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624k puts Austin I think above Denver and Portland. IMO, city wise, it's not there yet. W/O looking, I'd bet Houston is around 400k. Which city gives you more bang for your buck?
Even if Houston was as expensive as Austin it would still give more bang for your buck. It is the bigger, more liveable city. That gives it better access to amenities such as two international airports. For someone who loves to eat like me, Houston has more bang in terms of the diversity of offerings.
Austin has higher incomes on average, and a more well educated populace. But that doesn't mean that Houston lack high incomes and educated individuals, it just means it has more individuals who fall on the other end of the spectrum than Austin.
I tend to prefer cities with high growth in all areas of the economic ladder because it just feels more natural. Not hating on Austin's booming economy, anywhere would welcome all this high paying jobs, I'm just saying that not everyone can have these higher paying jobs and in no fan of trickle down economics.
The same goes for education. Austin may have a higher percentage of educated individuals but It's not like Houston lacks highly educated individuals. Houston has no answer for UT in terms of huge tier one flagship undergraduate schools, and I think that gives UT the leg up in terms of the better city for undergraduates, but Houston more than makes up for it in its graduate programs.
In terms of bang for your buck Houston is definitely the better place for an average Joe. It is probably the best place for an average Joe in the state having lower Housing costs than San Antonio despite having higher incomes. DFW have higher incomes than SA but is also more expensive, but again for me it's the greater range of amenities that make DFW the better place for bang for your buck.
I’d prefer it if millions of more people continue to move to Texas and Florida. I don’t really care for either of those states so they can make it as expensive and as crowded as they please. I’ll never live there and only visit when I absolutely have to, so I don’t really care.
Austin and extremely affordable do not go together. While true rent prices haven't reached the level of the coast, affordability has become an issue with yearly rate increases on par with the coast. Austin along with Dallas and Houston just started from a lower level. Look at median house value. Surprisingly Austin is the most expensive city between the Rockies and the Appalachians even surpassing the likes of major cities such as Chicago. A median of $624,000 is not extremely affordable.
Lol this is well over 2X the median home value in Philadelphia.
Austin is closer to Albuquerque than Philadelphia in terms of what it actually has to offer and overall economic horsepower.
More wealth is moving into Florida, by far, followed by Texas per the IRS. NY and CA were the biggest losers.
Tech jobs might not be coming over en masse but people—and their established money and wealth—sure are. If the purpose of the 2017 SALT limits was to create wealth relocation, looks like it is working with a bit of success.
(For those without a WSJ subscription, see following):
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SanJac
The huge gap between Florida and Texas doesn’t make sense to me. Was there an explanation for that?
The link I posted said FL was the biggest gainer and NY was the biggest loser….given the historically and popular migratory trend from NY to FL, it would be my guess that continued and exceeded any migration to TX from CA or elsewhere—but I could be wrong.
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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Besides individual migration, TX (to a greater extent) and FL have been beneficiaries of company migration. FL, especially SoFla, has been a beneficiary of urban amenities migration—specifically restaurants, as in more than 2 dozen top tier ones (not Landry’s chains) from NYC and elsewhere—that have followed individuals and opened up outposts (in part to satisfy transplants, in part due to more business friendly/less restrictions during the peak of the pandemic).
Last edited by elchevere; 06-21-2022 at 11:16 AM..
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