Is this worth the move?

[austinitelookingtohelp]

If you will be south and east of Austin, it would be a good idea to check out the more southern areas. These include: Buda, Kyle, Bastrop, Lockhart, San Marcos, Neiderwald, Uhland, Dale, and a few others. That way you would have less commute and would be more in the out of city area you are talking about. I personally live in Kyle and have 1 1/2 acres, it is nice to not have your neighbors knocking on your windows.

[CptnRn]

If you can tell us approximately where your office will be located we can give you some suggestions of where to live SE of Austin. If the timing of your office visits are flexible, so you don't have to fight rush hours, the traffic going in and out of Austin isn't bad from any part of town or its outskirts.

[bgnagn]

At this time, I don't have any idea where the office is. Only contact has been online and they have thus far chosen to remain anonymous. I believe they are statewide, maybe even multi-state, but current work is SE of Austin.

[austin-steve]

If you're going to be driving to/from SE Texas, you'd probably want to look at Buda/Kyle, maybe even Bastrop. Much lower housing costs but still close enough to Austin to make the occassional trip in easy.

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by bgnagn

At this time, I don't have any idea where the office is. Only contact has been online and they have thus far chosen to remain anonymous. I believe they are statewide, maybe even multi-state, but current work is SE of Austin.

The employer is choosing to stay anonymous?!!

Sounds like a scam to me, be careful.

[RooCeleste]

As a 40-year-old originally from Van, Texas (I too love the Country Tavern!), I think you'd enjoy Georgetown/Round Rock/Cedar Park/Leander even though it isn't close to South Austin where your field work might be. It is much more inexpensive than living closer in, it feels more suburbia/rural instead of quirky Austin-ish, and the drive into Austin is always a chore (traffic and time wise, not necessarily distance wise) so that shouldn't even figure in your decision. Where there used to be large breaks between G'town/Round Rock/Austin, there is now one solid stretch of development. (Literally solid from Georgetown to almost New Braunfels!) So unless you want to head someplace specific in Austin or go downtown, you'll find everything else you need either up north or down south. I technically live in Cedar Park, but it takes me less than 10 minutes to get to Georgetown or Round Rock, and even less to get into the northern city limits of Austin.

I've recently heard of friends who got apartments or duplexes for about $700/month, so it is doable if you search. Those were in nice areas, too. I don't know much about rental houses, though. Austin city utilities are cheap, cheap, cheap; Cedar Park city utilities are NOT! That's about the only comparison I have there.

As for the DFW/Austin comparison...I always knew I wanted to end up in one of the two, and I'm soooooo glad it was Austin!!!!