From April to October of last year, the Austin metro area had the highest rate of in-migration to out-migration in the nation.
A few years ago, downtown Austin, Texas, had wax museums, comic book stores and $1 taco restaurants, but in recent years, famous stores from Lululemon to Le Labo fragrances have opened, and even Apple, tesla, Oracle and other tech giants are moving in.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the trend of moving to Austin was “spawned” by the new crown Epidemic. Former New Yorkers and San Franciscans are now able to work far away, attracted by Austin’s lower rents, unique bars and year-round warm weather. According to LinkedIn, the Austin metro area had the highest rate of in-migration and out-migration in the country from April to October of last year.
Many businesses and telecommuters are fleeing California and scrambling to move to what they identify as the next tech metropolis. Apple’s office campus and Tesla’s factory are under construction north and south of Austin, respectively; Oracle recently announced it is moving its headquarters to Austin; and Tesla CEO Musk even said recently that he is moving to Texas as well.
Austin is a start-up city,” said Ross, a partner at venture capital firm Atomic, and McKenna, a technology investor who has moved to Austin from the San Francisco Bay Area. Everything is growing fast, and the airport is adding new gates every year. McKenna, for its part, wants to be closer to the next wave of new start-ups.
The arrival of these people is fueling Austin’s economy, but it also brings with it the high costs and gridlock they had hoped to escape. With Soho House, a private club with membership fees starting at $2,000, boutique firm Hermes moving in, and accounting firm Deloitte and private equity firm Tritium Partners leasing office buildings, Austin’s commercial rents have risen.
Many Austin residents who were born and raised in Austin, especially black and Latino families, can no longer afford the cost of housing. Many believe the solution is to increase the supply of housing and improve transportation.
Increasing traffic congestion is also a problem, as the city’s rail transit plan, which was twice rejected by voters in 2000 and 2014, finally passed in November 2020, with voters overwhelmingly approving a permanent property tax hike to fund a $7.1 billion transportation plan. The people with the knowledge to act early don’t want Austin to turn into another crowded and expensive San Francisco because of its technological prosperity.
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