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Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

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Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#441

Post by kelnos »

thebradbain wrote: post #327
boringg wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel for everyone as the prices are getting stupid everywhere.... BUTTTT I just looked on Redfin - I could buy a 3300 square foot house in Austin for under $900k with a huge pool and that was a 5 second search. No offense all you Austin folk, but you literally have no clue.

Taxes for that home in TX would be equivalent to a $1.8M+ home in CA, though (and raise every year with the market), so it's not as simple as comparison. The monthly mortgage payment for a $900k in Austin is probably comparable to a $1.2-1.3M home in CA.

> The monthly mortgage payment for a $900k in Austin is probably comparable to a $1.2-1.3M home in CA.

Are you talking about paying property taxes via an escrow account that your mortgage lender takes care of for you? That's not your "mortgage payment", which is a function of your loan size, interest rate, and term, and nothing more. The monthly mortgage payment (assuming same term and interest rate) is the same in CA and TX for the same amount of loan.

(I guess we could also talk about things like PMI, but that won't raise your payment by all that much.)

Property taxes might be quite a bit higher in TX, but I'm not convinced a $900k home in TX is the equivalent to a $1.2-1.3M home in CA. I would expect that's closer to $1.7-2M, and then the property tax amounts end up being not that different.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#442

Post by t-writescode »

scoofy wrote: post #307
minhazm wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google maps says downtown Austin to Giga Texas is 17 miles, 24 minutes. I don't know what traffic is like in Austin but I imagine it's not nearly as bad as the bay area. I think a 25-30 min commute is pretty reasonable and most people would happily take that for much cheaper housing. The big difference is that in Austin you have the option to commute a bit for much cheaper housing. But in the bay area you could be co…

Traffic in Austin is insane. Legit insane. Definitely comparable to the Bay Area if not worse. And there is absolutely no transit alternative comparable to BART. There is a morning and evening train, but it's really only effective if you live and work exactly on the stops.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/worst-traffic-cities-americ...

According to this, Austin Texas is #10 on this chart.

  #1, LA
  #2, NYC
  #3, San Fran
  #4, San Jose (near San Fran)
  #5, Seattle
  #6, Miami
  #7, DC
  #8, Chicago
  #9, Honolulu
  #10, Austin
*two* of the top 5 worst traffic areas in the US are in the Greater San Francisco area.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#443

Post by mehrdada »

etchalon wrote: post #243
mdoms wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who lives somewhere with an actual housing crisis, I just did a Zillow search for homes in Austin and I don't think you quite understand what a housing crisis looks like. Your homes look dirt cheap by Kiwi standards.

They look cheap because they're underpriced. At the moment, most houses are closing 15-20% higher than list and a lot of them are offered in all cash deals. That's slowly changing, but I suspect that's temporary.

Bay Area homes are like that too. I implore you to check some Zillow in Mountain View and compare. Not in the same ballpark even.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#445

Post by b20000 »

adminscoffee wrote: post #248
Apocryphon wrote: post #56

The official reason is because of housing: "To be clear we will be continuing to expand our activities in California," Musk said. "Our intention is to increase output from Fremont and Giga Nevada by 50%. If you go to our Fremont factory it's jammed." But, he added, "It's tough for people to afford houses, and people have to come in from far away....There's a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area." https://ww…

check out seattle, we got prices that rock /s

rent is nearly the same as the bay area

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#446

Post by WalterBright »

t-writescode wrote: post #442
scoofy wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traffic in Austin is insane. Legit insane. Definitely comparable to the Bay Area if not worse. And there is absolutely no transit alternative comparable to BART. There is a morning and evening train, but it's really only effective if you live and work exactly on the stops.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/worst-traffic-cities-americ... According to this, Austin Texas is #10 on this chart. #1, LA #2, NYC #3, San Fran #4, San Jose (near San Fran) #5, Seattle #6, Miami #7, DC #8, Chicago #9, Honolulu #10, Austin *two* of the top 5 worst traffic areas in the US are in the Greater San Francisco area.

Seattle traffic isn't so bad if you WFH.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#447

Post by kelnos »

oceanplexian wrote: post #383
pvarangot wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I talked to several Tesla and former Tesla folks that will probably relocate because of this, and the say is that since Austin in less NIMBY than the Bay Area new housing will get built and prices will go down. It's a more complex bet than just "we move there because houses are affordable now".

It’s a no brainer, my company offered to let me move out of CA a few years ago. My utilities are 50% cheaper and more reliable, crime is lower, the air quality is better, and I bought a new construction with 10G Fiber Internet (You will never get this in California due to failing infrastructure). I miss is the arts, culture, and nightlife, but that was wiped out by government-enacted COVID restrictions so there are f…

> I miss is the arts, culture, and nightlife, but that was wiped out by government-enacted COVID restrictions so there are few redeeming reasons to stay.

Isn't that the case pretty much everywhere, though? These things will come back in CA just as they will everywhere else, barring catastrophic economic collapse.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#448

Post by [deleted] »

mullingitover wrote: post #326
boringg wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel for everyone as the prices are getting stupid everywhere.... BUTTTT I just looked on Redfin - I could buy a 3300 square foot house in Austin for under $900k with a huge pool and that was a 5 second search. No offense all you Austin folk, but you literally have no clue.

I'd be careful about directly comparing prices, real estate taxes (by rate) in Texas are significantly higher than in California. They might be overall lower given that the real estate prices are cheaper, but Texas is #6 in the country for real estate taxes while California is #34[1]. [1] https://taxfoundation.org/high-state-property-taxes-2021/

[deleted]

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#449

Post by drak0n1c »

8note wrote: post #321
danhak wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many millions of people in the country that don't share your politics. Some of them are even engineers with families.

I don't know which people like sitting in traffic. Wide roads is a sign of sitting in traffic. Family wise though, moving to Texas is bad for half the members of your family. Half the people in your family, aren't going to agree with the Texas government's views, whether you want to force them to or not.

Recently moved to north of Dallas. Many wide roads, very populated area. Rarely see traffic that slows trip time more than 10%. Much better than my experience driving in Seattle and what I've seen in SF/LA.

The speed limit on the freeways and tollways is 70 mph, so distant places that would take over hour to get to in Seattle are 15 min drives here.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#450

Post by nichos »

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #273
Apocryphon wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FWIW, I'm looking at FL now instead. Miami? Or joining the much more quiet Jacksonville or Tampa Bay exodus that this dubious survey based entirely on LinkedIn data claims: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-01/austin-is...

As someone who used to live in Tampa Bay—and may have to move back for family reasons next year—I find that a little dubious as well. :) Although to be fair, Tampa and St. Petersburg both got measurably more interesting in the last decade than they were when I left in 2002. Never lived in Jacksonville, but I’ve visited it and have a friend who used to live there. Jacksonville is to Florida what Fresno is to Californi…

Us Jaxons think of Jacksonville as southern Georgia. North Florida (panhandle included) is still very southern, not at all like central/south Florida.
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