Questions for locals to Austin area

[Meltdown07]

Hey guys, I was hoping for some feedback/suggestions from any of you that might be local to the Austin area.

 

A little background- my girlfriend is moving down to Austin to begin her PhD studies at Texas. I'm looking to possibly move down with her. I'm 25, she's 24. We've been together about 2.5 years. If I do follow her we want to find a house/condo together in Austin there somewhere. Just have a few questions about the area and I want some advice from real people that are local to the area.

 

1. How is Austin really? I always read about how great it is. How the nightlife is #1 in the US, etc. Is it a safe area?

 

2. How is the job market in Austin? I'm an electrical engineer, and obviously I will need to find a job down there if I'm going to move.

 

3. Music scene? I'm a big fan of rock, I'm in a band up in Chicago right now. I love seeing local bands live. I realize no one on here may be interested to know the answer, but is there a rock scene in Austin?

 

4. Weather/Climate/Wildlife concerns, etc? Obviously this will be an adjustment coming from Chicago, but is there anything I should be aware of other than warm and dry?

 

5.LGT community? How many of you are in/near Austin? I enjoy my meets up here in Chicago, and if I move I'd obviously like to be involved in some sort of Legacy group down there.

 

6. Anything else I need to know?

 

 

 

Thanks in advance guys. I appreciate any feedback you guys might have.

[strife1012]

OK. Austin, Yes Austin, we like it weird here, just ask Leslie the local Tranny who ran for mayor.

 

Now if you want a house in town it starts at 225k, unless your on the east side. BTW Austin has one of the largest racial divides in the Country, I-35 is the divider. East of I35 is a majority Black Hispanic population, Whereas West side is the nicer part of town. Westlake is the most expensive, followed by Mount Bonnell, and all of the lakes. If you want a house for under 200k you have to basically go out of town for for a HUD Home.

 

We have 4 Toll Roads that are now finished. Toll 1, Toll 45 Toll 130 and Toll 183A

 

Traffic Situation: You can travel East to West 3 times faster than North to South. I35:Sucks Hardcore, I mean seriously, Don't depend on it from 12am to 1159pm. MOPAC AKA Loop 1 is a little better. Research AKA 183 is pretty good these days, so is Ben White AKA 71.

 

That should help you a little bit

 

Towns lineup from North to South:

 

Georgetown

Round Rock

Pflugerville

Cedar Park

Austin

Buda

 

All of the smaller towns have cheaper Homes

 

Weather: HOT Damn HOT hottest Month is August Temp gets up to 113

Morning in the summer is 75 to 95 afternoon high. We get most of our rain right now. Oh and Snow? yeah we saw snow, in 1995 it snowed 3 times. not much since. Mostly sleet or ice. Oh and if there is any, days off. Yeah we donno how to drive in any thing under 32 degrees around here.

 

Heres a Wiki on Austin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin,_Texas

 

as For LGT Community: I donno, I just hang out with the Nasioc TXIC people, They don't seem to mind.

 

Music Scene: its an all year thing, we have rather good Rocky Horror Picture Show Following, SXSW is during Spring Break, mostly music and movies over 1000+ bands played. Oh and here. The Weirder the better.

 

Also If you look at Google Maps, it is missing 4 Highways, The Google Maps are from 2004.

 

Oh and we Hate Wal-Mart. FYI

[ppena]

Austin is a great place but just remeber it isn't a dry heat. It is hot and sticky during the summer but this is Texas so we have bad ass A/C everywhere. I was in Chicago last August and everyone acted like they were going to melt at 95 but I think it was do to the lack of A/C.

 

Austin has some of the best driving roads in Texas. you drive a little west and you are in the middle of the hill country. I would love to live there but my wife is an interior designer and those jobs are in Dallas. I live in San Marcos for a year and a half and it was great to go to Austin. This area of Texas also has the greatest grocery store HEB. i have family that lives in Austin and I love to get down there for visits.

[ProjectS15]

mmm LiquidIQ has an LGT?

LivNlegacy use to have one

im up in austin time to time visiting

 

but we hang out with the nasioc crew

[Meltdown07]

Heh, Thanks for the input guys, any other info is more than welcome.

 

The weather will be a huge adjustment for me. I complain about the heat up in Chicago here during the summer, so I can only imagine what it will be like down there. I'll get used to it I suppose.

 

Sounds good for a music scene. What is SXSW though? Sounds familiar, I'm sure i'm going to have a 'DUH' moment when you fill me in.

 

We're just starting to look at houses and condo's so I dont know what we'll decide. She'll be making a very meager living while she's in grad school, so we'll probably find something small.

 

I hope the NASIOC people are cool then if there aren't a lot of LGT owners in the area. They same to be very hit or miss up here. I've met some really cool NASIOC people in Chicago and some real assholes.

 

Anyone know of some good places for a Electrical Engineer to look for a job besides Dell? If so let me know.

 

Thanks a ton for the input guys, keep it coming

 

P.S. I hate Walmart too.

[ppena]

SXSW = South by Southwest. It is a week long music festival on 6th street.

 

The NASIOC guys in Austin are cool. I met up with them for a drive and they were great and I had a Passat at the time.

 

Oracle and AMD have offices there not sure it they use double E's in that location.

[c-note]

[Note: I already submitted this but it didnt show up so I am hoping this doesnt come through twice]

 

Lived in Austin for five year while in school at UT (2000-2005) for both undergrad and grad school, so I will try and help you out.

 

1. The night life is excellent. Sixth street is fun, but more of a college thing. For more adult audiences there is 4th street, the warehouse district, and west sixth which are all great, though maybe a tad more expensive.

 

2. The job market is competitive but a lot better than it used to be. For an EE I know companies with a large presence include Dell, AMD, Intel, National Instruments, and Samsung.

 

3. The music scene is excellent, you can pretty much find whatever you are into there. I don't know exactly what "rock" you like but I really like Wilco, who I believe are from around Chicago, if that gives you an idea of my musical tastes. Some Austin artists I really like are Spoon, Okkervil River, What Made Milwaukee Famous, and Bob Schneider.

 

4. The Wildlife and Recreation is great, especially in the hill country (west of the city). The rivers, lakes, and streams make for excellent hiking, biking, boating and swimming. The weather is hot for about 4 months (90F to around 105F) but if I am not mistaken it gets pretty damn hot is chicago as well, and the winter will be a piece of cake comparatively with only a few freezes and rare snow falls that almost never stick.

 

As you can tell, I love the city and if you could get the same amount of house for the money that you do in Houston (and if my wife's family wasn't here) I would probably be there right now:rolleyes: .

 

Hope this helps.

[liquidiq]

Houses are not that expensive. You can get a nice house in South Austin (notice the caps ) for 150-200, that's a 3/2 at about 1300-1500 sqft. There are some real nice apartments in the areas as well, and a budding townhouse section in downtown, but that's up there 300k+.

 

Here's a job at my place:

 

Audio Systems Software Engineer (Y7-099) Austin, TX

http://www.idt.com/?id=4005

 

Lots of other places, depends on what you like to do. NVidia is here, Intel, AMD, SigmaTel, D2Audio, Analog Devices, Marvell, Samsung, Dell, 3Com (I think), Motorola, Sun...

 

There's a TXIC (Nasioc chapter) member that came from Chicago to work at Motorola, he loves it.

[Meltdown07]

Houses are not that expensive. You can get a nice house in South Austin (notice the caps ) for 150-200, that's a 3/2 at about 1300-1500 sqft. There are some real nice apartments in the areas as well, and a budding townhouse section in downtown, but that's up there 300k+.

 

Here's a job at my place:

 

Audio Systems Software Engineer (Y7-099) Austin, TX

http://www.idt.com/?id=4005

 

Lots of other places, depends on what you like to do. NVidia is here, Intel, AMD, SigmaTel, D2Audio, Analog Devices, Marvell, Samsung, Dell, 3Com (I think), Motorola, Sun...

 

There's a TXIC (Nasioc chapter) member that came from Chicago to work at Motorola, he loves it.

 

Thanks for the link, I'm not qualified for that job though, I'm a little differently spec'd as an engineer, I avoid software/programming like the plague.

 

I'm starting to apply to some of those other places you mentioned, sounds promising thus far, so I'll keep my fingers crossed. I'll check into motorola too. Although I've been scared away from them previously. The motorola locations up here are notorious for working their people 60+ hrs per week. I'm totally okay with occasional overtime, but thats not what I want to be doing all the time. I'll definitely shoot them a resume though.

 

We're definitely looking to buy, but our price range is a factor. I'm only 18 months out of college and she's going to be making only about $20K/yr while she's in grad school, so we've got to think frugal. We're looking at townhomes/condo's mainly now. We want a 2BD with a nice open kitchen and good sized living room. Hopefully we can find that. If not, we'll just rent.

 

Thanks again for the help guys, I really appreciate it.

[EL PAALO]

I'd rent because imo the townhouse/condo market in Austin is not like it is up north or in cali. It might be one of these days, but it certainly isn't atm.