salary? (Austin, Cleveland, San Diego: real estate, apartments, lease)

[schoenfraun]

Hello, everyone!

I'm going to be coming down to Austin soon for a job interview--a state gov't position--and the salary is, at the high end, about $37,000.

I have never been to Austin, but I've never heard anything bad about it! Everyone loves it...well, I don't know who "everyone" is, so I'll just say I've never heard anything bad about it. My husband has been there many times and raves about it. He has no job lined up and will have to figure things out once we get there, if we go. We don't have kids, so schools and the "right" neighborhood don't matter to us.

I'm writing in to ask if folks think that $37,000 is do-able in Austin. I imagine that recent gentrification has made life more expensive down there.

I was very surprised to find this salary was so low; here in the Midwest the same position pays about $52,000--and our state is broke!

So, any thoughts on what this $ will do in Austin, for some bourgeois overeducated folks like myself, is appreciated. I'm not all fancypants, but I do want to be able to buy a little house for us. The thought of moving 1000 miles to a new place, for that kind of $, is slightly unappealing.

Thanks!

[caendaniels]

It is plausible. Apt living til you get settled. Might line that up before you go. Locate Apts in your job area. Once there ask coworkers where they live. Moving to any new place is not easy,however you would be adjusted to the new place before you lease was up.
No one works for the State-Gov't for the salary .You might be over qualified. Finding a better job once you are in the position is always easier. I work for the State for the benefits: paid time off minimum 28 days off a year, plus another dozen paid sick days, State of Texas retirement is paid til you die even if your account is out of money, retirement is based on how long you have worked + your age equalling 80. (i.e 30 years of employeed service + 50 years old = 80 total). State is not going to fold up anytime soon (job security). The pay is lower but they really don't ask a whole lot of you either.

[schoenfraun]

I know, I know, many people earn less than $33k or $37k in Austin, the salary range for this job...

But I thought I'd answer my own damned self, tell y'all who have been looking but not posting, that friends of mine who live in Austin--a UT professor and a popular musician (now that's variety!)--both said they felt it was too low, that Austin is booming, exploding, gentrifying, densifying, expanding...and that, even though there is no income tax in TX, real estate prices and property taxes are getting higher and higher, and on the whole the Austin area is not as affordable as it was even three or five years ago.

So, I've heard from folks who have lived in Austin for years, both single people and family people, and they all say that a salary in the mid-30s is not decent in Austin. One of them called it "lame."

As I said, I realize that many people out there make less, and I'm not calling it lame. Right now I'm not doing any better myself.

But my fearful assumption is that, with all the tech companies moving out to Austin, there are more people with higher salaries arriving there and thinking, "Wow! It's so cheap here! I can buy a house wherever I want..." and then the market prices become inflated due to bidding wars between affluent buyers who find Austin prices laughably cheap in contrast to what they left behind in CA. It raises the bar for everyone else, and while it's good for sellers, it's bad for buyers who don't have big salaries.

I am trying to figure out if my partner and I can make it in Austin with me earning in the low- to mid-30s, and my partner making in the low-20s, or if we're better off staying where we are and earning the same. We're in a midwestern college town, not a major metro area, so it's not apples-to-apples....But we like it fine.

Just trying to figure out if the job and the town are worth relocating for. I've also recently heard that Austin is overrated and is slowly becoming something very different from the town that everybody loves.

So, if anyone has any opinions on anything I've said, speak up! I'd appreciate it and I'm sure other readers would, too. What do you think?

[austin_or_sd]

I would say the pay cut from $52K in midwest to $37K is a bit too deep. I will move to Austin soon from San Diego, a very expensive area. My pay cut is about 10%. Go to salary.nytimes.com to do a cost of living and salary comparison to get a better idea.

[Trainwreck20]

I worked at a state jobe from 1993 until 2000, earning 30k at the beginning and ending around 45k. I was single and could live fairly comfortably the whole time on the salary. I bought a house near the arboretum area for ~105k in 1999 (which I sold last year for ~170k).

I guess there are some things to consider...are you willing to rent until you get a little more money? If you do buy at 'entry' level price, you will probably have a bit of a commute, but you might also make a good appreciation gain in a few years. Is it a downtown state job? Or on the outskirts, like TCEQ or TxDot (at least some of their offices)? TCEQ is up north and very accessible to some less expensive housing w/o the nasty commute to downtown.

I will say this - state jobs are typically 40 hrs/wk MAXIMUM. We were warned not to work overtime, even if we were not claiming it. Apparently, some people did that and then came back years later suing for backpay. Go figure. Anyway, I worked 7-4, typically, and had lots of free time to enjoy life. Most state jobs you can leave the stress at the office, too (at least at the 37k/yr jobs). I sometimes miss the state job. I actually waited tables for a while to make some extra money, but I really enjoyed that job and it was only a couple nights a week. More of a social job.

If you go into a house together at ~55k/yr, you can probably reasonable afford a house somewhere out in the suburbs and still live comfortably (of course, depending on your needs ). You definitely won't get rich, though, and if you are looking for downtown austin, add another '0' onto that salary and you will be in the right range . I passed up much better money to stay in Austin back in the early 90s, and I have never regretted it; however, I have been here since the 70s, so it is much more of a 'home' to me and would have been a bummer to leave so many people that I have known for years.

[twange]

Amazing. This question could have been asked by me with a couple of alterations. My wife will be taking a position with her current company at about 37,500 (she currently makes 50K). The advantage is that it is only 25-30hrs a week instead of the 40 she currently works. So, pound for pound, not really a pay cut...I will have very limited income initially as I will have to leave my part-time teaching gig here(Cleveland, Ohio) and find new work in Austin. All in all, our income will be about 42K. Our plan is to rent a smaller place for 6-12 months while we get stabilized and then look for a bigger spot.

From some of the apartment searches I've seen, it seems that very nice 1 bedroom apartments are available in the 78704 zip for as low as $650 a month. This seems to be a pretty cool location with lots of walking options, close to downtown and good urban culture.

Any comments?

[Trainwreck20]

That is a highly diverse area, depending on what part of the zip you live in. I play volleyball every week down at the rec. center in that zip, and although there is definitely a minor 'revival' going on there in the south end of the zip, it still has some pretty run down sections. The north end (travis heights) is a bit pricey. From the zip data for the whole zip code area:

• Average House Value: $141,800
• Avg. Income Per Household: $35,733
• Persons Per Household: 2.04

Keep in mind, the houses are probably mostly 350k or 80k depending on what area you are in...few for 140k......

[twange]

Thanks Trainwreck,

Good stuff. I figured that would be the case. I suppose that's why they use the word "average" in demographics

We are lucky in that my wife's uncle lives in Tarrytown, so we'll have a place to crash while we're are looking for a spot.

What's the Bouldin Creek area like? Pricey from what I gather...but it looks like a good location.

[schoenfraun]

I'm glad this thread has been revived.

I thought it would be too much of a slash, too, low 50s to mid 30s. Here in tiny town things are much more affordable, it seems. There are all kinds of fixer-uppers for less than 100k, and less decrepit things at 130K or so. And there is far less traffic; rush hour is a comical 15 or 20 minutes, at best, at 5pm every day. Blink and you miss it. You can't even hear a whole CD in the time it takes to get across town, in our state capital.

It sounds like Austin traffic is a nightmare. I'll see it for myself soon when I interview.

The job is, I believe, downtown, in the heart of it all, and not on the outskirts. And I like to be able to walk to work or use public transportation, so living in a suburb outside of Austin doesn't appeal. I grew up in the 'burbs of a very large city and don't miss it.

As for needing to add an "0" to the salary to afford a home near downtown, forget it. Not possible. And no matter what our purchase would be, home, condo, shoebox, I would have to get the loan myself because of partner's credit issues. So it's not a dual-income scenario, in that sense. Bummer.

So it sounds like Austin won't do it for us. Perhaps I'll take that position with state govt here, where I am...