[HN Gopher] Plunging Home Prices, Fleeing Companies: Austin's Gl...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Plunging Home Prices, Fleeing Companies: Austin's Glow Is Fading
        
       Author : elsewhen
       Score  : 17 points
       Date   : 2024-04-26 21:53 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.msn.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.msn.com)
        
       | arbuge wrote:
       | It's a small drop from a pandemic peak that was far above pre-
       | pandemic levels. After this small drop, it's still far above
       | that.
       | 
       | And that probably is at least somewhat because of all the
       | apartment building going on, which is a positive thing.
       | 
       | One notable company "fled" - Oracle, this week.
        
         | chrisco255 wrote:
         | I don't even think I've heard that Oracle is reducing its head
         | count in Austin. There's currently 4200 Oracle employees based
         | in Austin.
        
           | pm90 wrote:
           | I interviewed with them for an Austin based position and they
           | were lowballing really hard on the offer. I suspect the
           | workforce is just too expensive for them now.
        
             | twojobsoneboss wrote:
             | Were they lowballing or are those salaries just the new
             | market rate?
        
       | chrisco255 wrote:
       | Austin fixing its affordability crisis with more housing supply
       | and MSM paints it as a bad thing. ATX is as great as it's ever
       | been. Samsung continues to expand its footprint, Tesla HQ still
       | ramping up production (plus lithium refinery in Corpus), Apple
       | expanding with new 82K sq ft building, and fastest growing
       | startups (by headcount) are based there:
       | 
       | https://www.signalfire.com/blog/state-of-talent-tech-trends
        
       | astrange wrote:
       | One difficulty of lower-the-rent politics is that if you actually
       | succeed in lowering rents, the news will report it as a bad
       | thing.
        
         | pm90 wrote:
         | In this case its housing prices that plunged, not rental rates.
         | Are they correlated?
        
           | astrange wrote:
           | They aren't always correlated but they are in this case -
           | Austin's rents are down because of new construction.
           | 
           | (Which news headlines call "multifamily oversupply".)
        
         | fullshark wrote:
         | That's cause everyone actually wants to own a home that
         | appreciates in value, they just want their entry point to be
         | low.
        
           | pixl97 wrote:
           | Or that at least maintains value so you don't take a massive
           | loss in the case you have to move.
        
       | pm90 wrote:
       | Austin will continue to grow. Texas is the second largest US
       | state by size and economy, and Austin is where the left leaning
       | tech folks generally tend to go when they are considering Texas
       | based opportunities.
       | 
       | Personally it feels overhyped. My current favorite Texas city is
       | Houston which is much larger, more affordable and more diverse.
        
         | chrisco255 wrote:
         | It's larger to a fault. Houston is so spread out it might as
         | well be 5 different cities you're talking about. Driving in
         | Houston is a nightmare.
        
           | yowzadave wrote:
           | And the only thing worse thank driving in Houston is walking!
           | It's easy to find yourself in amid a sea of highways with no
           | real way of walking in or out.
        
             | ghaff wrote:
             | Dallas, which isn't quite as bad Houston in this regard, I
             | could almost see the restaurant I wanted to eat at from my
             | hotel, and I had to get in my car and drive there because
             | there was no real way to walk. Mind you it's not always
             | great in more pedestrian friendly areas but some are worse
             | than others.
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | Haven't spent a lot of time there in years but seems a pretty
           | unattractive place (for me) to live in general. Austin would
           | be my choice in TX but would be pretty low overall.
        
           | MandieD wrote:
           | Houston is practically a state, size and population wise.
        
         | hangonhn wrote:
         | > My current favorite Texas city is Houston which is much
         | larger, more affordable and more diverse.
         | 
         | I really feel Houston is one of the most underrated cities in
         | the US. Even if you're left leaning, most of the cities in
         | Texas are too. So if Austin is a consideration it seems
         | reasonable to consider Houston too. I used to live in Dallas
         | and enjoyed my time there. It's also never too far away from
         | any city in the US in terms of flying time. Those three Texas
         | cities are very livable/affordable and people are quite nice.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-04-26 23:00 UTC)