Long islander possible move to Austin, TX

[cBach]

There are numerous threads on "yankees" moving to Austin. Please read them.

You'll trade Italian restaurants for Mexican and BBQ, bagels and cream cheese for breakfast tacos, cold weather for hot weather, beaches for lakes and rivers, maple trees for oak trees, spruce trees for cedar (ash juniper), fescue/bluegrass for bermuda/St. Augustine.

[hoffdano]

New Jersey probably takes the dubious award of highest taxes in the nation. They have higher property taxes (rates and total), income tax, city taxes, everything you can think of.

CptRn is the man here on architecture work. But I just read an article in the Austin Business Journal (City Hall overwhelmed - Austin Business Journal) that talked about how backlogged the Austin permitting process is right now. Don't be mislead by the portion of the article you can read. The city department is now slower than it used to be - It is swamped with new project reviews including a building of 50 stories. I can't remember how many square feet of construction and renovation is planned right now.

[G Grasshopper]

Yes, property taxes are high. But here is my perspective. We moved from CA. Our house there sold for well over twice what we paid for our house here. We did not "move up" in buying a house here; it is pretty much equivalent to the house we had in CA. So are our property taxes. We pay about what what we paid in CA. Now you could look at the difference in the cost of the houses and be outraged, or you could say we are paying about the same tax for about the same house, and be OK with it. I chose to be OK with it because living with a feeling of outrage does not make for a peaceful life.

[Siggy20]

Originally Posted by scm53

Is your real name Chris Christie?

I sure wish that I had his salary, lol. Nope, just a hard working middle class person trying to make it here.

[sxrckr]

As a few others mentioned, I would expand to Houston and Dallas as well. Not as knowledgable about architects, but the medical industry is much larger in Houston which generally translates to more places needing workers, higher pay to get those workers, and more opportunity to move up.

Originally Posted by ronj23

Hello all; im new to this. im hoping all the Fellow texans can help me out. my family and i are in the talks of a possible move to austin to be able to give my family more then we could offered to give our kids. i've really only heard some good things about austin and it seems interesting. we have 2 small kids, elementry age. i am a architectural project manager and my wife a xray technologist/mammographer. we would purchase a home after we sell ours here on long island.
i wanted to know what area would best be for our kids. we would like a family town, really good schools public or private, shopping malls, not to far from the main city of austin, figuring that the jobs would be located there.
how is the building in austin. and how are the architectural jobs there. figuring that since medical is always needed in every part of the great nation that my wife might have a better chance to finding a position there since either private offices or the hospital is hiring. does anyone know if the Phyisician Assistant Radiology is currently available there in austin?
how are the real estate taxes. any info would be helpful until we can visit and start making decisions for our future.
thanks

[Gypsy212]

Originally Posted by Linmora

Not from LI but central NJ person here and hoping to relocate to a cheaper area, whether that be Texas or elsewhere.

To give even more perspective, we are paying close to $13k in taxes per year for a house we bought for $296k in 1999 here in NJ. It is sickening how much the rates go up each year. Our neighborhood isn't fancy either. Pretty shocking and between what we pay in taxes on the house, plus NY and NJ taxes, it has become rather unaffordable. Add in commuting costs, the costs of private schools once the kids get into HS (our HS is terrible), most of your paycheck is gone. I feel so sorry for people who actually try to retire in this state. NJ isn't bad per say but the property taxes are outrageous.

Texas is looking mighty good these days.

I also lived in Central Jersey up until 1999. May I ask whereabouts you are?

[bkout]

Originally Posted by ronj23

Hello all; im new to this. im hoping all the Fellow texans can help me out. my family and i are in the talks of a possible move to austin

Don't forget to read up here and elsewhere about Austin's allergy challenges.