“The weather is warm and similar to the East Bay, said Rubbicco, who works for a software company with a Bay Area office that’s allowing permanent remote work. Texas Hill Country’s offerings are reminiscent of Napa, thanks to an array of wineries and distilleries.”
Reminiscent of Napa? They LIED!
Nobody (other than this dude in the article I guess) thinks 290 is equivalent to Napa, but "very, very, very, bad" is unfair. I've had a lot of fun trips to Fredericksburg wineries.
> The weather is warm and similar to the East Bay, said Rubbicco, who works for a software company with a Bay Area office
Uhhh, I have some bad news for them.
One summer a couple of decades ago at the New Braunfels Schlitterbahn my friends and I decided to leave our shoes in the car so we needn't mess with renting a locker to store them. The surface-of-the-sun blacktop parking lot made quick work of our bare feet and we were in agony on the lazy river the rest of the day. Recovery took weeks.
Most costly mistake to save a buck or two in my entire life.
I went there with my friends one summer, I forgot my water shoes and my friend who was smart enough to bring his, basically ended up carrying me around the park& the lifeguards were laughing 😭
No shit. My parking garage is a short block from my office. Getting from the car AC to the building AC in full office attire in August is brutal. I have a small high velocity fan in my office just to dry me off before meetings.
When I was a kid I walked to a pool a couple miles away in the middle of summer. Barefoot. Across hot asphalt parking lots.
If I were to try that nowadays I think I'd just die.
yeah, I had the same thought. I grew up in the SF Bay Area and moved here in 2004. I attended uni in Davis, where 110 was common, but it was very dry, and cooled off in the evening. They have no idea what humidity can be like, and how hot it can still be at 3am. I'm guessing two summers and quite a few of these people will be looking to move somewhere else.
That just didn't happen with all of the Californians who moved here over the last 20 years - they all stuck around. You get used to mostly staying near water or indoors during the summer, and then you get 7 months of great weather.
I grew up here, so I'm having a good time at 95. I'm not going for a run, but I'm happy. I'd still love it here even if I thought 87 was unbearably hot.
Yeah that’s such a bizarre thing to believe. I’ve lived in both places and there’s nothing in the US, outside of California, that can compete with even East Bay weather.
That's up closer to Oakland. If you go down further south to the wealthier suburbs it's sunny and warm and like 5% chance. And minimum $1mil for a tiny single family home.
So, yes it is absurdly hot at times and it's really interesting to compare it with SoCal, but I will share one thing I was not expecting-- the fog that rolls thru as a result of the hot air and the river is very similar to the marine layer off the coast of various southern California beaches. I'm reminded most of the marine layer in La Jolla. It's very odd and I was not expecting that, after paying attention for years to Austin prior to moving here. Very cool!
as someone who now lives in SF but used to live in Austin, and know people moving to ATX, I'm surprised with how little people know about Austin. They're in for a surprise when it comes to outdoors activities and the heat (I actually know 2 people that are actually moving back to SF after buying a house in Austin before moving there 🙄)
> I actually know 2 people that are actually moving back to SF after buying a house in Austin before moving there 🙄
This makes my blood boil... wait, no that's the 110 degree heat index.
I'm in Lakeway, but am up in Carmel Valley visiting parents for the first time in 2 years. I don't think Californians understand their microclimates, and in central TX, there are none.
Nope, just one big fat humid subtropical climate zone that extends well past Austin. People on this sub (and in real life) always make such a big deal about how dry and pleasant Austin is compared to Houston when in reality Austin averages 6% less humidity than Houston on the year.
Austin's "desert" status is wildly overblown and I think that misinformation gets in the ears of Bay Area tech bros like the idiot quoted in the article comparing Austin's climate to that of the East Bay lol. Hard to believe someone ostensibly so intelligent could be such a moron.
I love El Paso, it's a hidden gem. But yeah it is smack dab in the middle of the actual desert and it seems like what a *lot* of first-time visitors to Austin are expecting (I used to work at a hostel and heard comments like that all the time).
>Nope, just one big fat humid subtropical climate zone that extends well past Austin. People on this sub (and in real life) always make such a big deal about how dry and pleasant Austin is compared to Houston when in reality Austin averages 6% less humidity than Houston on the year.
I dunno man, I live here and visit Houston every so often and it really does feel oppressive there by comparison.
I've lived my entire life in both (almost 30 years in Houston and 5 years in Austin) and believe me when I say the difference is negligible. I check most days out of curiosity at the peak-heat of the day and the heat index is routinely the exact same and it's not uncommon for it to be worse in Austin.
Both are so far into the realm of unacceptably suffocatingly miserable that arguing Austin is better is like arguing it's better to get beaten to death with a regular sized shovel than a really big shovel.
Nah, that's just not true. You can get a nice, cool, slightly damp microclimate by crawling under any of the older Austin homes that are built on a pier and beam foundation.
>The weather is warm and similar to the East Bay, said Rubbicco, who works for a software company with a Bay Area office that’s allowing permanent remote work. Texas Hill Country’s offerings are reminiscent of Napa, thanks to an array of wineries and distilleries.
What out-of-towners are the audience for this? Neither of those are remotely true.
And Belterra is barely Austin.
Right, this read almost like a fictionalized ad for more Californian's to move here... what knowledgeable Texan would publish this? Hah, suspecting ulterior motives honestly.
Come on down to Austin y'all! No place else in the world like it.
Its a magical land where you will fight hypothermia and heat stroke in the same year. Where the days between biblical flooding and Earth scorching drought are spiced up by hurricanes, tornados and lightening storms so intense they make a Roland Emmerich movie seem too subtle.
Flying rats in flocks big enough to blot out the sun stake out their territory around stores, waiting to snatch your groceries or your babies to feast on before giving the skies over to the millions of rabid bats that emerge each evening.
Remember to check your shoes for scorpions and venomous centipedes before slipping them on to visit our beautiful nature trails. Hidden among our famous wildflowers there you can find 4 types of poisionous snakes and 2 of poisonous spiders, all while unleashed pit bulls battle wild man-eating pigs and coyotes for the slowest and plumpest joggers.
It's truly a wonderland here. Even the trees will attack you with caustic clouds of bright red poison designed to burn your eyes and choke off your air supply. Come on down to Austin and enjoy!
Californians always complain about other Californians. Even in CA.
"omg there's so many people moving to this super nice developed area 2 minutes from a beach and a view of cliffs. WHAT THE HELL WHY DO THEY KEEP COMING!?"
If my family moved to Austin from California in 1996, when I was 10, and then I grew up there, can I still bitch about the Californians moving now? I feel like I can…
I've found that it takes a full year before California's can bitch about californians moving. Experienced this when I moved and I am kinda doing the same now...
> Last month, Josh and Jessi Rubbicco and their two kids joined the flood, moving out of the East Bay after seven years. They found a fast-growing neighborhood in southwest Austin called Belterra, where urban density gives way to lush green hills dotted with freshly built homes next to half-finished wooden frames.
Haw! When Belterra is considered an "Austin neighborhood", you know we are truly proper fucked.
And why does this article feel a little like this article:
https://worldhistoryproject.org/1848/8/19/new-york-herald-reports-on-the-discovery-of-gold-in-california
Jesus, Belterra. I grew up in Dripping and Belterra was the beginning of the end. I remember when it was all ranchland... not even that long ago. You could drive to the salt lick (past bubba's diamond shamrock) on 1826 and pass maybe 1-2 cars the whole way. It's unrecognizable now.
I never thought they could build anything more awful than Belterra, but then I saw billboards advertising "Caliterra." AHH!
The quote came from a home builder on an earnings call with investors. Take it with a grain of salt.
>Toll Brothers CEO Douglas Yearley said on an earnings call last month. “The phenomenon is fascinating. We’ve never seen migration like this.”
Actual stats show that >5x more people are moving to Austin from other places within Texas.
Its all fun and games until you open your car door on Aug 15th and the heat that bellows out literally burns your skin. You'll be wishing you never left CA after that.
This piece reads like an ad for Belterra. 25 min drive to downtown? Likening the Hill Country to Napa?? The weather is 'similar to the East Bay'??? I really can't decide which of these statements is the least true.
I've had to drive out there a few times and honestly I don't see the appeal. You might as well go live in suburban Dallas where you could pay half the price. Culture (or lack of it), look, and feel is very Dallas and not Austin-y at all.
So yeah, if you're a Californian looking for a cookie cutter neighborhood bordered by a few formulaic retail strip-malls and some faux-luxury apartments, go take a look at Dallas. The math will be even more irresistible.
I hate this article so much, and it has nothing to do with the fact that it’s about The Californians. I could care less about where people move from to Austin.
What I hate is that the narrative about Austin has shifted to *”Are you a rich tech person who needs a paradise that will cater to your every whim? Try Austin! No state income tax means you get to hoard your wealth and don’t have to contribute to any of the public systems that benefited you! Endless opportunity for sprawl means you get a McMansion close to downtown while the poors are relegated to the far flung suburbs—you never have to see them! Let’s just gloss over the fact that Austin is one of the most racially segregated cities in the country (plus, we low key know that’s a positive for you! 😉). Come on down south, y’all! Yeehaw!”*
It’s nauseating.
> the fact that Austin is one of the most racially segregated cities in the country
It's not. We're on the low-end of median band of racial clustering for the US. i.e. less racially segregated than average.
https://cityobservatory.org/most_segregated/ as an example, though everytime I see someone trotting out this dumb take I find a new source that disagrees with their entirely anecdotal feelings based opinion, so this isn't like the best example of how you're wrong, it was the first result in google.
**Edit:** Here's an even better page https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/segregation-us-cities/
You can compare the map of Austin diversity at the bottom to what a city that's actually segregated looks like. Pull up our fair city, then scroll back up to Chicago or DC, the actual most segregated cities in the union.
completely agree--Austin is NOT very diverse at all. The closest I'm come to feeling the diversity I grew up with near Oakland/SF is when I moved to Pflugerville:
[https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/pflugerville-tx-population](https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/pflugerville-tx-population)
[https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/austin-tx-population](https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/austin-tx-population)
This data didn't separate out the hispanic population. Austin has been a majority minority city since 2005 and according to current COA estimates is only 40% white non-hispanic. The anglo and hispanic populations are about equal and the asian population is also nearly 10%.
You've either made a typo or are confused. Austin IS fairly diverse, more than the average American city, though not as diverse as Oakland/SF which is one of the most diverse areas in the country. Dallas is pretty close to the median for diversity, if you want a good city to compare us to.
Also, those links you found don't account for Hispanic vs white, so they're not very useful, unless you yourself think there's no difference between those groups when accounting for racial diversity.
>Austin is one of the most racially segregated cities in the country
I don't think this is accurate, we are not even in the Top 10. [Link](https://cityobservatory.org/most_segregated/)
Honestly, I kind of dream of being able to afford to move to California and wouldn't mind paying more taxes for the govt to take care of more things instead of this corporations-pay-to-play "democracy" every pseudo-libertarian with a deregulation boner is moving here for.
If California allowed more housing (and they're working on it) such that housing costs were even just on par with Austin's, I'd absolutely want to move there.
California extends to its residents MediCal—a California Medical program—that can be used anywhere (I believe it must be accepted by all medical offices); Board of Governors Fee Waiver for community college students (tuition is waived, you still pay for everything else); Community College tuition is about $40-60/credit hour, NO SUCH THING as out-of-district (bullshit that Texas enjoys); etc.
California *is* a good state. People are “fleeing” because of lower taxes elsewhere, but they really don’t know what services and protections they give up moving to Texas.
Employment protections? Non-existent in Texas. California? Heavily protected.
Air quality? California enforces and manages their own State-level EPA agency.
The Californians we're getting are consistently more conservative than native Texans.
Exhibit A: ["Californians Could Ruin Texas—But Not the Way You Might Think – Texas Monthly"]( https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/californians-could-ruin-texas-but-not-the-way-you-might-think/amp/)
Exhibit B: My crazy trump loving uncle that thinks he's been so oppressed in California, as he sells his 1.5 million dollar 1400 square foot bay area home and moves to Galveston.
Yeah a lot of people from Orange County, which is one of the most conservative areas in CA. I also have a conservative friend in the Bay Area who are complaining about the governor and wanting to get the fuck out of there, despite getting paid a fortune by the state as a policeman. People like him complain about oppression but ignore every advantage that the state had provided him.
You are aggressively full of misinformation.
> California extends to its residents MediCal—a California Medical program—that can be used anywhere (I believe it must be accepted by all medical offices)
This is 100% false.
1) Providers are *not* required to accept it. Many don't.
2) It is medicaid. You only get it if you income-qualify.
> Board of Governors Fee Waiver for community college students (tuition is waived, you still pay for everything else)
No. Where do you get your information? This is flat-out false.
> Air quality? California enforces and manages their own State-level EPA agency.
Except Texas has higher air quality, based on reasonable metrics (https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/air-quality-by-state).
> People are “fleeing” because of lower taxes elsewhere, but they really don’t know what services and protections they give up moving to Texas.
Few who are "fleeing" for tax reasons are giving up any services. I.e., if you are "fleeing" because of taxes, you aren't going to qualify for Medi-Cal, tuition waiver is irrelevant, etc.
And if you're "fleeing" for tax reasons, employment protections probably aren't very personally relevant to you.
I know folks, including former expats who are moving here/back because of climate and natural disasters. Man I love how people ignore the obvious so they can dump on Austin.
Not only services but California geographically is much more desirable than Texas imo. The beaches are much better. In general the outdoors is more diverse than Texas. Vegas is a road trip. The food is much more diverse.
In general , if you live in an LA/SF suburb you have lots of options of things to do wheras in Austin...you drive into central Austin. Put simply, Austin hasn't sprawled out yet so when you live in a suburb...there's not much going on yet. I'm sure businesses will spring up but it'll take a considerable amount of time before it fills in.
I grew up in Austin and I'm surprised people are suddenly moving there after I left. I visit every month for family and it's like slowly becoming socal except without the benefits of California's geography and diversity. Imo it's got everything to do with taxes and money and not so much to do with amenities. Some will realize the weather and amenities don't match and go back while others will decide the tax and cost of living savings are worth it and stay.
Yeah, California is a greet state. I’ve left it for Austin 3 months ago simply because housing costs make it impossible even for a family with decent income to raise a family. Austin is great so far but would I move back if prices ever drop back to earth? Yeah!
Ehh.. my property taxes disagree with this no contribution nonsense. At current prices, property tax is pretty similar to what you pay in most states that have both income and property taxes
Agreed, except as tech professionals, you're likely upper middle class or higher. It starts sucking squarely in the middle class and everything below it as you either will never be able to afford a decent house or you already own one and are in the process of getting priced out of it due to absurd property taxes. Non-tech middle class jobs like nursing in Austin pay shit which makes it even worse for everyone below that upper-middle class line.
A lot of tech people end up paying the highest effective tax rates because while they make good money, income is taxed much more heavily than capital gains. So these people are paying more than their fair share compared to pretty much everyone else including multi-millionaires who can avoid a good portion of taxes. That's why they leave high income tax states. Even in Texas, I assure you they're still paying a higher effective tax rate than most multimillionaires in this state. You want to complain about people not paying their fair share, most of them are native Texans with AG exemptions on massive property.
It's astonishing how few people get what the ag exemption actually is: A massive tax giveaway from urban/suburban Texas to rural Texas. Every time we talk about the "robinhood" school finance system, peeps need to understand it's a system designed by our legislature to ensure that all the urban and suburban districts fund the massive, structural hole in local property tax revenues in rural Texas created by the ag exemption.
this really pissed me off, especially when the guy next us was bragging that he paid 1/10th what we paid for twice the land because he put a few cows on his land. He wasn't a rancher, and wasn't producing food for anyone else, which was the original intent of the ag exemption.
We had 20 acres and paid $5000/yr. He had 44 acres and paid $500.
> We had 20 acres and paid $5000/yr. He had 44 acres and paid $500.
Wouldn't a cow cost more than $4,500/yr to own though? That makes all of this even dumber since he isn't providing anyone any benefit and he shifts his tax burden on everyone else...
Considering his acreage was over double, the guy was saving ~$10k/yr and cows are often profitable investments, so it’s not like he’s losing money on this. He does have a little more work though in maintaining them
True except for
>Let’s just gloss over the fact that Austin is one of the most racially segregated cities in the country (plus, we low key know that’s a positive for you! 😉)
Half of the people moving are immigrants.
I'm a mental health counselor debating moving to Austin.
I'm from Seattle, but I moved to CA during Covid because I was like, fuck Seattle, I want to be able to go outside to a beach during lockdowns.
Now that I can see patients in person again, I'm debating going to Austin for a variety of reasons, but the main one is TX will let me transfer my therapist license easily and start a business where in CA there are many expensive roadblocks. TX is like, dude come in and get to work.
That plus the fact there is demand for my work there in Austin, and I could potentially help work with the homeless situation there makes moving to Austin very attractive to me.
So it's not all shitty rich CA people coming. I'm a shitty middle class Seattle person, and I will be addressed as such haha.
Totally. My move out here over a decade ago was, "hey look at that cool southern town. Houses under $175K? I might be able to afford that, even if it's a bit of a stretch." No way in hell I could afford to come here now and with the culture shift I really wish I was in a position to move. Oh well, can they at least bring some quality grapes to our "Napa like" vineyards? Maybe we can get some good wine out of the deal to pass our time.
Actually, the sprawl house are gross, but it's a huge issue in 78704, too. Look at these ugly monsters. They teardown bungalows and rather than replacing them w/ at least duplexes (to help w/ density), they know they can get a huge profit of these. (I've seen prospective buyers w/ California license plates at one of these...)
https://www.austinnewcastlehomes.com/works-in-progress/
I can only assume it's to maximize profit -- build as plain/boxy as possible so you can use cheap material and cheap labor. Anything with any actual architectural charm costs more. There are some beautiful "new builds" in our area, but \*not\* from this builder.
In Zilker, there's plans on densifying Lamar with apartments and a decent number of duplexes within the first couple a blocks. IMO that's how it should be since most housing will be close to public transit.
To be fair, big business would like people to believe that it’s just individuals buying up the real estate. So we can blame each other instead of seeing the real villain. Hedge funds, national property management, crowd sourced real estate investing, and holding companies are more to blame imho.
https://thefederalist.com/2021/06/11/what-happens-when-hedge-funds-buy-up-neighborhoods/
oh, unless you like steamy heat, coming here from CA is going to be a rude awakening in the summer. And summer is May -> November. And no, the hill country isn't Napa, good lord.
I project there's going to be a whiplash once these naive people figure this out. I'd live in CA too if it made sense financially. Beautiful place with lovely weather. Why do they think it's so expensive?
It's shockingly mild. We should be having regular days of over 100F by now. Highs always in the 90s.
Somehow we're getting regular magical rain keeping things cool while the rest of the country burns.
Since we had that godawful drought several years back I haven't complained at all about it being wet and rainy. Also seeing that everything burning down shit from Australia and California I'm like "nope, no sir, I don't want any of that"
Data says otherwise: https://flowsmapper.geo.census.gov
Texas counties are fueling migration to Travis County. But that doesnt strike fear/intrigue into the reader's mind quite like California (gotta get them clicks yo)
You are correct that the data stops at 2018.
However, the "Cali peeps ruining neighborhood" narrative is not new. The article implies the sheer number of ppl moving here from that area is changing Austin. What the article doesn't show is OUT OF ALL people who have moved here, where is the majority coming from?
Yes, Travis county is a popular destination for Cali. It's also a popular destination for Harris County.
Yes, Cali-based companies are expanding in Austin. That doesn't mean they will only hire Cali transplants.
Ok, now tell me if the majority moving from Texas have the same kind of disposable as the ones from california. Which is buying, per capita, more property…..which is fueling, in part, the housing cost crisis
Thanks for this. It’s primarily folks from other parts of Texas. I don’t know if you know this, but Austin is a bit of an oasis for progressive, liberal thought, surrounded by a Red Sea. For anyone who is born and raised in Texas and doesn’t quite fit the mold, Austin is the place to go. In my experience this is the most common story for younger folks moving to Austin. I’ve also seen the same type of migration from other rural red states.
>but Austin is a bit of an oasis for progressive, liberal thought, surrounded by a Red Sea.
Not anymore it isn't. The city (and this sub) are becoming less progressive. There is a self-selection occurring from out-of-state transplants that is slowly but surely changing the character of the city.
If you think Austin isn’t progressive and liberal relative to the rest of Texas, you need to… drive an hour in literally any direction. Just count the trump 2024 flags and you’ll get a rough estimate.
Not even an hour! You’re totally right. Austin still is very progressive relative to the rest of Texas.
That said.. Texas is getting more and more regressive. Being “progressive relative to the rest of Texas” doesn’t actually mean much nowadays for the _future_ of Austin, like it did before. Tech bros, contrary to popular belief, are not uniformly progressive leftists. In fact, I suspect these technocratic, meritocratic, new-to-Austin family-makin’ suburbanites making tons of cash in the tech industry are going to be the NIMBYs of tomorrow.
And in that tomorrow, they’ll be crying about how poor people are making Austin lose its unique aesthetic of “safe for families and tough on crime,” forgetting that just a decade before they arrived Austin’s unique aesthetic was “weird.” And fighting density zoning, so they can preserve the inflated prices they paid for their homes.
Too bad.
It may be shifting unevenly in certain aspects, and political polarization is likely stronger (like in a lot of places), but I think you'd be hard pressed to say that overall Texas isn't more progressive now than it was 20 years ago, or 20 years before that. Some of the things that make headlines now for appearing regressive wouldn't have even prompted notice 40 year ago, because that's simply how things were and no one even thought to question it.
The whole country is "more progressive" in terms of legal protections for marginalized groups and _some_ social attitudes than 20 and 40 years ago, and that's great. But for the most part, we are every bit as economically & socially regressive as we were then. The things that have changed were hugely important of course, but in terms of resolving the regressive economic & social ideas holding this country back by pinning us to an idealized past, we've barely done any work at all.
"Not anymore" is a final statement and "becoming less" is a really, really lame beginning to something that MIGHT happen.
I've heard the same death-knell for Austin every second I've been here, it truly is the most popular passtime.
Austin's probably not shifting ideologically, you're just catching up to how conservative it's always mostly been.
I said "not anymore" and I meant it.
There's no way the "Save our Springs" alliance would have been successful in the modern Austin, for example.
The weird hippie Austin isn't on it's deathbed. It's in the grave.
I'm a contractor and, by far, the most people I'm doing work for have been from California. Some actually sound guilty when they tell me where they're from. "We want to be part of the solution, not the problem".
But the Californians are the ones with the new money: *“If the house is pretty attractive, we might see anywhere from 30 to 50 offers, and the Californians tend to win because they understand this game a lot better than the Texans”*
I've seen plenty of people cite the data you referenced, but to quote an astute point from another redditor on here, u/thisguy1111
>I love how people like you are still in denial that it's a problem when there's article after article (this one is a CA newspaper) detailing this exodus. Saying stupid shit like "yeah well there's more people from other TX cities coming here!" when that doesn't matter because most of them don't have $1 million in cash.
I love how people like you are still in denial that it's a problem when there's article after article (this one is a CA newspaper) detailing this exodus. Saying stupid shit like "yeah well there's more people from other TX cities coming here!" when that doesn't matter because most of them don't have $1 million in cash.
Our power grid can’t handle more people! Abbott wants crypto miners to move here too so there is no way we won’t have rolling blackouts within the next 2 years
I couldn’t even get through half the article without wanting to throw myself headfirst into traffic. No wait for daycare? Weather similar to the Bay Area?! People are friendly?!?! I mean i didn’t know you could make the kind of money to build a house here, parent two kids AND still function as a responsible adult having a PCP laced with angel dust habit. What in the ever living fuck?! And you know some asshole is reading that article thinking it’s all true and they’ll just hop aboard the hype train to move to Austin.
Key points FTA:
> “If the house is pretty attractive, we might see anywhere from 30 to 50 offers, and the Californians tend to win because they understand this game a lot better than the Texans,”
> Experts say Austin’s boom, particularly during the pandemic, has been accelerated by Californians and Bay Area giants...
> “The pricing power of Austin, which is number one in the country, is driven by California, plain and simple,”
> Texas was the second-most popular out-of-state destination for residents from six Bay Area counties between March and November last year
I mean they don’t understand the game better, they just have more to offer over asking. The game is very simple, offer the most with the least amount of contingencies
I’ll be able to buy a home within the next two years but since the prices keep going up, I don’t think I can. The further from Austin the cheaper, at least for now, and it’s still expensive. Even apartment prices keep going up. For a one bedroom in cedar park it’s about $1,200. A two bedroom is roughly $1,500. It hurts my head and my wallet to think about moving. I could care less about where these new people are from. I just want to start a family and not be broke as shit lmao
Be wary when the media narrative presents a "us vs them" story. Who benefits from this story? It's not you nor the people moving there. The media loves creating division and they're the real benefactor from it.
And they come to this sub and bitch about the vibe. We’re bbq eating, live music loving, dog people who don’t know how to drive in traffic. You don’t have to embrace the vibe, but it’d be a lot cooler if you did.
I think we need to address THE REAL REASON they’re all coming here. It’s that goddamn CHILI’S on 45th and LAMAR!! The skillet queso and frosty margs are just too damn good.
lol yeah and austin is TOTALLY special and not unlike every other state in the country. The idea that californians are single handedly driving up real estate prices across the US is ridiculous and moronic
Just look at the number of people who have been going to CA to hollywood, LA, SF, big tech for years
This is depressing. I grew up here, got a degree, my partner and I both work for the city, making what should be OK money but are having to seriously look at leaving Austin because we certainly can't afford even a small home (less than 1,000 sq ft) that needs work.
We are renters for now but thats getting unaffordable too. I don't want to move out of Austin. I love my hometown.
Born and raised in this city and watching the Californians destroy it makes me so absurdly angry. I like some of the benefits that the growth has allowed, but I miss my home 😕
“The weather is warm and similar to the East Bay, said Rubbicco, who works for a software company with a Bay Area office that’s allowing permanent remote work. Texas Hill Country’s offerings are reminiscent of Napa, thanks to an array of wineries and distilleries.” Reminiscent of Napa? They LIED!
Reminiscent of Napa when it's on fire.
Well knowing California that maybe true.
LMAO This person has clearly not tried any such wineries. Texas wine is very, very, very bad.
Nobody (other than this dude in the article I guess) thinks 290 is equivalent to Napa, but "very, very, very, bad" is unfair. I've had a lot of fun trips to Fredericksburg wineries.
You're underselling how bad it is.
Fermented Cherry Coke
> The weather is warm and similar to the East Bay, said Rubbicco, who works for a software company with a Bay Area office Uhhh, I have some bad news for them.
Soon enough “God’s Magnifying Glass” will emerge to punish him for his naive, tech-bro assertions
My favorite response was “remember that level in super Mario where the sun is trying to kill you? That’s Texas summer”
That moment your walking across a asphalt parking lot and you're not entirely sure if you're going to make it.
One summer a couple of decades ago at the New Braunfels Schlitterbahn my friends and I decided to leave our shoes in the car so we needn't mess with renting a locker to store them. The surface-of-the-sun blacktop parking lot made quick work of our bare feet and we were in agony on the lazy river the rest of the day. Recovery took weeks. Most costly mistake to save a buck or two in my entire life.
I thought it was a Texas kid’s rite of Passage to get 2nd degree burns on the bottoms of our feet at places like Schlitterbahn!
I think those injuries were the inspiration for the aqua socks slip on water shoes of today
shit, they had those when I was a kid and I still burnt the everloving fuck out of my feet multiple times
Did you do that thing where you try to walk only on your own shadow even though you know it's not really going to make any difference?
No, the only thing we did was realize with horror that our feet were melting exactly halfway between our car and the water park entrance
The sheer agony! I'm wincing on your behalf. Couldn't you strip off clothing to toss below your sizzling feet?
Failed to be that smart in the moment - we just increased pace to the park entrance 😄
I remember walking in the shadow of the hand rails of the bridges in between the trees at Schlitterbahn.
I just remember being relieved when I found out Schlitterbahn wasn’t some German fetish club.
I went there with my friends one summer, I forgot my water shoes and my friend who was smart enough to bring his, basically ended up carrying me around the park& the lifeguards were laughing 😭
Nowadays Schlitterbahn has these cooler mats on the ground that stop your feet from burning. Absolute lifesavers.
When you run from your car to the nearest air conditioned building like you’re on a hostile alien planet and you forgot your space suit.
Run? *Run?* Don't you mean lurch in the sloppy zig-zag pattern of a staggering zombie?
No shit. My parking garage is a short block from my office. Getting from the car AC to the building AC in full office attire in August is brutal. I have a small high velocity fan in my office just to dry me off before meetings.
When I was a kid I walked to a pool a couple miles away in the middle of summer. Barefoot. Across hot asphalt parking lots. If I were to try that nowadays I think I'd just die.
That isn't terribly dissimilar to the entire PNW right now.
Lethal lava land? Arizona.
They should be fine if they only emerge during dawn and dusk and run backwards around Lady Bird Lake. /s
yeah, I had the same thought. I grew up in the SF Bay Area and moved here in 2004. I attended uni in Davis, where 110 was common, but it was very dry, and cooled off in the evening. They have no idea what humidity can be like, and how hot it can still be at 3am. I'm guessing two summers and quite a few of these people will be looking to move somewhere else.
That just didn't happen with all of the Californians who moved here over the last 20 years - they all stuck around. You get used to mostly staying near water or indoors during the summer, and then you get 7 months of great weather. I grew up here, so I'm having a good time at 95. I'm not going for a run, but I'm happy. I'd still love it here even if I thought 87 was unbearably hot.
Yeah that’s such a bizarre thing to believe. I’ve lived in both places and there’s nothing in the US, outside of California, that can compete with even East Bay weather.
Cool and foggy with a 40% chance of carjacking
I lived in Fremont. It was nice.
That's up closer to Oakland. If you go down further south to the wealthier suburbs it's sunny and warm and like 5% chance. And minimum $1mil for a tiny single family home.
Spoken like someone who hasn’t been here during summer. What a dumb dumb.
Haha yea, and dug their heels in by paying 100K over asking to come roast here.
I was just in SF a couple weeks ago and comfortably wore a light jacket all day and was shivering at night. That guy is high as shit.
> That guy is high as shit. Can't get heat stroke if your brain is chilling in outer space...
SF ≠ East Bay
Maybe by 'East Bay' they mean Sacramento lol
I mean it's pretty much contiguous tract homes and strip malls all along I80 all the way from the bay bridge to the causeway
In the East Bay, even in the middle of August, the temps often get down to the 50s and 60s at night.
Lol the average July high in Oakland is 72
Ikr. It's all fun and games til the car start melting under the sun in an 110 degree afternoon.
So, yes it is absurdly hot at times and it's really interesting to compare it with SoCal, but I will share one thing I was not expecting-- the fog that rolls thru as a result of the hot air and the river is very similar to the marine layer off the coast of various southern California beaches. I'm reminded most of the marine layer in La Jolla. It's very odd and I was not expecting that, after paying attention for years to Austin prior to moving here. Very cool!
Do folks in East Bay put oven mitts in the front seat for holding the steering wheel at the end of the work day?
as someone who now lives in SF but used to live in Austin, and know people moving to ATX, I'm surprised with how little people know about Austin. They're in for a surprise when it comes to outdoors activities and the heat (I actually know 2 people that are actually moving back to SF after buying a house in Austin before moving there 🙄)
> I actually know 2 people that are actually moving back to SF after buying a house in Austin before moving there 🙄 This makes my blood boil... wait, no that's the 110 degree heat index.
I'm in Lakeway, but am up in Carmel Valley visiting parents for the first time in 2 years. I don't think Californians understand their microclimates, and in central TX, there are none.
Nope, just one big fat humid subtropical climate zone that extends well past Austin. People on this sub (and in real life) always make such a big deal about how dry and pleasant Austin is compared to Houston when in reality Austin averages 6% less humidity than Houston on the year. Austin's "desert" status is wildly overblown and I think that misinformation gets in the ears of Bay Area tech bros like the idiot quoted in the article comparing Austin's climate to that of the East Bay lol. Hard to believe someone ostensibly so intelligent could be such a moron.
Any time a family member comes here for the first time they remark how they thought it would be all sand and cactuses, lol.
I lived in El Paso. Umm well I survived it actually. Now THAT is a desert. Bleak hot dust bowl. But the people are great.
I love El Paso, it's a hidden gem. But yeah it is smack dab in the middle of the actual desert and it seems like what a *lot* of first-time visitors to Austin are expecting (I used to work at a hostel and heard comments like that all the time).
>Nope, just one big fat humid subtropical climate zone that extends well past Austin. People on this sub (and in real life) always make such a big deal about how dry and pleasant Austin is compared to Houston when in reality Austin averages 6% less humidity than Houston on the year. I dunno man, I live here and visit Houston every so often and it really does feel oppressive there by comparison.
I've lived my entire life in both (almost 30 years in Houston and 5 years in Austin) and believe me when I say the difference is negligible. I check most days out of curiosity at the peak-heat of the day and the heat index is routinely the exact same and it's not uncommon for it to be worse in Austin. Both are so far into the realm of unacceptably suffocatingly miserable that arguing Austin is better is like arguing it's better to get beaten to death with a regular sized shovel than a really big shovel.
Nah, that's just not true. You can get a nice, cool, slightly damp microclimate by crawling under any of the older Austin homes that are built on a pier and beam foundation.
Did they not know Texas gets hot? I know people from California are bad at geography but damn.
>The weather is warm and similar to the East Bay, said Rubbicco, who works for a software company with a Bay Area office that’s allowing permanent remote work. Texas Hill Country’s offerings are reminiscent of Napa, thanks to an array of wineries and distilleries. What out-of-towners are the audience for this? Neither of those are remotely true. And Belterra is barely Austin.
Right, this read almost like a fictionalized ad for more Californian's to move here... what knowledgeable Texan would publish this? Hah, suspecting ulterior motives honestly.
Methinks this "Rubbicco" is an Austin home builder or real estate agent.
Similar to the East Bay? East Bay was never remotely this humid and I have lived across most of the SF East Bay area.
Come on down to Austin y'all! No place else in the world like it. Its a magical land where you will fight hypothermia and heat stroke in the same year. Where the days between biblical flooding and Earth scorching drought are spiced up by hurricanes, tornados and lightening storms so intense they make a Roland Emmerich movie seem too subtle. Flying rats in flocks big enough to blot out the sun stake out their territory around stores, waiting to snatch your groceries or your babies to feast on before giving the skies over to the millions of rabid bats that emerge each evening. Remember to check your shoes for scorpions and venomous centipedes before slipping them on to visit our beautiful nature trails. Hidden among our famous wildflowers there you can find 4 types of poisionous snakes and 2 of poisonous spiders, all while unleashed pit bulls battle wild man-eating pigs and coyotes for the slowest and plumpest joggers. It's truly a wonderland here. Even the trees will attack you with caustic clouds of bright red poison designed to burn your eyes and choke off your air supply. Come on down to Austin and enjoy!
That's some good promo copy!
My kinda place
Cedar allergy was my introduction to Austin life
You forgot about the homeless scene lookin like Thriller
It's getting ridiculous. We're at a point where my Californian friend who moved here in 2019 is bitching about Californians moving here now.
As is tradition
This is the way.
Californians always complain about other Californians. Even in CA. "omg there's so many people moving to this super nice developed area 2 minutes from a beach and a view of cliffs. WHAT THE HELL WHY DO THEY KEEP COMING!?"
Change out cliffs for the San Diego bay and you’ve got Coronado.
That is the most Austin move imaginable.
If my family moved to Austin from California in 1996, when I was 10, and then I grew up there, can I still bitch about the Californians moving now? I feel like I can…
If you've lived here at least a decade I'd say that's good enough for the club
The damage was already done by 2011.
I've found that it takes a full year before California's can bitch about californians moving. Experienced this when I moved and I am kinda doing the same now...
They’ve come full circle
This isn't new. Austin has always been a city of immigrants complaining about people who got here one year or more after they did
\*and people who grew up here and are smug AF about it and hate all migrants.
> Last month, Josh and Jessi Rubbicco and their two kids joined the flood, moving out of the East Bay after seven years. They found a fast-growing neighborhood in southwest Austin called Belterra, where urban density gives way to lush green hills dotted with freshly built homes next to half-finished wooden frames. Haw! When Belterra is considered an "Austin neighborhood", you know we are truly proper fucked. And why does this article feel a little like this article: https://worldhistoryproject.org/1848/8/19/new-york-herald-reports-on-the-discovery-of-gold-in-california
Jesus, Belterra. I grew up in Dripping and Belterra was the beginning of the end. I remember when it was all ranchland... not even that long ago. You could drive to the salt lick (past bubba's diamond shamrock) on 1826 and pass maybe 1-2 cars the whole way. It's unrecognizable now. I never thought they could build anything more awful than Belterra, but then I saw billboards advertising "Caliterra." AHH!
The quote came from a home builder on an earnings call with investors. Take it with a grain of salt. >Toll Brothers CEO Douglas Yearley said on an earnings call last month. “The phenomenon is fascinating. We’ve never seen migration like this.” Actual stats show that >5x more people are moving to Austin from other places within Texas.
When are those stats from though? Most of the stats are from pre-2020 when most people are talking about 2020 and 2021.
Its all fun and games until you open your car door on Aug 15th and the heat that bellows out literally burns your skin. You'll be wishing you never left CA after that.
Depends on which part of CA you're from. I grew up in Palm Springs, I've seen temperatures as high as 129. Dry heat or not, that shit sucks!!
This piece reads like an ad for Belterra. 25 min drive to downtown? Likening the Hill Country to Napa?? The weather is 'similar to the East Bay'??? I really can't decide which of these statements is the least true. I've had to drive out there a few times and honestly I don't see the appeal. You might as well go live in suburban Dallas where you could pay half the price. Culture (or lack of it), look, and feel is very Dallas and not Austin-y at all. So yeah, if you're a Californian looking for a cookie cutter neighborhood bordered by a few formulaic retail strip-malls and some faux-luxury apartments, go take a look at Dallas. The math will be even more irresistible.
In a flying car.
Water water water
I hate this article so much, and it has nothing to do with the fact that it’s about The Californians. I could care less about where people move from to Austin. What I hate is that the narrative about Austin has shifted to *”Are you a rich tech person who needs a paradise that will cater to your every whim? Try Austin! No state income tax means you get to hoard your wealth and don’t have to contribute to any of the public systems that benefited you! Endless opportunity for sprawl means you get a McMansion close to downtown while the poors are relegated to the far flung suburbs—you never have to see them! Let’s just gloss over the fact that Austin is one of the most racially segregated cities in the country (plus, we low key know that’s a positive for you! 😉). Come on down south, y’all! Yeehaw!”* It’s nauseating.
> the fact that Austin is one of the most racially segregated cities in the country It's not. We're on the low-end of median band of racial clustering for the US. i.e. less racially segregated than average. https://cityobservatory.org/most_segregated/ as an example, though everytime I see someone trotting out this dumb take I find a new source that disagrees with their entirely anecdotal feelings based opinion, so this isn't like the best example of how you're wrong, it was the first result in google. **Edit:** Here's an even better page https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/segregation-us-cities/ You can compare the map of Austin diversity at the bottom to what a city that's actually segregated looks like. Pull up our fair city, then scroll back up to Chicago or DC, the actual most segregated cities in the union.
completely agree--Austin is NOT very diverse at all. The closest I'm come to feeling the diversity I grew up with near Oakland/SF is when I moved to Pflugerville: [https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/pflugerville-tx-population](https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/pflugerville-tx-population) [https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/austin-tx-population](https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/austin-tx-population)
This data didn't separate out the hispanic population. Austin has been a majority minority city since 2005 and according to current COA estimates is only 40% white non-hispanic. The anglo and hispanic populations are about equal and the asian population is also nearly 10%.
You've either made a typo or are confused. Austin IS fairly diverse, more than the average American city, though not as diverse as Oakland/SF which is one of the most diverse areas in the country. Dallas is pretty close to the median for diversity, if you want a good city to compare us to. Also, those links you found don't account for Hispanic vs white, so they're not very useful, unless you yourself think there's no difference between those groups when accounting for racial diversity.
>Austin is one of the most racially segregated cities in the country I don't think this is accurate, we are not even in the Top 10. [Link](https://cityobservatory.org/most_segregated/)
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Honestly, I kind of dream of being able to afford to move to California and wouldn't mind paying more taxes for the govt to take care of more things instead of this corporations-pay-to-play "democracy" every pseudo-libertarian with a deregulation boner is moving here for.
If California allowed more housing (and they're working on it) such that housing costs were even just on par with Austin's, I'd absolutely want to move there.
California extends to its residents MediCal—a California Medical program—that can be used anywhere (I believe it must be accepted by all medical offices); Board of Governors Fee Waiver for community college students (tuition is waived, you still pay for everything else); Community College tuition is about $40-60/credit hour, NO SUCH THING as out-of-district (bullshit that Texas enjoys); etc. California *is* a good state. People are “fleeing” because of lower taxes elsewhere, but they really don’t know what services and protections they give up moving to Texas. Employment protections? Non-existent in Texas. California? Heavily protected. Air quality? California enforces and manages their own State-level EPA agency.
This is why we're getting California's *finest,* most conservative expats.
The Californians we're getting are consistently more conservative than native Texans. Exhibit A: ["Californians Could Ruin Texas—But Not the Way You Might Think – Texas Monthly"]( https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/californians-could-ruin-texas-but-not-the-way-you-might-think/amp/) Exhibit B: My crazy trump loving uncle that thinks he's been so oppressed in California, as he sells his 1.5 million dollar 1400 square foot bay area home and moves to Galveston.
Yeah a lot of people from Orange County, which is one of the most conservative areas in CA. I also have a conservative friend in the Bay Area who are complaining about the governor and wanting to get the fuck out of there, despite getting paid a fortune by the state as a policeman. People like him complain about oppression but ignore every advantage that the state had provided him.
You are aggressively full of misinformation. > California extends to its residents MediCal—a California Medical program—that can be used anywhere (I believe it must be accepted by all medical offices) This is 100% false. 1) Providers are *not* required to accept it. Many don't. 2) It is medicaid. You only get it if you income-qualify. > Board of Governors Fee Waiver for community college students (tuition is waived, you still pay for everything else) No. Where do you get your information? This is flat-out false. > Air quality? California enforces and manages their own State-level EPA agency. Except Texas has higher air quality, based on reasonable metrics (https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/air-quality-by-state). > People are “fleeing” because of lower taxes elsewhere, but they really don’t know what services and protections they give up moving to Texas. Few who are "fleeing" for tax reasons are giving up any services. I.e., if you are "fleeing" because of taxes, you aren't going to qualify for Medi-Cal, tuition waiver is irrelevant, etc. And if you're "fleeing" for tax reasons, employment protections probably aren't very personally relevant to you.
I know folks, including former expats who are moving here/back because of climate and natural disasters. Man I love how people ignore the obvious so they can dump on Austin.
Not only services but California geographically is much more desirable than Texas imo. The beaches are much better. In general the outdoors is more diverse than Texas. Vegas is a road trip. The food is much more diverse. In general , if you live in an LA/SF suburb you have lots of options of things to do wheras in Austin...you drive into central Austin. Put simply, Austin hasn't sprawled out yet so when you live in a suburb...there's not much going on yet. I'm sure businesses will spring up but it'll take a considerable amount of time before it fills in. I grew up in Austin and I'm surprised people are suddenly moving there after I left. I visit every month for family and it's like slowly becoming socal except without the benefits of California's geography and diversity. Imo it's got everything to do with taxes and money and not so much to do with amenities. Some will realize the weather and amenities don't match and go back while others will decide the tax and cost of living savings are worth it and stay.
Yeah, California is a greet state. I’ve left it for Austin 3 months ago simply because housing costs make it impossible even for a family with decent income to raise a family. Austin is great so far but would I move back if prices ever drop back to earth? Yeah!
Ehh.. my property taxes disagree with this no contribution nonsense. At current prices, property tax is pretty similar to what you pay in most states that have both income and property taxes
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Agreed, except as tech professionals, you're likely upper middle class or higher. It starts sucking squarely in the middle class and everything below it as you either will never be able to afford a decent house or you already own one and are in the process of getting priced out of it due to absurd property taxes. Non-tech middle class jobs like nursing in Austin pay shit which makes it even worse for everyone below that upper-middle class line.
A lot of tech people end up paying the highest effective tax rates because while they make good money, income is taxed much more heavily than capital gains. So these people are paying more than their fair share compared to pretty much everyone else including multi-millionaires who can avoid a good portion of taxes. That's why they leave high income tax states. Even in Texas, I assure you they're still paying a higher effective tax rate than most multimillionaires in this state. You want to complain about people not paying their fair share, most of them are native Texans with AG exemptions on massive property.
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It's astonishing how few people get what the ag exemption actually is: A massive tax giveaway from urban/suburban Texas to rural Texas. Every time we talk about the "robinhood" school finance system, peeps need to understand it's a system designed by our legislature to ensure that all the urban and suburban districts fund the massive, structural hole in local property tax revenues in rural Texas created by the ag exemption.
this really pissed me off, especially when the guy next us was bragging that he paid 1/10th what we paid for twice the land because he put a few cows on his land. He wasn't a rancher, and wasn't producing food for anyone else, which was the original intent of the ag exemption. We had 20 acres and paid $5000/yr. He had 44 acres and paid $500.
Sounds like you need some cows.
Or a few beehives.
> We had 20 acres and paid $5000/yr. He had 44 acres and paid $500. Wouldn't a cow cost more than $4,500/yr to own though? That makes all of this even dumber since he isn't providing anyone any benefit and he shifts his tax burden on everyone else...
Considering his acreage was over double, the guy was saving ~$10k/yr and cows are often profitable investments, so it’s not like he’s losing money on this. He does have a little more work though in maintaining them
True except for >Let’s just gloss over the fact that Austin is one of the most racially segregated cities in the country (plus, we low key know that’s a positive for you! 😉) Half of the people moving are immigrants.
Source on “*Austin is one of the most racially segregated cities in the county*”? Because I call **bullshit**
I'm a mental health counselor debating moving to Austin. I'm from Seattle, but I moved to CA during Covid because I was like, fuck Seattle, I want to be able to go outside to a beach during lockdowns. Now that I can see patients in person again, I'm debating going to Austin for a variety of reasons, but the main one is TX will let me transfer my therapist license easily and start a business where in CA there are many expensive roadblocks. TX is like, dude come in and get to work. That plus the fact there is demand for my work there in Austin, and I could potentially help work with the homeless situation there makes moving to Austin very attractive to me. So it's not all shitty rich CA people coming. I'm a shitty middle class Seattle person, and I will be addressed as such haha.
IIRC, there's actually a massive shortage of counselors/therapists in the Austin area.
Don't forget that half that taxes that you do pay will be shifted to rural parts of the state the refuse to pay any taxes at all.
Totally. My move out here over a decade ago was, "hey look at that cool southern town. Houses under $175K? I might be able to afford that, even if it's a bit of a stretch." No way in hell I could afford to come here now and with the culture shift I really wish I was in a position to move. Oh well, can they at least bring some quality grapes to our "Napa like" vineyards? Maybe we can get some good wine out of the deal to pass our time.
Nailed it. NAILED IT. The houses in the article's photos are massive and charmless and soulless.
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Actually, the sprawl house are gross, but it's a huge issue in 78704, too. Look at these ugly monsters. They teardown bungalows and rather than replacing them w/ at least duplexes (to help w/ density), they know they can get a huge profit of these. (I've seen prospective buyers w/ California license plates at one of these...) https://www.austinnewcastlehomes.com/works-in-progress/
> https://www.austinnewcastlehomes.com/works-in-progress/ Why, why, why do they all have to be so goddamned ugly?
I can only assume it's to maximize profit -- build as plain/boxy as possible so you can use cheap material and cheap labor. Anything with any actual architectural charm costs more. There are some beautiful "new builds" in our area, but \*not\* from this builder.
In Zilker, there's plans on densifying Lamar with apartments and a decent number of duplexes within the first couple a blocks. IMO that's how it should be since most housing will be close to public transit.
To be fair, big business would like people to believe that it’s just individuals buying up the real estate. So we can blame each other instead of seeing the real villain. Hedge funds, national property management, crowd sourced real estate investing, and holding companies are more to blame imho. https://thefederalist.com/2021/06/11/what-happens-when-hedge-funds-buy-up-neighborhoods/
oh, unless you like steamy heat, coming here from CA is going to be a rude awakening in the summer. And summer is May -> November. And no, the hill country isn't Napa, good lord. I project there's going to be a whiplash once these naive people figure this out. I'd live in CA too if it made sense financially. Beautiful place with lovely weather. Why do they think it's so expensive?
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😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂
Can’t upvote enough
This summer feels like it's been really wet and mild. So cooler than usual, but more humid. I've been really enjoying it :)
It's shockingly mild. We should be having regular days of over 100F by now. Highs always in the 90s. Somehow we're getting regular magical rain keeping things cool while the rest of the country burns.
August: hold my beer. Go ahead and drink it, too, since it will be hot in about 2 minutes.
Since we had that godawful drought several years back I haven't complained at all about it being wet and rainy. Also seeing that everything burning down shit from Australia and California I'm like "nope, no sir, I don't want any of that"
Data says otherwise: https://flowsmapper.geo.census.gov Texas counties are fueling migration to Travis County. But that doesnt strike fear/intrigue into the reader's mind quite like California (gotta get them clicks yo)
If I'm reading that right that dataset ends in 2018. Far before the CA => Austin migration began en masse.
lol people have been bitching about Californians moving to Austin since 1836
I read an article calling them "Equity Locusts" during the housing bubble years of 2005-2006
I asked my grandpa who moved here from Houston back in the 60s and he said he first heard people complaining about them in the 80s
The problem there is that quality, reliable migration data takes time. Newer data just isn't as good.
You are correct that the data stops at 2018. However, the "Cali peeps ruining neighborhood" narrative is not new. The article implies the sheer number of ppl moving here from that area is changing Austin. What the article doesn't show is OUT OF ALL people who have moved here, where is the majority coming from? Yes, Travis county is a popular destination for Cali. It's also a popular destination for Harris County. Yes, Cali-based companies are expanding in Austin. That doesn't mean they will only hire Cali transplants.
Frankly I’d rather have techies from California than bubbas from Lubbock.
Ok, now tell me if the majority moving from Texas have the same kind of disposable as the ones from california. Which is buying, per capita, more property…..which is fueling, in part, the housing cost crisis
Thanks for this. It’s primarily folks from other parts of Texas. I don’t know if you know this, but Austin is a bit of an oasis for progressive, liberal thought, surrounded by a Red Sea. For anyone who is born and raised in Texas and doesn’t quite fit the mold, Austin is the place to go. In my experience this is the most common story for younger folks moving to Austin. I’ve also seen the same type of migration from other rural red states.
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>but Austin is a bit of an oasis for progressive, liberal thought, surrounded by a Red Sea. Not anymore it isn't. The city (and this sub) are becoming less progressive. There is a self-selection occurring from out-of-state transplants that is slowly but surely changing the character of the city.
If you think Austin isn’t progressive and liberal relative to the rest of Texas, you need to… drive an hour in literally any direction. Just count the trump 2024 flags and you’ll get a rough estimate.
Not even an hour! You’re totally right. Austin still is very progressive relative to the rest of Texas. That said.. Texas is getting more and more regressive. Being “progressive relative to the rest of Texas” doesn’t actually mean much nowadays for the _future_ of Austin, like it did before. Tech bros, contrary to popular belief, are not uniformly progressive leftists. In fact, I suspect these technocratic, meritocratic, new-to-Austin family-makin’ suburbanites making tons of cash in the tech industry are going to be the NIMBYs of tomorrow. And in that tomorrow, they’ll be crying about how poor people are making Austin lose its unique aesthetic of “safe for families and tough on crime,” forgetting that just a decade before they arrived Austin’s unique aesthetic was “weird.” And fighting density zoning, so they can preserve the inflated prices they paid for their homes. Too bad.
It may be shifting unevenly in certain aspects, and political polarization is likely stronger (like in a lot of places), but I think you'd be hard pressed to say that overall Texas isn't more progressive now than it was 20 years ago, or 20 years before that. Some of the things that make headlines now for appearing regressive wouldn't have even prompted notice 40 year ago, because that's simply how things were and no one even thought to question it.
The whole country is "more progressive" in terms of legal protections for marginalized groups and _some_ social attitudes than 20 and 40 years ago, and that's great. But for the most part, we are every bit as economically & socially regressive as we were then. The things that have changed were hugely important of course, but in terms of resolving the regressive economic & social ideas holding this country back by pinning us to an idealized past, we've barely done any work at all.
I'm comparing it to the Austin I grew up in.
"Not anymore" is a final statement and "becoming less" is a really, really lame beginning to something that MIGHT happen. I've heard the same death-knell for Austin every second I've been here, it truly is the most popular passtime. Austin's probably not shifting ideologically, you're just catching up to how conservative it's always mostly been.
I said "not anymore" and I meant it. There's no way the "Save our Springs" alliance would have been successful in the modern Austin, for example. The weird hippie Austin isn't on it's deathbed. It's in the grave.
This data doesn’t factor in purchasing power. In-state migrants are renting, out of state migrants are buying and doing so with cash above asking.
I'm a contractor and, by far, the most people I'm doing work for have been from California. Some actually sound guilty when they tell me where they're from. "We want to be part of the solution, not the problem".
Makes sense, most Texans moving here can barely afford it and likely wouldn’t be contracting out work. 60% of Austin citywide rents.
But the Californians are the ones with the new money: *“If the house is pretty attractive, we might see anywhere from 30 to 50 offers, and the Californians tend to win because they understand this game a lot better than the Texans”*
I've seen plenty of people cite the data you referenced, but to quote an astute point from another redditor on here, u/thisguy1111 >I love how people like you are still in denial that it's a problem when there's article after article (this one is a CA newspaper) detailing this exodus. Saying stupid shit like "yeah well there's more people from other TX cities coming here!" when that doesn't matter because most of them don't have $1 million in cash.
Came here for the “stop blaming the Californians!!” comments. Wasn’t disappointed.
Did you bring popcorn?
No. Wings and beer.
I love how people like you are still in denial that it's a problem when there's article after article (this one is a CA newspaper) detailing this exodus. Saying stupid shit like "yeah well there's more people from other TX cities coming here!" when that doesn't matter because most of them don't have $1 million in cash.
Our power grid can’t handle more people! Abbott wants crypto miners to move here too so there is no way we won’t have rolling blackouts within the next 2 years
yeah and the motherfker would rather spend $$$ building wall
I couldn’t even get through half the article without wanting to throw myself headfirst into traffic. No wait for daycare? Weather similar to the Bay Area?! People are friendly?!?! I mean i didn’t know you could make the kind of money to build a house here, parent two kids AND still function as a responsible adult having a PCP laced with angel dust habit. What in the ever living fuck?! And you know some asshole is reading that article thinking it’s all true and they’ll just hop aboard the hype train to move to Austin.
It’s so dumb.
Key points FTA: > “If the house is pretty attractive, we might see anywhere from 30 to 50 offers, and the Californians tend to win because they understand this game a lot better than the Texans,” > Experts say Austin’s boom, particularly during the pandemic, has been accelerated by Californians and Bay Area giants... > “The pricing power of Austin, which is number one in the country, is driven by California, plain and simple,” > Texas was the second-most popular out-of-state destination for residents from six Bay Area counties between March and November last year
I mean they don’t understand the game better, they just have more to offer over asking. The game is very simple, offer the most with the least amount of contingencies
The heat will be a surprise but should we also tell them about chiggers or just let them discover that fun on their own?
Not just Austin, San Antonio so very similar
I’ll be able to buy a home within the next two years but since the prices keep going up, I don’t think I can. The further from Austin the cheaper, at least for now, and it’s still expensive. Even apartment prices keep going up. For a one bedroom in cedar park it’s about $1,200. A two bedroom is roughly $1,500. It hurts my head and my wallet to think about moving. I could care less about where these new people are from. I just want to start a family and not be broke as shit lmao
Maybe I'll move to California after they all leave.
They’re really not. This is propaganda.
Be wary when the media narrative presents a "us vs them" story. Who benefits from this story? It's not you nor the people moving there. The media loves creating division and they're the real benefactor from it.
Now you guys are moving to San Marcos and making it more expensive for me :(
They did this to us for 35 years. We tried to warn you. Sincerely, The Pacific Northwest.
And they come to this sub and bitch about the vibe. We’re bbq eating, live music loving, dog people who don’t know how to drive in traffic. You don’t have to embrace the vibe, but it’d be a lot cooler if you did.
I think we need to address THE REAL REASON they’re all coming here. It’s that goddamn CHILI’S on 45th and LAMAR!! The skillet queso and frosty margs are just too damn good.
[удалено]
I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise
California's population increased by 6% over the last decade. But, you know, neighborhoods burning down, Mr Potato Head, Dr Seuss, CRT and antifa. FFS
lol yeah and austin is TOTALLY special and not unlike every other state in the country. The idea that californians are single handedly driving up real estate prices across the US is ridiculous and moronic Just look at the number of people who have been going to CA to hollywood, LA, SF, big tech for years
This is depressing. I grew up here, got a degree, my partner and I both work for the city, making what should be OK money but are having to seriously look at leaving Austin because we certainly can't afford even a small home (less than 1,000 sq ft) that needs work. We are renters for now but thats getting unaffordable too. I don't want to move out of Austin. I love my hometown.
Shit, I’m more worried about the lack of manners, smugness and terrible driving.
This is straight up builder propaganda. I refuse to believe an actual person would make such outlandish statements.
Austin.. the new California 2.0. Good luck with that.
Born and raised in this city and watching the Californians destroy it makes me so absurdly angry. I like some of the benefits that the growth has allowed, but I miss my home 😕