Austin Salaries vs. Northeast (Houston: rental car, real estate, apartment)

[Jayhawk]

We are contemplating a relocation from Boston to Austin and are trying to figure out how much we are willing to sacrifice in terms of annual compensation in order to get the appealing weather and lower cost of living (particularly housing).

I am a controller for a financial services firm in Boston. I've interviewed with only 3 companies and have 1 job offer for 70% of my current annual compensation. Also, the placement firm that I'm using insists that relocation is unusual because "Austin is such a hot market right now".

Does anyone have thoughts about how much I should expect to concede in terms of annual comp. to make the move comfortably?

Also, has anyone else experienced difficulties in getting Austin companies to cover relocation costs.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

[traceyr13]

Hi - we moved from Rhode Island to Austin a year ago. My husband who works in litigation support took a 25% cut in salary for the same position, and I took a 40% cut in salary for a comparable position in public education.

Yes, ouch.

It was worth it to us because ours was a quality of life move, not a career or financial move, but we are still basically recovering from the transition, financially. My husband's firm did not compensate us at all for the move.

Luckily, my husband's firm was very impressed with him and gave him a rather large promotion in December, and he is now making the same salary that he did at one of the largest firms in Providence. But that was an unexpected lucky break.

[Trainwreck20]

Austin is a very 'hot' market right now, and moving costs are a 'lure' used most places to attract employees. Since there is not much need to add incentives, it may be harder to get a relocation package in Austin. We have offices in Houston and Austin, and although we do not offer relocation packages (we are small and tend to hire from the local pool), we would definitely consider it in Houston, whereas in Austin, probably not.

The cost of living reduction is very much proportional to your housing cost. If you keep the 'same' house (size, primarily) when you come to Austin, you will probably have a large cost of living reduction. If you sell your house in Boston and but the same cost house (probably much bigger or very close in) you will not see as big a cost savings (very little, when you look at taxes). Austin (and Texas, really) is geared toward high income in low priced housing (since the property is taxed and not the income).

[brenda9417]

My husband was a Sr. Financial Systems Analyst for a very large-international firm here in Austin (he just left this position last week). We are relocating to the east coast due to my career change now. He's already accepted a position there making the same amount of money. I do not know how much experience you have in your position but if you have quite a bit there is no reason ever to expect a company not to reimburse you for the following: (1) moving expenses; and (2) all expenses related to interviews.

When we came to Austin 5 years ago we were moved here from the east coast, put in a corporate apartment for a month and then reimbursed for having to store our furnishings for that month and for moving into our new home from our apartment. The company he has just started working for on the east coast is reimbursing us up to $10,000 for moving expenses. This includes expenses realted to moving our sailboat from TX to the east coast.

When he announced he was leaving last month, word spread fast (scary fast) and other Austin firms contacted him wanting him to work for them. Apparently its hard to find great financial people here in Austin. I'd be happy to tell you the names of those companies, and the one he just left (they haven't replaced him yet--he's just worked on several problems for them last night).

[neddy]

We moved here at the beginning of the monthand the company paid for relocation, wanted to ship the cars and pets for us also! We have a 10 gallon tank of fish from Walmart! Husband is C.S. guy though so maybe they wanted him but they took 10 people from where he was and got them over here to Austin also.

[Torontonian]

I had 2 offers for the similar position in Boston and Austin - it was 7% (base salary) less in Austin for me.
Company paid all relocation expences including 2mth of corporate furnished housing, rental car, meal allowances etc

[Jayhawk]

Thanks for the input!

Obviously every situation is different, but many of these cost of living calculators seem to support the assertion that 70% of a Boston salary should equal 100% of the Austin salary for the same job. In fact, many of them are closer to 55% to 60%!! I wonder how current some of the data is though. The cost of housing in Boston is flattening, while it's still rising in Austin.

That being said, we've made two trips to get a feel for the area and scout out the real estate, and the cost of housing (including property taxes) is higher than expected if you need to commute into/near the city.

I agree that the relocation and interview expenses should be reimbursed, but wondered if others are hearing that it's "unusual" to expect to see that as part of an offer in Austin.

[GANKS]

I think it depends on the company you work for and the unique skills and attributes you have to do the job. I expected to take a cut in pay but my company (software) didn't reduce my pay at all coming here from Seattle even though during the interview process I was warned there may be a pay reduction and likely would have little relocation expenses covered. They also covered our full relo (2 cars, move, temp housing).

Your interview expenses should be covered (that would be a red flag if they weren't). My experience and others I know who have relo'd here as well (with other companies in the tech space at least) is there is a difference in what is offered once you have interviewed vs. upfront what is being offered in the package.

A few people I know from Dell who recently moved here got really extensive relo packages (like Dell guaranteeing a purchase price for their house if it didn't sell in 90 days and actually buying it). Perhaps that is why Dell is in a tight spot now...(Yikes!)

[jak]

I think the 70% Boston to 100% Austin ratio will work if you keep your housing/property tax costs in check when buying a house in Austin.

We moved from Boston to Austin 2 years ago.
- Kept the same salary from Boston to Austin
- Company paid full relocation, storage, temp. housing.
- Financially: At first we were way better off but after two years I'd say we are maybe only a little bit better off now. Our reason is that we did what someone else already mentioned and that is to sell our house in MA and buy in Austin for about the same price that we sold in MA for. (We did have a good size down payment) Although we got more house for our money our property taxes are double of what we paid in Massachusetts. Paying income tax from your paycheck is a much better value than paying higher property taxes. And remember upsizing will require more furniture, etc.

On companies paying for the relocation. From our experience larger companies like Dell, Freescale, Motorola, AMD, etc. typically offer a full relo package. My husband also had offers from smaller start-up companies which didn't include full relocation.

Good Luck