Moving advice wanted! (Austin, Alamo, Winters: how much, houses, job market)

[igerstein]

Hi everyone,

I have been planning on getting out of Boston before it gets (too) cold, and the more I read about Austin the more I like how it sounds. I have quite a few questions, and would love any advice. Just as a short intro, I'm 18, have some money saved up (plenty, I would think to be able to move and find a place), and my main issue is probably the actual relocation. I own a motorcycle but not a car (one of the reasons I want to be somewhere warmer). I've thought of a few ideas for getting down there...
1. Fly, ship the motorcycle, ship anything else I need. Motorcycle shipping would be about $600, flights look like they are around $250-300, shipping for other stuff would depend on how much/what I shipped, and I haven't really looked into it.
2. Ride the bike, ship my stuff. It's a 2000 mile ride, I wouldn't have places to stay along the way except in Blacksburg, VA (as of right now, could maybe find some relatives/family friends/friends of friends). Probably cheaper as my bike gets great highway mileage, and if I could find more places to stay with people along the way then it would be even simpler.
3. I've taken a look at craigslist's RideShare area. I would still need to ship the bike (and quite possibly some stuff) and I couldn't really depend on leaving at a certain date as I would have to wait for a post to come up of someone going to Austin. Plus side is I wouldn't have to ride my bike 2k miles.
Those are really the only options I can think of. Thoughts on those and any other possible options are welcome.

I still feel like I know fairly little about Austin. I've read a lot of the other threads here which has helped but I still have a few questions.

1. Weather. I've seen a lot about how hot it gets during the summer, however, I am not planning on being in Austin for the summer (my thoughts were that I would either be back north by then, or be going to school somewhere around there for the next year, but still spend the summer back in Boston.) and thus I am more interested in what the winter is like. Average temperature/weather, do you get snow, etc.

2. Housing. As soon as I iron out how I am going to get there I am going to start making calls to craigslist ads. From what I've seen, most places are very reasonable (especially compared to the Northeast, and I am planning on sharing an apt/house with some roommates).However, I don't know the layout of the city at all, thus I'm not sure where I would want to be. I would love to be close to the city proper (not in a suburb-ish area, definitely). A college-oriented area would be great, I think, as well as any other interesting neighborhood with lots of young people. What parts of the city would be something like that? Places I should avoid?

3. Job. I've looked at craigslist quite a bit, and I have a couple ideas for jobs. Similar to with housing, I am planning on beginning to make calls as soon as I've figured out how I'm getting there. What is the general job markey like? Obviously, I'm not going to be working for one of the big tech companies. How badly has Austin been hit by what's going on with the economy right now? Am I going to have a really tough time finding a job?

4. Fun stuff. What's going on in Austin? I don't know a single person in Austin, so being able to meet people is important to me. Tell me about what there is to do.

I'll stop for now. Sorry for making it so long, and kudos to anyone who actually read the entire thing. Thanks in advance for any advice/thoughts!

[igerstein]

bump

[austinmark79]

Originally Posted by igerstein

I still feel like I know fairly little about Austin. I've read a lot of the other threads here which has helped but I still have a few questions.

1. Weather. I've seen a lot about how hot it gets during the summer, however, I am not planning on being in Austin for the summer (my thoughts were that I would either be back north by then, or be going to school somewhere around there for the next year, but still spend the summer back in Boston.) and thus I am more interested in what the winter is like. Average temperature/weather, do you get snow, etc.

Winters are pretty mild, for the most part. January/February are the coldest months - 40s-50s seem to be about average, but 20s-30s are not without precedent. It doesn't generally snow here. We get ice storms maybe once a year - I have lived here for 7 years, and we've gotten substantial snowfall (more than an inch) about twice in that time that I can recall.

Summers could be something of a shock to people who aren't used to it, I guess, but I don't have any other frame of reference - I've lived in the South all my life.

2. Housing. As soon as I iron out how I am going to get there I am going to start making calls to craigslist ads. From what I've seen, most places are very reasonable (especially compared to the Northeast, and I am planning on sharing an apt/house with some roommates).However, I don't know the layout of the city at all, thus I'm not sure where I would want to be. I would love to be close to the city proper (not in a suburb-ish area, definitely). A college-oriented area would be great, I think, as well as any other interesting neighborhood with lots of young people. What parts of the city would be something like that? Places I should avoid?

Central or South Austin is probably your best bet. I'm not that familiar with the UT area, but anywhere around there would probably be good. The further you go from central Austin, the spottier public transportation gets.

3. Job. I've looked at craigslist quite a bit, and I have a couple ideas for jobs. Similar to with housing, I am planning on beginning to make calls as soon as I've figured out how I'm getting there. What is the general job markey like? Obviously, I'm not going to be working for one of the big tech companies. How badly has Austin been hit by what's going on with the economy right now? Am I going to have a really tough time finding a job?

It's been awhile since I've been job hunting, but I don't think the job market is that bad now, but that could change.

4. Fun stuff. What's going on in Austin? I don't know a single person in Austin, so being able to meet people is important to me. Tell me about what there is to do.

Lots of outdoorsy stuff - someone in another thread mentioned Zilker Park, Lady Bird Lake (aka Town Lake), the Botanical Gardens. Alamo Drafthouse, Zachary Scott Theatre, coffeehouses...depends on what you like to do. I am not real familiar with the bar/club scene here - they are all the same to me, so I'm not the person to ask about that.

[corntortilla]

1. The winters are pretty mild if you are used to Boston winters. No snow, maybe need one light jacket and one slightly heavier one. It occasionally dips below freezing for a day or so, then goes back up.

2. There is a neat personality quiz you can take that tells you what neighborhood you match with here: Austin TX Neighborhood Quiz . From what you are saying, I would look in Central Austin around the UT area, or in South Austin.

3. I think it's too early to tell how the market will fair with the latest economic news, but we're doing ok now. I would think if you are 18 you'll be competing with college students - but then again in the winter time they'll be in school.

4. Ugh - there's so much to do! Go see shows, join an outdoors group (look on meetup.com), hang out at the Alamo Drafthouse. Kind of depends on what you're into.