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
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.
Are you kidding me ????? In which world do you live. Do you know Austin too doesn't have the state income tax. ??????? Do you know San Antonio is just an hour from Austin, which is a beautiful city. And austin has tons of things to do.
Serious as a heart attack. Do you know how bad homeless problem is here? They set a fire last week under a bridge. Only getting worse. Seattle probably sends homeless down here on the bus.
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.
Weather is better though unless you hate August heat more than January monsoons
Hmm..? Scaling back? Google, FB, Amazon, Indeed, Expedia(Vrbo) expanding like crazy in Austin.
Folks who are voting against Seattle state your reasons? Is it due to high home prices ? If it’s due to homeless Seattle has suburbs options like Bellevue, Kirkland etc
A lot of people like to claim Texas is the future of tech for political reasons. I escaped Dallas a few years ago though and it's not
They probably aren’t voting against. They just think Austin is the best city in the world.
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.
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
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?
Let's talk when you have kids
People think there isn’t outdoors stuff in Austin? I moved here after growing up in CA and one of the things I love about Austin is all of the outdoors stuff. It’s not the same terrain as the West Coast, and there is definitely less public lands, but I love the Hill Country. Just in town we’ve got the Greenbelt, Town Lake, Barton Springs. There’s tons of great trails, swimming holes, rock climbing, caving.
All I can say is Seattle summers are best.. but that’s only 4 months in a year. Rest of 8 months are mostly cold, cloudy or rainy. Can you share why you are moving out of Bay Area? I’m thinking of moving out of Seattle to Bay Area to get more sunshine.
Make sure you live in East Bay or you'll be living in the fog
The reason for moving out from Bay Area is it’s higher cost of living. Unless the household income is close to 500k you have to live in tiny houses, as your kids grew big you find it difficult to accommodate them in 2bed room apartments.
Currently in Austin after raised in the Bay Area. Ppl are nice, COL great, food okay. I dunno though. Seems I went from big city nights to corn fields and country living. Maybe just an adjustment period. Only thing I miss about the bay area is: Ocean Great food
What kind of food are you missing? I grew up in Bay Area and then lived in LA for a stint before moving to Austin. I remember initially being really unimpressed with the food in Austin but have managed to find places I like for most of my food categories.
@Linkedin The wide selection of good ethnic foods. From Asian to Indian. Don't say Austin has good Asian food either. Only place comparable to Bay Area is HOU
You could move to Seattle, has a lot of options for jobs.
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
As I said it’s not just about having big house. Yes it’s important but how would you spends weekends? Beer and barbecue? What outdoor life do you guys have in Austin ? How do you entertain kids ?
Austin is much much safer than Seattle. Its very unusual to find homeless people the way you find in Seattle, and Drugs are illegal, unlike in Seattle. So it's a good place to raise a family