Moving to Austin Or San Antonio (Corpus Christi, Round Rock: houses, neighborhood, buy)

[forgotten]

I am currently living in Boise, ID and the people aren't very open to outsiders here so i plan on leaving.

I'm up in the air about moving to Austin or San Antonio and was wondering if i could get some feedback.

1. Whats the job situation in both cities. I currently own a business and I'm looking to get out of that and into a regular job. So i would be looking at computer related jobs and or management positions.

2. I look at realtor.com and housing there seems very cheap is it possible to get a nice house for 180k in a good area?

3. How are the schools in both places? Boise schools are great but i just can't stand the winters and hostile business community that i have to put up with here.

4. I love fishing and outdoors and being so close to the gulf makes me all warm and fuzy. Hows the drive down to the gulf?

5. Finally the weather I know its hot in Texas which I really don't mind since I'm originally from Las Vegas, NV. Does it rain a lot? hows the humidity?


Any Feed back would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks

[llkltk]

180K in Austin won't buy you much of anything. You could get a house in Pflugerville for that price, not sure about the area though. Austin is certainly not cheap, probably some of the highest prices in Texas and it shows no signs of slowing.

[love roses]

I'll try to answer some of these if I can:

1. I'm a stay at home mom at this point, so can't really give a good answer for that one.
2. Yes, it is. But you might have a problem finding something like that in Central Austin. You'd have to look at nearby surrounding areas. Our house cost about that.
3. Austin ISD has good and bad. But overall, all of the other districts around, except for Elgin are really good or acceptable.
4. Galveston would be abt. 3 hours and Corpus Christi abt. 4 and Padre Island 5 or so. There are also great fishing spots on the Lakes here: Georgetown, Bastrop, Granger, Travis, Buchanan, LBJ, Canyon, and Inks; not to mention the creeks and rivers as well.
5. It's a different hot than Vegas because of the humidity. It rains harder in Texas overall, but not as much here as it does on the Gulf. It is also a lot more humid on the Gulf Coast. I guess with the humidity, feeling how hot it is can be safer than if it's 100+ and you don't realize it because of the dryness. I lived in Colorado for abt. 6 yrs. and the rain there isn't like it is here. You don't get the good thunderstorms like you can here. It took me about a year to readjust to the heat and humidity here after moving back, even though I'm originally texan. Colorado is just a lot drier and doesn't get quite as hot as Texas, so I'm thinking Nevada weather is similar to Colorado, except it probably gets a little hotter.

Sorry for the weather ramble Hope some of this helped.

[love roses]

180k in AUSTIN won't get much, but Leander, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Buda, Dripping Springs, Manor, Pflugerville, Bastrop, Hutto, Georgetown you can get a good house. Granted, no custom mansion on the top of a hill or a Lakeside Estate, but for example, the 5 bedroom houses next to mine were also under 200K. And they also have the extra game room and office. Good sized yards as well.

[Trainwreck20]

The problem is not the 180k - you can get some decent houses for that, even in town (see the thread about Brodie Lane Neighborhood). The problem is getting a house for that price in an area with good schools. If you don't mind a commute, Georgetown and Leander should have houses in that range that are in good school districts. The houses in (or close in) to Austin will almost uniformly be feeding to a less than top level school.

Galveston is about 3.5 hours away, but is not so much about fishing (although you can). Port Aransas is about 4 hours away and is much better for fishing (or some I am told ). I have several co-workers who regularly go down with ocean kayaks to fish in the flats and marshy areas.

The weather is discussed in MUCH detail, if you do a search on the forum. It is more humid and rains more than Las Vegas, but rains less often than many other places. The rain tends (last summer excepted) to come in fast and short bursts with lots of sun between. Humidity is 'moderate' on a national scale.

[mhprimomo]

If you are looking for computer-related jobs I would definitely say Austin (Dell is here). I have lived in San Antonio all of my life (except Austin-where I am now). There is so much more to do in Austin. Austin has tons of parks, trails, etc. The weather is great in both cities. The only problem with Austin is the traffic. If you want to spend 180k on a house then you could possibly live in the north/northwest area (near Dell).