7 ms·

I've looked at properties in Austin area a few months back. It's more affordable than CA, but it's still way out of reach of most non-HQ staff that Tesla employ

by m0zg 5y ago

I've looked at properties in Austin area a few months back. It's more affordable than CA, but it's still way out of reach of most non-HQ staff that Tesla employs. I've read the stat that property values have gone up 43% due to exodus from locked down blue states over the course of just the past year. Couple this with Texas' higher than average property tax rate (_especially_ in Austin area) and you've got some pretty un-affordable housing. FWIW, I'm looking at FL now instead.

Apocryphon 5y ago
> FWIW, I'm looking at FL now instead. Miami? Or joining the much more quiet Jacksonville or Tampa Bay exodus that this dubious survey based entirely on LinkedIn data claims: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-01/austin-is-biggest-winner-from-tech-migration-linkedin-data-show https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-01/austin-is...
- m0zg 5y ago
  Don't know yet. One thing I realized is I can't really decide whether a place is worth moving to without living there for a few months. So that's what I intend to do before I uproot my family and move. I like TX in general, but a week or two does not give an even remotely complete picture, beyond just the basic "affordability" and quality of available housing stock.
- chipotle_coyote 5y ago
  As someone who used to live in Tampa Bay—and may have to move back for family reasons next year—I find that a little dubious as well. :) Although to be fair, Tampa and St. Petersburg both got measurably more interesting in the last decade than they were when I left in 2002. Never lived in Jacksonville, but I’ve visited it and have a friend who used to live there. Jacksonville is to Florida what Fresno is to California: bigger than you think, probably perfectly pleasant, utterly non-descript. :)
  - rcpt 5y ago
    St Petersburg is nice. Amazing beaches and kitesurfing at fort desoto, plenty of water access for boating and sailing, generally out of the path of hurricanes. Not much in the way of universities to recruit from though.
  - nichos 5y ago
    Us Jaxons think of Jacksonville as southern Georgia. North Florida (panhandle included) is still very southern, not at all like central/south Florida.
BurningFrog 5y ago
One theory is that it's still legal to build new housing in Texas, so the Austin supply can increase to match the demand.
- m0zg 5y ago
  The traffic situation is already pretty bad in that area, seemingly deliberately so. That is the case even during the pandemic, I can only imagine how bad it is when _nobody_ is remote. It seems that progressive Austin wants everyone to move to the city and give up their cars, which is not a realistic thing to do for most people in TX because it's not built for such lifestyle. I have no other plausible explanation. Since I'm apparently "posting too fast", I'll just post my reply to the post below here. US cities (including Austin) are not built to make this viable. I grew up in Russia which mirrors the European way of building things. Everything you need for your family is within walking distance, for what I hope are obvious reasons. The US is not built for this. If one's goal is to get rid of cars, you have to build cities with that in mind. This takes decades, which is why nobody seems interested in actually doing this. Instead we get this passive-aggressive "let's build less parking and roads" thing that you see in US urban centers. No attention whatsoever is paid to how the folks actually live, how they raise their kids, and so on. I'd also argue that, as we switch to electric (and eventually to nuclear power, since that seems inevitable if we actually want to solve the climate crisis rather than just make Al Gore filthy rich), cars will become less and less of a problem, and population will spread out rather than move into the cities. Cities are a bad deal as it is. Expensive real estate, congested roads, high crime.
  - 8note 5y ago
    Terrible traffic is the result of a city wanting everyone to use cars, rather than the opposite. Slow, low traffic car trips is the sign that the city wants people to not drive. Moving to a non car centric city means you don't need a car for your trips. The lifestyle is to stop having a car, because it's unnecessary
    - kelnos 5y ago
      SF seems to be telling me to give up my car, but that's a non-starter unless Muni gets about 500% better (higher frequency, more coverage, faster routes). Even in Manhattan, where transit is pretty decent, the only reason why transit is faster (sometimes) is because traffic is terrible all the time.
op00to 5y ago
> property values have gone up 43% due to exodus from locked down blue states Citation needed for this property value claim, also for the existence of “locked down” blue states. I haven’t seen a lockdown yet like many other places.
- jasondigitized 5y ago
  Can confirm. My rental property in Austin is up 50% in value.
- newaccount2021 5y ago
  bought my house in 2018 in West Lake Hills, has tripled since...yes TRIPLED
Salgat 5y ago
That's only true for the city proper. Half hour outside east Austin is silly cheap in comparison. If you're a commuter it's extremely affordable.
- m0zg 5y ago
  Not anymore. Go to Redfin and see for yourself. I wasn't even looking in the "city proper", I was looking within half an hour drive to Austin downtown. I consider it dumb to buy property without any land to go with it, so I wanted a decent house with an acre or two of land at least. The only decent options I was able to find were all over a million dollars. And then there's flood insurance to contend with in Austin area - you really have to look where it does and does not flood or you could also be on the hook for $1K/mo in flood insurance, without which the bank won't issue a loan.

by m0zg 5y ago

Apocryphon 5y ago

> FWIW, I'm looking at FL now instead. Miami? Or joining the much more quiet Jacksonville or Tampa Bay exodus that this dubious survey based entirely on LinkedIn data claims: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-01/austin-is-biggest-winner-from-tech-migration-linkedin-data-show https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-01/austin-is...

m0zg 5y ago
Don't know yet. One thing I realized is I can't really decide whether a place is worth moving to without living there for a few months. So that's what I intend to do before I uproot my family and move. I like TX in general, but a week or two does not give an even remotely complete picture, beyond just the basic "affordability" and quality of available housing stock.
chipotle_coyote 5y ago
As someone who used to live in Tampa Bay—and may have to move back for family reasons next year—I find that a little dubious as well. :) Although to be fair, Tampa and St. Petersburg both got measurably more interesting in the last decade than they were when I left in 2002. Never lived in Jacksonville, but I’ve visited it and have a friend who used to live there. Jacksonville is to Florida what Fresno is to California: bigger than you think, probably perfectly pleasant, utterly non-descript. :)
- rcpt 5y ago
  St Petersburg is nice. Amazing beaches and kitesurfing at fort desoto, plenty of water access for boating and sailing, generally out of the path of hurricanes. Not much in the way of universities to recruit from though.
- nichos 5y ago
  Us Jaxons think of Jacksonville as southern Georgia. North Florida (panhandle included) is still very southern, not at all like central/south Florida.

BurningFrog 5y ago

One theory is that it's still legal to build new housing in Texas, so the Austin supply can increase to match the demand.

m0zg 5y ago
The traffic situation is already pretty bad in that area, seemingly deliberately so. That is the case even during the pandemic, I can only imagine how bad it is when _nobody_ is remote. It seems that progressive Austin wants everyone to move to the city and give up their cars, which is not a realistic thing to do for most people in TX because it's not built for such lifestyle. I have no other plausible explanation. Since I'm apparently "posting too fast", I'll just post my reply to the post below here. US cities (including Austin) are not built to make this viable. I grew up in Russia which mirrors the European way of building things. Everything you need for your family is within walking distance, for what I hope are obvious reasons. The US is not built for this. If one's goal is to get rid of cars, you have to build cities with that in mind. This takes decades, which is why nobody seems interested in actually doing this. Instead we get this passive-aggressive "let's build less parking and roads" thing that you see in US urban centers. No attention whatsoever is paid to how the folks actually live, how they raise their kids, and so on. I'd also argue that, as we switch to electric (and eventually to nuclear power, since that seems inevitable if we actually want to solve the climate crisis rather than just make Al Gore filthy rich), cars will become less and less of a problem, and population will spread out rather than move into the cities. Cities are a bad deal as it is. Expensive real estate, congested roads, high crime.
- 8note 5y ago
  Terrible traffic is the result of a city wanting everyone to use cars, rather than the opposite. Slow, low traffic car trips is the sign that the city wants people to not drive. Moving to a non car centric city means you don't need a car for your trips. The lifestyle is to stop having a car, because it's unnecessary
  - kelnos 5y ago
    SF seems to be telling me to give up my car, but that's a non-starter unless Muni gets about 500% better (higher frequency, more coverage, faster routes). Even in Manhattan, where transit is pretty decent, the only reason why transit is faster (sometimes) is because traffic is terrible all the time.

op00to 5y ago

> property values have gone up 43% due to exodus from locked down blue states Citation needed for this property value claim, also for the existence of “locked down” blue states. I haven’t seen a lockdown yet like many other places.

jasondigitized 5y ago
Can confirm. My rental property in Austin is up 50% in value.
newaccount2021 5y ago
bought my house in 2018 in West Lake Hills, has tripled since...yes TRIPLED

Salgat 5y ago

That's only true for the city proper. Half hour outside east Austin is silly cheap in comparison. If you're a commuter it's extremely affordable.

m0zg 5y ago
Not anymore. Go to Redfin and see for yourself. I wasn't even looking in the "city proper", I was looking within half an hour drive to Austin downtown. I consider it dumb to buy property without any land to go with it, so I wanted a decent house with an acre or two of land at least. The only decent options I was able to find were all over a million dollars. And then there's flood insurance to contend with in Austin area - you really have to look where it does and does not flood or you could also be on the hook for $1K/mo in flood insurance, without which the bank won't issue a loan.