How to get Sold on Austin in 3 days or less (Hamilton: student loan, homes)

[///MD]

We are a young 30s couple with a 9mo child that currently live in the Bay Area (San Jose, CA). I am a physician finishing up residency training and my wife is a software developer.

While we both love the bay area, we are looking for a change of pace, a different place to live and work and raise our child.

One of the places we are absolutely considering is Austin. We've both been through the city briefly for work things in the past, but have planned a 3 day trip at the end of the month especially to evaluate it as a place to live.

I'm hoping that the kind people on this forum may be able to point us in some directions on things to see/do to evaluate the city as a place to live so that we can make a best attempt at an early assessment within our 3 day trip (meaning, whether we should be planning more return trips amidst my applying for jobs)

Things we like: Outdoor activities, hiking, photography. Definitely eating and cooking good food. We are suburban dwellers, but like access to city life. Lean left but don't consider ourselves liberal, like modern contemporary design.

Our home base for our adventure is the Westin at the Domain, because it had a great deal when I booked the trip.

Thanks in advance!

[bpvarian]

(search the forums!!)

[///MD]

oh believe me, I'm searching and reading. I've been reading the forums for the last 3 hours and absorbing a ton of info. That said, any info that can be more directed to our particular situation/personalities/etc is even moreso valuable.

[tongpa-nyi]

What to do in 3 days or less: Do what the author of the "We Love Your City" thread did. Just search down page one or two of threads and you'll find it. Oddly it has been locked while raging debate threads about Austin are kept open. City-Data moderators are an odd lot. Anyway, the thread is there and what those visitors did was to pack in everything they could in a manner that even locals could scarcely imagine.

This is not to say that your feelings about Austin would be the same as theirs, not at all. I'm only suggesting you check out their itinerary because it was quite thorough. Maybe you can send them a direct message for more details.

Have fun if you visit! Have fun if you don't visit!

[AutumnFOG]

MD --

I am the author of the aforementioned thread. My fiance and I just went through a similar trip to yours recently, albeit ours was a bit longer than three days. You sound very much like us in interest and temperament -- we are, too, left-leaning, though not staunchly liberal and enjoy the outdoors.

We come from the Great Lakes region so our comparison may be different from a place such as San Jose. We will be living on teachers salaries, not that of a software developer and doctor, so our general expectations are probably a little different. But I can maybe offer some advice! I do know that if you are planning to fly from SJ to Austin, you will be on the trail of what is apparently called the "nerd bird" because of the many exchanges of techies from city to city.

We based our operations near the Domain too, mostly because that was an area we were interested in living in (and will be! Hooray!) due to its development, its combination of wealthy neighborhoods and affordable living, and access to a main expressway (albeit it a congested one). You have close access to the main thoroughfares from there, but its disconnected enough that you shouldn't be bothered unless you want to be.

Anyway, my suggestion would be to try to condense a bunch of stuff in. Maybe spend a day touring downtown -- there are lots of accessible parking locations, and if you don't mind walking a bit you can cover a lot of ground in Austin downtown on foot. There are people, but it is not so crowded as to be an inconvenience. But since you have a little one to consider, you may have to take into account that my fiance and I were able to see lots and lots of Austin only by walking a lot. We would go 6 or 8 blocks from place to place without thinking about it. That's something your little person may not tolerate.

Hiking access is pretty open via green belt in many parts of the city. There is the Balcones Park which has some nice trails to the back of it near where you will be staying. We checked it out and enjoyed it, but we really enjoyed the walking and hiking trails along the water downtown.

If you are looking to buy or rent, I can tell you that your best bets will be west, and that will vary North, Central or South depending on what sort of lifestyle you're looking for. We read in advance that staying west of I-35 is most often for the best before we went out there. We checked east of I-35 anyway. While it isn't horrible, I think that to get the sort of comfortability a suburb with access to the city that a young professional wants, you probably want to stay West. I think it would be fine over there, but honestly, when you have the luxury of choice, why run the risk?

It is just my interpretation, and those who live there may be able to refute or elaborate, but is is my impression that in the North and South West you get more of the people who are looking to settle down and start families and in the Central you have more of your eccentrics, your quirky grad students, your green art community, the people who would desire access to the luxuries of a downtown metro on a moments notice. To the absolute west are the ginormous homes that you point at and go, "I wonder what horrible atrocities those people committed to own *that* monstrosity". But anyway, as we were just in your shoes, I'd say take a day and spend it downtown and walk as much as you can -- eat a few different kinds of places and talk to as many people as are willing to respond.

On your second day, maybe check out some of the neighborhoods by driving around and getting a better feel for which ones might be best for you. Do the same thing with the eating. I really find the best time to get a feel for a community is by exploring different qualities/kinds of restaurants and trying to be friendly.

Finally, I am told that Hamilton Pool is quite a thing if you're interested in taking a hike to a swimming hole. It's a little bit outside of town. We wanted to go, chose to check out some shopping instead, and were fortunate because it turned out to be the day a young man tragically drowned there. But I have heard from many places it is a great source of fun that combines swimming and hiking.

Finally, if you really want to get local people talking, ask them about the new metro train.

[brubaker]

Enchanted Rock is a good solid outdoor adventure. Abut 2 hours away though. But the drive should be nice.
The weather is absolutely drop dead gorgeous right now. Stunning. The blue bonnets are in full bloom.

It's spectacular.


I'm not in the same demographic um, class (?) as you and your wife seem to be.
You're tastes probably run a bit on the higher economic end than mine... so I'll let others suggest restaurants and stuff.

Hope that helps.

[mezman]

Originally Posted by ///MD

We are a young 30s couple with a 9mo child that currently live in the Bay Area (San Jose, CA). I am a physician finishing up residency training and my wife is a software developer.

While we both love the bay area, we are looking for a change of pace, a different place to live and work and raise our child.

One of the places we are absolutely considering is Austin. We've both been through the city briefly for work things in the past, but have planned a 3 day trip at the end of the month especially to evaluate it as a place to live.

I'm hoping that the kind people on this forum may be able to point us in some directions on things to see/do to evaluate the city as a place to live so that we can make a best attempt at an early assessment within our 3 day trip (meaning, whether we should be planning more return trips amidst my applying for jobs)

Things we like: Outdoor activities, hiking, photography. Definitely eating and cooking good food. We are suburban dwellers, but like access to city life. Lean left but don't consider ourselves liberal, like modern contemporary design.

Our home base for our adventure is the Westin at the Domain, because it had a great deal when I booked the trip.

Thanks in advance!

Congrats on finishing residency, my wife will be starting her residency in July so we'll be where you're at in about 5 years. We're considering Austin as well when she finishes but we've been told that it is exceptionally hard to find a job as a physician in Austin (compared to other areas of the country) because it has become a hot place to live. In general we've heard it's really difficult to find "good" postions for PCP's and nearly as hard for specialists. There are also a lot of Texas residency grads (UTSW, Scott & White, UTSA, etc.) to contend with in Austin. Just an FYI, you may want to put some feelers out before you visit to see what your job prospects are in the area.

[love roses]

"We checked east of I-35 anyway. While it isn't horrible, I think that to get the sort of comfortability a suburb with access to the city that a young professional wants, you probably want to stay West. I think it would be fine over there, but honestly, when you have the luxury of choice, why run the risk?"

I'm in my "East of 35" defense mode for a minute I understand what you mean, but I think there may be some people East who live in neighborhoods like Oak Bluff and Forest Creek who have a pretty comfortable lifestyle. Did you drive through those 2 neighborhoods? And it really isn't harder to get downtown from East of 35 than it is from the west. Certainly though, if you do have the luxury of choice, then you can pretty much pick anywhere And who wouldn't?

[///MD]

Thanks for all the comments, I really appreciate the help/advice.

Mezman- I'm finishing up a specialty next year, and I'm hoping that coming from a good program will help with the job hunt. But, like you said, the market sounds tough to break into, which is why I'm looking early and am already in "feeler" mode.

Re: the comments about economic class, I assure you that I'm nowhere close to the gliding in buying a ginormous mansion and hitting all the ritzy restaurants. I still have over $150K of undergrad and med school loans to pay off. My focus on location will be on finding a good school system for the little one.

Again, appreciate the comments.

[mezman]

Originally Posted by ///MD

Thanks for all the comments, I really appreciate the help/advice.

Mezman- I'm finishing up a specialty next year, and I'm hoping that coming from a good program will help with the job hunt. But, like you said, the market sounds tough to break into, which is why I'm looking early and am already in "feeler" mode.

Re: the comments about economic class, I assure you that I'm nowhere close to the gliding in buying a ginormous mansion and hitting all the ritzy restaurants. I still have over $150K of undergrad and med school loans to pay off. My focus on location will be on finding a good school system for the little one.

Again, appreciate the comments.

Excellent, best of luck to you .

Also, we completely understand the student loan issue... my wife's at about $250k. We're going to live on as little as humanly possible and hopefully we'll have them paid off in a little less than 5 years. Just in time for her to finish residency.