I have just about had it with living in New York.

It is just too dang expensive, cold, and merciless.

My wife and I have been scoping out Austin, Texas which has a low cost of living and the main industry there is Technology which would help me find a job.

Anyone have any experience living there?

Al

Hey Al....what type of work do you do????

I know there are some Texans here. I'm not that far from Texas, about 20 miles, but quite a ways from Austin. Texas is a BIG state. I think Austin is around 6 hours from here.
It's a great city. You'll love the weather, and the music scene is awesome.
DonM

Ive been to Texas many times and know people that live there.

Pros: Houses are dirt-cheap. You can buy a house for 300k that would sell in minnesota where I live for at least double.

Cheap vehicles!

Cons:

Hot... all the time.
Exspensive cooling.
Exspensive water.

Hey Tony

Well, I'm a VP/Program Manager/Software Architect for Merrill Lynch.

That make any sense? LOL

Thanks
Al



[This message has been edited by kbrkr (edited 02-23-2005).]

Wow...never heard of expensive water and cooling. Guess I better chew on that a while.

Good news is there is NO income tax and Gasoline is cheap, isn't it?

I don't think water is that expensive. Gasoline is about the same here. It is around $1.72 per gallon for regular unleaded.
There is no state income tax, and there is no sales tax on groceries.
DonM

[This message has been edited by DonM (edited 02-23-2005).]

Whoa...I hope that decimal point was a typo!!!



------------------
...L

What decimal point?

Thanks,
Don

$172 per gallon is more like the price of gas in California.

Nigel:

Up here at the NE corner of ca. its $2.09 at present, lowest its been in 6 months...Pose

Al....this may sound stupid but....couldn't you do what you do from anywhere in the world on your computer from your home or small office????? Why do you need to find somewhere that has work in the "TECH" field?

Austin has grown like a mushroom in the past 20 years. It's no longer a smallish city. It's a big city now. Bad traffic problems sometimes. I'll put it this way. If I were chucking it all and moving to be somewhere more laid back, it wouldn't be Austin or Dallas or Houston. Traffic is just too much a PITA. Austin does have a lot going for it. It makes a lot of sense for me to move there, as I write a lot of songs in the Texas music genre.

Cost of living would be much less in a smaller city. And then are MANy in Texas. That's a damn big state. Hey, I wrote a song, I've fogotten, need to dig it up... "Texas Is Big."

About anywhere in the south, you will find the standard of living WAY WAY WAY less than NYC. Carolinas are nice.

And, uh, pennywise, a $300,000 house in Texas is a friggin mansion. Well, not a mansion but a darn big house. Very few people even need to live in a $300,000 house. That's way much overkill for what most people need. You can find tons of very nice homes in the south for $100k to $180k. In small towns, HUGE lots. Like acres. Seriously.

That's actually pretty good. I'm paying about $2.53 a gallon for Premium around LA at the moment. Unfortunately my Camaro Z28 only likes to drink Premium.