Due to some family issues with my wife's hearing (rather, the distinct lack thereof; she's deaf), we are making serious considerations to moving to a different state. Austin is one of the places on our radar because it is home to the Texas School for the Deaf, and areas with schools for the deaf have a strong Deaf community. Any GRMers have info on the area, housing, jobs, etc ? We'd be looking at moving within a year or so if everything works out...
My sister lives there with her husband.
From our conversations when I visited in January, Austin is booming. Lots of tech jobs (Google is building a new building there, etc.) This is however causing housing prices to take off.
That's all we discussed.
Fun, expensive, work, terrible traffic, lots of cool people. I have plenty of friends over there. I'm happier when they come visit me.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Unfortunately, being near a strong Deaf community is important for my wife's well being. Her hearing is not likely to ever improve, and in fact is getting worse. She is the primary reason we are considering moving at all, so we are scoping out everywhere we can find where it's a) warm-ish, and b) has a known Deaf community.
I've lived in the Austin area for 20+ years. I'll do my best to offer some data.
1) The Texas School for the Deaf is just south of downtown. It's a beautiful campus with some rich history and very well respected.
2) Job market in Austin is pretty hot right now, especially in tech. It's always been strong, but really seems stronger right now. Non-tech is pretty decent too as you still have everything that's not tech related that comes with a growing city. Lots of California's have migrated to Austin and it's had the nickname of "Silicon Hills" for a number of years. Perks are usually good in tech. Pay isn't bad. That doesn't mean if you're not in tech, Austin's not for you.
3) Traffic isn't the greatest. I don't think it's as bad as Dallas was, but that's my only comparison. Lots of companies are aware of that for salaried employees, so you'll often find flexible hours or things like, "everyone should be in the office between 10-3" to allow for early risers and late comers. 30 years ago, Austin made a gamble on traffic to start updating the infrastructure to go south towards the big Motorola plant, as that's where things seemed to be moving. However, with the tech influx, things started to shift north and northwest of downtown. It's taken quite a bit for the city government to turn that ship and start building that way. Hence the problems with traffic. Toll roads have been installed over the past 10 years, which helps, but they're supposedly the most expensive in Texas. Public transportation is nonexistent. It's Texas, we have lots of land so the tendency is to build out instead of up which makes public transportation difficult.
4) Housing IS expensive. You've got a town that's growing quickly and an influx of Californians who are used to MUCH higher prices driving the cost up. When looking at housing, unless you're ready to pay $800k for a 2 bed/1 bath pier and beam starter home or a $300k one bed/bath condo downtown, you'll probably be commuting from the outlying areas. Since TSD is just as few blocks of downtown, there won't be a lot of housing options close that aren't expensive. However, you'd probably be looking south or southwest of there, which isn't quite as popular as north and might be a little cheaper. Usually older homes.
5) You mentioned someplace "warmer". You'll get that here. Yesterday was a high of 79. Not typical this time of year, but not far off. Summertime, however, will be touching 100 degrees regularly. I've seen summers of high 100's or more for 90% of the summer and others that don't crack 95. Although we're not on the coast, it still get's humid which makes the heat worse. In Austin, there's really only two seasons. Summer (hot) and Fall (cool). If there is any ice, the city shuts down.
6) Regarding extra-curricular activities, if you're into music, you're in the right place. If not..... Austin's still a small town, so big shows, museums, etc. are kinda lacking. Austin doesn't have a pro sports team, so you get to pick Dallas, Houston or San Antonio to root for. Or, you could be like most of Austin and just root for the Longhorns.... Also, since it's still a small town, you can be in the country of the hills withing 30 minutes, so if hiking/outdoor activities are your thing, there are tons of options. Plus, Town Lake (actually a river) in the center of town and wonderful weather means water activities are available. While COTA and F1 are here, there's not a huge car presence, per say. Not bad, but less than what I'd think with a facility like that in town.
Oh, and cowboy boots aren't required. Austin is unique in that it's not anything like the rest of Texas. Definitely more laid back and liberal, although still Texas roots.......
-Rob
In reply to Recon1342 :
Not Austin but have you considered St. Augustine FL? There's also a school there. I don't know much about the deal community but it's a cool little town within commuting distance of Jacksonville. Plus you could become part of the FL GRM gang.
In reply to Stampie :
FL would be an option if we weren't concerned with staying at least somewhat close to family. We're trying to remain within a day or two's drive of Twin Falls. My parents are here, and hers are as well.
Not warmer, but a good deaf community in Rochester NY. Also.. cheaper than Austin with a growing tech community. University of Rochester and RIT drive the community. Xerox and Kodak are shells of themselves.. But It's a fantastic place to raise a family... Great schools and good communities.. Just snowy and cold...
https://www.verywellhealth.com/deaf-community-rochester-ny-1046250
St. Paul isn't bad either.. https://charlesthompsonhall.org/ https://deafmn.com/
Anything around Cal State Northridge? https://www.csun.edu/deafproject
I went to RIT.. I can hear.. Deaf dance music is loud.. :-)
I just moved away after 17 years there a couple years ago. I think Rob hit all of the High and low lights there.
Where the school of the deaf, that is one of the most expensive zip codes in the city so don't plan on living too close to there without cubic dollars.
One thing to notice on the housing too is the property taxes are really a substitute for the income taxes. So you may see a 300-400K home and think ok that is not too bad but there is a $600-$700 a month tax bill tied to it.
I lived in Austin for 4 years. It was just before everyone started complaining that it was losing its soul. Austin has a reputation for being funky, weird, fun, and kitchy. Lots of liberal-ness downtown with plenty of conservativeness surrounding. Surprisingly, everyone gets along in a beautiful way despite conservative farmers living next door to kids with tats and dreads smoking weed. A perfect metaphor of Austin can be told by one of the very first things I saw when I went downtown for the first time. I watched a gay couple walking up the street holding hands. One guy was wearing a skirt, had spiky blue/green hair, and tats over nearly all of his visible skin. The other guy was wearing all black; skinny jeans, durango boots, big belt buckle, and a stetson drover hat. That's Austin. Everyone is welcome. Expect anything.
In the last 10 years or so, there has been a big surge of tech, money, and population into Austin and people were afraid of it losing its approachable charm. While the cost of living has gone up, I didn't find that it lost its soul at all the few times I've visited since.
Traffic can be a bummer, but the town isn't that big geographically. So you get a good stop-n-go during rush hours for a couple miles, but things aren't terrible. Not like L.A. where it's stop-n-go for the whole 50 miles through the metro area. Seriously, the whole metro Austin area can be covered in 4 miles in any direction.
I loved living there. We did get a couple snows and you usually get a week or so where it threatens to freeze in the winter, but it's nothing. I love hot weather, but Austin did push my limits a bit. A statistic that the weather people down there focused on was that one summer we had a record 100 days where it was over 100 degrees. I'm OK with that, but it seriously limited outdoor activities between 11am and 7pm.
When I lived there (probably different now) rent was not too bad. Certainly not as high as the housing prices suggested. I rented a 3-bedroom 1.5 bath duplex for $835 in Jollyville (about 8 miles up 183 toward Cedar Park). Current listings I'm seeing in the same neighborhood for around $1100. Of course, when I was there you could buy a nice 3/2 house in a lovely neighborhood up there for $150k. Not so much anymore.
One of the things I LOVED about Austin was all the neat stuff around. The whole I-35 corridor between Austin and San Antonio is loaded with neat historic towns and lots to do. The geography there is so fascinating (if you're into that kind of thing).
If I hadn't gotten divorced, I would probably still live there.
When looking for housing, SoCo (south congress) is stoopid expensive. If you keep going south there are some cheaper neighborhoods around Stassney Blvd. They don't look like much, but relatively safe. It looks ghetto but it isn't. There is a little mecca in the triangle formed by I-35, 183, and 290 where I lived for a while. Lots of very nice gated apartment complexes. It is pretty close to East Austin which has its share of crime, but not bad. I would personally look to Anderson Mill, Jollyville, McNeil areas. Still close to downtown, but just across the border into Williamson county. Taxes are a wee bit cheaper, more suburban sprawl, and (at least when I was there) the housing supply was high which kept prices reasonable. You can be downtown in 10 minutes without traffic, 20 with traffic.
In reply to Recon1342 :
I'll admit that when I saw your desire to move to Austin for the reason of "community", my first thought was, "are you independently wealthy?" given that this is one of the more expensive places to live in the US.
Then you sort of said we drive rather than fly to see family and that gave me concern that living costs might be a factor.
In reply to John Welsh :
I have kids, living costs are always a factor. It's usually cheaper to drive with them than fly. We're also looking into Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. The big thing is finding an area with a strong Deaf community for both my wife and I. Thus far, Austin is reported to have one of the most active. We're not above commuting, and have been looking at outlying communities as well.
You'll be fine if you live just outside the immediately expensive areas.
Yeah... Round Rock, Pflugerville, Jollyville, Anderson Mill, Cedar Park, Stassney area, Sunset Valley, Cedar Valley, all are within 25 minutes or so of downtown.
Speaking of cedar valley, cedar park, etc... Austin is one of the worst places in the US for allergy people. Just be aware of that. If anyone in your family suffers from allergies where you are up north, they will be miserable for three months out of the year down there, and just annoyed the other 9 months. Might want to speak to an allergist and see if that person is affected by cedar. My wife had terrible allergies, but fortunately wasn't overly affected by cedar. Me on the other hand, I never had an allergy to anything in my life, but moving to Austin I discovered I WAS allergic to cedar.
I will also add, if you go south of town to the less expensive neighborhoods, it is less "exciting" IMO. It is more flat, straight grids of streets, corner markets... almost south central LA minus the drugs and gangs. North and west (Jollyville, et al) is a more middle class feeling; malls, good restaurants, movie theaters, etc. Also more hills and trees up that way.
As you go more south (cedar valley, etc) it gets more desert-ish. More scrubby brush and ranch-type properties. Still really neat, just totally different. The south stuff is also a bit closer to the Deaf School. If you're concerned about traffic, the 183/1/loop coming south into town is usually more clogged than coming from the south. There are more bedroom communities to the north.
Go for a visit. Austin is hard to describe in words. It has a feeling that is pretty unique.
In reply to Curtis73 :
Thanks for the tip. My allergies are all related to hay harvesting... tree pollen has never bothered me.
We (my wife and I) have discussed much of the info in this thread and spoken to several Deaf folks about Austin, especially in regards to Deaf Culture. Everything sounds manageable thus far, and I've yet to come across an insurmountable problem in my life...
We're in the tentative planning stages right now. Lord willing (and the creek don't rise), we will plan to move to the Austin area in late spring/early summer. Some things will need to happen before then, but I'm confident we can get it whooped.
Looks like the Missus and I are planning a visit for March 13-16. If anyone wants to meet up and/or show us around, shoot me a PM!
Recon1342 said:Looks like the Missus and I are planning a visit for March 13-16. If anyone wants to meet up and/or show us around, shoot me a PM!
Slight change of travel plans- We'll be there March 27th-30th. I'm a little excited...
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