to email, or (2) they live right next door so they don't have to travel at all to see you. So I think on balance I agree with you that Austinites are more open, engaged, and friendly.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

I'll take you up on that challenge, mimimomx3!

Of course, there's so many definitions of "good" school district, too. I've heard them all, it seems, in my job! (I've almost seen folks come to virtual blows over that one in forums.)

A search with those criteria limited to the Austin School District and Eanes School District (yeah, I know, laugh at that last one) turns up 48 hits in a variety of areas in Austin currently on the market. Most of them in South Austin (SC, SWE, SWW), but a sprinkling across the rest of the city.

Well, you're a professional! That's your daily challenge, I bet...."get me the best for the least!"

Let's see:
-4/3, at least 2500 sf. 2 car garage (or carport)
-no less than 8 years old or remodeled within the past 5
-trees/backyard
-Casis/Kiker/Doss/Hill/Patton/Davis/Barton Hills/Westlake(for fun)
-under $300....
GO!