Should we move to Austin TX ? (Round Rock, Georgetown: house, job market, buying)

[knick49]

My husband recently retired and we are looking into moving to Austin as it is just too expensive to stay in NJ. We have lived here for over 20 years now and have decided that we must part company as the taxes and cost of living are so high.
Our family consists of my husband and myself, our 3 grown children and my 85 year old mother-in-law. At this point we are not certain how many of our kids will actually move to Texas but our youngest daughter who is still in college says she will go with us.
Although we say he is retired, my husband and I plan on working at least part time in Austin. We are interested in finding out what the job market is like in the Austin area. We hope to have have about $250,000 to put towards a home and will have a retirement income of about $55,000.
I have a few medical conditions which require good medical care (especially heart), and allergies are always a concern. Our son and daughters may be interested in buying their own homes. By the way, how weird is weird??
(Looking forward to finding out.) Many thanks for the help!

[JayBrown]

Knick, Depending on what you are looking for, Austin might be a good place for you. If Jersy is too expensive for you, then I would recommend not moving to Austin proper. With $250K for a house and 55K a year in salary, you will be able to get something very decent, but it really depends on how active you want to be. I have found that most retirees want to be able to go out alot and enjoy life. I would recommend some place like Pflugerville. There $250K can get you a really nice house on a golf course. There is also a place called Sun City up close to Georgetown. It is a commute to Austin, but Sun City is a community made up of mostly retirees. It would help you make friends with similar interests since you are so new to the state, and it has activity centers for you and your husband and your mother in law. Your kids could settle in Round Rock, Cedar Park, Pflugerville, Austin, Leander. All of these are pretty close together. You can all pop in and say Hi whenever.

Austin has several Cardiology practices, all of them are excellent. That won't be a concern for you. The job market in Austin can be good or bad, I don't know what your field is, so I can't comment. Allergies are going to kick your butt the first couple of years you are here. All of Austin (and the hill country) are surrounded by Cedar trees, and come late winter the air is thick. If you have severe allergy problems, you are going to need to get a shot every year. You eventually get used to it, or so they say.

"Keep Austin Weird" is a slogan that encourages people to shop at local buisnesses. Austin is NOT weird by any means, at least not by New Jersy standards. Other TEXANS think Austin is weird because Austinites are so liberal (Travis County consistently votes democrat in all elections. It was the only county in Texas to vote democrat in the last 4 presedential elections). Since the rest of Texas is very conservative, Austin is weird by comparison. Other than that, it is like most other cities. Not weird at all.

Of course, if you are a die hard Republican, you can find plenty of those in Round Rock and some of the above mentioned towns.

Hope this helps.