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To which place would you move your family: Fort Worth or Austin? |
Travel Info Hi. I have a family and want to move back to Texas. I have lived in Austin before, but the high cost of living, long hot/humid summers and congestion really got to me. I'm considering moving back to the state (from the midwest) and wonder whether I should think about Fort Worth, and perhaps reconsider Austin. Some of my priorities include low cost of living, short commutes, strong and friendly communities and good schools. If you have an opinion of which city you would prefer, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'd also like to know if you recently moved to one of the cities and found it easy to make friends. Thanks! Travel Tips Hi, Having lived in three cities in Texas over a period of 20 years or so, and visiting many others I think that I have a good view of North Central, Central and East Texas. I know almost nothing about West Texas but since you did not mention considering that part I guess that will be okay. My sons live in Austin and my daughter and I also lived there for 8 years. I remarried and moved to Arkansas, am divorcing and moving back to Austin soon. Yes, the cost of living is higher than other cities in Texas, or so I am told. Well, there are lots of cost cutting things that I found about Texas that are not true in other places. Texas has no state income tax, no tax on grocery items or pharmaceuticals. It does have high property taxes and you need to "shop" to find areas with little lower taxes when looking to buy a home. If you are renting you do not pay property tax, however, you actually pay some since the owner of the rental property has to pay it and that is why rental property is higher there. I found that it was worth it to me to live in a liberal, active, involved city. People are more educated in this area than in many other areas. There is also a great opportunity to get more education because of the many university opportunities there. Generally suburban schools have a higher rating than the Austin ISD, however there are isolated pockets of award winning schools in all areas of the city. It is easy to check out. My older kids were college age and grown there. My daughter went to Westwood High School in the Round Rock District but which is actually in the West part of the City and it is a BlueRibbon School. It was not perfect, but altogether was a good school. If moving back there, your job may determine where you want to live, but there has been a lot of good growth and there are wonderful neighborhoods to live in. Yes, some are congested, so you have to look around and investigate which is best for you. We loved the "things to do there" - always something interesting and wonderful musical events. The wonderfully warm and mild winters more than made up for the hot summers - mainly August, and we found it a dryer heat than in other parts of the state we had lived so you just stay near water sports or air conditioning during those months, or do your outdoor things in the morning or late in the day and it is so nice. Fort Worth is more of a Western city to me and I always felt like I was in a theme park. It is a family oriented area, but I also thought it was a dirtier area, more smog, more "city" type, generally just not as pretty a place as Austin. Dallas is huge and with all the suburbs it shares with Fort Worth that metroplex area was just more than my family enjoyed. It was just miles and miles and miles. Not our thing. We lived another 8 years or so in Nacogdoches in East Texas. Beautiful area, great pine trees, green all year long, more rain, more humid in summer. Not as many things to do and not as much opportunity jobwise, but it was great for raising kids, good schools, and pretty atmosphere. Our house was wonderful and cheap compared to city prices. I love Austin and will return there and probably live the rest of my life there. The extra dollars on cost of living are worth it to me. You did not say what you do jobwise, and that of course, is what will probably determine where you go. I have found that if you are a good neighbor you can find a good neighbor anywhere you go. We have always met wonderful people everywhere we lived and hope you do too. In one word summaries: Austin: Liberal, busy, fun Fort Worth: Traditional, western Dallas: Too big, too busy. Nacogdoches: Great Hometown Hope this gives you a little more information. Others are those your only two options? i am from beaumont, and live in houston now. beaumont is a great town and the cost of living is not nearly as high as the others. i would pick austin from your two choices though. I would pick Austin of the places you mentioned. Have you thought about the Coast... say around Rockport or Aransas Pass? it's relatively inexpensive there and Corpus Christi is just 30 miles away. Well, it sounds like you already made up your mind, however, since your asking for opinions - here's mine. I found Fort worth to be crowded and polluted. If you look at some of my other answers, you will see that I prefer more open spaces. I liked Austin because it is small and more of a tight knit community. Allow me to indulge a little and tell you a story of something that happened to me on a shopping trip in Austin. So, I went to the grocery store and bought a whole grocery cart full of groceries. I had no other way to get it back to the house than to borrow a cart. I was pushing this cart down the street and obviously struggling with it. I got caught in a whole and couldn't get around an electrical pole. This couple came along and asked if I needed a ride. I accepted after some gentle prodding. They took me straight to my door and the Husband even helped me get my groceries inside the house. I thought this AWESOME!! I couldn't believe that someone would do that for a perfect stranger. They even had a small child in the car with them and were not afraid that I'd do anything to them. Even though I had my reservations about them at first, I quickly learned that they were very safe. Although I didn't experience what you did, I lived there in the fall for only a month, I have no doubt that any part of Texas is hot in the summer. I don't think it is confined to just Austin. I didn't like Forth worth because when I stayed there, I was on the bus with, get this, groceries and had an encounter with some kids who were just obnoxious and looking for a fight. I decided that it would not behooth me to live there. My late Husbands sister lived in Austin for a while, about 7 years, and they loved it. I have no doubt that Austin is the better place to live for the smaller, more tight knit community, the ability to get from one place to another more quckly, and the fact that people just seem to be more friendly and helpful. I hope that you find this information helpful in making your decision. Your right Austin is a little more expensive but not much. There are so many great suburbs around both cities and most of them have really good schools. I would just start looking at where you will be working and where is a great place to live near by that has what you want. We lived in Allen, TX (Dallas suburb) for a lot of years and loved it. Our son and his family still live there and the schools are really good, it's a quiet place to live with lots to do with in a 25 mile radius. When we retire we will be looking at both places so I know the situation you are in. Good Luck i have lived in both cities for quite some time, here is just a bit of what i know: austin - higher cost of living, can be very crowded with all the universities around there. but is in a great location for outdoor activities and accessing other parts of texas. the weather isnt all that bad. plus there are a lot of great schools out in the suburbs and living there doesnt necessarily mean living in austin, lots of options around nearby. fort worth - lower cost of living, but can be very expensive depending on where you look. it can be a bit crowded depending on where you need to commute to, but once you know the city there are lots of options for getting around. in my opinion, it doesnt seem like there is as much outdoor opportunities, but cultural opportunities and fine arts abound. between fort worth and dallas there is so many exhibits for art and lots of theatre, music, and dance productions. the weather can be a bit crazy in the spring and middle of winter, but the summers are hot and dry. overall, not too much of a difference between austin and fort worth. with the large metroplex area, there is going to be a lot more variety and options in regards to housing, more school districts to choose from, shopping, etc. living in austin i sometimes felt my options were sometimes limited. but i loved it there! fort worth also more museum and opportunities downtown. austin's downtown is more adult oriented with the bars and such. fort worth's caters to everyone with the bars on one side, restaurants, shops, movie theatres and such more central. if i had to pick one for my family, i would go with fort worth since i am not the outdoorsy type. i would really think about what your family enjoys to do and what sort of opportunities you look for in a city. Austin! I lived in Austin while in college. I don't even like to visit Fort Worth. Had you thought about Houston? The northwest area of the county (Harris) is the perfect suburban area in which to raise children (especially the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD area.) |
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