For years, Austin has always been one of the fastest growing big cities in America. It appeals to so many people because of just the beautiful scenery here, the unique culture and the high tech job industries that’s bringing tons and tons of new employees to the city. But today, I want to talk about four reasons why you might not want to move to Austin. And if you do decide to move here, be prepared to deal with these four big issues.
Reason number one you may not want to live here is our weather. In the summers, we have unbelievable heat. And it’s not just hot, but it is thick and humid, then this might be a challenging place for you to live. I grew up in Texas, I’m used to the heat, but in the summers, it’s still too hot for me to be outside. Sometimes my husband will say, hey, it’s hot. Let’s go to the pool. And I’ve literally had occasions where I’m like it’s too hot to go to the pool, because I will just burn out there and just feel so miserable with just the heat. It’s overwhelming. Now on the flip side, our spring and fall is a beautiful time of year with very mild temperatures. Winter can be pretty mild too. Although the last couple of years we’ve had some freak ice storms, which we typically haven’t had. Hopefully those aren’t going to become a new thing that we deal with every year because we are certainly not designed for freezing cold.
The second thing that can make it hard to live here are allergies. I’ve actually had some sellers who moved because they couldn’t handle the allergies in Austin. And I’ve had buyers here that have really struggled with it. My husband Tyler originally is from California. His allergies were so bad when he moved here that he had to start getting allergy shots. And if it weren’t for those shots, which he still takes to this day, he would not be able to function. We have everything from pollen, ragweed, oak to mountain cedar, that’s probably our worst one that gets most people in the late winter and early winter months. Unfortunately so far, I have not had the crazy cedar allergies. Again, maybe I grew up here and I’m kind of immune to it. But for a lot of newcomers, it is a big thing that you just have to get used to. And hopefully it won’t affect you. But just know that it could.
Number three is our traffic. I wouldn’t say that our traffic’s worse than other cities. But it’s because it’s so poorly designed, we don’t really have like a great freeway highway system that other major cities in Texas have. I grew up in San Antonio, there’s a big loop for 10 that goes around the city and an even bigger loop 1604 that goes around that. And then there are all kinds of highways that cut through. So it’s laid out kind of like a wagon wheel. Houston and Dallas are the same way. Lots of ways to get around town. Austin, for whatever reason, doesn’t have that. There’s no loop that goes around the city, you’ve got either IH 35 that goes right up and down the middle of it. And it’s one of the most congested highways that you could be on. When you move here you learn to avoid getting on a 35 and you have to just figure out backroads to get around town because we don’t have the loops that make it easy to navigate. We’re very green city, we protect our environment, we have lakes and rivers. And so people would rather drive around those areas instead of putting an ugly overpass or something that could block some of the nature in the scenery.
Now the fourth reason you might not want to move to Austin is our high prices. We are by far the most expensive city in Texas. Just to give an example, the median price for a home in Austin in September 2022 is $550,000. By contrast, San Antonio is 285,000. So we’re almost double the price just from the city that’s a couple of hours south of us. We are more expensive than Dallas and more expensive than Houston. A lot of it has to do with all the job growth that we have here in our high tech jobs. But it’s making it more challenging for people if they really can’t afford those higher prices. It can limit your spending and overall enjoyment of life. So just be prepared to pay the higher prices to enjoy all the great things that Austin has to offer, including the beautiful lakes, the parks, the culture, the food, everything that we have here that makes Austin a great place to live. There’s a price tag that comes with it as well. Overall we still love living in Austin. I’ve moved here from San Antonio was a little sticker shock when I moved here. Now I’m used to it and I absolutely love it. My husband moved here from San Diego. He loves it and has no regrets. We think Austin is a tremendous place to live.
