Austin Texas relocation-retirement
 

It seems like Austin Texas is always listed as one of the top retirement and
relocation spots in the US. I must have read
20 to 30 different articles in the past year
how great Austin Texas is. Since my husband and I will be retiring soon we were thinking
maybe we should check out Austin. Anybody
currently residing in the Austin, Texas area, or currently moved from Austin Texas.
Your honest opinion appreciated.(It seems
like all the information on the web is from
real estate agents trying to sell you a
home, not give honest advice).

Crony

My parents are strongly considering moving to Del Webb's Sun City in Georgetown (30 minutes North of Austin) for their retirement. They were so impressed with the village!

I live in Austin, I have been here about 7 years I guess...anyway, actually we are moving soon. But it has been a great place to live. The cost of living is very low here and the crime is also very low - which I have recently realized I have been taking for granted since looking to re-locate. The things I do not like is not being near the ocean (although there are lakes) and not a major airport (which has its plus and minus, it never takes a long time to go through security, but you have to go through Dallas to go anywhere.) Also, there really is not a lot of culture here - no real museums, etc. I miss that aspect of living up north.

And it is really really hot. I do not like having to live in AC all the time, I dont think I have ever opened the windows in my house.

That being said - the quality of life here, overall is very good, compared to a lot of places...

OK, so this is wierd. I posted here a couple of hours ago and it has not appeared so I'm trying again. If it turns out to be a duplicate...oh, well.

My daughter lived in Austin for 5 yrs. She was a reporter for the American-Statesman. I visited her numerous times and just recently she, her sister and I returned there for a wedding.

Austin is EVERYTHING it is hyped to be, and more. It is a beautiful city, green...and full of bluebonnets in the spring. The food, excuse me, FOOD there is incredible. (Huge portions, unbelievable variety)

There is always something going on on Sixth St., music central! There are so many wonderful things to do one never runs out of things! At the same time, there are plenty of laid-back places to just relax.

My two complaints are the dry heat (I'm used to high humidity) and the traffic at rush hour (misnomer, that one!). But, a lot of people don't like MY humid heat and don't have to be in the rush hour traffic.

I would highly recommend this great city. When my daughter leaves the Peace Corp in September, she's going back there.

MIMO4,

When you say that Austin is hot all the time, your statement includes December and January. I think your generalization is as wrong as generalizations usually are.

I had my windows open in Dallas for the last few months to enjoy the beautiful weather from February thru May, and I think Austin's weather was pretty similar.

The characteristic of Texas summertime weather is mornings in the 70's, and hot, dry afternoons. The rest of the year is relatively gorgeous, except for a few weeks of wintry weather. This year, however, the winter didn't seem to come.

Summer in Texas is the off-season. Perhaps where you come from, summer is a relief, the time when the weather is at its best.

Austin without culture? There, I would agree with you. Austin is a small city, whereas Dallas and Houston are major metropolitan areas, with the arts, restaurant, shopping, and general metropolitan allure you would expect from a top ten city in America. When I went to Austin for a few weeks for my work, I felt that I had ended up in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to do.

Austin appeals to a narrowly defined niche population. They think it's great, mostly because they can socialize with their own kind. What are they? Think of a college town on steroids, with its fringe of social and political radicals. If that's your thing, Austin is a paradise.

Crime? That's a misperception. Every city will have good and bad neighborhoods, mostly because every city has a balance between the rich and the poor, and the middle classes. Your chances of being murdered in Washington DC are greater than in Austin, only because most of DC is ghetto. Compare the yuppie areas of DC with those in Austin... about as dangerous, or safe, whatever your perspective.

Hope you foud things to enjoy in Texas, and good luck with your move.

One more...no, two more things:

Austin is so diverse! Each Christmas there are spectacular light displays all over, but none more entertaining than 34th..or is it 35th..St?! The entire neighborhood decorates in such a way that your sides are splitting with laughter before you have finished the walk-through. Bart Simpson tying Barney to railroad tracks. Scores of bathroom sinks with lights wrapped around them. Halloween lanterns on Christmas trees. Everything you can think of. We stopped to look at one of the electric meters and it was absolutely spinning out of control. Must cost a fortune to put on this unique display...that's Austin!

The second thing:

My daughter took me to the Amardillo Festival. We were standing and looking at paintings selling for $6000 each.
I politely and discreetly as possible looked around at the people surrounding us. Cowboy boots, cowboy hats, jeans. Nothing fancy. Nothing fancy.

I quietly asked my daughter, "Sooo, where are the people who can afford to pay $6000 a painting?"

She whispered back, "All around you, sweetie. All around you."

That's the sweetness of Austin!

Austin is all the things everyone has said. It's a great place to live. I know one couple that live in the Del Webb Sun City and love it.

But, I beg to differ on the "dry heat". It's often hot and humid here. The past several days it's been in the low to near mid 90's. With the heat index (temp plus humidity) it's been 100 or more. This is not unusual as Austin can be very humid. THe heat (80's +) starts around mid April and continues to about mid September.

When I left for work this AM at 6:30 it was 74 degrees. It's 83 right now, at 9:30 PM. And very sticky!

I suggest that if you are considering Austin, visit here a few times. Make sure that one visit is in July.

I just moved to Austin a few months ago and it is nothing short of fantastic. We absolutely love it here and are buying a house near downtown. That being said, it is probably not a great place to retire unless you have plenty of money. Property taxes are very high and it is probably the most expensive place in Texas in which to live. You can easily pay very little though to live NEAR Austin (Round Rock, Georgetown, etc) but then you will not really have the same vibe that Austin offers. The people are great here and everyone just seems so happy that it becomes infectious.

xbt - No I did not mean to include winter in that statement...It has been in the 90s for weeks now and it is supposed to be hotter this week. Anyway, the OP looking to move here can read weather reports on their own anyway, I am just tired of not being able to have my windows open because there is no breeze at all and its muggy here in the morning - mid 70s and 90s in the afternoon for several months. Thats all...

xbt - sorry I have better things to do than to argue with you... I did not say months, I said weeks if you would re-read.

Anyway, to the OP I think you would make a good choice here. It really is a nice place.

Oh goody, xbt2316 is out to ruin yet another good thread. Sorry Crony, but every time this idiot chimes in the post goes downhill fast.

Rather than argue, I'd like to say I spent 3 years living near Austin (Round Rock) and found no problem in going into the city when it struck my fancy. I could still enjoy the more "country" feel outside the city, yet take advantage of what the larger city offered. Culture? Sure, Austin isn't NYC, but in many ways it's so much better? Weather? Hot in the summer, mild most of the rest of the year, reasonably dry but not quite a desert. People? Pretty good mix of average Americans, including Hispanics, retired military, other retired, and lots of younger professional people. As for where to live overall, I would choose to live outside Austin, probably in Georgetown, especially for retirement.

ttt

nevermind, xbt - I got your number

What's this about "dry heat?" As a 24-year resident, one of the few complaints I have about Austin is the humidity. It's not as bad as Houston, but it's certainly not a dry climate.

It is true that Austin does not have as much theatre as Dallas or Houston, but we do get a lot of traveling broadway shows and some operas. I understand they are opening a large new venue for theatre, so hopefully there will be even more in the near future.

I love Austin because it's hip, funky, and completely unique.

Keep Austin Weird!!

(PS That's a local slogan)

Hmmmm..... I think you may be lost, Aggiemom... somehow you dropped out of the Dallas thread and fell into the Austin thread.

P_M, if you think Austin is humid, what do you consider not humid? I'll agree that Phoenix is dry, as is Las Vegas... but Austin is drier than most of the US.

Good luck in attracting more theatre, although the amount of theatre usually depends on the size of the audience, rather than the number of venues.

"Keep Austin Weird"? That may not be very hard to do.

P_M -

I'm with you. I much prefer Austin over Dallas.

I saw this thread when I was looking for other postings done by xbt. I STILL can't believe he thinks the humidity is low in Dallas! He keeps spreading this around and deluding people.

xbt2316, I don't think we'll have a problem with the size of the audiences here in Austin, as the shows I've seen tend to sell out fast.

I'm not the only person on this thread who says Austin is humid, and I don't know anyone here in Austin who sees this as a dry climate. I wish that were not true, but Austin does get quite humid.

xbt2316, I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the time you spent here. You said were here for a few weeks, but I've lived here for 24 years, so I must disagree with you on a few points. Austin has a great deal of cultural diversity and appeals to a broad base of people. There was a time when Austin was primarily a college town, but those days are long gone. One of the many good results of our cultural diversity is the great variety of cuisine. I cannot think of any type of ethnic cuisine that is not available here in Austin. You said there's nothing to do. Did you visit 6th Street, the Warehouse District, or any of the countless live music venues here in town?

I don't know when you were here, but I would like to invite you to return and give it another chance.

Austin dry? You're kidding! I think that 50% humidity (on a good day) is humid. It's not unusual to see 70%+ on a hot day. (Before 8 AM on many occaisions) A few weeks ago I think we had about 20% humidity for a few days. Very rare.

Oh boy...it is all relative, isn't it? I kept my windows open in San Antonio through most all May and part of June. End of September they were open again. Humidity??? Hill Country? You all don't know nuttin'!

LOL ...of course we moved here from Tampa. We need to keep ourselves oiled up lest our skin begin cracking from the dryness here in south central Texas. 50% humidity is HEAVEN! :D

P_M, thanks for your cordial invitation. I may in fact do that.

Yes, I was in Austin for a couple of months a few years ago. Obviously, the city didn't appeal to me or I would have stayed longer.

Austin's major flaw, in my opinion, is its size. It just isn't a big enough city for me. I'm used to the buzz you get in a megacity... like the Washington metro, the Boston metro, the San Francisco metro or the Dallas metro.

For an overkill buzz, New York is it for me, or maybe LA. But as far as living day in and day out in a place that feels like the center of things, metro Dallas, with its 6 million people does it for me. Austin with 1.2 million just doesn't give me that buzz.

OK peoples, I'll try to settle the humidity question with some numbers. These numbers are from the Statistical Abstract of the United States for 2000.

I'll give the name of the city, followed by the average afternoon summer humidity percentage:

Atlanta 55
Houston 58
Minneapolis 56
New York 55
New Orleans 66
Miami 63
Chicago 57
St Louis 57
Boston 56
LA 68
San Francisco 60
San Diego 67

Dallas 50

Dallas has lower humidity than any of the other cities I've mentioned.

What about Austin? Unfortunately, it's too minor a metro to get a mention in the Statistical Abstract, but we can extrapolate. As you go south from Dallas to Austin, the trees get more and more stunted, the grass is shorter, everything's drier. So I deduce that Austin's afternoon summer humidity is less than Dallas' 50.

Thus, if Austin is supposed to be humid, then every city in America (outside of the deserts) is humid. And more humid than Austin.

LA at 68 percent humidity? Higher than HOUSTON?? Where did you get these "facts?" Just not possible.

Stunted trees and grass in Austin? Oh please xbt! You do yourself a disservice making such comments! It immediately raises a red flag, making the rest of your assertions questionable.

Using another website, here's a humidity comparison. By the way...Austin wasn't omitted because of size, your chart took 3 points in the state...Dallas, El Paso, and Houston which have significant geographical and climatic differences.

http://www.cityrating.com/relativehumidity.asp

<u>Yearly relative humidity, morning and night</u>


Los Angeles: 79 and 65%

Dallas: 81 and 58%

Austin: 83 and 59%

Houston: 90 and 63%

Another website: http://www.vias.org/tmdatanaleng/data_humidit2.html

<u>Annual Mean and Average Humidity</u>:

Los Angeles: 79 and 65

Dallas: 82 and 56

Austin: 84 and 57

Houston: 90 and 60

Malesherbes, your numbers are inappropriate.

The issue is not humidity averaged over the year, but humidity in the summer, when the combination of heat and humidity makes people uncomfortable.

Relative humidity in the winter is higher just because the air is cooler... but it is not that much of a problem in January.

I'll stand by what I said... the farther south you go in Texas, the drier it gets... vegetation in the Dallas area is much greener and more lush than in Austin, 200 miles to the south.

Aggiemom... you don't know where I got these numbers?

I said in my post that they came from the Statistical Abstract of the United States for the year 2000. This is a sizable set of data on the byreau of the census website.

It was a rhetorical question.

Hmmmm.... rhetoric is USUALLY intended to support an argument of some kind... not sure what point you're trying to make.

Pardon me. I used it incorrectly.

Please let it be known to all that I, XBT, hereby issue an executive pardon to Aggiemom, for any and all crimes commited in the scope of her rhetorical question.

Welcome back to the community of the law-abiding, A..M..

From one of the websites: http://www.vias.org/tmdatanaleng/data_humidit2.html for <u>June</u>, d*amn it...and it only gets worse from there,

Los Angeles: 85% (mean) 58 (average)
Dallas: 86 M, 55 A
Austin: 89 M 57 A
Houston: 92 M 60 A

And I am equally certain there are any other number of websites that will show exactly this same information. I have lived in Dallas and I now live between Austin and San Antonio. I can tell you firsthand, even if the numbers weren't sitting in front of me, that this area is more humid than Dallas--to say NOTHING of the number and quality of trees for heavens sake.

I honestly do not have the time at this time of year to be digging into this further to prove this point and know from your past posts on Dallas that I could talk this point to doomsday and you would persist with your argument. I have two websites giving annual averages and one giving June figures as well as the annual...the annual of course being relevant as well. Take from it what you will. LOL, and unfortunately, I know what form your response will take.

Now, as far as I am concerned, over and out. I have family coming in tomorrow and the next day and I am slammed. Take this where you will, but you are the lone voice, have you noticed, claiming Dallas is more humid than Austin. Not that it makes a difference to you of course! :)

Crony, I encourage you to visit and explore Austin. Great city that would support a great retirement lifestyle. A very nice area indeed.

Malasherbes, I don't understand your mania... to try to prove Austin is slightly more humid than Dallas in JUNE, for heaven's sake... quoting some numbers from some source of doubtful, if that, accuracy...

What's your problem?

A friend looked at Sun City in Georgetown, if you'd like living in a place with a couple of hundred pages of regulations then you'd like it but it's not for me !
Don't confine your search to just Austin, check out the whole region - Texas Hill Country.

<i>My</i> mania xbt??? Austin's dryness was the drum <i>you</i> were beating and I was pointing out that you were wrong. You made the assertion that Austin was less humid than Dallas with absolutely no numbers to back your assertions. You &quot;deduced&quot; Austin was less humid because the &quot;grass was shorter and trees stunted&quot;--which was your first error.

I provided two websites with annual averages for the cities. You wanted summer averages. So, I gave you June and you scoff at June. LOL OK, tell you what...you provide us with a website with <i>data</i> proving Austin is less humid than Dallas, not your deductions based on erroneous assumptions, and then perhaps you'll have a leg to stand on and we'll listen.

I'm beginning to think that xbt:

a) doesn't even live in Texas and/or

b) he stays cooped up in his room with his computer looking up arcane &quot;facts&quot; and butchering them to his liking and he never spends time actually outside.

It is all about the dewpoint, not humidity. Dewpoint is a better indicator of how uncomfortable it feels at any given time. I'd be interested in those numbers.

Malesherbes, I thought you said that &quot;I honestly do not have the time at this time of year to be digging into this further to prove this point&quot;...

Looks like you came into a whole bunch of time after all, and were able to continue your manic argument. Funny how we always find the time to do what's important, eh?

Aggiemom, you don't want to descend to a personal level, especially with me. Believe me, I'm very good at dealing with that sort of thing. If you have information to contribute to society, well and good... but don't stoop to namecalling or personal mischaracterization.

oooh, I'm so scared....