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We are moving from Washington state.We are married,husband in IT industry and wife CPA candidate(accounting).
My husband has option to choose from 2 offers- Chase ( in Columbus,Ohio) or GE (Austin,Texas)
We are confused , which would be better option. I will be searching job in whichever place we move.
Our requirements
1) We want to settle in a place which is good for raising family as we will be planning children soon.Also which is good for job opportunities.
2) We want to buy House which is in range of 200k-250k.
3) We want to stay where cost of living is not too high.
Also if you have suggestion regarding which company is better to work with from chase and GE then please suggest.
Please help us decide.
My wife and I used to live in Houston, Texas and we visited Austin a few times. These two cities are actually very similar. Both are doing very well economically, both have a huge world class university located within the city, and both have a large number of young professionals. For my wife and I we moved to Columbus from Houston and have zero regrets. It is an awesome city. What we like about Columbus is how much smaller and close knit the communities are. In Austin the suburbs tend to sprawl and the school districts are very large, which often leads to larger schools and class sizes. We have a young daughter and the educational options here are vast. The schools tend to have fewer students and smaller class sizes here. There are also a number of family oriented activities here. My wife and I love taking our daughter to COSI which was ranked the #1 children's science museum in the nation. The zoo here was also recently ranked the best in the nation. We live in Grandview Heights which is one of many walkable neighborhoods found throughout Columbus. Many of the local communities will also have regular events like farmers markets on Saturdays and a variety of festivals. Sorry if I am rambling but I really feel like Columbus is one of the best places in the US to raise a family and I am sure glad we are here.
We moved to Columbus from San Francisco when we had our older daughter and haven't looked back. It is a great place to raise a family. In Columbus, the cost of living is very low and the standard of living and amenities (good schools, great parks, community centers, libraries, etc) are quite high. I would suggest that you really look for a neighborhood that fits your family. We stumbled into a wonderful suburb that has all the perks of city living and all the pluses of living in a small town that suits us perfectly. We plan to live here forever.
Culturally, Austin and Columbus will be very different. Columbus is a growing, thriving city, but it is also very midwestern. People in the midwest are very friendly and polite, but it can take some effort to really get close to them. A lot of people in Columbus grew up here or went to OSU and have groups of friends already. This will be much less of a problem if you have kids in school and chose a neighborhood where you share interests and values. We were a little slow to make friends until our daughter started kindergarten and then everything fell into place for us.
Columbus is not quite as hip as Austin...yet. Columbus is a city that is improving exponentially each year. In the 10 years we have been here, it has steadily improved. It has a great food scene, a well-educated and diverse population, lots of things to do, but it is still maturing. It doesn't have the same hipster cache that Austin has. Expect your Washington family and friends to give you a hard time about moving here. When we lived in SF, people thought we were moving to a corn field.
Columbus is a well-kept secret. People from the the coasts assume that Columbus is one of the rust-belt cities--it ISN'T. It has very low unemployment and a great economy. We took a few hits during the recession, but not nearly as bad as many other places. Columbus has a big information and education - based economy rather than a factory based one. And it is growing.
The one big downside of Columbus is the winter. It is gray here for four months of the year. Really gray. It can be depressing. We also don't get that much snow, so the cold weather isn't particularly fun here either. Eight months out of the year I love the weather. From November to the end of February, I am just gritting my teeth until the grass turns green and the sky turns blue again.
You don't say what kind of house you hope to buy for $200k, but you can definitely get into decent houses in that price range here. Since you don't have children who need a school yet, I would suggest renting at first so you can find the right neighborhood and wait for the right house. It is a sellers real estate market here right now. With patience and a good realtor you will find a lot of house for your money, but you don't want to get stuck buying right away with such limited inventory to choose from. The number of houses on the market will increase in spring, but so will the number of people jumping on them. And you shouldn't buy until you know which neighborhood you want to be in long-term anyway.
Good luck with your decision. I think you have two really nice cities to choose from.
Here's a special inside tip about working IT for Columbus, Ohio.
I was married a long while back to a woman which I eventually divorced. She had begun screwing around with an employee of Chase in Columbus who was in the IT department (and still is).
He screwed around behind his wife's back and my wife screwed around behind my back, with each other. Together they screwed up a grand total of 7 people's lives for sex and to this day have no remorse about it.
If your husband's going to work in IT at Chase in Columbus, Ohio, there's a very real possibility that this guy (he has one of those unisex names, you know, could work for a guy or a girl) could cause trouble in your relationship if he takes a fancy to you.
It doesn't help that the two of them also run drugs out of their house about 70 miles east of Columbus as well. They're shady people and the people in middle management at Chase's IT department are well aware and just don't care to do anything about it.
With so much stinky business hanging in the air around Chase's IT department in Columbus, I'd be wary of working there or moving there.
Austin, on the other hand, is a fine town and quite a bit of fun. GE in Austin is another place I've had the personal pleasure of being involved with (in my profession, not a profession of my ex wife's boytoy) and they are squeaky clean. On top of that, they treat their employees very well.
I'd have to suggest Austin due to a combination of inside knowledge of Chase IT Columbus, GT Austin, and having been in both towns fairly extensively.
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I have lived in Columbus (Dublin) and visit often. I actually preferred my time in Cleveland better and would pick Browns town over Columbus. I've been to Austin and know friends that have moved there and I have researched. Personally Austin was my second choice city to live (Charlotte first) as I had choice to move just about anywhere about 8 yrs ago.
When we lived in Texas most locals would tell you that Austin is a very overrated city. Personally I would live in San Antonio and Houston over Austin. But each person is different. I still think for raising a family, Columbus is better than Austin. Smaller communities, smaller schools, smaller class sizes, and more qualified teachers. Having taught in both Ohio and Texas I can tell you the teacher training in Ohio is far superior to Texas In fact Texas did not even require student teaching before graduating. I have many more experiences that I could detail but just know that my wife and I are both happy that we picked Columbus to raise our family.
Rating Action:
Moody's downgrades GE rating to Aa3, GE Capital to A1
Global Credit Research - 03 Apr 2012
New York, April 03, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service today downgraded the senior unsecured debt rating of General Electric Company (GE) to Aa3 from Aa2 and the senior unsecured rating of its wholly-owned finance subsidiary, General Electric Capital Corporation (GECC), to A1 from Aa2.
You can also look up the bond ratings for Austin and Columbus
There are pros and cons to both cities.
If you take Job X in Austin and get laid off, what is your Plan B? Will the area economy support it?
If you take Job Y in Columbus and get laid off (ditto)
Lastly, where are your closest relatives/friends you would turn to if things got tight?
All that said, I like Columbus a lot. It has some great things to offer, but I can't recommend it 100% given the unstable economy and the larger problem of employment throughout Ohio, which is dragging down the state. Whether natural gas fracking and gambling will make a major difference is still in debate.
However, Austin has a number of problems, as well, so I suggest doing more research on the financial stability and outlook of your jobs and proposed cities. Make your decision based on the numbers and the best data you can find.
Also consider:
*Taxes
*Funding (and future funding) of schools the children will attend
*Cost of living changes due to drought/weather (Austin water bills are high due to drought) / AEP (American Electric Power wants to raise rates high in Cols to pay for the bad storm we had last summer that knocked out power for 4+ days and required pricey repairs)
As pointed out, both cities have great culture! Economic concerns are the more pressing aspects, in my opinion.
Rating Action:
Moody's downgrades GE rating to Aa3, GE Capital to A1
Global Credit Research - 03 Apr 2012
New York, April 03, 2012 -- Moody's Investors Service today downgraded the senior unsecured debt rating of General Electric Company (GE) to Aa3 from Aa2 and the senior unsecured rating of its wholly-owned finance subsidiary, General Electric Capital Corporation (GECC), to A1 from Aa2.
You can also look up the bond ratings for Austin and Columbus
There are pros and cons to both cities.
If you take Job X in Austin and get laid off, what is your Plan B? Will the area economy support it?
If you take Job Y in Columbus and get laid off (ditto)
Lastly, where are your closest relatives/friends you would turn to if things got tight?
All that said, I like Columbus a lot. It has some great things to offer, but I can't recommend it 100% given the unstable economy and the larger problem of employment throughout Ohio, which is dragging down the state. Whether natural gas fracking and gambling will make a major difference is still in debate.
However, Austin has a number of problems, as well, so I suggest doing more research on the financial stability and outlook of your jobs and proposed cities. Make your decision based on the numbers and the best data you can find.
Also consider:
*Taxes
*Funding (and future funding) of schools the children will attend
*Cost of living changes due to drought/weather (Austin water bills are high due to drought) / AEP (American Electric Power wants to raise rates high in Cols to pay for the bad storm we had last summer that knocked out power for 4+ days and required pricey repairs)
As pointed out, both cities have great culture! Economic concerns are the more pressing aspects, in my opinion.
Um... wtf are you talking about with the economy comments? In regards to the state overall, Ohio has been one of the top 5 states for year over year job gains. It has lower unemployment than the national average and is expected to have a higher GDP growth this year than the national average. In regards to Columbus, it has well below national average uneployment, a AAA credit rating and was one of less than 20 cities that had gained back all the jobs lost during the recession. Its economy is diverse and not based on any single industry. What instability are you seeing?
Austin's cost of living and housing costs probably eliminate it based on your criteria #2 and #3. You pay a premium for living there now, so probably not the best place to go just for a job unless you *really* like the city.
I don't know anything about Columbus, so I can't help there. I've heard good things, and I imagine it's a more reasonably priced city.
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