Phoenix vs. Austin (Mesa, Scottsdale, Chandler: real estate, home, rent)

[Phoenix vs. Austin]

Hello. My wife and I are considering moving to either Phoenix or Austin. We currently live in Seattle. I'm a software engineer and my wife is finishing up law school. We have no children yet, but we're planning a family in the near future. The reason we're leaving Seattle is the miserable combination of the weather, home prices, and 45+ minute commute. The things we do love about Seattle is the vibrant city, culture, restaurants, and beautiful outdoor picturesque setting. We currently live in a suburb and deal with a long, disconnecting commute.

We're considering Phoenix and Austin because of the weather, cost of living, and strong job markets. We're looking for advice from people with personal experience of living in these two cities and why you would choose one verses the other. We understand there's lots of +/- of each city and both cities look appealing to us on paper. At this point, we're undecided 50/50 on either location.

Thank you in advance for any help.

[irwin]

Originally Posted by Phoenix vs. Austin

Hello. My wife and I are considering moving to either Phoenix or Austin. We currently live in Seattle. I'm a software engineer and my wife is finishing up law school. We have no children yet, but we're planning a family in the near future. The reason we're leaving Seattle is the miserable combination of the weather, home prices, and 45+ minute commute. The things we do love about Seattle is the vibrant city, culture, restaurants, and beautiful outdoor picturesque setting. We currently live in a suburb and deal with a long, disconnecting commute.

We're considering Phoenix and Austin because of the weather, cost of living, and strong job markets. We're looking for advice from people with personal experience of living in these two cities and why you would choose one verses the other. We understand there's lots of +/- of each city and both cities look appealing to us on paper. At this point, we're undecided 50/50 on either location.

Thank you in advance for any help.

I've lived in both places. I went to school at UT in Austin and now live here in Phoenix.

Hands down, Austin. It has a better culture, better and more unique restaurants, and the people are more educated and cosmopolitan. The negatives about Austin are the lack of mountains, lack of good hiking, and summer weather (although I think Phoenix is worse). The other negatives about Austin is that the airport is small/non-hub and the lack of professional sports teams (if that is important).

Phoenix does not have a city life at all, the restaurants are dominated by chains, and the traffic is worse than Seattle. Granted, you are close to the Grand Canyon and other premium outdoor recreation in Northern AZ, but you still have a long drive, especially when you take the traffic into account.

I would recommend visiting both places and really thinking hard. If you like downtown Seattle, I think you will find the culture in Austin a lot closer than the "culture" you get in Phoenix. The population in Austin is more educated, more progressive, more eclectic, more unique, and more friendly than Phoenix.

Anyway, my two cents.

[gigi927]

I've also lived in both places. I lived in Phoenix for 4 years and moved to Austin about 6 months ago.

I agree wholeheartedly with Irwin that it's Austin, hands down, for the following reasons:

1. Real estate: real estate is significantly cheaper in Austin. about 60 cents on the dollar compared to the nice parts of Phoenix/suburbs. Phoenix may seem cheaper coming from Seattle, but if you are looking to really reduce your mortgage payment, Austin is a better choice.

2. Weather: I think weather is better in Austin, but you have to like a little bit of a change of seasons. While it's humid here, it's nothing compared to other parts of the country, and there's nothing worse than a Phoenix summer where it's miserable to go out any time of day or night for 3 to 4 months. We get 30 inches of rain here a year, Phoenix gets 9 if they're lucky....something to think about coming from Seattle

3. Downtown: Austin has a downtown that is vibrant, is a destination, has great restaurants and nightlife, not to mention cool tourist sites (the capitol, etc.) Phoenix is really more of a town of suburbs. if you like going into a downtown type of area, austin is your best bet.

4. Dining: I think it's much better in Austin, and we're foodies from San Francisco. Even the dives are better!

5. Outdoor recreation: I posted on another thread about this - if you are an urban athlete, Austin's more of the place for you. Great jogging trails, Lake Travis, lots of biking, lots of places with tennis and actually some reasonably priced golf courses. If you are more of a 3 day hiker/camper type, Arizona is a better place.

6. Vibe: I like the vibe better in Austin - I find a lot of Phoenix to be very much like southern California - there is an emphasis on what car you drive, how blond your hair is, body image, etc. Austin is much more of a "come as you are" kind of place (hope it stays that way!).


I think Irwin covered with great detail the negatives about Austin and Phoenix. After living here for several months, I wish we had made the move sooner than we did. Good luck with your decisions!

[councilor j]

I would say Austin also,Phoenix dosent have a city feel to it,just lots of traffic,and the downtown is small

[ethurston]

I live here and my brother grew up here and now lives in Austin. He really likes Austin for the culture, the good food and the fun downtown. Reasons why he's considering moving back to Phoenix:
1. UT Austin is HUGE and 80% of their alumni stay in Austin. So the job market is oversaturated with highly qualified people that are already networked with their friends from school. So not only is it really hard for an outsider to find a well paying job, it's really hard to make friends if you didn't go to UTAustin.
2. If you can't afford a loft downtown you have a really long commute. My sister-in-law lives four miles from the state capitol where she works but her commute is 30-40 minutes because she's on the wrong side of the river, traffic completely stops trying to get across.

Those are the biggest reasons they're thinking of moving back but mostly the friends because the traffic can be bad here too. At least there is more than one freeway. But here, everyone is from somewhere else and everyone needs more friends so people are more open and friendly. That's their opinion anyway.

[irwin]

Originally Posted by ethurston

I live here and my brother grew up here and now lives in Austin. He really likes Austin for the culture, the good food and the fun downtown. Reasons why he's considering moving back to Phoenix:
1. UT Austin is HUGE and 80% of their alumni stay in Austin. So the job market is oversaturated with highly qualified people that are already networked with their friends from school. So not only is it really hard for an outsider to find a well paying job, it's really hard to make friends if you didn't go to UTAustin.
2. If you can't afford a loft downtown you have a really long commute. My sister-in-law lives four miles from the state capitol where she works but her commute is 30-40 minutes because she's on the wrong side of the river, traffic completely stops trying to get across.

Those are the biggest reasons they're thinking of moving back but mostly the friends because the traffic can be bad here too. At least there is more than one freeway. But here, everyone is from somewhere else and everyone needs more friends so people are more open and friendly. That's their opinion anyway.

1.) Although I agree that the job market can be rough in Austin, as a UT alum I would beg to differ that 80% of alums stay in Austin. Maybe 80% of the alums WANT to stay in Austin, but just a quick look at the number of alums in Houston and Dallas would throw that number into dispute. Like many big state schools, alums dissipate across the country and the world. But I will grant you there is an abundance of highly educated workers in Austin, which supply and demand would tell you that salaries would be lower. But, the per capita wages are still higher in Austin (25K v. 19K in Phoenix). Personally, I think the wages in Phoenix are fairly low, just because there are so many people who move here and there really is a dearth of big corporations based in Phoenix.

As far as the social thing, you are going to run into that anywhere. I moved to the East Coast and had to break into groups of friends from UVA and Georgetown. I moved to Phoenix and had to break into UofA and ASU groups. It happens everywhere. I think the social scene is so much better in Austin when compared to Phoenix, it's easier to meet people. Also, people in Austin are less materialistic when compared to people in Phoenix, so I think the people you meet are more "real."

2.) Traffic stinks in Austin, agreed. I would live as close to downtown as possible or on a major bus line. But, traffic stinks here too. And this place is massive and spread out, it makes public transportation or alternatives like biking and walking unpractical. Austin is better in that sense.

But, if you choose to live way out, you are going to run into the same problem you run into everywhere.

[rob1in]

I'd Pick Phoenix anyday, Austin may be a nice small town but it is an island in texas cut off from the rest of the country. Phoenix is nice because it's a great city, not so much downtown but I live in Scottsdale and love it. Old Town Scottsdale, Shopping, hiking, dining, golf,. The phoenix area offers so much more and it's closer to L.A., Las Vegas, and San Francisco.

[wilberry]

humidity green trees culture vs. Desert , brown suburbs, no culture
? check out TEMPE , it has culture ( downtown tempe ), trees, Salt river, parks, restaurants, If I could live and work in TEMPE yes ..

[eddie gein]

Having lived both places (but only breifly) I think there is a lot of accurate information on this thread.

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by wilberry

humidity green trees culture vs. Desert , brown suburbs, no culture
? check out TEMPE , it has culture ( downtown tempe ), trees, Salt river, parks, restaurants, If I could live and work in TEMPE yes ..

That's something I noticed too living here in Tempe; the neighborhoods here might be out-of-date (1960's era) and a little run down compared to brand new developments in Chandler, East Mesa, or Surprise, but just having mature, diverse trees planted everywhere makes a big difference. It makes living in the desert a lot nicer, more liveable IMO than if it were just pure concrete and cactus. It seems like to like every property built in the last 15 years, whether it is residential, commercial, or campus buildings at ASU, only landscapes with rocks and dinky paloverde trees, and palm trees which give no shade. Tempe and central Phoenix has orange trees, oak trees, ash, canary island pine trees etc all over the place-- whereas I don't see hardly any of those in the newer parts of town (including south Tempe). I know that xeriscaping, cutting back on water is important, but still...