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Old 06-13-2007, 12:14 PM
 
Location: Mercer Island, WA
8 posts, read 96,068 times
Reputation: 13

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As I wrote on another thread, my husband and I are considering moving to Austin from Seattle in a few years (although we may end up buying a house there sooner than that). Although the presumably lower cost of living in Austin, as compared to Seattle, wasn't one of the reasons for moving, we kinda took that for granted because all the cost of living calculators say that if you make 100K in Seattle, that's like making 87-90K in Austin.

So now that we're crunching the numbers we noticed that:
1 - the property tax is about 3 times higher in Austin that in Seattle
2 - homeowners insurance is 3 to 4 times more expensive in Austin than in Seattle
3 - neither state has a state income tax
4 - sales tax in Austin is 6.25% vs. 8.8% in Seattle
5 - utilities are presumably more expensive in Austin, although I haven't been able to compare the rates

So can anyone who has made the move recently from one place to the other help me with the comparison? I wouldn't mind Austin being as expensive as Seattle, but I'm starting to believe that it's actually *more* expensive. Am I missing something? I do realize that housing is much more expensive in Seattle than in Austin and, as a result, someone who can't afford a house in Seattle may still afford one in Austin. But for someone like us who already owns a house in Seattle, it seems that it would be more expensive to live in Austin. Help! I'm confused...
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Old 06-13-2007, 02:14 PM
 
979 posts, read 2,944,374 times
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I'm pretty sure sales tax in Austin is at least 8.25%.
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Old 06-13-2007, 03:09 PM
 
Location: Mercer Island, WA
8 posts, read 96,068 times
Reputation: 13
Quote:
Originally Posted by AustinGuy View Post
I'm pretty sure sales tax in Austin is at least 8.25%.
So there goes the only item on my list that seemed to lean Austin's way Obviously, it's not only about the money, but at the end of the day your bottom line needs to stay healthy, no matter how much you prefer one lifestyle/climate/etc. over the other.
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Old 06-13-2007, 03:19 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
15,232 posts, read 35,410,327 times
Reputation: 8566
Washington
State Sales Tax: 6.5% (food and prescription drugs exempt)
Local taxes may increase total tax to 8.9%.
Gasoline Tax: 34 cents/gallon
Diesel Fuel Tax: 34 cents/gallon
Cigarette Tax: $2.03/pack of 20

Texas
State Sales Tax: 6.25% (food, prescription and non-prescription drugs exempt)
local option taxes can raise the rate to 8.25%.
Gasoline Tax: 20 cents/gallon
Diesel Fuel Tax: 20 cents/gallon
Cigarette Tax: $1.41 cents/pack of 20

I guess the possibly big difference is - can you get the same house here for much less? Then the property tax becomes not as big a difference, and insurance (on a $/value basis) will be closer. If you house 'here' will be valued the same as the house 'there', then you will pay more taxes. Of course, if you drive all over Texas smoking cigs, we may save you some money, too .
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Old 06-13-2007, 03:46 PM
 
Location: Mercer Island, WA
8 posts, read 96,068 times
Reputation: 13
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trainwreck20 View Post
Washington
I guess the possibly big difference is - can you get the same house here for much less? Then the property tax becomes not as big a difference, and insurance (on a $/value basis) will be closer.
Sure, if one can exercise enough discipline and not give in to the temptation to, instead, buy a house as big as the sale of the old house allows. ...and I wasn't planning to

Quote:
Of course, if you drive all over Texas smoking cigs, we may save you some money, too .
That is *if* we used to do the same in Washington. LOL!
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Old 06-13-2007, 03:47 PM
 
Location: WA
5,640 posts, read 24,849,524 times
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You will probably find a major difference in electricity expenses. On average Texas has electricity rates that are 60% higher than Washington and the huge increase in cooling hours will make a difference.

I recently moved from Texas to Washington and found the increase in housing cost (maybe 30% more here) has been offset in large part by lower taxes, insurance, and electricity. I estimate it cost me less than 10% more to live here compared to Texas.

I have found that cost-of-living calculators concentrate (by necessity) on a very few item and often give a misleading result.
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Old 06-13-2007, 03:56 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
15,232 posts, read 35,410,327 times
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Quote:
Sure, if one can exercise enough discipline and not give in to the temptation to, instead, buy a house as big as the sale of the old house allows. ...and I wasn't planning to
Yeah, I think this is a big difference people don;t always recognize - people sell a $600k, 2,000 sqft home somewhere and then come and buy a $600k, 5000 sqft home in Texas (or plan to do so). Then the property tax eats you alive, not to mention the power required to cool it. Even if electric rates were identical, the usage would go up enormously.

In August 2006, Seattle had an average high temperature of ~77 F. In Austin, it was ~101 (the average low was 77!). Assuming your average target household temp is 76 F, you had no need for AC in Seattle, but had a 25 F delta to account for in Austin.

In January 2006, Seattle had an average low temperature of ~36 F. In Austin, it was ~46 F. Assuming you kept your house heated to ~68, that would be 32 F in Seattle and 22 in Austin (not that big of difference)

Last edited by Trainwreck20; 06-13-2007 at 04:06 PM..
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Old 06-13-2007, 04:09 PM
 
Location: Mercer Island, WA
8 posts, read 96,068 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cdelena View Post
You will probably find a major difference in electricity expenses. On average Texas has electricity rates that are 60% higher than Washington and the huge increase in cooling hours will make a difference.

I recently moved from Texas to Washington and found the increase in housing cost (maybe 30% more here) has been offset in large part by lower taxes, insurance, and electricity. I estimate it cost me less than 10% more to live here compared to Texas.
I believe that your experience confirms what I started to suspect: if you exclude the mortgage expense (for example if you sell one house and pay the other one off) Seattle may be less expensive to live in than Austin. Of course there are certain aspects of everyday life that you can't put a dollar amount on...
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Old 06-13-2007, 04:15 PM
 
Location: Austin, Tx
37 posts, read 122,428 times
Reputation: 14
Quote:
Originally Posted by tomis View Post
I believe that your experience confirms what I started to suspect: if you exclude the mortgage expense (for example if you sell one house and pay the other one off) Seattle may be less expensive to live in than Austin. Of course there are certain aspects of everyday life that you can't put a dollar amount on...
Like... sunshine!?!?!

For us, the equity from our Seattle home (on the market for $575) will allow us to put down about 70% on an Austin home 400-450 K. Figuring in taxes, insurance, and utilities, our out of pocket every month will be about the same. Maybe a couple of hundred less a month?

The BIG difference is... we get a 3300-3800 sqf home with many more upgrades and a bigger lot. And the weird thing is that it's actually much closer to Austin than our current home is to Seattle. Right now we're in a 2800 sft home that needs updating and is on a very small lot. It can take us 45 minutes to an hour or more to get to Seattle.

I think everyone's situation will be a little different depending on their equity, and out of pocket expenses every month. The main point is to make sure you're not just looking at your mortgage, but you're factoring in ALL the extras including utilities and property taxes.
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Old 06-13-2007, 04:18 PM
 
212 posts, read 1,073,240 times
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We're moving to Austin next week from Seattle. We found many other things to be cheaper in Austin (gas, food, dining out, movies, etc). We justify the bump in property tax as $$ spent we would have spent on a private school in WA and since we have 3 kids it would be cheaper in TX. Our strategy was to find a great school in walking distance and I can work from home 25% - 50% of the time.

We are dreading the first elec bill for our house (~5000 sq ft). On that note, for us it was impossible to resist the temptation to upsize to a much bigger home with more upgrades. But that was part of what appealed to us coming from Seattle (besides the sunnier weather). Homeowners looks to be about 2X more than WA from what I can tell.
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