Austin Travel Forum

Hello friends,
I am a new member and since I have read so many useful postings, I figured some of you can probably help me in making the right decision regarding my concerns. I reside in Orlando Florida and I am looking into a possible relocation opportunity to Austin in the near future. My questions are the following: How are the the employment opportunities? How about tornadoes? Is the weather hotter than Florida? Can I find a home to purchase with low property taxes? Is the nightlife compatible to Orlando's? I will probably visit Austin sometime in the summer but I wanted to have some sort of information prior to my visit.
thanks in advance for your replies.
Miguel

Night life?

Austin is the live music capital of the world!!!! There is no second.

And the musicians that got chased out of new Orleans by Huricane Katrina are headed there.

Austin has it all. A college town, a lake and at the start of the Hill Country. Cooler than most of Texas with less humidity.

And if that's not enough. They have bats. Millions of them! Drink in hand, watching the bats come out from under the bridges at sundown... What can I say?

Some of the companies from Silicon Valley headed there. Economy flucuates and the price of housing does accordingly. I don't know what it is doing this week.

- Jobs: Austin has a pretty strong IT sector, and there's lots of gov't work. If you have experience, you should have no problem finding a job.

- Tornadoes: Rare in this area. When they do come, they're usually out in the rural areas.

- Weather: The temp may get higher than in FL, but the humidity is lower. However, it also gets much colder than FL, often snowing in the winter.

- Taxes: Don't know about FL, but TX has no state income tax, so relies heavily on its property taxes. Houses are still pretty reasonable in the Austin suburbs though.

- Nighlife: Don't know about Orlando, but Austin has one of the best nightlifes in the country. It's the live music capital and has lots of great bars. It is a college town, but you can avoid that crowd very easily.

When you come, stay in the city, but make sure you drive out to where you'd probably live (i.e. - suburbs) to get an idea of the layout. Austin tends to have some vicious commutes and notoriously bad traffic on its main freeway (I-35).