Yet Another "Moving from the Bay Area to Austin" Thread (Portland: for sale, real estate)

[Florinator]

Hello Everyone,

This is my very first post on this forum and the title says it all... I have been reading some of the threads on this subject on this forum over the past couple of days and it seems to me that the opinions are overwhelmingly in favor of such a move. I really liked the one that said "what took us so long?"

I've been here for 7 years now, my wife and I got married 5 years ago, have a 2 year old and another one on the way, due end of June. With much effort and some luck (our small share of my wife's deceased parents' estate proceedings as down payment), we managed to buy a nice, new townhouse in mid-town San Jose, 1,665 sq ft, 2 car garage, nice upgrades, all in all, a nice place to live. We paid $578,000 and thought we did good. We are about 100 yards from the train tracks (because that's the only place around here where you can buy such a CHEAP townhouse) and I never thought I could hate the trains so much. It's not that the trains around here use technologies that are from a different century, and are loud and slow, but it is my firm conviction that most conductors are douchebags that simply like to torment us residents by blowing the horn 20 times at 11:30 PM while driving through the neighborhoods at 10 mph. The floor plan is nice and very fancy actually, we have neighbors downstairs, but nobody lives on top of us, which is good. But with a two year old that wants to run around all the time, it has turned out to be a problem (California building codes mind you). The neighbors are annoyed, so we're constantly stressing out if the lil' one starts to jump around in the evening...

And to add insult to injury, some of my friends seem to love paying taxes and getting nothing in return so much that they keep saying "oh, this is the most wonderful place on earth, I don't mind paying a little extra to live here". Well screw that, I do mind! There is no way I would send my kids to a San Jose public school, the way these schools are rating so far. And we simply cannot afford a decent house with a little bit of a backyard starting at $800,000 and do not want to get a fixer upper and spend the next 10 years fixing it up instead of enjoying living in it.

Over the last couple of years I've been entertaining the idea of moving somewhere else. I'd pretty much be fine anywhere it's not completely flat and boring, but my wife won't do Seattle (it rains too much) or Colorado (it snows too much) for instance. Because of my job, I need to be in a place that has a decent number of high-tech jobs.

Bear with me, now comes the Austin part... A few years ago my company opened an office in Austin and moved some of our operations over there. Only a few people actually moved, the whole idea was to grow the company over there, instead of here in Sunnyvale, CA. In this context, most employees were offered the relocation option, if we wanted it. So I did some research, took my family on a 4-day business trip last year in June to Austin, looked around, gathered some fliers from houses for sale and got an idea...

I simply cannot imagine how nice life could be to be able to afford a nice house (maybe with a swimming pool - one can dream, right?) without giving up an arm, a leg, a kidney and a part of my liver.Yes, CA has all these nice places, close by, scuba diving in Monterey, skiing in Lake Tahoe, mountaineering in Yosemite, but is it worth sacrificing this much all year round for a couple of weekends of activities here and there?

I just feel that at this point in our lives, we need a better place for our family, all I hear is that the schools in Austin are way better than CA, from what I've seen on the housing market it almost looks like it's too good to be true, so we're all set on moving later this year, if everything works out with my company and they make me a decent offer (I've already been told that there will be a pay cut - which is fine, considering that on average Austin cost of living is about 30% cheaper than San Jose).

The only thing that scares me personally is the heat (although my wife loves it, she always puts on gloves and boots when we drive to San Francisco!!!), but the hotel we stayed at in Austin had a swimming pool, and oh my god, does that change the perspective on things.

I am actually from Europe, so I don't have ties in CA, I am interested in politics, but not to the point where I let it affect my life. I personally think CA is very diverse, so it's easy to live here as a foreigner; but on the other hand most people are not very nice. Everyone tends to mind their own business, which is not a bad thing per se, but after 2 years I still don't know most of my neighbors names, from a 12-unit townhome building, let alone the entire community... I can't believe how many people I run into that won't even make eye contact, let alone say "hello". It saddens me when I see my two year old say "hi" to people only to be ignored about 1 out of 3 times.

My wife was born in San Francisco and raised in the South Bay, it took me a while to convince her that we should do this, and I think she finally realized that it's futile to attempt to build ourselves this kind of life around here. And I am making a decent living and she's got a job with good benefits as well!!! Sometimes I wonder, if we can't figure this out, how do the others make it??? Are our standards really that high? Are we that picky?

I would LOVE to be able to build a tree house for my kid, install some climbing structures in the backyard and some swings; these are the things that make me tick these days, so who cares about skiing in Tahoe? With all the money I could be saving in Austin, we should be able to afford one ski trip to Tahoe every year ;-)

What do you guys think? Am I being delusional?

[kiacook]

Being delusional about what? Everything you want seems reasonable in Austin on a 2 salary household income. You're right though - the price we pay for these things is the heat and lack of oceans and mountains nearby. If you can make that sacrifice I see no reason you can't have a tree house for your kids.

Posts like this make me a little sad though. Life in CA sounds so HARD.

[mark311]

It sounds like you're doing your research. The main thing that I would be worried about since you had to convince your wife is whether or not she has a lot of family there in the Bay area and how close she is to them. Austin is far enough away to be a pretty expensive trip for family visits. My wife definitely doesn't go back as often because of the flight costs and it's 27 hours if you drive. Places like Phoenix, Portland, and Seattle are much easier for travel back and forth.

And yes, cost of housing is quite a bit cheaper, but other expenses are pretty much the same. For example, gas here has been about $3.75 recently for 87 octane which is cheaper, but not crazy cheap. If you move with realistic expectations then it sounds like you'll adjust fine.

[dave bacon]

Born and raised in Cali, 53 years there, 3.5 here, I describe living here compared to Cali simply as twice the quality of life at half the price. Cali used to be a great place to live, but sadly no more...

[SpicyPepper]

I am a southern Cali transplant living in Austin, Texas longer than my time in my home state.

I am VERY proud to call Austin Texas home! The cost of living is soooooooooooooooooooo different here than there. We have survived on one income for the past 6 years and we didn't make anywhere near the amount of money that most do (blue collar job).

That being said, you can survive on one income and still take a vacation. Yes we don't have any mountains like Cali has; yes we don't have a beach a stones throw away but what we do have totally trumps all of that.

You've got your share of lakes in the area. You've got the Texas Hill Country which is easier to breath in... If you want the beach/ocean it's just a quick 3 hour drive south. Whereas they're different than the sandy beaches of So.Cali they are still beaches.

We've got amusement parks not too far away too. As for the heat, it's not the desert of Las Vegas... We don't reach 120 very often, but it does happen. Typically when people complain about the heat here, they are misinformed. It's the humidity that will make you a bit uncomfortable. I'm not going to sugar coat it for you, it can get miserable here; however that is why Man made Air Conditioning. It's only a few short weeks out of a year that you want to go from one air conditioned venue to another, but I feel that that small minor thing is trumped by everything else great that Austin, Texas has to offer (lower taxes, little to no smog, friendly people and a relaxed atmosphere).

And the best part is... If you want to spend that much on a house here in Austin, you'll more than double your square footage Moderator cut: see comment

Best of luck with your decision, one word of advice to you though... Please when/if you move here DO NOT make mention to how they do things back in California. You will offend a lot of people; just like the old bumper sticker use to say "we don't care how you did it in California".

[pjoseph2]

Florinator, The reasons you mention are exactly why we left the BA. You'll like Austin. Plenty of affordable houses (compared with the BA) with swimming pools and tree houses. And yes, public pools with fresh springs too

[eichlerfan]

We are also CA natives (I grew up in San Francisco) and moved from San Jose just about a year ago. CA will always be "home", but we love living in Austin. I can honestly say we don't miss CA at all as sadly it isn't the CA we grew up in anymore.

Yes, it's very hot here during the summer, but oh so worth it. Everything has AC and tons of water activities around. The cost of living is less, but I would say mainly the savings is in real estate. We sold our home in Willow Glen and for now are happy renters in Austin. I would suggest renting before you buy something here so you really get to know the area you want to be in before you commit to buying. My husband is in high tech and his company is in Sunnyvale, but we were lucky in that we were able to bring our CA salary here and he now works from home.

I can't tell you how the schools are here because we homeschool, but I guess as good as any public school can be. It's a great place to raise a family, people are very friendly and just a more laid back atmosphere. As my husband likes to say since moving here, " I finally feel like I can breathe again."

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by SpicyPepper

And the best part is... If you want to spend that much on a house here in Austin, you'll more than double your square footage

You can buy a larger 3/2/2 house here for half the price of what you have now, in a good neighborhood with good schools, and put the extra $250K into savings for your retirement and your kids college.

[hoffdano]

Florinator - I think you have the right mindset for someone to move from the Bay Area to Austin. Some on the other hand won't be able to take the Texas culture vs. the California mindset. Just about all the things that seem important to you are available in Austin and you will spend less to access it. The economy is not as explosive as it is in the Bay Area (both good and bad), but it is strong and varied. We aren't a hotbed of high brow culture, but we have a lot of our own, and I think you'll like it.

[Gatorgrad2004]

Hm...I've been pondering a move to Austin ever since stopping for a weekend on my cross country trip from SF to Orlando. My buddy and I kept finding reasons not to leave lol. I've been told by my friend's little brother who goes to UT that complains about the number of homeless he sees, but after spending 2 1/2 yrs in the capital of bums I don't think it can be any worse! Can't wait to visit again!