Austin vs Seattle

Feb 11, 2020 39 Comments

I’m considering to move out from Bay Area. I’m a SWE currently working at a startup so living in a city which has good tech presence is important. I have Austin and Seattle in mind. Which place would you guys think is best for raising family? I’m inclined towards Seattle as you can have a good outdoor life, national parks, ski resorts etc so you can take your kids around but people complain about the gloomy weather also blind communtiy has no love for Seattle if I search through previous posts. If you consider Austin, yes the housing prices are cheap but I guess there is no good outdoor life as there are not many parks around or things to do.

Share your opinions folks.

PS: Please state your reasons while voting

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TOP 39 Comments
  • Dell
    austin4

    Go to company page Dell

    austin4
    Austin is a backwoods city. There isn't anything to do here. No culture, no outdoor life, nothing to entertain kids except PS and X-Box. I'm sure you would hate it, especially July through September when it is regularly above 100* and humid. Seattle has more employers, higher pay, no state income tax.
    Feb 11, 2020 4
    • No culture in Austin? What do you want that you can't have there?
      Feb 11, 2020
    • Being here for a year and coming from a country with a lot of outdoor stuff to do I totally agree. Also people complain about weather in other states but I would rather going outside when it’s raining than when it’s over 100 for 3 months straight. Can’t wait to leave Texas. Also housing taxes take away all the advantage of no having state tax if you want to buy a house.
      Feb 11, 2020
  • Verizon / Data
    GoogEsla

    Go to company page Verizon Data

    BIO
    Data Scientist
    GoogEsla
    Austin: buy a mansion for $700K. Doesn't rain most of the time. People are friendly, no Seattle Freeze, work at FB, Apple, IBM, Dell, Dropbox, Visa, and many more. Rated the best city to live 5 years in a row
    Feb 11, 2020 7
  • Cisco
    surah

    Go to company page Cisco

    surah
    I moved to Seattle from Virginia. I am a very open minded and positive person, so moving to Seattle after hearing about the gloomy weather didn’t phase me. I moved in June so I got to first experience the summer. It doesn’t get very warm in the summers and it was actually still pretty gloomy for summertime. Once the fall rolls around, it gets gloomier and the rain comes. It’s not terrible and I thought to myself, “this isn’t nearly as bad as people let on. I can survive this”. Then the winter rolls around. Still gloomy. Rains almost every single day. I tried to stay positive but when it’s dark from the gloominess 24/7, it’s nearly impossible to stay positive. It makes it harder to go into work every day because the weather sucks the life out of you. I underestimated what living in a gloomy and rainy city would be like. It’s not nearly as easy to push through 3 months of darkness and rainy weather as one might think.

    I don’t want to completely tear Seattle sort, though, because there are definitely some good things about the Seattle life. Here are some positives:
    - lots of hikes (although most are 1+ hour drive outside of the city)
    - lots of skiing (must drive at least an hour outside of the city for it though)
    - lots of water activities in the summer (lakes, the sound)
    - not too hot in the summer

    Other cons:
    - cost of living: INSANELY high. Much higher than I thought it’d be, especially compared to other big tech cities
    - traffic: takes my coworkers 45mins - 1 hour to drive a couple of miles to work.
    - Seattle freeze: absolutely real. Doesn’t bother me very much, but I’ve talked to others that it really bothers.
    - SeaTac airport: gets super crowded and TSA lines take forever which makes traveling less enticing
    - living in the suburbs on the east side is nice until you realize that you have to hop on one of the busiest highways in the city and that stretch of highway alone takes over an hour to commute into city most of the time
    Feb 27, 2020 1
  • Austin has plenty to do, and the weather is actually toleravle year round. Very close to fun places like six flags, sea world, schlitterbahn, you can take a weekend vacation to corpus and kids go to the beach. Even in Austin there are many places to go swim , hike, cycling. Arcades and indoor entertainment is everywhere too. Nice nightlife with live music and entertainment. Good food and reasonable cost of living. Tons of tech companies. Those who claim no culture haven’t actually experienced what Austin has to offer.

    Adjusted for COL you’ll find Austin actually pays better than Seattle.

    Great education system, public schools in Austin. UT as well.
    Feb 11, 2020 2
    • Col thing is simply not true- after you pay your mortgage and buy your groceries cost of living doesn't matter. big TV ordered on Amazon isn't adjusted by col, vacation isn't adjusted by col, retirement account isn't adjusted by col

      If you're making 400k in Seattle, that is not equivalent to making 250k in Austin unless you are living super large
      Feb 11, 2020
    • So you’re making several claims here.

      1. You seem to acknowledge a baseline difference. I.e Austin 250k is better than Seattle 250k. That’s a good start.

      2. Someone making 250k in Austin would be make 400k in Seattle. That’s a tough sell, do you have data to back this claim? Levels.fyi doesn’t reflect this. I see about a 80k-100k difference on levels.fyi. Also, anecdotally, I have a friend who makes 270 in Austin and would be making 360 if he had taken an equivalent role in Seattle. The disparity between my comparison and yours can make a big difference in this type of comparison.

      3. You’re basically stating that COL simply amounts to mortgage and groceries. So does this mean you are strictly talking about a specific narrow segment of people who have no additional expenses? The OP is thinking about kids, how does that factor into COL? What about entertainment, eating out/drinking, events, etc? Car payments, health expenses? Taxes?
      Feb 11, 2020
  • Austin only has cheap housing in the suburbs, Seattle does too, Austin has a real problem with building (and actually FINISHING) infrastructure, so traffic is bad and always getting worse, they won't stop until it's bad as Bay area, but no public transit.

    Companies often open there with big plans but then realize the labor base and infrastructure isn't as advertised so scale back, you'll end up being stuck in a small satellite office with no advancement.
    Feb 11, 2020 2