I live in Houston. Don't particularly like the suburbs but I can see it is because you are retiring. I think the best place for you to be in Austin. If I were to retire, Houston or Dallas would be the last place. Austin is just prettier and has more things to do - especially for retirees. I love my job so I wouldn't be moving and I have learned to love houston since it is my home but it doesn't compare to Austin. Niether does Dallas.

As to whether Austin is prettier... the Austin suburbs look no different than suburbs anywhere else... and Austin has no real urban residential areas comparable, say, to midtown Houston or Uptown Dallas.

Dallas and Houston have more things to do than Austin because they are 4 or 5 times the population of Austin...

I live in Dallas and I take advantage of the many museums, concerts, clubs, festivals, educational, medical opportunities and shops that you'd expect to find in an urban area of 6 million people... Austin has a little over one million... and that makes an enormous difference in what each metro area has to offer...

The reason that Austin people are so fanatically devoted to their city is its politics... generally the only place in Texas with a left-of-center ideological orientation... people in Texas who favor that view of the world gravitate to Austin as a refuge, they have no where else to go... at least not in this part of America.

If that is you, then Austin is your mecca. On the other hand, if it means nothing to you, then Austin has little else to make up for its small size and shortage of major city amenities.

Both Dallas and Houston are several times the size of Austin. In practical terms, why would this be an advantage? What is the benefit of having 5 times as many gas stations and supermarkets?

The main benefit of size is greater variety and selection, not just quantity.

If I want to open a men's outdoor clothing shop in a city that already has a dozen of them, mine has to be distinctive in some way... it must find a special and unique niche. And the bigger the city, the more competition, the more variety, the more selection.

Apply that idea to everything you see, do, eat, drink, experience... and you find that a much larger city offers a much richer and more interesting experience of life than a smaller one. It is more likely to have a specialist that deals with your specific medical problem, or legal problem... more likely to have a religious congregation that suits your needs and wants.

This was true for me when I left Dallas for Austin for a couple of months on a job assignment. Compared to Dallas, Austin's movie houses had less variety, the choice of restaurants was skimpier in terms of quantity and selection and quality, Austin's museums were a joke compared to what I had in the DFW area, Austin's housing was in shorter supply, and with less variety, and its entertainment options were trivial, or geared to 20 year old college students.

Austin generally came up short in giving me the things and experiences that were important to my life. The 2 months I spent in Austin were basically a loss... except for the additional insight I gained about what cities are all about.

If Austin really has only 1M population, they are all on the roads each time I visit.
M

hmmm....

Let's do a little math...

one million cars would be about 20 million feet.... no, make it 40 million, for a 20 foot separation between cars.

40 million feet is 7,575 miles at 5280 feet per mile... that's right... a line of cars stretching from New York City to LA, and another one from LA back to NYC.

Dallas is going to have things that are far more specialized, sophisticated and potentially useful, than a small city like Austin could support.

For example, lawyers...

My elderly mom discovered that her accountant had been dipping his beak into the honey pot a little too deep, and she wanted her money back... The guy had squandered it, and couldn't even settle for pennies on the dollar, he was so broke.

Well, Dallas is big and sophisticated enough to have a law firm that specializes in "Little Old Ladies who are cheated by crooked accountants".

It takes a special set of skills and a very specialized knowledge base to build a legal claim against a professional accountant, but Dallas is big enough to have a law firm that does exactly that.

In a town like Austin, you'd have to settle for a guy who's one step up from chasing ambulances.

Well, the case dragged on, and the "Little Old Lady" in question passed on to a place where money is useless, but I continued the lawsuit... With the help of the firm, we got the guy pretty much over a barrel, and after the settlement with his accounting firm and his insurance carrier, my lawyer was rich, my mother's trust funds were richer, and all the grandchildren went on shopping sprees.

Well, God forbid that this specific problem ever happens to any of you... but strange, weird things happen all the time... Life hands out some painful, one-of-a-kind punches, and it's easier to deal with it in a big town like Dallas...

Austin has traffic, but it's really my fave out of the TX cities. Then San Antonio which wasn't mentioned. I was in Houston last summer when we were visiting my daughter in Austin. Even though it was 102F on day in Austin, the 94F in Houston felt hotter with the humidity.

Trippin, every city in Texas has a core of people who think it's "the best", and are willing to get on a forum like this to voice their loyalty. ... and every city in Texas has something that sets it apart from the others, establishes its own niche. Each is unique in its own way.

You don't give any rationale for your opinion, however. You can't explain what you like about it that is so compelling. If you can't explain that particular something, then your statement is really meaningless to everyone else. Why should anyone care if you claim to like Austin? Why should anyone care if you claim to like pistachio ice cream, or anchovies on your pizza?

On a strictly numerical basis, DFW has Austin outvoted, since 5 times as many people choose to live there, for whatever reason, as choose Austin. Houston is 4 times as good as Austin, in spite of its humidity, based on the fact that 4 times as many people selected it.

If I were from out-of-state looking for a Texas city to settle in, I'd like to know as much about their respective merits as possible... I'd want to know which one is better for ME. I couldn't care less what is better for YOU. If you can't give me some good reasons that Austin is my best choice, I don't need to hear you.

In a few specialized areas, Austin has things to offer... but most people moving to Texas are not likely to have them as their priorities... that's why roughly half of the people in Texas live in either the DFW or Houston areas... those two cities are the most likely places to have what a newcomer wants and needs.

Sure, Houston is humid. But... obviously that fact is outweighed by the many advantages that Houston has over Austin... Likewise Dallas over Austin. The bottom line... most Texans have voted with their feet... and Austin was not the winner.

i attended a conference in Houston.
Never have I seen so many fat people and buffets anywhere else.

Yeah, I think there are more fat people in Houston than in Muleshoe, Arkansas...

So are you an expert on the fat people demographic of American cities?

The fat people people who eat at buffets in Houston are usually from out of town attending conferences.

Hahaha.... good comeback, Binthair... !

You've got a knack for pointing out the obvious inanity... such as the one in Tondalaya's comment...

XBT, if you want reasons for my opinion that's fine, but I shoiuldn't have to defend myself. We're musicians, and I like the music scene there. I like college towns, and downtowns that are fun to walk in. I like Town Lake, spending time at Zilker Park, Barton Springs and Lake Travis. I like the dining and clubs of South Congress (So Co) and South Lamarr. The One World theatre and Lake Travis.
So there's some reasons for you. Just because a place has a higher population doesn't make it better more interesting. I live in San Jose, CA which is more populated than San Francisco. But I'd pick the city by the bay over my home city anyday. :-)
PS- we shouldn't have to justify our opinions on this board, LOL! Have a great day everybody! :-)

And XBT, Have fun dominating this post. That's it for me as I have better things to do with my time.

Houston, Dallas, and Austin are all HUMID and HOT during summers. Lets compare Dallas vs Houston: Dallas is hotter than Houston, but Dallas is slightly less humid than Houston, making the "feels like" temperature the same in both cities. On average, if Dallas temperature is 98° then Houston will be 93°, if Dallas humidity is 62% then Houston will be 70%, and thus making the "feels like temperature" of about 104° in both cities. So summers are equally terrible in both cities.

But Houston has an advantage in winters. Dallas commonly gets many days below freezing temps (sometimes as low as 16°) during winters. This causes major traffic problems with ice on roads under moisture. On the other hand, below freezing temps are rare in Houston (3-4 days max of as low as 30-28°). Also, hail storms and tornadoes are much more common in Dallas. But Houston gets more of the rare hurricanes. And flooding is common in both cities, probably a little more intense in sone areas of Houston.