Portland Vs Austin (need suggestions) (Dallas, Round Rock: real estate, foreclosures, vacation home)

[DoctorRain]

Originally Posted by eepstein

There is no comparison in my mind between Austin are Portland. Portland wins hands down. Whether you are talking about it's beautiful natural scenery everywhere, great summer climate, great public transportation, progressive city planning, abundant year round outdoor activities, or liberal attitudes, you can't go wrong in Portland. True, it is a tad expensive in this part of Northwest Oregon, but when you factor in all of the costs including property taxes, any desirable parts of Austin is no more affordable.


I believe that to be true as well. Portland was flat out awesome. While I see Austin being nice in parts, I don't see it being as walkable or even as liberal believe it or not. Also I see many people complain in Austin on this board about the SAME problems they do in the Portland one. Racism. Treatment to blacks, economy + the added college football fanaticism that comes with Austin. They say Portland has a near 19% unemployment while Austin supposedly boasts 7.5% or something yet I come in here and the residents say how its hard finding a job in Austin so it really seems to be a big selective stat game maybe to pump Austin up some.


The climate is austin is not it's strength. Its very hot in the summer, and rarely rains. The humidity isn't too bad, but you will always know it's there especially in the summer mornings. Tampa is cooler and rainier than Austin, but more humid, so it probably evens out.


See, this is where I probably won't make it there, yet doesn't seem to be any complaints about any other season so.. are there 4 seasons?


Please don't even think that metro Austin is overall a liberal place. Only the most CENTRAL parts of Austin could even resemble a liberal place and remember that is liberal by TEXAS standards. The city of Austin wants people to believe that it's liberal which is simply a lie. (big shocker) Probably more than 80% of metro Austin is as Texas as it gets. Horrendously conservative, republican, anti-environment, religious, red neck culture. So do yourself a favor and AVOID the suburbs at all costs!!



I see Austin pretty much as a conservative overhead with some liberal influence, but not on Portlands level. I see Austin being good if you are rich in actuality since the place to live is probably Downtown or 6th st area. People mostly probably own a car and drive since I don't see it as exactly easy to walk or bike anywhere and no tram to take anyone anywhere and busses are probably sporadic and stops I picture as being harder to keep track of since its not as compact of a city and may take longer to get places.
They say Austin is cheaper than many cities, yea right. It seems the same cost of living as any city right under Boston or NY prices. Like the cheaper but not cheap category. Austin, Asheville, Tampa, Portland, Burlington VT, Denver, Chicago, all seem to be comparable priced and cheaper than lets say Boston, NY, LA, Seattle, Miami, Montreal, London, but more than Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, St Louis.
Austin sure doesn't run in the real cheap group though. They even say Dallas is cheaper. How surprising especially since Dallas looks world class with the skyline and stuff. Philly could even be cheaper than Austin. I know I rambled, but I'm on a roll hah.

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[tj7run]

Portland and Austin are two very different places...The Pacific Northwest is very beautiful, green, mountains, the ocean, snow....and Texas is warmer, people are friendlier ( I can say that because I have lived in Oregon my whole life), it is flatter, not as green, but it has a beauty of it's own..I can say that it is less expensive to live in Austin, and the job market is much better. I will be moving to Texas in a couple of weeks, and although leaving Oregon will be tough I am looking forward to a new adventure...If you all ready have a good job lined up in Oregon, then you've got it made...Enjoy the winter and summer sports, including skiing, fishing, backpacking, camping, hiking, riding quads at the dunes and so on...Oregon is not as warm as Texas and probably has a bit more rain...

[lndigo]

Originally Posted by eepstein

Please don't even think that metro Austin is overall a liberal place. Only the most CENTRAL parts of Austin could even resemble a liberal place and remember that is liberal by TEXAS standards. The city of Austin wants people to believe that it's liberal which is simply a lie. (big shocker) Probably more than 80% of metro Austin is as Texas as it gets. Horrendously conservative, republican, anti-environment, religious, red neck culture. So do yourself a favor and AVOID the suburbs at all costs!!

ORLY?
http://www.burntorangereport.com/mt/...Prop2blend.gif

[eepstein]

I see Austin pretty much as a conservative overhead with some liberal influence, but not on Portlands level. I see Austin being good if you are rich in actuality since the place to live is probably Downtown or 6th st area. People mostly probably own a car and drive since I don't see it as exactly easy to walk or bike anywhere and no tram to take anyone anywhere and busses are probably sporadic and stops I picture as being harder to keep track of since its not as compact of a city and may take longer to get places.
They say Austin is cheaper than many cities, yea right. It seems the same cost of living as any city right under Boston or NY prices. Like the cheaper but not cheap category. Austin, Asheville, Tampa, Portland, Burlington VT, Denver, Chicago, all seem to be comparable priced and cheaper than lets say Boston, NY, LA, Seattle, Miami, Montreal, London, but more than Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, St Louis.
Austin sure doesn't run in the real cheap group though. They even say Dallas is cheaper. How surprising especially since Dallas looks world class with the skyline and stuff. Philly could even be cheaper than Austin. I know I rambled, but I'm on a roll hah.

You are absolutely correct. Austin is NO cheaper than many other cities in the country which are desirable. That is just another "LIE" that the city of Austin touts in it's multi million dollar media campaigns. The city favors the rich and has no interest in any people who are poor or middle income. It glady sends those people to Round Rock, Cedar Park, or Leander. The fact remains that only the faceless undesirable suburbs of Austin are affordable (by most people's standards). But you get what you pay for.

Yes, Dallas is a world class city. It is overall far more affordable than Austin and offers 10 times the opportunities and entertainment.

Originally Posted by DoctorRain

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[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by eepstein

They say Austin is cheaper than many cities, yea right. It seems the same cost of living as any city right under Boston or NY prices. Like the cheaper but not cheap category. Austin, Asheville, Tampa, Portland, Burlington VT, Denver, Chicago, all seem to be comparable priced and cheaper than lets say Boston, NY, LA, Seattle, Miami, Montreal, London, but more than Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, St Louis.


You are absolutely correct. Austin is NO cheaper than many other cities in the country which are desirable. That is just another "LIE" that the city of Austin touts in it's multi million dollar media campaigns. The city favors the rich and has no interest in any people who are poor or middle income. It glady sends those people to Round Rock, Cedar Park, or Leander. The fact remains that only the faceless undesirable suburbs of Austin are affordable (by most people's standards). But you get what you pay for.

Yes, Dallas is a world class city. It is overall far more affordable than Austin and offers 10 times the opportunities and entertainment.

This is inaccurate. We live in Austin proper and are a middle income family. Additionally, the comparison of saying Austin and Chicago are comprably priced is just wrong. If you moved from Austin to Chicago and made the same 80,000 salary, you'd have almost 13K less in disposable income each year according to the Cost of Living Wizard at Salary.com. And are you calling Detroit desirable?

[passionatearts]

Originally Posted by eepstein

Austin, Asheville, Tampa, Portland, Burlington VT, Denver, Chicago, all seem to be comparable priced and cheaper than lets say Boston, NY, LA, Seattle, Miami, Montreal, London, but more than Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, St Louis.
Austin sure doesn't run in the real cheap group though. They even say Dallas is cheaper. How surprising especially since Dallas looks world class with the skyline and stuff. Philly could even be cheaper than Austin. I know I rambled, but I'm on a roll hah.

You are absolutely correct. Austin is NO cheaper than many other cities in the country which are desirable. That is just another "LIE" that the city of Austin touts in it's multi million dollar media campaigns. The city favors the rich and has no interest in any people who are poor or middle income. It glady sends those people to Round Rock, Cedar Park, or Leander. The fact remains that only the faceless undesirable suburbs of Austin are affordable (by most people's standards). But you get what you pay for.

Yes, Dallas is a world class city. It is overall far more affordable than Austin and offers 10 times the opportunities and entertainment.

Why don't you give us some real facts and statistics about cost of living in Austin to prove your point? Otherwise, I think you're just making up statistics to try and serve your biased agenda of bashing Austin at every opportunity you get.

FYI, when I used this web site to calculate cost of living in Austin vs. Portland at a $35,000/year base salary, the site said that Portland metro area's cost of living is 14.5% higher than Austin metro area's.

[eepstein]

I said that CENTRAL AUSTIN is as expensive as places like Portland. However, the Austin suburbs are quite a bit cheaper than the Austin central areas. Therefore, when you take the OVERALL Metro area picture, Portland Metro is probably a bit more expensive than Austin Metro.

Originally Posted by passionatearts

Why don't you give us some real facts and statistics about cost of living in Austin to prove your point? Otherwise, I think you're just making up statistics to try and serve your biased agenda of bashing Austin at every opportunity you get.

FYI, when I used this web site to calculate cost of living in Austin vs. Portland at a $35,000/year base salary, the site said that Portland metro area's cost of living is 14.5% higher than Austin metro area's.

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by eepstein

I said that CENTRAL AUSTIN is as expensive as places like Portland. However, the Austin suburbs are quite a bit cheaper than the Austin central areas. Therefore, when you take the OVERALL Metro area picture, Portland Metro is probably a bit more expensive than Austin Metro.

Then compare apples to apples. Compare Central Austin to Central Seattle or Central Portland and Austin still comes out much cheaper. Compare the burb's of those places to the burbs here and again, Austin burbs are much less than those cities' burbs.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by eepstein

I said that CENTRAL AUSTIN is as expensive as places like Portland. However, the Austin suburbs are quite a bit cheaper than the Austin central areas. Therefore, when you take the OVERALL Metro area picture, Portland Metro is probably a bit more expensive than Austin Metro.

No you didn't, you did not say that once in this entire thread until you claimed to above. Why are you now claiming to have said something that you didn't?

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by eepstein

You are absolutely correct. Austin is NO cheaper than many other cities in the country which are desirable. That is just another "LIE" that the city of Austin touts in it's multi million dollar media campaigns. The city favors the rich and has no interest in any people who are poor or middle income. It glady sends those people to Round Rock, Cedar Park, or Leander. The fact remains that only the faceless undesirable suburbs of Austin are affordable (by most people's standards). But you get what you pay for.

Where is it? This City of Austin Multi million dollar media campaign? Show me any evidence of it. It looks to me like the only lies being told around here are the ones you are spreading.