[LordyLordy]

Originally Posted by changing_intensity

All,
Many thanks for the suggestions! All great ideas.
St. Pete looks great. I am still researching the technical job market and exploring the city on Google Earth. I have a lot of research to do

Austin Texas is an option, but I think I would rather be closer to a beach.

I am used to living in a small town. My current town only has ~17,000 people so that will be an adjustment... I am possibly considering parts of South Carolina. There appears to be lots of nice beaches. Charleston may be an option.

Thanks for all the help.

Austin is a exploding and bursting at the seams. It has a very good job market, however, it has become very expensive to live in the town itself. Forget about buying a place, in town prices are insane and in any case, Travis and Hays counties have insane property taxes. Commute is horrible and the town is changing rapidly from a nice old-west town to a hipster paradise. If you like "hipster paradise" - great. If not, you are out of luck. If you want a beach and a choice from a gazillion jobs, Houston may be your destination. Close enough to a beach, also close enough to places like New Orleans for a weekend trip and 1-2 hours north you can go to the forest for a hike etc. Houston is also huge, you can find in it anything you want.

[The Villages Guy]

Originally Posted by changing_intensity

All,
Many thanks for the suggestions! All great ideas.
St. Pete looks great. I am still researching the technical job market and exploring the city on Google Earth. I have a lot of research to do

Austin Texas is an option, but I think I would rather be closer to a beach.

I am used to living in a small town. My current town only has ~17,000 people so that will be an adjustment... I am possibly considering parts of South Carolina. There appears to be lots of nice beaches. Charleston may be an option.

Thanks for all the help.

Austin is an AWESOME place and we were considering moving there from NC. It would be great for your career. But we did not want the landlocked thing anymore, so here we are in the coastal town of Palm Harbor, FL. We absolutely LOVE it here and I think you could do well here, although there are many other places you could do better as far as money. Only you can decide what is most important to you. Personally, as a city, Austin is lightyears ahead of Tampa itself. But the surrounding areas of Tampa, especially Pinellas County are far better than most of the surrounding areas of Austin, so it really matter what is important to you. Visit both to see. Best of luck to you.

[AES328]

Austin is nice and all but it is a vastly overrated town imo.

Personally, I'd probably choose Houston for the sheer volume of jobs available, and proximity to the beach and Nawlins.

[LordyLordy]

Originally Posted by AES328

Austin is nice and all but it is a vastly overrated town imo.

Personally, I'd probably choose Houston for the sheer volume of jobs available, and proximity to the beach and Nawlins.

Austin is nice if you are into tech and into the hipster lifestyle. It is full of types who drive a maseratti and wear torn jeans in some misguided effort to look down to earth and folksy while they are rolling in millions of dollars. It is also full of the "namaste" and "ohmmmm" types who act holier than thou. Anyway, my impression of it. The town is increasingly becoming a playground for the rich, startup types. I always heard about the famous 6th St. - when I actually saw it I was disappointed. Dirty, full of drunkards, people screaming everywhere, smell of **** and sound of pretty crappy music. If that's your scene, it's a great place otherwise be ready to be disappointed. IMHO San Antonio is a much cooler place and more interesting. It also has the Riverwalk. Jobs-wise, if you are in IT/tech, Austin is the place to be. Just be ready for New York City rents downtown or a LOOOOOONG commute if you are living outside of the city. The infrastructure is stuck in the 1960s, the population is exploding as of 2014.

[gypsychic]

Well, again, the OP wanted a more beach town, and last said he might go with Charleston, SC, which I think would be a great choice given what he is looking for. Forget Texas, sheesh....

[Fredesch]

Try the Melbourne/space coast area. You might find more science/high tech companies there than most beach areas of Florida.