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June 28, 2007
Added some entries on Downtown Austin and Real Estate Information. These will probably turn into new sections all by themselves.
Welcome to my guide to Austin, Texas. Here, I hope to write about useful information about my new home. I hope this page will be useful to both the locals and to people that are considering moving to Austin. There are many web sites about Austin, but what I hope to write from a more neutral, unbiased viewpoint covering the good and the bad parts of Austin. Also, I hope to provide a "real world" account of what its like for someone from the outside moving to Austin. Some topics I wish to cover are:
 | About Austin - General Information about Austin. Here is where I'll go over the mostly good, but some of the bad parts of Austin. Start here if you are new to Austin. |
| Downtown Austin - Information about the economic, cultural, and political center of the city. |
| Getting Around Town - I'm also a bit of a road geek, so here's a description of the major highways and the important intra city roads. |
| Real Estate And Relocation Information - I bought 2 properties in Austin, so I have done much research as to the different neighborhoods. |
| Places to See, Things To Do - Interesting tourist attractions and sites to see. |
| Food and Drink - Places to eat, entertainment |
| News/Gossip - What's going on around town. Check here to see what's been going on around town lately! |
| Links - Links to other useful websites about Austin. |
June 7, 2007
I have lived in Austin, Texas since July, 2005. At the end of 2004, I decided that I no longer wanted to live in New Jersey anymore. In fact, I had been wanting to move away from New Jersey since 1996 when I visited Georgia Tech in Atlanta. But many things prevented me from moving from New Jersey. First, I was finishing college at Rutgers. I was so close to graduating that it wasn't worth losing the credits. I was less than 1 year from graduating and I would be better off finishing college before moving away from New Jersey. However, the .com boom hit and I got an incredible job offer in 1997 for $50K/year. Now $50K/year may not sound like a lot of money today, but for a 21 year old who hadn't even graduated from college yet, it was almost unheard of at the time. For the next 3 years, I would do very well working as an independent consultant for various financial firms in Manhattan. We were in the mist of the .com bubble and the money was more than what I could ever imagine at the time.
Despite the money, I was not happy with where I was. New York City is a great place to visit, but it's a terrible place to live the lifestyle that I wanted to live. There's just too much traffic, pollution, and people. But the money was there to be made and I firmly believe that one must make the money when the opportunity is there because there will be a time when it won't be there. Most likely, the money won't be there when one needs it most. So I made the most of the opportunity that was given to me.
In 2000, the .com boom turned into a bust and I took the opportunity to take some time off and pursue personal interests. Various personal reasons still prevented me from moving, but finally in 2004. I decided that it was time to make a move. It's one thing to decide that I wanted to move away from New Jersey, but the real question was to where? I had the freedom to go anywhere I wanted. I started doing research on various places in the USA and even went on a 3,500 mile road trip (which is another page I need to work on) from New Jersey to New Orleans and back. Eventually, I decided on Austin, Texas because:
| Warm weather - I love outdoor activities, especially riding my bicycle. I wanted a place where I could ride all year round. |
| Low cost of living - Compared with the Northeast, Austin's cost of living is LOW! Houses or rent are 1/3 to 1/2 what it costs in New Jersey. |
| Jobs - Being a computer programmer, I wanted to a place where I could find jobs. Any large or mid size city would be fine, but Austin has a large high tech presence. |
| Growth - Austin is one of the fastest growing cities in the USA. Being that I wanted to buy real estate, I wanted to live in a city that was affordable now, but had potential to appreciate. At this point in my life, I do not wish to live in mega city like New York City, but I also do not want to live in stagnating, declining city such as Detroit. |
The way I decided on Austin, Texas was to start off with a map of the United States and start eliminating States for various reasons. I ended up with Austin, Texas. Some other cities on my short list were Atlanta, Georgia, Raleigh, and Charlotte, North Carolina. I don't believe I will die in Austin (and therefore I will move at least one more time in my life), but I probably will settle down here for a while.
