How is the life in Austin?

Answer 1

Well this week and next it is HOT!...though warm 10 months of the year, we are in an unusual hot spell....

A better answer:
It's friendly, the climate warm (except for 2 months of the year) and mostly informal. We have the most vibrant music scene in the country and there is great music all over town, much of it free, 365 days a year.

There is pretty much any physical or leisure activity you can think of available here and again, most is reasonable in price and there's a lot of free stuff too.

The schools are good (better than CA where I came from).

The downsides -
real estate can be pricy depending on what part of town (and choosing an area to live in is tough because so much of the city is very, very nice and safe. It's still a bargain compared to cities like NYC, San Francisco Bay Area and the DC or Boston areas, but higher than most cities in the US and higher than all of TX.

Property taxes run about 3% of appraised value which is also very high. My property taxes are nearly $7K a year. Of course put that in perspective - I have a 3000 sq foot house overlooking Lake Travis I paid $210K for 3 years ago. In Silicon Valley (san jose area) where I came from a similar house would have been $2mil..so I'm still pleased as punch.

The schools in most areas are excellent, though I find that still being so close to the bible belt, they can be a little anal and conservative...far too much for my tastes. Thanks to Bush, they also can only teach abstinence in sex ed which I find an atrocity.

The cities love using cops and tickets as a revenue source and they sometimes LIE about how fast you were going. Invest in a radar detector it will save you a bundle.

Very few who live here ever want to leave and when they do leave, they always try to come back. Wages can be low in many fields because there is no shortage of those that want those jobs. The counter to that is that this is a great area to own your own business and a lot of people here do.

I've been here 5 years and love it. I can't see wanting to be anywhere else at any point in the foreseable future and I've lived on both coasts and was only 20 minutes from the beach in CA.

It isn't perfect, but I have a lot of fun, my kids have blossomed in the schools (even the one with special needs has thrived academically) and I've found a nice balance in my life and made many, many friends. It is friendly here.

It's a young city, full of young people and older people who still live and behave like young people. We have our vary own transvestite homeless guy, Leslie, who regularly runs for mayor and gets a fair share of the vote.

Sixth St, part of a bigger downtown entertainment area, shuts down several nights a year for very wild parties. Halloween, NYE and Mardi Gras being the biggest in the bunch.

This city is so friendly we actually had a city-wide party that closed Congress St for blocks to celebrate! We're home to SXSW and ACL, two of the largest musical festivals in the world.

Answer 2

All I can tell you is that when I visit friends in Dallas, San Antonio or Houston, the first thing they all say is how great Austin is and how they wish THEY cold live in such a very cool beautiful place.
I don't have to prompt anyone or say anything, , when they find out I live in Austin
they always blurt it out!

Answer 3

Austin is amazing. If you like food and music you will love Austin. It has everyhting!!! Good luckand have fun