How’s Austin TX?

I am from San Antonio, Austin is great man, I am sure you will love it

Austin is brilliant. Go!

It is a glorified college town. It has one man made lake and some tiny hills and thus became a sanctuary in barren Texas. If you want to continue in a college scene, go there. If you are a little more mature/older then don’t. There are better places to rather be.

And dont open packages left on your doorstep

I take it no one here ever spent much time in the tenderloin several years back.

Austin is good for weather.. but there is traffic and housing problem.. also remember outside city limits it is TEXAS..

Austin isn't that much cheaper than Seattle. Temper your expectations on that front.

Austin has a problem of wuickly increasing CoL which pay is not rising wuickly enough to follow. If you look on many CoL sites it will say something like 800 for a bedroom apartment in the city which was doable 4 years ago but now 1200 is about the minimum. Wages haven't gone up fast enough to keep up as far as I can tell. Overall it is pretty good. The summers are too hot and the winters still do get cold at times. Thanks traffic isnt great. We get a decent amount of sun all year which is nice. Some decent recreation space in and around the city, but nothing like you have anywhere near miuntsins. I'm moving away personally but I grew up here and the mountsins are beckoning.

Moved from Seattle to Austin last year. In terms of tech jobs, it’s not even in the same league, but that also makes it possible to have your pick of the jobs here. If you’re good you can negotiate close to what you made in Seattle, and it’s significantly cheaper to live here. I’m in a nice 800sq ft one bedroom downtown for $1600/mo but there are cheaper places farther out. I do miss things about Seattle, like the food, shopping, and public transportation, but the weather is much nicer here and there is amazing Tex-mex. There are traffic issues but it’s not nearly as bad as Seattle. In general there is a more relaxed vibe, people are friendlier, and everyone seems happier. I don’t plan on settling down in Texas and I’ll likely move in a few years, but it’s also more affordable to buy a house here.