New to the site.. Looking to move to Austin (Houston: living in, places)

[BitViper]

Originally Posted by verybadgnome

Nothing if you actually work out there. Problem is people want the big yard or acres of land but they also want a quick commute into town. What you will wind up with eventually is something like Houston or Atlanta which only gives you the former, but worse than that it makes for a city where transit is not feasible (because of lack of density) and where you have massive freeways blighting the landscape. Also since nothing walkable or bikeable we are raising a generation of fat children who will be enacting out their road rage when they are forced to drive everywhere.

To the OP: It doesn't matter if you are buying in a new neighborhood or not. Since housing is a market of thousand of individual buyers the person you bought the house from in the hill country only bought there b/c he knew he could sell it to someone like you down the line.

I think there are a lot of people moving to Austin for a quality of life they didn't have elsewhere and if Austin's growth drowns it in the coming decades they'll just move somewhere else that is like Austin now.

Then forgive me.. whats your real beef... just dont want anyone moving to YOUR Austin.....

For better or worse CA has been absorbing everyone from everywhere... the wave is just back east.... I promise I wont soil Austin...

[Nomadic9460678748]

Originally Posted by BitViper

Then forgive me.. whats your real beef... just dont want anyone moving to YOUR Austin.....

For better or worse CA has been absorbing everyone from everywhere... the wave is just back east.... I promise I wont soil Austin...

Don't listen to anyone (including me) on this site. It's a free COUNTRY. You can move wherever you want. Austin's just a dot on the map. Nothing more, nothing less.

[SacalaitWhisperer]

The population of Austin is nowhere near SoCal levels.

Silicon Gulch is a wonderful place. Tell your wife to cut her hair or wear a ponytail.

The areas you're thinking of locating are excellent. Have fun.

Texans talk funny.
Ever see Boomhauer on King of the Hill? Kinda like that.

[BitViper]

Originally Posted by SacalaitWhisperer

The population of Austin is nowhere near SoCal levels.

Silicon Gulch is a wonderful place. Tell your wife to cut her hair or wear a ponytail.

The areas you're thinking of locating are excellent. Have fun.

Texans talk funny.
Ever see Boomhauer on King of the Hill? Kinda like that.

Oh will do have fun.. a friend of ours has a house on the lake up at LBJ.. .. so the weekends are spoken for.. ever have the peanut butte pie up at the Blue Bonnet Restaurant (Marble Falls) there.. great stuff

Yeah.. she's resolved to the fact that she might have to develop a baseball hat habit.... not a problem for me.. as a matter of fact when she's got her boots and Wranglers on.. and pop's on her western hat... The heavens open up and Im in love all over again.. damn sexy.. so for me . its a win win...

Funny.. you say Boomhauer has an accent.. never noticed .

Her biggest worry is us being an interracial couple and having problems.. like that. Ive spent enough time in and with the military so Ive got a pretty tough skin.. you have to go WAY outta your way to get to me..

We'll see... we're finalizing our financial package now and will look into seriously moving in a few weeks.. I"d like to get a job first..

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by BitViper

Then forgive me.. whats your real beef... just dont want anyone moving to YOUR Austin.....

For better or worse CA has been absorbing everyone from everywhere... the wave is just back east.... I promise I wont soil Austin...

The background to what I'm saying is that in Texas there are no land use controls outside of city limits. That is laissez-faire is the rule in places where you will be looking for a new home. This type of mostly unregulated development incurs more stress not just on our roadway system - that people start complaining about the first day they commute but never thought about before - but also on our aquifer which acts as a water supply as well as for recreation; increases emissions (we are about to go into EPA non-attainment status for air quality which will bring on a whole new slew of regulations), and will help make mass transit unfeasible. Now if we had impact fees or zoning out there that would help mitigate the effects of this, but until then.....Really Austin and Texas as a whole need to look at development of cities in a new light; they have to look beyond the ingrained historical rural mindset and figure out how to design cities that work. Houston and SA don't work unless you look strictly at dollars and cents but I was hoping Austin wouldn't fall into the same trap. I was hoping we would see dense developments outside of downtown; hoping that there would be more infill development to take the place of sprawl; that old neighborhoods we be reborn and build upon past achievements; that road users would pay for the miles they rack up (as opposed to county/city road bonds that make all residents pay no matter if they use the roads or not); and that quality of life would be a long term goal not just "building it the cheapest manner possible." Sadly it is true that most Americans living in a disposable society where you "just buy a new one" also look at their communities as something that can be liquidated when the no longer function as initially promised in their minds. That wouldn't be such a bad thing in itself if not for the fact that if that mindset will never produce great communities that last over the long haul. Thankfully most of the older neighborhoods in Austin have never succumbed to this type of mentality and they are the better for it.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by BitViper

Coming from SoCal a 45 minute commute is the norm.. and as I'm an early in the office kind of guy I'm thinking it wont be too much of a problem.

I see from some of your other posts that you're in San Diego. I think a "45 minute commute is the norm" for San Diego is a bit of an understatement. You could easily have a 45 minute commute in the Austin area depending on where you live and work. Most of my friends that are still in what they call "San Diego" have a 70 to 90 minute commute each way. And as you know, people that grew up in San Diego now basically consider Temecula/Murrieta to be "San Diego" since that's the only place with affordable housing.

Really, as long as you find a job here, you'll be able to adjust to everything here including the weather. I had a very easy transition moving from Carlsbad to the suburbs outside Austin. I did move to Northern California for a couple years inbetween so that helped me get used to the warmer temperatures in the summer. Really, the heat isn't as bad in the Austin area as heat waves are in San Diego in my opinion because your house will have AC here. You just have to spend more time indoors during the summer here. My options came down to moving to Murrieta or moving to a suburb of Austin and I think I made the right choice. I do miss running along the seawall by the North County beaches, but there are a ton of trails here that are a fair replacement.

[sliverbox]

I'm another one of the Californians and when we visited a year and a half ago, we actually ran into people that said they liked San Antonio better than Austin. The couple we met had lived in Austin but wound up moving to San Antonio. According to them its a lot cheaper and its actually a little cooler there... which made no sense to me since its further South. I've also noticed that at least in my field ( designer) there's quite a bit of work in Dallas and Houston. Apparently Houston had more inner-metro smart growth development per capita than any other major city in the US ( according to an article I read recently)

I like the idea of Austin as well but am also thinking about Dallas and Houston as well. I think they might be cheap because they don't have that "cool" reputation.

another thing to think about when comparing say- Socal or Norcal to Austin... both of those places are limited in regards to what can be built because they're on the ocean. Austin is surrounded by land and LOTS of it. When we visited we drove a 100 mile radius around the city. Go 15 miles out and there's NOTHING. Try doing that where I live. If you drive from San Francisco to Sacramento- 1.5 hours away- it feels like the city never actually ends. LA is the same way.

[sinking]

Originally Posted by sliverbox

If you drive from San Francisco to Sacramento- 1.5 hours away- it feels like the city never actually ends. LA is the same way.

That's what it feels like driving from Austin to San Antonio.

[sliverbox]

The background to what I'm saying is that in Texas there are no land use controls outside of city limits. That is laissez-faire is the rule in places where you will be looking for a new home. This type of mostly unregulated development incurs more stress not just on our roadway system - that people start complaining about the first day they commute but never thought about before - but also on our aquifer which acts as a water supply as well as for recreation; increases emissions

The very minute a city starts engaging in growth regulations that places certain limits on development is the minute that city starts becoming more like California and New York- which both have the highest amount of development restrictions in the country and due to that to an extent remain extremely expensive. I agree that unhampered growth is not the best thing. But going the other direction is equally bad for different reasons. There has to be a balance.

[BitViper]

Originally Posted by mark311

I see from some of your other posts that you're in San Diego. I think a "45 minute commute is the norm" for San Diego is a bit of an understatement. You could easily have a 45 minute commute in the Austin area depending on where you live and work. Most of my friends that are still in what they call "San Diego" have a 70 to 90 minute commute each way. And as you know, people that grew up in San Diego now basically consider Temecula/Murrieta to be "San Diego" since that's the only place with affordable housing.

Really, as long as you find a job here, you'll be able to adjust to everything here including the weather. I had a very easy transition moving from Carlsbad to the suburbs outside Austin. I did move to Northern California for a couple years inbetween so that helped me get used to the warmer temperatures in the summer. Really, the heat isn't as bad in the Austin area as heat waves are in San Diego in my opinion because your house will have AC here. You just have to spend more time indoors during the summer here. My options came down to moving to Murrieta or moving to a suburb of Austin and I think I made the right choice. I do miss running along the seawall by the North County beaches, but there are a ton of trails here that are a fair replacement.

Yeah.. 45min is MY personal longest commute... from Poway to Point Loma...

I forgot all about those crazies who make the commute from Temecula/Murrieta south.. thats one even I would not attempt unless I had no option... the 15 is ALWAYS backed up from Escondido to well past Kerney Mesa.

For thoes who dont know that a streatch (I'm guessing) of about from the 290/71 merge up to about Round Rock. solid 15-20 mph everyday both ways during rush hours.. 6am - 8am and 3pm - 6pm