Good city - 2/14/2024

Good place to visit.

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Austin is beautiful but it will cost you - 2/14/2024

Austin is too expensive. Let's get that out of the way. Other than that it is a fun city. Ladybird Lake makes the city, imo. The ability to stand up paddle, kayak, walk trails, etc. right next to downtown is a huge plus.

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Hot take: Austin is a top tier city - 8/28/2023

The city continues to grow quickly, which a lot of people don't like. I get it, you fall in love with a city, and it's growing so fast that you don't recognize the same neighborhoods 5-10 years later. People complain that X restaurant closed and ignore the 10 new ones that popped up when they redevelop the old industrial parts of town. Austin is for creative and adventurous types who enjoy trying new places and neighborhoods. Those who aren't will more enjoy other cities that are not growing as much. Cost of living keeps going up, more than some other cities. You can still find <$150K homes within an hour of Austin in 2023. In 2023, you can still find $1 tacos and <$2 pints of strawberries, but these are not the norm. Mostly it's expensive to live in the city--with a lot of new wealth in the city, the most desirable neighborhoods are very expensive. The areas that were outside the city limits 5 yeas ago are now new housing developments--mostly to the south and east. Austin encourages entrepreneurs with tons of events for small businesses and startups throughout the year. Most new businesses in town are small businesses, popups, and food trucks. If you're not experiencing this, you're going to the wrong parts of town. The infrastructure is following the growth. The highways are already being rebuilt twice 10 years. The Airport has been renovated and continues to be grown to support the growing city. Bike lanes continue to be added into the city. It's refreshing that most power lines are buried or being buried, which cleans up the appearance of the sky, which many cities don't address. Weather: Mild 6-8 months of the year, with July and Aug being pretty brutal if you don't like hot weather. Winter is mild with maybe 1 hard freeze a couple days and sometimes a dusting of snow. Spring is gorgeous with wild flowers across the city in public spaces, then it crisps up for July and August. Late summer and Fall greens back up with a second growing season. Culture: Austin is an outdoors city--tons of hiking, water activities, biking lanes and trails across the city. You can grab kayak/paddleboard rentals for <$10 any day of the week. The city has a okay sports scene with UT games and FC. Live music is everywhere, indoors and out. Most popup events and park events have music as part of them. The arts and museum scene is below average, but not the worst. There is a good amount of street art open studios events throughout the city. Food: The restaurant scene is above average. You can find top tier options for just about any genre. Mexican and BBQ are common all over the city. Produce and beef are big in Texas, so fresh beef and fruits are great all year. My wife is a food reviewer and compares Austin to other, much larger cities for quality.

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Don't believe the hype - 3/11/2022

I lived there for 22 years and left a year and a half ago. The people that live there have ruined it. Austin is no longer weird AT ALL. The weirdness has been replaced by hipsters and transplants who think that Austin is the greatest place on the planet and their attitudes enforce that. Meaning they all think they are special for living there. They are also very self centered.-I have heard this from people who used to live there and from people just visiting as well. Good luck making friends or finding a significant other there. Not only are people very picky socially about who they hang out with. If you live on the opposite side of town it's too much trouble to fight traffic to get across town.-Which I totally get because traffic is so bad. However, I don't get how clicky people are there in regards to who they associate with. I really wish things were different there. I love the beauty of Central Texas and everything there is to do there. I fought the good fight for a very long time thinking I could push past Austin's problems. I should have left decades sooner. I do not see Austin's problems getting any better either. The Austin marketing machine keeps the mindless (generally speaking) people there thinking it's the greatest place ever. The city continues to get companies to move there without improving the already horrible infrastructure to support all the people that will move there to get those jobs. If anyone reading this is considering moving there. Do your research and make sure if you watch videos online (for example) for more info about Austin/Central Texas that they don't gloss over the negative or positive of living in central Texas. With that being said. I concentrated on the bad. Here's some good. Lots of good places to eat and a variety of cultural food. Circuit of the Americas, College football. Major league soccer, Professional Hockey SXSW, ACL, tons of parks and outdoor things to do. Lots of live music and festivals. More bars than you can count. Not that far from other major cities. Places to fish, hunt and hike. Good luck!

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Austin is still a good place to live - 12/12/2021

I've lived in Austin over 20 years, and yes it has changed drastically, as all fast growing cities do. But I think it is unfair to compare Austin against it's past self instead of against other cities it's current size. As far as that goes, it is a very good place for professionals due to a large number of jobs and booming economy with companies moving here like crazy. The people here still are respectful and considerate of others for the *most* part. You can find rude people anywhere, of course. I will say drivers have gotten much ruder and stressed out and impatient due to traffic. It doesn't feel very safe driving around Austin. If you are able to WFH, then Austin traffic won't be a big deal for you. If not, try to live near your job for sure. Lots of educational opportunities here for all ages. I homeschooled my child and loved living here for that, as there were TONS of choices and groups for homeschoolers across the spectrum from conservative to liberal, secular and religious. Great diversity and tolerance for the most part as people in Austin I have found to be generally open-minded no matter where they fall on the spectrum. Not all, but many people here are "live and let live" and"to each their own" mentality. I think this may stem from the large number of college-educated people in Austin due to large number of universities. As one does generally learn to accept diverse opinions and ways of looking at and living life in college. If everyone thought the same way, no progress would ever happen as nobody would ever have a new idea. Also, there are several state parks near Austin for nature lovers. McKinney Falls can get crowded now, so I like to go to Pedernales Falls, or to the state and LCRA parks in/near Bastrop. But there are plenty of weekend nature trips you can take within a 2 hour drive, and then there is the beach 3-4 hours away depending on what part of Austin area you live. I don't really know what people find so fabulous about the food here versus other cities, as I think there is much better restaurants in Houston and Dallas, but I guess that's just me. I guess if you like food TRUCKS, then yes you have a selection. It has grown too fast to keep up with housing, and infrastructure. It's been the fastest growing area in the US for years with no let up on people moving here, so that is to be expected. So don't expect cheap housing/rent. Also, if you want to go to any events like outdoor festivals and things, it is going to be extremely crowded and lots of traffic to get there. Families are better off going to nearby small towns for outdoor things on weekends to avoid that. People will always complain about the hot summer and forget the trade off is the lovely fall and winter weather. I go hiking almost every day in December. Can't do that in places with mild summers unless you like hiking in snow. I feel like given there are not really much other weather or natural disaster issues to deal with here - no California and west coast fires, very little flooding, very few tornadoes, no hurricanes like the coast, no earthquakes, and no brutal winters, and an amazing number of sunny days - that putting up with a few months when you have to stay in the A/C and do your walks early in the morning or after dark is not a bad trade off. HOWEVER, you may have terrible allergies here as many people do. So, that is something to consider. I still plan to move simply because I have been here so long and want to live somewhere new. But overall, having traveled to and lived other places, Austin is not a bad place to make a living and enjoy a life. Hope this helps.

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Austin is Awesome - 9/24/2021

I lived in Austin Travis county for 2 years and fell in absolute love with the greater Austin area. I had to leave to go back to SC unfortunately. I was very sad over this. I'm originally from Charleston area. Happily I'm returning to my beloved Austin area especially Travis county in late October 2021. I love the vibe and energy of Austin the many tastes culture and it's music. I met the love of my life who is from Austin and. I absolutely can not wait to come back home to Texas. This will be the shortest and happiest 1150 mile move I have ever made. I'm not leaving Texas again. Just hired on with a fantastic company at much higher pay Rate than I had in SC it's gotten to expensive to live in SC comfortably any more. 110% humidity 9 months of the year is too much. Viva la Texas. I love you. Austin Texas

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The City with no Direction - 9/10/2021

Iv lived here for a LONG time now and things have changed drastically. from the City council doing a crap job and then the people running referendums on their decisions. this alone has cost us at least 8 to 12 years of political movement throughout our city-provided services and laws. the homeless continue to run rampant because the city council won't accept the results from a ballot that rectified their follies. so they drag their heels and as such, we continue to have a homeless issue, not the kind of homeless either it's the ones that touch and urinate in public that are still left behind go figure. Public services have fallen behind other cities. we have an ongoing feud with the governor who keeps us in his POV at all times. the City council is a dog that won't hunt and will continue to get stuck in the mud if they don't listen to the people. I35 and all the non stop construction is 5 years too late once it's been completed making it necessary for more construction they don't plan for where the city will be but where it's currently at. rent is out of control here in Austin a studio runs you 1200 and a 2 bedroom will easily run you 2100 without utilities and fees. The police surprisingly is probably the only service performing its job but only because they are non-stop busy after the city establishes an overwatch committee that is inefficient but scares the officers into overworking themselves as such we have a lot of new blood in every dept in PD. the city is losing its Keep Austin Weird vibe and more importantly its Live Music the entire reason I moved here. everyone complains but no one does anything

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Don’t. Just don’t. - 7/4/2021

This is truly one of those times I wish there was a way to give zero stars. If you’re thinking about visiting Austin.. just don’t. Go anywhere else in Texas. Austin is filthy, filthy, disgusting and did I say filthy? Cover your kids eyes because there just might be homeless people teaching them about the birds and the bees as you drive by? Or walk by one of their see through tents. It’s mind blowing to me that people move here and love it after they do. Unless they simply enjoy living where it smells like urine and ina place that makes you wish you owed a weapon of some sort. I think Austin is the definition of hype. And butt followers, following the hype. I always felt like Dallas was lacking in personality (it’s a city without an identity) and character (unless concrete is considered character) but at this point I welcome oh beautiful and gloriously CLEAN Dallas ! I mean, even in sketchy areas in Dallas I feel considerably safer than 6th street in Austin. I only have one positive thing to report. You very likely won’t eat a bad meal. You might even have one of the best meals you’ve ever eaten here. However in my opinion there is no food experience worth revisiting this God forsaken place. I’ve also heard the hype about how fabulous Round Rock is… I mean if you’ve been to Abilene, there’s really no difference. I think it gets all the high scores because next to Austin it looks like McKinney. McKinney.. now that’s a nice town in Texas!

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Big mistake moving back here after 20 years - 6/18/2021

I've lived in Austin twice, and the quality of life here has taken a sharp nose-dive over the decades. There used to be a family-oriented, friendly neighbor vibe. Now, this is only a good place to live if you like non-stop construction, overpriced housing, feeling like a non-citizen in your own country, being required to be bilingual for a lot of jobs and awful traffic.

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Don't believe the hype. Austin is no longer nice - 5/19/2021

BEWARE of the HYPE * I grew up in Austin when it was a wonderful, friendly, laid back, center of education and government. My father's family has been there since the 1870s, so my Texas roots are real. The first time I made the decision to leave Austin was in the mid 90s after the Yogurt Shop murders (4 young girls murdered

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Austin = Dallas with a few more trees - 4/29/2021

Austin has lost its charm and sure as hell lost its "weirdness." It's turned in to a pretentious, money hungry town which has not aged well at all. It thinks its cooler than it actually is...and to be honest with you there's not a lot to do there besides go to bars. Plus, the summer heat is awful. Way overrated city.

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Moving to a cool city will not make YOU cool - 3/27/2021

I moved to Austin in 2004. The city was low cost, unpretentious and a little dilapidated and rough around the edges. But it was authentic, friendly and alternative. The arts scene was booming, think 80's roller skating show telling a 70's sci fi cult movie story, that wicked! Mom and pop shops and restaurants down town, a few seedy bars, hippies playing the bongos at Barton springs free area where you could see the occasional jogger and Mexican family picnicking. You could dine at Eddie V's in flip flops. I felt immediately at home and thought I would retire and die here. 15 years later it is all gone. Sleek bars down town, cost of living and cost of real estate in particular skyrocketing and your typical large city rudeness. Just last night somebody passed my vehicle at an unbelievable speed while I was getting onto the highway. On the ramp! It would not have happened 15 years ago when the drivers where smiling and waving at each other. Remember, moving to a cool city does not make YOU cool. You are just a wannabe that chases the real cool people. The cool people of Austin are those who made up for lack of resources with the power of ideas. Unfortunately they are all gone. Let me correct myself. We forced them out. I am out of here myself (and I am not that cool). My revenge is to rent my place at an astronomical rate which to subsidize my retirement in a more friendly creative and less corporate town. Farewell

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Awfully suspicious - 1/26/2021

This thread is very fishy. It’s either California libs fleeing their state and trying to ruin another one. Or it’s Texas natives trying to keep said California libs out... Austin is rated the #1 place to live in Texas on just about every article I’ve come across. Something isn’t adding up.

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Could not pay me to live here - 12/29/2020

Grew up all over Austin now you could not pay me to live there. Where do I start?! Homelessnes is at epidemic proportions. The inept wannabe California city council defunded police and allows the homeless to camp and sleep on any taxpayer funded Sidewalk or park. Google Austin homeless camps, yes, it's like that all over the city. You can always hike the greenbelt but be careful it's a hotspot for drug addicts to break into cars and steal your things. Crime is going up housing prices are ridiculous. The public schools are a joke. In short Austin is becoming LA. If you are a conservative I would avoid this place like the plague. The woke virtue signaling crowd is strong here. All my family grew up here and as of this year they all moved to other cities. Traffic is some of the worst In the nation. If you looked at California and said yes that sounds great ! You will love Austin. But the real Texans all left no more hippies and rednecks in Austin. Now it's just hipsters and homeless. Move here at your own detriment.

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The longer I'm gone, the more I dislike Austin - 12/28/2020

I lived in Austin most of my life. In 40 years, I have watched Austin change from a really friendly, accepting, eccentric, inexpensive place to live into a youth obsessed, money obsessed, status obsessed, truly MEAN city which has managed to price out the native and long-time Austinites, people of color (who lived primarily on the east and south side), and older people. Austin has managed to get rid of many of the things which made Austin unique: Threadgill's, the Night Hawk, Hickory Street Bar and Grille, the revolving roach at Pease Road and North Lamar, the Moon Towers, just to name a few. The buildings have evolved into a dulling sameness of high-rise flats which are affordable only to the very rich, while those of lesser incomes are relegated to increasingly high-priced suburbs and lengthy commutes. In the last year I lived in Austin, I remember the Sunday I left church downtown at 1 pm and it took 55 minutes to drive 12 miles to our house in southwest Austin. The day we left the city for good, it took 2 hours and 20 minutes to drive from Sunset Valley to Round Rock *on a freeway* (MoPac Expressway). God help you if you're driving south from Salado towards San Antonio at rush hour: it's going to take your a minimum of five hours to drive those 130 miles -- and here's another thing: you will never leave a city during while those 130 miles! What were once bona-fide neighborhoods where people took the time to get to know one another are now urban deserts where people may live for ten years and never get to know their neighbors. Austin has developed a serious attitude. All too often it is snooty, affected, arrogant, haughty, conceited and disdainful. It is the most economically segregated city in the country. If you are over 50, you can forget about getting a job in Austin; what's more, you probably won't even get an interview. (I know: I was laid off when I was 55, applied to over 1400 places to get six interviews before I threw up my hands and left.) We watched our property taxes increase $1000/year for over ten years before we looked at each other and asked, "Are we having fun doing this?" (The answer was an emphatic "NO".) We got our property tax bill for the coming year in the city where we now live: it was a whopping $1200, or eleven percent of what we were paying the year we left Austin! Do you like hot weather? I mean, REALLY hot weather? Like, multiple weeks where the high temperatures are 105 to 110 degrees, and the overnight low never drops below 80 degrees? Do you like $500 monthly electricity bills in the summer? Do you have a good allergist for when mountain juniper blooms at the end of December and makes everybody sick into late February? There are things I miss about Texas: the barbecue (obviously!), the Tex-Mex and Mexican food (incomparable!), Fredericksburg, the Hill Country, the gingerbread court houses dotted all over the state, the state parks (Texas has some of the best state parks in the country). I would come back to visit Texas. I would not want to spend more than a day or two in Austin -- if that. I'm a trained classical musician -- a composer. I find it interesting that while I lived in Austin for 40 years, I got maybe a dozen performances of my music, and most of those were because I'm a concert-level pianist and I performed my own pieces. We have moved to another city. I've been averaging four performances of my music EACH YEAR; and now I'm actually getting commissions to compose new pieces. I have NO use for Austin's musical cliques. Austin seems to be doing a very good job of killing the metaphorical goose which laid the golden eggs. The music which made Austin "Austin" -- rockabilly, country rock, etc. -- the musicians who make this music can't afford to live in Austin. SxSW certainly isn't interested in promoting local talent. I have fond memories of the Austin WHICH WAS. I have very little good to say about the Austin WHICH IS TODAY. If you're under 40 and you're independently wealthy, you should do fine in Austin. If you're not independently wealthy, and/or you're over 45 -- you need to take a serious look at this city if you're really thinking about moving here. It is emphatically NOT "the Emerald City".

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Title for my review - 12/19/2020

I would like to just add one thing to your letter. There are very good deals on shampoo here. Once you get outside City limits you will find that the cost of shampoo rises dramatically. Also, you're not going to get as much variety of shampoo outside the city limits. So, you're also going to save on fuel costs by staying close to home to do your shampoo shopping. Also, you're going to be able to send shampoo to family and friends outside the area on holidays and such but be sure to pack your shampoo with lots of packing foam. Trust me on that one. Otherwise, you're going to be sending someone a heck of a mess!!!

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Austin is highly Overrated - 11/11/2020

I've lived here for 12 years, and it's not worth it. The cost of living here is very high, at least compared to the rest of South, and there are definitely better places to live in Texas. I'm moving because how high the property taxes have raised over the years, which have made it unaffordable for anyone from the lower-middle class range to live. There is a decent amount of things do here in terms of outdoor activities, but most other cities have better scenery and parks. Many forests around the Austin area, if you would even call them that, are predominantly just 10ft cedar trees. Austin is very segregated so most of Austin isn't very diverse, especially the north side. If you make upwards of 100K a year, then moving to the Westlake/Barton creek area might not as bad, but you have to deal with the rich snooty people who live there. Aside from the west side. I wouldn't move here. I'm moving back up to the North for those reasons.

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Doesn't live up to the hype - 9/6/2020

Agree with poster about being a "fake woke" city. Austin seems like a liberal city in many ways, and the younger millennials are a big part of that. But it is also the capital city of a Rupublican/regressive state and it has a strangle hold that keeps it from being what the most residents wish it to be. And there are also a number of the "true" (sarcasm) Texans with their trucks (that haul and hold nothing... ever!) and guns. My tolerance for these types is really wearing thin. As far as people claiming it is so friendly here.... it is an act. Like so many places that put on that "Southern charm", they are sweet to your face and talking smack about you as soon as you are out of earshot. We still feel more kinship to friends back on the coast, even though we cannot se them very often. I am fortunate to make good money here in tech, but I have almost always worked for companies headquartered in California that pay better. We have been here 14 years now and Austin is not the bargain it used to be. The only really "cheaper" things are housing cost (buy/rent) and gas. And maybe groceries by some. But we pay a whole lot in property taxes, as much as some other states where the property is worth so much more. Downtown prices for going out are much the same as many other cities. The weather is horrible 5-6 months out of the year. And the months that are decent enough to be outside, the allergies/pollen is so bad that it also keeps you inside. The Cedar Fever is truly wicked. There is some good music/bands that come through (not all country, thank god), but the same would be true of many other cities. Lake Austin is great, but they really try to limit the use by people who don't own property there (very expensive). Lake Travis is pretty good, but in drought years it is awful and ugly. Plus, you encounter so many party barges where people are just getting drunk and acting obnoxious. My husband is done with this state and we want to go back to the West coast and access to a real ocean (gulf is just sad compared to the Pacific). California seems to have so many wildfires now and just doesn't seem like a good option to return there at this point. We are looking at Portland and Seattle, but Portland seems like it might be just a bit "too small" and wrapped up in its own uniqueness.

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'The Truman Show' w/High Taxes & Hot Summers - 9/6/2020

I agree with Jay and some others: Positives: Sunny, dry weather with little rain. Winters are mild with many 50F plus days, fairly safe, plenty of chain stores and shopping centers, good community college system(ACC), good music scene, UT Austin. Texas State University. It's growing so if you've bought a house, you're reaping rewards. Fairly low crime. Everything looks fairly new. etc. Negatives: Very hot summers (hits 100F plus many days) from June through September. Little rain so a garden, water, is expensive. High property taxes. Heavy traffic. Slackers, deadbeats and potheads. Bubbas further out. Homeless at intersections, camping in tents, panhandling, doing drugs, stealing bikes, etc.. Lack of culture and history compared to the NE. Once you're in Austin, it's hard to get anywhere else. It's not like the NE, where you can drive to Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore and DC in a day. Once you live in Austin, you're sort of stuck there. Unless, you want to drive to San Antonio, Houston or Dallas. Or, check out an over-hyped tourist town like Fredericksberg, Salado, etc. So-so airport, because it's hard to get direct flights, although clean and new. Most flights stop first in Houston, Dallas, etc. Overall: I find Austin to be dull. And, downtown to be a lot like the movie, 'The Truman Show'. There's just not the richness of the NE in Austin. If you're fine living in a suburb in a cookie cutter home, and have kids that you want to be safe, go to public school, hang out in your neighborhood and shop at chain stores, and attend in-state colleges, it may be great for you.

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Fake woke city with typical southern slave wages - 8/4/2020

Lived in Austin for 2 years and looking back realized its extremely overrated. Ill give 5 short reasons why: 1) Austin historically was a sleepy college town. No different than Tallahassee FL where im at now. Its now overran by corporate tech companies outsourcing their crappy Cali jobs and hasnt grown beyond that. Austin is not some metropolis like NYC, DC, San Fran or LA. Its not even on the level of second tier cities like Chicago, Seattle, or even Atlanta. Its a 3rd/4th tier city in terms of career opportinities. Your never going to get far working here. 2) This place is so fake woke its not even funny. Minorities are segregated into east austin and most companies mostly hire whites. This is a neocon/conservative leaning city that doesnt like diversity but pretends to like liberals since corporations here need good PR. Its mostly white people here with very little cultural diversity. 3) Low wage state. Its still part of the south and its still Texas. Outside of tech, which is mostly silicon valley rejects and nothing really being made here, the jobs suck here. Just like other southern states, its right to work and low taxes, which means crappy cheap employers who dont pay well. 4) Wages are out of proportion to rents and housing costs. Crappy houses range from 300-400k. There are cheaper options out in the suburbs but then your stuck driving in traffic for hours. Even if you somehow hit 100k, its too hard to buy anything or want to settle down. 5) Its still Texas. Republicans still govern the state and have been forever. People love guns and its not opted into Obamacare. It doesnt support unions, it doesnt like infrastructure or density and your high property taxes make up for no income tax. Overall, this might be the most overrated city in america right now. Id say Texas as a whole is overhyped since its like Oklahoma but with more oil. The economy is booming with crappy jobs and you can go to jail for smoking weed. There isnt anything special about Austin TX sides inflated pricing to live in a college town with a limited economy. You cant make better money than other places, the people are arguably more backwords than parts of the deep south, and the traffic is like a mini LA. Neat to visit but dont live here. And no, Im not saying that passive aggressively like these other dweebs. This place is a legit waste of time if you care about advancing yourself career wise or want to live in a culturally rich place.

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