The Local People Of Austin (Waco, Round Rock: transplants, real estate, how much)

[deepblue38]

I know there are a lot of transplants in Austin, just from reading these threads. What percentage would you say of the population are transplants and what percentage are people native to Austin, or maybe people that have lived there at least 10 years. I live in Denver, and there are very few native to Colorado. A huge amount of transplants. In my opinion, a bit too many. Would you say Austin is half and half, or is it tilted one way or another?

[shankaupas]

When the tech boom started in the mid 90s, Austin made a big effort to attract high tech businesses. That is when the mad rush to get to Austin started. I thought I read somewhere that the population in the metro area has tripled since that time. So based on that, I would guess that the majority are transplants within the last 10 to 15 years. Then you have people like myself who came here to go to college and just decided to stay when they graduated.

[inthecut]

You can tell by the sheer number of real estate agents on this post on here that there is a large % of transplants in Austin. The exact % is prob impossible, regardless of how you define native. I would say that, out here, 10 years on would be considered native. With that def, I would say that somewhere's around 30% are 10 years on. per the entire metro. Our local hispanic population doubled from 2000-2009, from 250,000 to 497,000. Austin has the second-fastest growing hispanic population in Texas. You can safely say few of them are "10 year-ers".

Also, Austin's population doubled in the last 20 or so years, and very few here now were around before the "great doubling", so you could easily say that only between 20-30% of the people you see walking around in town are "10 yearers" or more....

[orngkat]

I would also venture a guess that only 1 in 3 are natives or long-timers.

[chickenfry]

whoa! as a true native austinite, married to a true austinite (as in the definition of native, we were both born here) who has two kids born here, and most of my kid's friends were born here either to transplants or natives as well, i think you underestimate the "native" population. so in my estimation there are still many oldtimers here, and another couple generations of young'uns born here as well. ps......sorry, but someone who has been here ten years likely couldn't tell you what a moontower is or where there is one. that's just the first hoop someone would have to tell me for me to even begin to think they might be a native. who cares? doesn't give me any special privileges to be a native.

[TexasHorseLady]

I'm not a native, only been here 40 years (and my husband only 45 years), but I've given birth to two native Austinites and have many friends who are natives or who came here around the same time that my husband and I did. At least as many as I have friends who are relatively new to the area.

[deepblue38]

The only reason I asked this question, is that in my opinion, a city holds on to its character more when there are a lot of natives, or people who have lived there several years, that still live in the area. I live in a suburb of Denver that has had crazy growth in the last 15 years. Most of the housing is 2000 or newer. I would guess 80-90% of the people that live here are from other states. It is a very nice area, but at the same time, has very little character or charm with all the tract housing and chain restaurants. I know this happens everywhere in the USA, but just wondered how much it had effected the Austin area.

[capcat]

It would be interesting to see the data about Austin, just out of curiosity. Anecdotal evidence isn't much to go on. Not that it really matters. As long as you still like a city's character, that should be the gauge. I think the central core is still good, maybe better in some ways. We've lost some things and places that I look back on fondly, but there's more to do now. I think the changes have been positive. As long as there's a mix between old and new, it's a good thing.

[JayBrown80]

Originally Posted by deepblue38

The only reason I asked this question, is that in my opinion, a city holds on to its character more when there are a lot of natives, or people who have lived there several years, that still live in the area. I live in a suburb of Denver that has had crazy growth in the last 15 years. Most of the housing is 2000 or newer. I would guess 80-90% of the people that live here are from other states. It is a very nice area, but at the same time, has very little character or charm with all the tract housing and chain restaurants. I know this happens everywhere in the USA, but just wondered how much it had effected the Austin area.

To be frank, I don't think ANY city is mostly made up "natives". Almost every city I have lived in or my friends have lived in is made up of people from either A) another city or B) from a small town that moved to the big city.

I have lived in Austin for 10+ years, and NONE of my friends were born here. They were either born down in the valley/brownsville, come from small central texas towns (like myself) or come from another city (Like NYC). It's just the nature of cities that they slowly absorb rural populations. That's why if you look at 90 percent of cities of 50K or more, their population tends to grow year after year. Small towns of 5K or less, tend to have their population shrink year after year. It's just the urbanization of America. I would venture to say that this is true of Austin, Denver, Des Moines or ANY city in the USA.

Then you have the "caught in the city" effect. People whose native town have been swallowed by a city. Anyone born in Pflugerville in the early 70s can tell you that Austin and Pflugerville used to be two seperate towns. That's not the case anymore. I would venture to say that most Pflugervillians consider themselves Austinites. Would you classify someone born in Pflugerville as a "native" of Austin. I would. I know that they are classified as living in the Austin/Round Rock metroplex. When I first moved to Austin, there were empty fields beggining once you got past Parmer. Now, it goes pretty much clear to Georgetown. Pretty soon, Hutto, Taylor, Buda, all these "tertiary" towns will be swallowed too. I give it less than 20 years. Who knows, maybe eventually Austin will grow clear to Temple.

I agree with Capcat, I would like to seem some numbers. Hearsay only takes you so far.

I am not for or against either side of the issue. It is what it is. I just think you would be hard pressed to find any city where a majority, or even a large minority, are "natives". Native by your definition being born there. It's simply too hard to find jobs and live a life in these small towns. Some people do it, and more power to them, but where I come from, you are either a farmer, or you commute to a city for work. My mom commuted 45 mintes one way to Waco every day for 20 years because we lived on the family farm (4 generations). I think you will find most of the people that live in Hutto, or Leander or Taylor do the same thing, drive into Austin/Round Rock.

As far as Denver losing it's "charm". I have always found "charm" to be a code word for "old" and "interesting". I thought Denver was quite charming when I lived there. But I lived in LoDo and everything around me was old and unique. I find certain areas of Austin "charming" but they are all the old areas that only the very rich can live in. Or the people whose families have owned houses here since the early 1400's (their families came over on the Nina, to hear them talk). Basically what I am trying to say is "charm" equals "expensive". You can find TONS of charm in any city in the world if you have the checkbook to back it up. We live in a cookie cutter society. If it comes off a conveyer belt, it's affordable but not unique. Most people only have access to affordable, so they can't be unique.

You specifically mention tract housing and chain restaurants, but then mention that "80 to 90 percent are from out of state". Are you saying because of the transplants, you have the tract housing? I wouldn't really blame tract housing and chain restaurants on transplants. I would blame it on tract housing and chain restaurants being AFFORDABLE, to natives and transplants alike. Like with most thing, it revolves around money. Custom Homes cost almost twice as much to build as tract housing (I know from experience). Most people are not willing to pay twice as much for half the house, regardless of whether they were born in Denver or not. Bottom line: the loss of Denver or Austin's "charm" is not the fault of transplants (although MANY in the Austin forums would have us to believe that transplants are the cause of all evil in the world. From Austin's changing face, to pollution, to colon cancer. Transplants cause it all).

I don't know if that's a bad thing though. Cheaper houses mean more people have roofs over their heads. Cheaper shoes/clothes mean less people go with out. The conveyer belt turns both ways, so to speak. I would much rather have charmless tract housing, than to give up the conveniences of modern society, and go back to living in a one room homestead like my family did when they first got off the boat from Germany. That one room homestead was completely charming! But it also had 11 people living in it.

People put WAY to much stock in whether someone is a "native" or not.

PS. I wonder if in 40 years, people will look at the tract homes of 2005 and go "Oh, how charming! I love that early millenium style! Look how all the houses are the same! It's not like the houses they slap up nowadays."

I love Austin homes that were built in the 70's!!! They all look the same, sloping roofs, funky layouts, stone halfway up the facade in the front, horrible shag carpeting. Angles everywhere! I just think it's utterly charming. But I bet you a million dollars in the 70s when all these houses were being built, people tut-tutted their tounges and said "look at all these horrible houses. Why can't they build bungalows like they have in Hyde Park? Now those houses are charming."

[TexasHorseLady]

Pflugerville, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Oak Hill, Buda, were ALL towns in their own right long before the Austin Monster gobbled them up, and it's important to remember that they are still not just "bedroom communities" - they were not designed that way, they were not planned to be that ("bedroom communities" were not even thought of when they were founded long before any of us were born), and they are NOT that just because developers found it cheaper to build there and people with no sense of their history decided the price was worth the commute. If you live in Pflugerville (or Round Rock, or Cedar Park), no matter how long you've been here, remember that. In other words, have some respect!

That holds whether you've been here 40 years or 10 years or 10 days.