Why do people think Austin is a "cheap" place to live? (Houston: sales, car insurance)

[austinite45]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

What is the equivalent to Hyde Park in NYC or San Francisco? What would it cost?

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.

[austinite45]

Originally Posted by riaelise

As stated countless times in some of my other posts, I came from a hyper-expensive city (New York). So, when I first moved down here in 04 I thought Austin was inexpensive. However, after living here 5 years, and viewing information on some of the other Texas cities, I've come to the conclusion that Austin is not all that inexpensive. Definitely not in proportion with the "Texas salaries". It's probably not all that bad if you are working for a national/international company, which tends to pay on a national scale, but when I worked for a certain Big Texas firm my salary was a full 10K less. Housing especially doesn't seem all that inexpensive. There are now many, many apts asking for over 1K a month for a one bedroom. If you want to pay less than that, you have to move farther out. I paid 1100/mo for my apartment in New York City five years ago, just to give you something to compare. Granted, I'm sure you can make 200K stretch a bit here (ok, maybe 300K) but it seems like the prices are creeping ever upward so that Austin isn't really all that reasonable anymore. Especially when you constantly see job postings that are $10-13 hr. I think folks moving here (especially without jobs) thinking that it's "cheap" should put everything into perspective. Thoughts?

1) False information from the media
2) Distortions, exaggerations by local residents (the feel-good rah-rah crowd - you can find some here)
3) Propaganda initiated / sponsored by real estate developers / agents in an attempt to fool ignorant people to come buy inflated properties in Austin.

[BobosCurse]

Originally Posted by Exiled Texan

However, since we were giving up the greatest city in the world

Now THAT's funny.

I've been to NYC once, one of the goals of my life is to never have to be forced to go there again.

It's great material for movies and sitcoms.
The idea that real people raise actual children there? Impossible to fathom.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by BobosCurse

Now THAT's funny.

I've been to NYC once, one of the goals of my life is to never have to be forced to go there again.

It's great material for movies and sitcoms.
The idea that real people raise actual children there? Impossible to fathom.

Just had to add a comment here, while I might not desire to live in NYC any longer, I will always be a New Yorker. That said, YES of course real people raise 'actual children' there. I am one of them. And so is my mom, and my mother's mother. And we are all just fine, thank you.

I'd rather NOT raise my daughter in a large urban environment but it isn't because it was all that bad. It's because I like the slower pace down here, is all. New York City is a wonderful city and not just a pretty backdrop for movies.

[BobosCurse]

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.

Why would anyone care?
If someone is in love with NY, live there.
Why would there need to be a 1:1 equivalent?

What's the murder rate NYC to Austin? Come on, let's hear it.

How many locks do you need on your door? Come on, let's hear it.

A tall building that you'll climb once and say "That was sort of cool" is a criteria for a place to live!?

What is the point you're making?

[sxrckr]

Interesting thread. I like reading replies of people who moved here from elsewhere.

Originally Posted by austinite45

1) False information from the media
2) Distortions, exaggerations by local residents (the feel-good rah-rah crowd - you can find some here)
3) Propaganda initiated / sponsored by real estate developers / agents in an attempt to fool ignorant people to come buy inflated properties in Austin.

And is any of this really surprising?

[jmoxley]

I can tell you that I have been comparing the cost of living myself for about a year now. We are arriving in Austin this Saturday to do more research to see if we can afford to move to the Austin area in the spring of 2010, hopefully by then the employment will open back up.

The funny thing is that some website (can't remember which) did a cost of living comparison based on zip codes and told me that I would have the same standard of living and could earn $1,500 less than what I make here in Virginia. I don't believe that is accurate.

What I have found is I can buy the same house I have here in Virginia for about $75,000 less (on the outskirts of Austin - Kyle/Buda). My home is a little over 2000 sq. feet, 3 bedrooms, open living/dining/kitchen floor plan, formal dining room (we use for an office) and we paid $249,500. My girlfriend just bought a 2225 sq. ft home, 4 bedrooms, fully sodded yard, sprinkler system and privacy fence in Buda for $169,000. We had to pay for our privacy fence $7,000 and we did not get sod, it has taken us 3 years to grow grass, and no sprinkler system.

Even though Texas doesn't have state taxes, they make up for it in the taxes for homes (e.g., in VA I paid $2,500 and for the same home in Dripping Springs it was $7,000). And my auto insurance would more than double in Texas, from $1577 to $3648 for three cars for 6 months!!

We have a $500 deductible for our homeowners insurance and I was told by an Allstate agent that in Texas it is 1% of the value of your home, so if we paid the same for a home in Texas that would make our deductible $2,495, but we'd get a discount if we live near a fire station of about $500.

I am certain I can make the same salary, maybe even a couple of thousand more, but my husband would more than likely have to go down in salary, we will know more when we talk to a personnel agency on Monday. So even though we can save on the price of a home, it is the day to day cost of living that I have to be concerned about and the taxes and insurance rates.

So far, and as much as I want to move back to Texas, I am thinking that Austin is more expensive and we may not be able to relocate. Or maybe we have to check out Dallas and/or Houston.

This is the type of research that everyone who plans to move anywhere should do before they pack up and go. As for me, I do believe that Austin is an expensive city to live in.

Has anyone compared health care coverage?

[hoffdano]

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.

There is no equivalent. So my point is that NYC and Austin really are vastly different.

- 15M people in the metro area vs. 1.6M

- Port city vs. not

- Extraordinary density of population vs. low density


My point is that if someone living in NYC in a less desirable area can't move to Austin and suddenly expect to buy property in the most desirable areas of Austin for cheap.

[Trainwreck20]

And my auto insurance would more than double in Texas, from $1577 to $3648 for three cars for 6 months!!

Wow, you may want to shop around a bit, although I don't know your age/driving record. We have two 'new' cars (both <4 years old) with full coverage (pretty much standard deducts, etc) that cost right around $1,400 per year. We do have a combined homeowners and a longevity discount, but still. It isn't a bargain insurance or anything (State Farm).

Not positive about HOI deductibles, but we pay somewhere around $1,200 per year for a similar valued home. Again, there is the discount for multiple coverages, yada, yada, but our deductible is a flat rate of ~$1,000. Have never used it, so not sure if that has changed or not - wife is the insurance boss . Personally, I had issues with my Allstate insurance years ago and ditched them, but I think it was more of an agent issue than a company issue. Shop around a bit, anyway, neither of those insurance prices seem like a good deal. I am in Austin proper, so I am not sure how much of an impact that has.

On property Taxes, we pay (again, ~250k value property) around $5,500 in Austin. Taxes vary by location quite a bit. If you itemize, it is tax deductible, so you would get 20% or so back. I have no idea what income tax is in VA, but if you are a two income familiy/household, you generally come out ahead in property tax on one property as opposed to income tax on two incomes.

Sales tax is usually 8.25%, but it is tax deductible (this is not true in most income tax states), so you get a little back.

As for being cheap, no, Austin is by no stretch 'cheap', especially when compared to the rest of Texas. It all depends on where you are coming from and where you are comparing it to. I had some friends in Fairfax county years ago, and they looked at moving to Austin. Their cost of living on housing at that time (15 years ago?) was huge - they had an 1800 or so sf townhome that was almost 1/2 mi, or something like that. I assume they must have been in some hugely desireable area. They never rode the metro into work for really silly reasons (imho) so they spent a mint on parking.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by jmoxley

And my auto insurance would more than double in Texas, from $1577 to $3648 for three cars for 6 months!!

I agree with Trainwreck in that you should try to get some more quotes. We pay just over $1000 per year for full coverage on two cars with 21st Century insurance. 21st Century was just purchased by Farmer's insurance.

jmoxley, it sounds like you've done some good research on cost of living differences compared to where you live now. Have you also factored in things like the quality of schools (if you care about that) and safety of your neighborhood compared to the neighborhood that you're looking at in the Austin area? Those factors along with it being much cheaper than California sealed the deal for us.