Why do people think Austin is a "cheap" place to live?

[calel]

You can find that in North Central Austin. Even some in East Austin. The downside is that both areas have their sketchy portions and the houses are all from the 70s/early 80s, so they all have their own special issues. I certainly looked at a number of them before finding the perfect place near Lakeline Mall.

[texan4me]

Question..... are the salaries in the Dallas area higher than Austin area??? We are considering relocating as my husband is a proud texan but I did notice that there would be a drop in earnings. I am also wondering about another thing.... it appears that the Austin area focuses on having Bachelor degrees in a field, but they only want to pay you $13.00/hr. Is that because UT? The only problem with applying from out of state is I don't think employers like that because they want someone soon and the whole difficult interview process.????? At least that is what I have found when trying to relocate. Any ideas??? Appreciate your input.

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by texan4me

Question..... are the salaries in the Dallas area higher than Austin area??? We are considering relocating as my husband is a proud texan but I did notice that there would be a drop in earnings. I am also wondering about another thing.... it appears that the Austin area focuses on having Bachelor degrees in a field, but they only want to pay you $13.00/hr. Is that because UT? The only problem with applying from out of state is I don't think employers like that because they want someone soon and the whole difficult interview process.????? At least that is what I have found when trying to relocate. Any ideas??? Appreciate your input.

Yes, generally salaries are higher in Dallas, it is a bigger city and the job market tends to be stronger and yes, UT pumps out well-qualified people who want to stay in Austin annually and this tends to depress local wages. It has been this way for a long time. Be sure to look at Houston too!

[texan4me]

Thanks for your input! I think Houston would be too humid for me ..... it is worse than Dallas or Austin, correct? I am just going by what I have heard.

[sliverbox]

Texan4me,
Have you actually even been to Texas? Its gets HOT there. We visited in March and it was pushing 90 already. So if you are complaining about humidity, then what Austin lacks in humidity it will make up for in raw heat alone. It sounds like you need to make a visit before you make any sort of decision.

[dick1973]

Originally Posted by austinite45

What is the equivalent to NY's Empire State Building in Austin?



What is the equivalent to NY's harbor in Austin?



come on, let's hear it.

I would rather be at the Poodle Dog lounge as the Empire State building and I sure you would have a better time on your boat at the Marshall Ford Marina than watching the boats at the ny harbor.

But i never been to new york city.

[jobert]

Originally Posted by texan4me

Question..... are the salaries in the Dallas area higher than Austin area??? We are considering relocating as my husband is a proud texan but I did notice that there would be a drop in earnings. I am also wondering about another thing.... it appears that the Austin area focuses on having Bachelor degrees in a field, but they only want to pay you $13.00/hr. Is that because UT? The only problem with applying from out of state is I don't think employers like that because they want someone soon and the whole difficult interview process.????? At least that is what I have found when trying to relocate. Any ideas??? Appreciate your input.

You have to know someone or transfer with a company to keep or raise your salary here.
I transferred last year and kept my 55K Dallas salary

(p.s. I don't have a degree either)

[jmoxley]

Hey, guys! I just got back from 9 days in Austin. I LOVED IT! I read the replies to this post since I last chimed in. I will definitely seek more quotes from other ins. companies. I talked to a RE agent at an open house and he said that he thought our quote was high because of our son. He is 22 and drives a Jeep Wrangler. He said something along the lines, and please don't blast me for this because they aren't my words, but that his gender, age and what he drives may be ridiculously high because the ins. co. would view him as driving around drunk & 4-wheeling akin to what a "red neck" might do. Now that is purely conjecture in my opinion, but he might be right about the type of vehicle costing more to insure in TX. Our other 2 cars are a Toyota Matrix 2004 and a 2005 Chevy Avalanche. My husband and I have good driving records. My son won't be moving with us (as far as we know now - that could change) but when I sought the quote I wanted to compare apples to apples.

Trainwreck20 wrote that her HOI is "somewhere around $1200 per year for a similar valued home" and so I will try to get a quote from another insurance company regarding that coverage.

Has anyone compared health coverage? I asked this question with my original post but so far do not see a reply.

One thing I noticed is that the size of the lots are way smaller than what we have in VA. Too small for me, in fact, so we are looking at finding a 1 acre lot in Buda or Kyle and compromising on the amount of house and amenities we would like to have to start off. I told the husband that we can always upgrade or build more house, but we cannot get more land in a subdivision. Our realtor introduced us to David Weekley. Does anyone have any opinions regarding that builder? So far they have been very responsive to my questions and in sending me house plans that would fit our budget.

The one thing we did not get answered while we were there was what my husband could possibly do for a living. I found that I can earn around $4,000 more a year in downtown Austin as a legal secretary. We are comfortable with my husband going from $29 an hour to $21 but no lower than that. I ran into a guy in a liquor store who is from Richmond and he said if my husband was making that much that we should stay where we are. That's not very encouraging. The personnel guy at Adecco that my husband spoke to didn't even know about the Caterpillar plant opening up in Sequin or about some other companies that I had researched and that is not very encouraging either.

We both decided that we would take another week sometime in February and see if he can find a good paying job and if he can, then he will move first and I will stay to sell the house.

Oh, the other thing we found before we left for our visit was the realtor told us that he would be hard pressed to get the high 230's for our house in this market and we paid $249,500 and put another $22,000 into the privacy fence, extra large shed and paver patio. I'm hopeful that will change in the spring of 2010 when the high salaried civil service workers start to show up at Ft. Lee in the spring.

Satexguero wrote:

Wow you really should do some more research-it is definitely cheaper to live here in Austin then Northern Virginia-I lived in Central VA-Richmond area for a year from 2007 to 2008-you left out that you pay a higher registration for your vehicle up there plus a yearly property tax on your car and VA has a state income tax. Insurance is cheaper here and groceries are definitely less expensive also. I would recommend a trip down here so you can investigate-(not just online) it in person.

He is right about the registration, but when I calculated the taxes we paid last year, I did take into account the state income tax and personnel property taxes on our cars and home. And we do live in Central, VA-Richmond area, not Northern VA. I am happy to know that for him/her it is less expensive to live in Austin.

Gas was 10 cents more a gallon in Austin, a case of Coors was a dollar higher in Austin, and so was my Jack! I never got around to pricing bread and milk, but I will take your word for it that groceries are cheaper.

And another thing, the rental car at the airport raped me in taxes. They even charged me almost $50 just for the pleasure of renting a car from the airport as opposed to renting from another site.

[sliverbox]

Here's my 2 cents just from my visit and also from looking pretty seriously at housing ads. It seems to me that if you have kids and just want "a house", meaning a 2 story, newer deal out in the burbs that you can get a pretty good deal. But I drove through a lot of these suburban areas and I didn't really care for most of them. I actually liked some of the reall far-flung towns outside of Austin, like Georgetown and a few others.

But... here's the problem at least for me. The areas I tended to like were what unfortunately a lot of other people like: Older, more colorful neighborhoods with older homes. Sure- we found cheap houses in South Austin, but they were also not far from chunks of totally gentrified neighborhoods with $500,000 houses.

That brings me to the next point which I've mentioned a few other times, and that would be the property taxes. In most any other city, I'd probably be ok getting a $300,000 house because I have a lot of saved up cash. But in Austin, I'd feel really nervous paying anything over $200,000-$250,000 for a house because then the taxes start to become a big expense, and that expense will only go up with property value. That places homeownership at certain levels of financial risk. I'm not totally nuts about that and what's more, the prices I listed seems to not get you many choices in areas that are as I described.

So to me the answer of whether the area is affordable depends on what you want. If you want cookie cutter, you're good to go. If you don't you're probably going to have to pay out the rear for it. I sort of almost get this feeling that the opportunity for recent arrivals in Austin is not really there anymore. Its turning into yet one more expensive city, and on top of that, there really isn't that many jobs that I can find in tech, which is what the city seems to tout itself as along the lines of SF or Silicon Valley.

So... Yes I would like to move to Austin. But if what I really and truly find is that I would basically be stuck in some sort of bland subdivision, no thanks. There are still quite a few cities out there where they haven't been "discovered" yet where you can get a cool old home for not a lot of bucks. Good example is Nashville. You can pick up a victorian there for like $100k.

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by texan4me

Question..... are the salaries in the Dallas area higher than Austin area??? We are considering relocating as my husband is a proud texan but I did notice that there would be a drop in earnings. I am also wondering about another thing.... it appears that the Austin area focuses on having Bachelor degrees in a field, but they only want to pay you $13.00/hr. Is that because UT? The only problem with applying from out of state is I don't think employers like that because they want someone soon and the whole difficult interview process.????? At least that is what I have found when trying to relocate. Any ideas??? Appreciate your input.

There are many UT grads, recent and older, in the Austin market, along with a plethora of other younger workers, here for the lifestyle, and willing to sacrifice for the same...Austin is not, and never was, a high-pressure lifestyle, like NYC. LA, Chicago, and the like.....and pay jives accordingly with the same....

If you are looking for lifestyle, and are willing to make less, ala florida paying you less and earning it in sunshine, try Austin....if you want a more diverse, high-pressure economic environment, with far more potential for advancement and income, try Houston or Dallas, if you want Texas....

Simple as that....