Moving from NYC suburbs to Austin- should we do it? (Houston: rent, how much)

[NYfamily77]

Hi All, anyone here moved to escape crazyness and high cost of everyday NYC commuter life? If so, do you like it/regret it?
We are a family with two kids and two working parents (data science and marketing), just looking for ways to make life more manageable and less expensive. There are things we like about NYC — like access to culture, international community (we are Europeans) etc, but it’s crazy expensive in many ways -taxes on a 2000 sq ft home around $25k/year, this is not to mention that home is 70-90 years old and costs a fortune if you’re in a good school district.
Also everyday life is stressful, our average commute is considered good by NYC standards buts it’s 1 hr 15 mins door to door, or 2.5 hours per day spent on trains and subway.

Our major attractions to Austin :1) cost of living; 2) better everyday logistics-we hope of to spend under 40 mins commuting each way; 3) job market seems booming ; 4) culturally seems Austin is very interesting

What do you guys think??

[Trainwreck20]

Well, the COL tends to also be related to income, so whereas your property taxes may go down a lot, so might your pay.

Anyway - are you looking to sell (it sounds like you own?) your suburban NYC house and buy a house in Austin proper? What housing budget are you looking at? Property taxes rates will be around 2.2 to 2.5 percent per year, so they are not immaterial. Do you know where you would be working? You can MAKE your commute miserable (>1.25 hours) if you buy on the north end of town and work on the south, etc.

If you are a two income family with kids, the tax structure here is pretty nice - you pay one 'set' of taxes (property tax) instead of two sets (income on each of you), and while the better school 'chains' (elementary, middle, high) are going to cost more, you can fairly easily get good to excellent schools for your property tax dollars.

The things that you will notice as different and probably not in a good way:
- There is nothing close to the public transportation you have in the NE;
- The heat is real - and relentless - for months, not just for random heatwaves;
- The cultural opportunities, while improving and far from nonexistent, are not in the same universe as NYC and still lag behind Houston and Dallas.

The things that you will have to manage:
- You can make your commute more miserable than NYC if you don't plan; OTOH, you can make it very short if you have the budget for it (as many will tell you, you should rent before buying);
- The COL vs. pay. The ratio can be good or bad.

Probably not a problem:
- Austin is (despite what you see on some forums) very open to new people - from elsewhere in Texas, the U.S., or elsewhere in the world; however, there is almost nothing like ethnic communities here, though - a few areas with higher concentrations of one group or another, but nothing like you can find in the NE or sometimes on the West Coast.
- There are plenty of good public schools in relatively affordable neighborhoods. If you have a desire to be in 'the best', that gets more expensive.

Random thoughts. I have not made that transition myself, but you see it here often enough on the forums .

[Austin97]

good points by trainwreck.

Also consider that a commute on a train means you can sleep, read etc. Commuting 40 minutes on a car is actually more of a commute than 1:15 on a train because you can do less.

Culturally we have nothing compared to NYC.

Property taxes are high, but we have no income tax, so you might get a savings there. Be aware if you sell, you may never be able to afford to come back.

East coasters have the hardest time adjusting (vs. west coasters).

[eirenecat]

We also have a reasonably decent breadth of affordably priced private schools here (Catholic, Lutheran, and some secular) if you choose not to buy a house in the "best" school chains.

I am not sure where in Europe you're from, but I speak French and have several friends who are Belgian, French, or from Francophone Africa. Through them, I have discovered that there seems to be a nice community of ex-pats of various flavors here which may appeal to you. We also have the Austin International School (which is a trilingual French, Spanish, and English language school) which has numerous European parents.

We do have a commuter rail but it is quite limited compared to what you will have been used to. We are a car-centric city.

The best thing to do would be to start checking out our job market (working in data science, it should be easy to get a job here) and then COME VISIT for an extended trip sometime in summer when it is REALLY hot. See if you can handle the heat. It is relentless, but we have a lot of nice ways to cool off and things to do, and you can get acclimated to it the same way you can acclimate to the bitter cold of the Northeast in the winter.

Austinites are friendly, generally open-minded, and overall we are a liberal city that is Texan in flavor yet uniquely different from other big cities in the state. Y'all come!

[centralaustinite]

Calling Idlewidle! They moved here, stayed for a few years and then moved back to the NYC area.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by eirenecat

We also have a reasonably decent breadth of affordably priced private schools here (Catholic, Lutheran, and some secular) if you choose not to buy a house in the "best" school chains.

[...]

My understanding is that the religious private schools here are notably more expensive than the east coast, at least based on some co-workers of mine. I have not idea personally .

[eirenecat]

Catholic and Lutheran schools here run $6-7k/year for elementary age. Episcopal schools run $22-24k/yr for elementary age. I don't know how that compares to the East Coast, but for Austin, the Catholic and Lutheran options are much cheaper than some other private schools.

[riaelise]

Since commute time seems to be important to you, it comes down to how much you're willing to spend. It's not Westchester County level in terms of taxes and prices, but it's not as inexpensive as you may think if you're not taking your NYC salary (or close to it) with you.

While a car really is needed here, you don't necessarily have to drive into work. I take a bus from my suburb here.

[df175]

Questions like this are too broad, even for someone who lived in a same region and moved here.
Depending on your exact working sectors, you may never get closet to the amount of money you can make in NYC compared to Austin- especially in marketing- even adjusting for the lower cost of living. Just how much you value the NYC area depends on its unique attributes versus its difficulties.
Lots of people move here and never/rarely look back however.
One thing for sure, rent for a year or two, before buying anything.

[Kthnry]

I lived in Austin for many years before moving the northeast, including ten years in NJ (Essex County), and then back to Texas. Thankfully, I've never had a bad commute. I know from friends in NJ that the daily commute to NYC on NJ Transit through Penn Station is a soul-crushing experience.

The thing that bothers me the most about Texas is the lack of walkability. Everything is twenty minutes away by car (at least). All you do is drive, drive, drive. I really miss my little NJ village (South Orange) where I could stroll around for a couple hours and see a movie, grab a bite, buy a book, pick up a prescription, get a drink at the corner bar, etc. I could go days without getting in the car.

And the heat.