Thinking of leaving Austin for Dallas or Houston?

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Yeah, it is pretty insane how quickly the weather patterns change between the Gulf and Central TX. Houston is only like 2.5 Hours away but it’s like they’re in an entirely different climate than we are.

Personally don’t care about the heat. I do wish we could have more rain though.

Yeah, it is insane.

I, too, wish we had more rain. The prevalence of so much rain down there brought the message home to me that while I'm sure S Texas may be feeling the pinch drought wise it's not to the extent of central and north texas. If the Austin area just got twenty minutes of that flash flood that Houston received on my way down it would have made some difference. It was just pouring buckets and the temps dropped to the 70s.

[Need4Camaro]

One thing I really hate especially when doing Uber’s is our sunrises and sunsets. Good gawd they’re relentless and they last a long friggen time. I even have shades that get extra dark and it’s like they do nothing to that bright Texas sun.

[hindsight2020]

well, climate change is just shifting the climate zones eastward in TX. Sitting in the dividing line between semi arid and subtropical means either you move east to preserve the humidity or you get to enjoy west texas right in central tx. giddy up pardner. At least housing is chea---- oh wait.

[DillyDilly97]

Originally Posted by mojo101

Cinco Ranch is nice,TX has no income tax and sales tax is at par with other states

But those insanely high property taxes…….

[walker1962]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

It really depends on what burbs. N.Dallas burbs are not cheap. You could easily spend as much on a house up there as you would in Austin or it’s burbs. Places like Westlake/Southlake (DFW) are probably among the most priciest places to in Texas, Frisco and W.Plano are averaging $600 - $700k home values which is neck and neck with Cedar Park and much further away from Downtown too.

S.Dallas burbs are more affordable but you are displaced from all of the white collar jobs if you’re in tech.

Another issue is, today a $100k annual salary just isn’t what it used to be when considering inflation, the cost of goods and the inevitable increase of home values. Today a $100k annual salary is yesterday’s $64k a year (approximately year 2000) when adjusting for inflation.

As someone in banking/homebuilder, given the size of DFW, home prices do NOT match those in Austin. I declined an offer this summer to move to ATX because of home prices markedly higher than DFW.

The areas closest to ATX in price are the suburbs east of North Dallas Tollway and north of I-635. Tarrant county (Fort Worth/Arlington, mid-cities) overall is more affordable than Dallas and Collin (Plano/Frisco) areas. I think the reference to Westlake/Southlake warrants more context. You're now talking about places on par with Austin's lakefront/west side enclaves.

You can have more choices in DFW too because the road system and public transit have made areas for new construction more accessible. For whatever reasons, I swear DFW has gotten more TxDot funding than any other region in the state.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by walker1962

As someone in banking/homebuilder, given the size of DFW, home prices do NOT match those in Austin. I declined an offer this summer to move to ATX because of home prices markedly higher than DFW.

The areas closest to ATX in price are the suburbs east of North Dallas Tollway and north of I-635. Tarrant county (Fort Worth/Arlington, mid-cities) overall is more affordable than Dallas and Collin (Plano/Frisco) areas. I think the reference to Westlake/Southlake warrants more context. You're now talking about places on par with Austin's lakefront/west side enclaves.

You can have more choices in DFW too because the road system and public transit have made areas for new construction more accessible. For whatever reasons, I swear DFW has gotten more TxDot funding than any other region in the state.

Yeah but that is why I stated it depends on what suburbs, when comparing apples to apples between amenities and distance to white collar jobs, the two are pretty close in overall price. The reason Austin is so expensive is because it is largely white collar with limited housing supply. I will say Frisco and W.Plano offer alittle more (not significantly) than say Cedar Park, Leander and Round Rock for the same dollar value in the aspect they have fairly established mixed-used living / shopping but the cost of living in those areas are pretty on par with the aforementioned suburbs.

Mid-Cities is probably more affordable than most of Austin ... ... but FortWorth has Westlake and Southlake which are probably more expensive than most of Austin's burbs even today.