Moving to Austin? Consider these before coming
We have quite a few folks moving here from California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey, plus a few other states. I don't blame them a bit, there are lots of incentives. However, some of those incentives are disappearing fast, and if, for example, you move here to escape a two-hour commute to work, I hope a 90-minute commute is good enough for you.
The job market is good, but by Texas standards. We have lots of companies here, but not as many as in the Bay Area, Seattle, LA, NYC or Chicago. I put a list of the top employers here. A small, non-comprehensive list of some interesting companies is here. The business climate is relatively friendly, but be advised that the job market for high tech workers is beginning to thin, partially due to the Cloud revolution, partially due to established outfits changing their hiring practices to cut costs. While I expect the Austin job market will be one of the last to experience major job shortages, the writing is on the wall, and we will experience our share of hardship.
Apartments complexes are plentiful and getting built by the dozens. Construction is everywhere. Apartments can be had for fairly reasonable rents, with a wide variety of locations to choose from. Houses in good neighborhoods are expensive and getting more so. Most people seeking affordable housing buys either choose inexpensive but somewhat run-down neighborhoods like mine (gentrifying slowly, but totally convenient to everywhere), or live way out and put up with weird hours (like getting into work early, about 7AM) and fairly lengthy commutes.
NB: Austin's basic design and traffic infrastructure was conceived and built in the 1970's, when Austin had around 250,000 people. It was great back then. Now the Austin Metro area has almost 2,000,000 people and is literally bursting at the seams. Traffic during rush hour is just plain awful, and there are no really great solutions available. Think about that carefully before moving here. Traffic sucks, and the places you are most likely to live in have a lot of traffic between you and the places you are most likely to find employment.
We have crazed high-density advocates for city planners (what big city does not?) who are trying to go for a New-York-like downtown, with high-rises everywhere, gillions of people packed sardine-like in tiny, expensive high-rise apartment buildings, and tax-subsidized public transportation in the form of buses and light rail. We still have major traffic problems.
Upshot: We're pretty much full here, folks. Move here now, and I expect you will get far less benefit than you might have a few years ago. People from LA and other even crazier places might benefit for a while, but, as I have said, the available slots are diminishing and the infrastructure is creaking. You might want to think again.
The job market is good, but by Texas standards. We have lots of companies here, but not as many as in the Bay Area, Seattle, LA, NYC or Chicago. I put a list of the top employers here. A small, non-comprehensive list of some interesting companies is here. The business climate is relatively friendly, but be advised that the job market for high tech workers is beginning to thin, partially due to the Cloud revolution, partially due to established outfits changing their hiring practices to cut costs. While I expect the Austin job market will be one of the last to experience major job shortages, the writing is on the wall, and we will experience our share of hardship.
Apartments complexes are plentiful and getting built by the dozens. Construction is everywhere. Apartments can be had for fairly reasonable rents, with a wide variety of locations to choose from. Houses in good neighborhoods are expensive and getting more so. Most people seeking affordable housing buys either choose inexpensive but somewhat run-down neighborhoods like mine (gentrifying slowly, but totally convenient to everywhere), or live way out and put up with weird hours (like getting into work early, about 7AM) and fairly lengthy commutes.
NB: Austin's basic design and traffic infrastructure was conceived and built in the 1970's, when Austin had around 250,000 people. It was great back then. Now the Austin Metro area has almost 2,000,000 people and is literally bursting at the seams. Traffic during rush hour is just plain awful, and there are no really great solutions available. Think about that carefully before moving here. Traffic sucks, and the places you are most likely to live in have a lot of traffic between you and the places you are most likely to find employment.
We have crazed high-density advocates for city planners (what big city does not?) who are trying to go for a New-York-like downtown, with high-rises everywhere, gillions of people packed sardine-like in tiny, expensive high-rise apartment buildings, and tax-subsidized public transportation in the form of buses and light rail. We still have major traffic problems.
Upshot: We're pretty much full here, folks. Move here now, and I expect you will get far less benefit than you might have a few years ago. People from LA and other even crazier places might benefit for a while, but, as I have said, the available slots are diminishing and the infrastructure is creaking. You might want to think again.
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