Things you wish you had known before relocating to Austin, Good and Bad (Beasley: allergens, taxes)

[MaryleeII]

Oh, and to control allergies, buy some honey made locally. I got mine at a farmer's market. Seems the bees get pollen from local flora, and that somehow helps your immune system adjust to the local allergens. Whatever----it worked for me!

[radiolibre99]

My cousin has bonkers level allergies and has to where a painters mask certain seasons. He looks like Bane but enjoys life in the ATX.

[sojourner77]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

He looks like Bane but enjoys life in the ATX.

lmao.

[austinliving]

A few things to consider, many already been mentioned.

- Heat heat heat ! Summers here are tough, it can take some adjustment to get used to it. Never really drops off until sunset. It's not for everyone.

- allergies, many people who never suffered before suddenly develop allergies after being here for a while. Cedar etc.

- traffic, gotta choose carefully were you live. This is not a "Bay Area" size of place, but if your job is on the other side of the city then be prepared for a horrible commute, unless you have flexible hours.

- tax and cost of living, again be careful of your house budget - property taxes add up. Price of home renovations has also dramatically increased, every contractor is busy and they price accordingly. Something to consider if you are looking at a "fixer upper". Also we have found that our bills for electricity and water to be very high. While rates might be lower than other cities your usage here will be higher, again it adds up.

- long drive to the coast, if you are from the east or west coast then being near to ocean is something you may be used to having easy access to. It's about 3.5 hours to get to the Texas coast. Having said that we greatly enjoy Rockport, it's a very nice location to visit.

The good stuff.

- Austin has a wonderful vibe, people are positive. Texans are super friendly, and genuinely so. People hold doors open for you, are polite etc. it's refreshing to have after living in more stressful states.

- Great schools, for us the public schools are very good. Amazing state university. While city council might be overspending for unnecessary projects, overall your property and sales taxes do give you services back (unlike California).

- Jobs, if you tick the right boxes there are a lot of opportunities here for employment, wages are lower though. Houston and Dallas will offer more variety for employment perhaps.

- Lakes and health living. Even with the heat here a lot of Austin people stay very fit and enjoy the outdoors, now that the lakes got filled up that has also energized the area.

- Housing variety, depending on your budget you can find any style of house that you may like here, strong modern influence for housing the closer to downtown you go, mid century modern style is also plentiful here. And obviously if you prefer a community style housing then there are a lot of neighborhoods that offer new builds. Now pricing is a different story, but at least there is variety here. If you live in the Austin area be prepared for a hard time with permits, a lot of red tape in the city limits (one example is even replacing windows you will need a city permit and inspection).

If you are moving from a more liberal state, then do keep in mind that you are moving to Texas. So you have to respect people's love for their Church and Politics, also Texans are very independently minded and self sufficient. They are also very hard workers, but they work hard and play hard.
Again this mindset might be a hard adjustment for someone not used to this, but for others it's a refreshing change.

[radiolibre99]

Austinliving nailed it. Being a progressive type myself I thought California would be heaven but I discovered it's management is terrible. It's such a dirty politics, corrupt and dysfunctional state. Red tape is an understatement.

I hope the Californians and east coast transplants moving to Texas will not change it for the worse and turn Austin into an expensive "worldly" city. By that I don't mean multicultural, I love that. I'm talking about a hub city for the latest tends, A type pretentious personalities and cut throat competition. It doesn't need to be an LA or NYC or SF. I hope it stays Texan.

[MaryleeII]

Originally Posted by MaryleeII

My 2 cents---

Be careful of property taxes. Williamson County has about the highest property tax in the nation!

Electric rates are also among the highest. You will need to run the AC about 10 months of the year, and its not cheap!

The hot weather starts about March--April. You will start needing the AC around March, part-time. By the end of April you simply need it. May -- October you will need it full-time. Around October you can start decreasing your usage, but I recall having AC on Thanksgiving and Christmas! Don't forget not only the usage, but also the cost/KWH is one of the highest in the nation. Its been years since we moved from Austin, and I don't know their cost/KWH now, but I can only imagine they are higher than they were when we were there

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by MaryleeII

The hot weather starts about March--April. You will start needing the AC around March, part-time. By the end of April you simply need it. May -- October you will need it full-time. Around October you can start decreasing your usage, but I recall having AC on Thanksgiving and Christmas! Don't forget not only the usage, but also the cost/KWH is one of the highest in the nation. Its been years since we moved from Austin, and I don't know their cost/KWH now, but I can only imagine they are higher than they were when we were there

We have normally only turned the (window - we live in an older house that was designed for the climate because AC didn't exist) AC on in early July, though this year it was earlier. Turn it off in late September/early October depending on how the year turns out to be.

[cBach]

Originally Posted by MaryleeII

The hot weather starts about March--April. You will start needing the AC around March, part-time. By the end of April you simply need it. May -- October you will need it full-time. Around October you can start decreasing your usage, but I recall having AC on Thanksgiving and Christmas! Don't forget not only the usage, but also the cost/KWH is one of the highest in the nation. Its been years since we moved from Austin, and I don't know their cost/KWH now, but I can only imagine they are higher than they were when we were there

No A/C is needed in March, I usually have the heat on in the early part of the month for the cool morning hours. Those warm days you can open up the windows it's usually very cool at night.

Late April is when I finally break down to do a "test run" of the A/C to make sure it's okay. It's on May until late September.

There are usually a few cool fronts in October where the night is cool enough that you'll be cooler having the windows open then running the A/C. Most people don't realize it, but you have to remember that it can be 90 in the day and 50 at night. 50 at night is very nice for sleeping. So keeping windows closed during day and open at night can manage many fall days without A/C.

November you usually don't need either, then you need heat from early December to early March.

YMMV.

[AustinRoady]

Originally Posted by MaryleeII

The hot weather starts about March--April. You will start needing the AC around March, part-time. By the end of April you simply need it. May -- October you will need it full-time. Around October you can start decreasing your usage, but I recall having AC on Thanksgiving and Christmas! Don't forget not only the usage, but also the cost/KWH is one of the highest in the nation. Its been years since we moved from Austin, and I don't know their cost/KWH now, but I can only imagine they are higher than they were when we were there

No, the cost per KwH is not among the highest in the nation, nor are the property taxes.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

Bad...
If you lease a vehicle in the city of Austin, you will pay an ad valorem(personal property) tax on that vehicle...no such tax exists if you purchase the vehicle. It all adds up

did some research on this and it seems like it isnt if it is personal property and not business property.

Do you have a link? Im not able to find anything on this from google.