We almost moved to Austin during the pandemic. Luckily my wife's potential job offer fell through so we stayed in the Bay Area. We've heard of friends of friends who sold their Bay Area house during the pandemic, moved to Austin, but now can't move back because they can't afford to sell their house and take a loss, and then come back and get a 7% mortgage on double the house price.
I think we would have been okay in Austin, but the things I've heard from close friends from Texas are:
1) Austin is not like SF Bay Area at all. People around here seemed convinced by the myths that Austin was like a liberal oasis in a Republican desert but it's not like that at all. It's more liberal than rural Texas but it's still Texas.
2) There's only desert and rolling hills for 3+ hours around. No water, no mountains, etc unless you make a long road trip. It's not like the SF Bay Area where you have water, desert, mountains, etc all very close by.
I think we would have been okay in Austin, but the things I've heard from close friends from Texas are:
1) Austin is not like SF Bay Area at all. People around here seemed convinced by the myths that Austin was like a liberal oasis in a Republican desert but it's not like that at all. It's more liberal than rural Texas but it's still Texas.
2) There's only desert and rolling hills for 3+ hours around. No water, no mountains, etc unless you make a long road trip. It's not like the SF Bay Area where you have water, desert, mountains, etc all very close by.