This has already been posted in bbs. This is the same article for Houston being the coolest city. Yahoo just changed the title but still gave credit to Forbes.
This right here cannot be stressed enough. I live in Austin now, but grew up in Houston. As great as Austin is, I do plan to move back to Houston within the next few years. Housing prices are a huge advantage for Houston, even when compared to other Texas cities.
I didn't find it that different when comparing like area to like area. I'm actually getting more for my money here when school district and location are factored in. I am relatively close to downtown Austin, don't live in a cookie cutter neighborhood, am in one of the best public school districts in the state, and got in between $200-$225 per foot. It's certainly not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but it is comparable, imo.
Can't say I agree. In Houston, there are several desirable areas in which to live. You might pay a premium to be in or very near downtown, midtown, uptown/Galleria, Washington, The Heights, West U/Rice, the Museum District/Theater District, etc (and I know I'm forgetting some), and you can live pretty cheaply anywhere in between while still being close to all of them and still being in the city. All the cool/hip parts of Austin basically amount to downtown, Zilker Park, and the greenbelt, which are all close enough to be virtually the same area. You'll find cheaper rates, sure, if you want to live halfway to (or in) Buda, Cedar Park, or Manor. I'm not saying you can't find deals out there, but demand far outpaces supply. I like Austin, but it sure ain't cheap.
If you're talking about more "cool" areas, then of course Houston will have more. Houston is gargantuan compared to Austin. But all of the areas you list above seemed to come at much similar price/ft as comparable areas in Austin. Maybe there's a little bit more townhouse type infill, especially in the Washington corridor, that you can find cheaper in Houston and isn't really found that much in Austin yet. I find the smaller size and lack of what I'd call mass-produced townhouses both pluses, to me, anyway. Anyways, I'd classify as "cool" a much wider area of Austin. You have East Austin, which is cool in its own way. Then anything west of 35, south of 183, north of 71 and east of Mopac. And then the neighborhoods between Mopac and 360. Even Great Hills. Some are certainly less cool, but none are that far out, and are all cool in a way that Buda, Round Rock, Sugarland, Katy, etc. typically aren't. Even if you wanted to just focus centrally, anything from Rollingwood to Downtown to Travis Heights, Allandale, Rosedale, Hyde Park, South Lamar, Soco, etc. A bunch of neighborhoods. Not as many as Houston, or as big, or as "cooly" developed in many cases, but cool nonetheless. Moreover, the fact that Austin cool is closer to downtown is a GOOD thing. A nice, walkable/bikeable downtown that has a lot of "cool" stuff to do is more ideal than driving from one bar to another, as an example. I don't want to look up pricing on a bunch of neighborhoods in both cities. So I'll just pick randomly. Heights: Quick search of 77008 on HAR. $500k is typicalyl getting you anywhere from 1,500 - 2,700 sq feet. I think $500k for about 2,500 sf is a fair generalization for the neighborhood. $200 per foot. Of the neighborhoods you list for Houston, the Heights isn't going to be the most expensive, and maybe not the cheapest, so a good middle ground. If I look in Austin at 78751, which might be a comparable type neighborhood, pricing is similar. Maybe a "little" higher on a per foot basis, but not much. Yes, $500k is a lot for a house for many, but I just tried to pick the 1,500 on the low end to 3,000 on the high end type square footage, and that's kind of the pricing. But there is a lot of demand in Austin. Before we bought we looked at 40+ houses and put in offers on 5+. We ended up in exactly what we wanted, but primarily because it was a for sale by owner that we saw driving around the day the sign went up and we were the first one to walk the house and place an offer. We didn't overpay or anything, but we didn't underpay, and had to be sleuths about it. We're also in a great public school district. Is Austin a little more expensive? Maybe, on a per foot basis, a little more expensive. But not that much more expensive, imo. It's more a size issue, I think. Houston has more neighborhoods that are typically bigger themselves. So you get more along the price spectrum, even if the averages are still in line. And Houston has more infill build-out with townhouses. Maybe my high level analysis is way off? Still, I'd find it hard in any circumstances to make a living decision based on the difference in housing prices between Houston and Austin. We're not talking NYC/SF vs. Houston/Austin here.
The thing is you live anywhere in Austin and everything is relatively close by. You can live on Palmer and it takes 15minutes to get downtown. All of Austin could be just southwest houston.
Not sure where you're looking in The Heights, but I still own my home there in 77008 that is 1,800 sq feet. I paid 235k for it back in 2008, and couldn't sell it last year when I had it listed at 240k. I haven't looked at Houston prices in a while though, so maybe the market has picked up there quite a bit. I'm living in Crestview right now where a comparable house would run me well over 400k. If you bring leasing into the picture, I'm leasing out my house in The Heights right now for $1,900. My house I'm leasing in Crestview (North Austin) is the same size and costs $2,400/month. When I was living in Clarksville last year which is right next to Downtown Austin, I was paying that same price for 1,400 sq feet. Since I moved out they've now got it listed at $2,800.
That's basically all I'm saying. Houston is much larger and thus has more options while Austin is much smaller thus equalling less options. Less options plus the demand of what's available = higher prices if where you're looking is actually the city itself. I read something not too long ago estimating that Austin's rental spaces were at 95% or some ridiculous number. Basically, you'll pay more (generally) because the demand is there and the options are more limited. TL;DR: I think we're more or less saying the same thing.
