Austin, Texas is a great place to live! I was born and raised in ATX and I’m still here.
It has long been on the lists year after year for being the #1 place to live in the US.
There are many a good reason for this ranking. And many people are coming to know this and moving to our beautiful city. You might like to move or visit here, too. Now, let me help you decide and by the end of this speech you might decide if you would like to come visit and take me up on a tour of the city that I love so much.
Today, I will give you an brief overview of Austin.
Then I will tell you about some of the wonderful things happening in Austin right now.
And then I will end with
Austin is the capitol city of Texas. It is only the 4th largest city in Texas, but growing at an alarming rate, it is a boom town; as it has been one of the fastest growing cities in America for over 10 years with a current population around a million.
Once a sleepy college town, home of the University of Texas, “The Longhorns”. Formerly, most of our residents came here for university loved it and stayed. Lately, this has been the case with the South by Southwest Music Conference (SXSW), South by.
Austin is in the hill country with many close lakes, rivers, and creeks, greenbelts; and all sorts of festivals like Austin City Limits (ACL) just like the PBS show hosted here for 45 years. And outdoor activities, such as stand up paddle (SUP) boarding on Lady Bird Lake with the other Austinites.
We are also the self-proclaimed “Music Capitol of the World” with many venues and musicians that make up live music each night on 6th Street and throughout the city.
Home of Willie Nelson and Minister of Culture, Matthew McConaughey who may soon be running for Governor of the great State of Texas.
The whole vibe in the his town is nobody is better than anybody else and folks just like to get by and live, what are known as Slackers, and also our city slogan is “Keep Austin Weird”.
Now that people are finding out about Austin and with Texas being so business-friendly; companies are moving here, many from Silicon Valley to here in what is being called the Silicon Hills. There are almost 100 corporate relocation and expansion projects in the works in Austin just since the pandemic hit. Oracle moved its headquarters to Austin late in 2020. Tesla is building its new Gigafactory here and will be building the Cybertruck here. Apple is building it’s second-largest campus here. Many other companies have a precense here too, like Google and Facebook, DropBox…
And a new Soccer stadium the Q2 and soccer team the Austin FC Club!
I’ve seen this town change a lot in my life, mostly starting around 20 years ago, but it has further excelerated in the past 5 years and the population has grown by 25% since covid started, this has created a housing shortage and home prices to increase by $50% in just one year! Now this may have been included in the great things about Austin section, but if you want to continue to live in Austin, you can’t take advantage of that appraisal increase because where are you going to move to?
Also, in Texas we don’t have income tax. But we do have property tax. Which means that you might think that you have paid your house off and own your house and property, but if you don’t pay your property tax, then your house will be taken from you and auctioned off on the courthouse steps.
And last, but not least, it’s hot here. It is so daggum hot! Which often means 30 straight days of over 100 degrees in July and August. And with humidity the heat index can feel in the high 90’s throughout September and into August.
And nevermind that we are so far south that it doesn’t snow. Austin got snowed in last February for over a week. Most went without power and water for 3 or more days at a time.
As you can tell, I really do love this city. My family and I are rooted here. Only the best is yet to come with new diversity in culture and foods and opportunity and growth with all of the new business moving into the area. But I too think it is too damn hot. But it is up to you, maybe come for a visit first and see if you like it and want to move to our town.
