OK so last year I posted here talking about wanting to come down and got some good input.  Since then I got side tracked, dragged my feet, got unemployed and various other life stuff and we'll just leave it at that.

We're picking this back up and have been looking at flights down to look at areas and find a place to rent.  Right now the end of April is the target flight time (just the look-see, not the move).

Here's the part I'm not sure about: Where do we start?

Since I don't have a job I'm moving to, the answer to "where do I live?" is a bit vague.  To be clear, I don't expect where we first start to be our endpoint.  What I would like to keep in consideration though is the initial city we start with, the area we start in and the available options such as being able to find someone that will do a lease less than a year before allowing month to month in the event I get a job in another city or somewhere way too far to drive day after day.

To refresh everyone's memory, I'm in IT.  I have a very wide array of skills but no serious depth from desktop apps programming to networking, systems design/install/config and administration; I've done Linux(CentOS/RHEL), shell scripting, some Windows 2008R2, basic firewall and switch configuration, cabling, racking, database design/DDL/DML, a little C#, basically if you give me a shot at it I'll figure it out.  She has a Masters in Public Administration and has a heavy background in training/education/certification coordination and management.  I'd rather stay away from any federal work like contractors and such, state would probably be fine but would prefer commercial.  Her main place to look has been non-profit type places.

We've had our eye on Dallas but have also been looking at Austin.  While the DFW area has twice the jobs as Austin does, that also means at least twice the people and traffic.  I don't know if any of you have seen or lived Route 95 in VA north, but a drive that should take you 30 minutes with traffic going the speed limit usually ends up taking you minimum 1 hour up to 3+ hours during rush hours.  So I'd like to avoid putting myself in a similar situation, I really do not want to live within the city and certainly would like to avoid sketchy/depressed/hood areas.  We like the 'away from it all but close enough to drive it every day' kind of areas.  I have no problem driving an hour to work but that's if it's always moving and there is low risk of the area ballooning so that drive suddenly takes 2 hours in the next 5 years.

Our short term goal is to go down, get a rental, get moved in, find jobs.  Once jobs are set then look for a house.  As far as the rental, we do have quite a bit of crap so I'll be leaving what I can behind or at my parents' place but it's still going to be a challenge to meet the storage we'll need vs. trying to keep the monthly under 1k (800 would be even better)  We've been looking at larger apartments, townhouses or houses for rent.  If you have an area to start in then I could also use a realtor that can help with rentals or if you know someone or someplace that would do well as a starting point.  I'm also unsure what to do with the "collection" as far as keeping it all safe.  Not sure I want the hassle of moving a safe around and thought about alternatives but having a place that might store them if I can't leave them at my parents' pace heck I'd pay for that if I knew they were secure.

So just what is the traffic like around Dallas and/or Austin, drive times etc...?  What are the better but cheaper places to find a place to live?  Suggestions on which city to start in based on the above general info, any other suggestions or whatever are most welcome.

I feel like rambling at this point so I'll shut up and let you ask any questions that could help you understand what I need (besides a miracle I don't snap under the inevitable stress).

Thanks.

the economy and work market in general in austin is booming - if you're skilled, which it appears you are.

I've lived here almost 30 years and have met/interacted with many more conservative type people than liberals. we're still known as san fran of texas - the minority is very vocal.
don't live close to downtown, hell don't live in town if you can help it. i'm trying to get into bastrop county in the next couple of years...

if you come to austin, you have to visit Central Texas Gun Works on Ben White and buy one of their t-shirts that says, " annoy a liberal, buy a gun"


ETA: traffic here sucks because our infrastructure was never designed to handle even half as many people that commute in this area. lots of sports and outdoor activities, pretty easy to tell the high/low crime areas, lots of good places to eat, even some of the chains are pretty decent. aisd schools suck, so if you have kids, consider a private school, or again, don't live inside travis county. bastrop, hays, and williamson all have schools with higher reputations.

Traffic in Austin is terrible.  There is a serious lack of road infrastructure and the city/regional governments want it that way as they have stated their goal is to get people out of their cars and force them to use public transit.  DFW has its problems too, but they have more roads for the amount of population than Austin.  Austin's city council and the Cap Metro public transit system has sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into a white elephant rail line and are planning to double down on that plan.  Unless you live close to where you work (which will be difficult to find for both of you) you may face some very long commute times even if the distance seems short.  The thing that makes it tough is that places close to where most of the jobs are tend to be very expensive relative to the outlying areas.  The city of Austin also hates traditional single family housing developments and wants everyone to live packed like rats into high density apartments and condos so if you prefer not to live on top of your neighbors (or worse under them) then you may want to live in the suburbs even though commutes may suck.  Even in the outlying areas I don't think you are going to find anything more than a small efficiency for $800 in Austin unless it is in a bad area.  $1000 might get you a 2 bedroom apartment.  Renting a house on that kind of budget doesn't seem realistic unless it is in the hood.  Anyplace on those kinds of budgets you'd better figure on having a safe because residential break-ins are a common occurrence.  However, that's a real hassle with rentals as they usually don't want you putting holes in walls or floors to bolt them down and if you don't do that it greatly increases the likelihood they'll just steal the whole safe and take it somewhere they can torch it open at their leisure.

Anyway...  DFW, Houston and San Antonio are all cheaper than Austin, especially for rent, house prices and property taxes.

As for the job market...  IT is about as good in Austin as it has been since the .com crash in 2001...  but the demand is mostly for people at senior level, the market for entry to mid level is not nearly as strong.  For her there is a lot of state government in Austin and some non-profit, but almost all of it is going to be downtown where housing prices are insane for anywhere near and commutes from cheaper areas will be hell.

Some areas like Midland Odessa if you can find a place to live you can get a job.
 

South Austin does pretty regularly have 3bd/2ba houses that rent for $1000 - $1200. good neighborhoods too, not circle c or shady hollow, but cherry creek and texas oaks, etc...
fucking bullshit is becoming more commonplace, especially in good neighborhoods....we've had a few in my neighborhood the past year.....get in good with your neighbors and form a watch group....it also helps, i think, if you have very visible cameras on your house. most of my neighbors don't have anything, but at least one of mine is pretty obvious.
steadily going up

The info is helpful but it's not making me want to come now....  

Define bad traffic because I believe the definition is relative.  For example it is common in VA on 95 to go 1 mile in half an hour.  That's on a 4 lane (one way) highway.  On a road that's normally 65 MPH and you're forced to do 40, I just call that congested.

One example is when looking at Austin, we were looking at the San Marcos / Hays county area.  Google shows (roughly) from the center of San Marco to the center of Austin as a 40 minute drive at 36 miles.  What's the real world drive time?

We really don't want to end up in town; we really would like at the absolute least the burbs to get a little space.  I'm in a townhouse right now and hate life due to neighbors and the HOA.  Again that's a long term discussion, short term is where to go for renting and not get robbed as a welcome to TX gift.

ETA: GF just called, flights are booked, coming down April 24 and starting in Dallas.

Ive always said, if I were to move to a big city, the Austin area is where its at!

if you were to live in San Marcos, and commute to downtown austin for work, you'd be looking at about 1.5 hrs each way....you might save about thirty minutes +/- if you plan to be at work by 7, meaning you would leave your place somewhere between 5:30 and 6 am...

i work just south of downtown, right on the interstate. i live about 2.5 miles from my office according to google maps.....my trip to work in the morning is 10 - 20 minutes, depending on when i leave. if i leave on time, i could be there in ten minutes....if i wait ten minutes to leave, for any reason, my trip to work doubles.
going home: if i leave at 4, i'm home by ten after, if i leave at 5, it takes thirty minutes.

contrast this:
i used to work on the far northwest side of town, still living south.  i left my house at 6:10 every morning, dropped the kids off and was at my office by 7, maybe a few minutes before. i then left at 5:30 and wouldn't get home till 6:30 - 6:45.

there is no easy way to cross town in austin - if you have to cross town during peak traffic hours (7am - 9am and 4:30 - 6:30) it's going to take you about an hour. add that to your drive time if you live outside town...

traffic can be a major pain in the ass, but if you take steps to circumvent it, it's not that big of a deal.



here's another example:
i have a coworker who recently moved to the cedar creek area - just east of town. his new commute to work is +/- 30 minutes, again, if he gets here at 7 am. he moved from leander. his commute was over 1.5 hrs each way living up there.

That's really good info and gives me something to measure by.  Thanks.

It doesn't sound as completely bad as VA but it's close and sounds like it's only going to get worse.

Most of the major N-S thoroughfares in Austin are only 2-3 lanes each way when we need 4-6.  Traffic on those roads (I35, Mopac, Loop 360) is stop and go, mostly stop through the rush hours, which is pretty much 7am-10am, noon-2pm and 4pm-7pm.  And that is on a good day with no major accidents or bad weather.  A few drops of rain or a fender bender or two will double normal commute times.  Any serious accident and APD thinks nothing of completely closing down I35 for several hours while they take their time fiddle farting around measuring skid marks, etc.  DWF, Houston and San Antonio PDs are FAR better at getting business taken care of and traffic moving again, for that matter even the outer burb PDs are better.



40 on I35 through downtown Austin during rush hour most days would be a miracle.  At least sustained 40.



That's the real world drive time at 4am, not during rush hour.



HOAs are the worst.  Nobody but wannabe lawn-Nazis are ever on the HOA boards -- people who get off on making life hell for everyone else.  I had a really hard time finding a 1/2 way decent neighborhood without an HOA, although the MUD is nearly as bad about being a-holes about silly stuff like having your trash can visible on non-trash days.  But then they do nothing about the people who paint their house bario colors.  Feh.  When I can I'm moving out to 50+ acres in the country.

Oh the other joyous thing that the local governments are hell bent on doing around here is making every major road around here, even ones built already with taxpayer money into toll roads.  And not cheap ones either, we're talking $0.50 to skip one stop light in a number of places and others that are several dollars for just a few miles.  Some have suggested that they're doing things to intentionally make traffic worse so that their political cronies can make big money on the tolls.  I wouldn't be surprised.

MUD?

Sounds like DFW is a better choice than Austin only because they're at least more efficient.

MUD = Municipal Utility District.  It is a way for neighborhoods to be built outside of city limits and still have trash pickup, water, sewer and other utility service.  As far as I know it is pretty much a Texas specific thing.

I wouldn't say that DFW is perfect either, I'm no expert on it having never lived there...  but there are some things that the city of Austin does that are just plain libtard insanity.  The further out in the burbs you get, generally the better it gets, unfortunately you usually have to deal some with the inner parts of the city for jobs, shopping, entertainment, etc.

Traffic up here in DFW (at least on the east side) seems to move generally well if there's no contruction or accidents. I've driven in DC and LA, and Chicago and its nowhere near as bad as those places. Austin's nice (to visit), too many homeless and not enough shopping bags!

I haven't lived here long enough to advise you where to look. My office is in Richardson and I live 20 miles NE, my commute is almost always about 35-40 minutes.

Yeah, the homeless are really a scourge here in the Austin area, especially downtown because the city refuses to do anything about it and there are too many idiots like Salvation Army that have their shelters downtown.  But it is pretty much all over town, every major intersection it seems has smelly looking bums with their hands out, and some of them are very aggressive if you don't give them anything (which I never will).  Some really get pissed if you roll up your window when you come up to an intersection so you don't have to hear or smell them.  I've had to tell a few of them to get the F away from my car when they've tapped on my window.  I've had a few that didn't want to back off then...

Honestly, look in the Waco area. Yeah, not the coolest place to live but there are jobs and the cost of living is MUCH lower than DFW or Austin.

And both of those are only a 90 minute drive away for sports and entertainment.

Avoid any of the large cities as a place to live. Says this guy in Austin...

If you are moving, you are going to sacrifice for a bit. It takes time to recoup your moving expenses.  From san marcos you can probably get to most anywhere in Austin in under an hour. Thats a normal commute these days.



Dallas will provide a good starting point for you to get your feet wet. You should be able to get work somewhere.



 

Yeah this is a bit of a leap of faith.  Because I do not want to go too far north of me into the wildly unpredictable traffic and also am done with .gov contracting there is very little in VA anymore to choose from.  Combined with the stale state of my resume, I really have a hard time getting passed whomever is doing the initial once over of my submissions.  As it stands now, I'm sitting home rotting.

There has always been something about TX I've wanted to see and maybe this will up my odds a little just by sheer numbers.

When we come down, maybe I'll hate it and forget the whole thing.  I don't know and am struggling because I have no direction.




Unfortunately Waco would be a step backwards for me by reducing the available job pool significantly more than I have where I am now.  There doesn't look like much I can do or have interest in there.  I really am stuck with the decision of where in the US do I want to be and how much traffic will I put up with in order to not be living in the city.  My last job was perfect in the commute respect but it was sucking at my soul.

yup
been hearing the same.
fucking toll roads.

I live in South Austin (the "real" south austin, which means south of 71, not "SoCo").  Software Janitor hit it on the head and said pretty much everything I was going to say.  I've been here for a while and watched traffic slowly get worse and housing prices/taxes go up every year.  Austin voters will vote to spend money on ANYTHING and it's really annoying.  All the places I used to enjoy going are now very crowded.  Downtown is becoming more dense and homogenized.  The "weirdness" is going away slowly, although there are great pockets here and there.

That being said, it's an awesome place for jobs, especially in IT.  Lots of companies large and small are hiring.  There are some companies here which actually REQUIRE you to work from home a majority of the time, so the commute isn't as much of an issue.  If you do have to commute from one side of town to the other at rush hour, you're screwed.  Find a job that definitely allows for flexible hours or work from home and you'll be fine.

Also, Lots to do outdoors if you can find times when it isn't too crowded.  TONS of good beer.  I love beer and the beer pubs might be the only thing keeping me here.  Also, the food is really good here.  You can get out in the hill country with plenty to do in a short drive.   There's a reason why people are moving here.

Even with all of the annoyances of Austin, I would much rather live here than the suburban hell that is DFW.  That being said, I'm with Software Janitor and moving to the country, probably west of town, as soon as I can. I don't mind driving an hour or so to drink good beer when my homebrew runs low :).

Come to Plano TX.  One of my co-worker's just posted 40 jobs my company has open right now in IT/C#/SQL.  If you have a decent resume, and interview well, you'll have a job working here in a matter of weeks.

Go to the team section, then "jobs" here on ARFCOM.  You'll see the 40 jobs posted there.

ETA - There is no traffic if you live and work in Plano.  If you commute to different 'burbs then you start hitting the traffic problem.

Seems to be a lot of love/hate for the Austin area.

Glad you  mentioned this, I haven't looked in there in a while.  Perfect timing, thank you.

Plano/Richardson, I've worked in several data centers around here... but I'm not in IT. Lots of tech in the area.

We moved to the DFW area in 1998 and I honestly wish we would have moved to Austin instead.   The only reason I say that is because the terrain is prettier down there.  That is the only reason though.  Traffic is no better there and neither is the job market.   Cost of living is probably a bit higher too.    

As for jobs, it's hard to be DFW.  Two good sized cities side by side that are both economically healthy.   If you do pick DFW, I suggest to start by renting in N. Irving.  Some will scoff at that but N. Irving is pretty nice, but more importantly, it's smack dab in the middle of the metroplex which means that no matter where you find employment, you can commute.  Could be a long commute, but you won't be limiting your job opportunity by your location.    By the time you are settled job wise, you will have a good idea where you want to make your home.    

OK now this is funny.  I just had a phone screen for a company in Irving and was going to come here and ask where would be a good place to live if I worked there and she needed a good place to job search from.  My biggest concerns are what are the neighborhoods like and is it possible to be somewhere that you don't hear the airport all day long.  I don't know how far you need to be from an airport to not be bothered by it.  I was looking at Carrollton as a possibility.  Of course this is all speculative as I still have a few hurdles before they even consider me.

I mentioned Irving because of it's centralized location, but it doesn't surprise me that there are job opportunities for you there.  Jobs wise, Irving is one of the fastest growing cities in the country.  Irving has  a good size business district named Las Colinas which is home to many corporate offices.  

Yes, there are plenty of commutable areas that aren't affected by DFW airport.  But, you should be a lot more concerned about schools than airplanes(even if you don't have kids).    If you work in Irving, where you live will depend a lot on your budget.  Irving itself, has everything from low income housing to rock star type housing.  But In general, Irving isn't known for it's stellar school system.  Areas like coppell, Grapevine, Flowermound and Colleyville are more desirable due to their schools, but housing gets rather expensive rather quickly.   Cheaper housing with adequate schools can be found in surrounding areas like Arlington, Bedford, Euless, Carrollton & Lewisville.



ETA....I work in the Real Estate industry, so if you need a good Realtor referral, I can definitely put you in touch with a good one.   Just PM me.  
 

So slight modification to our plans.

I was just instructed to book a flight and hotel for an interview on Tuesday in Irving so I'll be down next week.  

Congrats...  I hope you nail the interview and it works out well for you.

I'm staying at a place off of 114 in Irving, east of DFW.

Any suggestions for dinner or places to avoid?

avoid where you are currentlty...