Californians REGRET moving to Austin – Why Are They Going Back?

current US Census Data shows that 111,000 Californians moved to Texas last year now to put that in perspective that's the equivalent of taking a city the size of Dearborn Michigan or Tuscaloosa Alabama and dropping it right in the middle of Texas and during the pandemic the number of California moved to Texas was even bigger than that now Texas is a big state and it does have five of the top 13 largest cities the entire United States but a portion of those Californians that moved to Texas landed in Austin now some of them like it after they get here but not all of them so today we're going to talk about the top reasons why Californians regret moving to Austin we're going to use this article as a reference Brett Alder who wrote the article moved from San Diego to bave which is west of downtown Austin in the Hill Country and after that he moved back to the Bay Area now all of this happened within a couple of years so we can piece together a timeline to understand when all this happened and what type of market conditions he was dealing with during each one of these moves now the other part part of this is I've lived in Austin for a long time but I've also lived in both LA and San Diego so I can verify some of the things he's saying and if necessary dispute them now let me first of all say that it's not my intention this video to defend Austin frankly Austin might not be right for everybody but the second thing is I believe it is crucial that if anyone is contemplating uprooting their family and moving halfway across the country that they get accurate information so that they can make good decisions on whether or not they want to move here now the first thing we need to acknowledge is that before he wrote this article in 2023 he had already sold two houses and bought three which means that his move to Austin must have happened somewhere during the pandemic housing boom his first sale was a 2,000t house in San Diego and if we look at median home values in that Metro we can assume that that house sold for over a million dollars even if he had a mortgage on that house he probably came to Austin with several hundred th000 in cash available to work with now since this was the time of intense bidding wars he probably used a portion of that cash to bid over the list price for the house that he eventually bought in bave now nobody would want to admit that they overpaid for house or that they had regrets about not having an inspection done or if they bought a house without physically Touring that house all of this was very common during the pandemic housing boom and since he makes reference to challenges in having repairs done in the that he bought in bave and having challenges and getting the type of money that he thought the house was worth when he decided he wanted to sell it I think it might be reasonable to assume that he was looking for some place to place the blame now in hindsight we know that the market completely flipped between 2020 and 20122 interest rates more than doubled in those two years and buyers began to pull back and sales prices on homes in the Austin Metro began to decline now if someone paid $100,000 or $200,000 more than houses listed for in 2020 and then decided to sell it in 2022 and couldn't get that kind of money I can understand they probably would be a little bit upset but realistically where does that blame really lie you can blame it on Austin you can blame it on the market you could even blame your realer but remember these types of stories are common in every city in the United States and someone like this probably use a discount broker because in their mind all real estate agents provide the same level of service so it's really about finding someone who could provide that service at the lowest cost maybe one lesson in all of this is that there is usually a reason why some things are more expensive than others now another thing he brings up is he was disappointed there were no beaches or mountains in Texas someone who sold a million-dollar house in San Diego bought a house in bave probably paid more than it was listed for sold that house in bave at a loss and then bought another house in the Bay Area which has more expensive real estate than either of those two cities I think it's reasonable to assume that that someone like that has some pretty high household income and you would think that someone like that would have a basic understanding of geography this is the United States this is the Atlantic Ocean and this is the Pacific Ocean this is Austin and you can clearly see there is no ocean anywhere close to Central Texas that's almost like moving to Chicago and then being surprised you got 3ot of snow in the winter now I do empathize with him because it sounds like he had some small children and he encountered some challenges in finding some out door activities that the entire family could enjoy but he makes it sound like California has acres and Acres of public land compared to Texas where it's only Ranch Land that's fenced off and nobody can get to it if he lived in bave he was literally minutes away from Zilker Park which is 350 Acres of public land there are things like the botanical gardens with countless children's activities scheduled throughout the year and the Barton Springs Pool which is a public swimming pool filled with a natural spring not to mention all the boat boating kaying hiking and biking available along the anroy butler hike and bike trails just north of bave is Lake Travis which has boating ziplining and miles of trails there is also the Hamilton Pool preserve which is one of the most beautiful public swimming spots in the entire area now granted this is not the same thing as a Pacific Ocean or a ski lodge in the Rocky Mountains But Central Texas does have a little bit more going for it than barred wire and grazing cattle now he does acknowledge that the cost of living in Austin is lower than on the west coast which is the primary reason he moved here in the first place he bought a house in bave that was twice as big as the one that he had in San Diego for about half the cost and even goes on to say that the actual property taxes on those two properties were about the same but he complains about the cost of cooling that house in the middle of the hottest summer we've had in the last 10 years he says in the article that if he set the temperature to where it would be comfortable for his family his electricity bill would be $400 a month what he doesn't say is that in his mind it made more financial sense to move to the Bay Area which which is a cooler climate in a smaller house with probably a lower electricity bill but he would also have graduated state income tax according to the tax table if he made $200,000 a year he would be paying the state of California $1,300 a month in addition to that lower electricity bill now like I said earlier in the video I have no problem with someone who just flat out doesn't like Austin and frankly everybody's entit of their own opinion whether that opinion is based on accurate facts good logic or not I think that if someone else reads his article that it's probably in their best interest to read at least 10 others and then do their own independent research to figure out what's fact and what's opinion also I think the biggest question someone needs to ask themselves before they move to Austin is what are you expecting if you think Austin is separate from Texas and doesn't share the same history and traditions you're probably going to be disappointed here are just a couple of examples in Texas high school football is almost a religion in Texas there are people who know more about caring for a horse than they do about riding computer code and also there are people in Texas who would be perfectly happy eating breakfast tacos and barbecue every single day now if you live in a high-rise condo in downtown Austin you may not have visibility to this every single day but all you have to do is get in your car and drive 10 miles in any direction and you're going to realize that you are in Texas if you think you're going to come to Texas and change everything let me tell you the story behind the Battle Flag for the Texas Revolution the Texans had a cannon that originally belonged to the Mexicans and Mexico wanted it back so the Texans told them all you have to do is come and take it and of course that didn't work out quite like the Mexicans thought it would if you think about moving Austin I'm here to help in any way I can and you might like this video because it's going to show you some of the housing options available along the redline Transit rail

Channel: Charles Lewis - Buying & Selling Homes in Austin

Views: 18,061

Keywords: Charles Lewis Austin, Real Estate, Austin Real Estate, Austin Texas, Austin real estate, housing market, Austin housing market, austin real estate, real estate, austin texas, regret move to austin, california to austin, move to austin, moving to texas, moving to austin, moving from california to texas, moving to austin texas, moving to texas from california, relocating to austin texas, moving to austin texas from california, austin

Id: xlftlcM0b88

Length: 7min 57sec (477 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 11 2023