Having left NYC for Texas 5 years ago, I can confirm the grass is greener on the other side.
Only if everything you know about Texas you learned from cartoons.
I don't drink tap water directly. It goes through a brita water filter. After that, it's generally fine.
As for too hot... I 100% agree. I'd move if I could keep my job. I want to move north where it's cold. But I don't want to move where people are.
That being said, it's pretty clear it's heading towards Seattle levels, which is quickly headed towards SF levels of societal issues.
Here are the downsides of NYC that I don't miss (relative to Austin):
- High income tax
- Far from anything west coast (skiing, mountains, outdoors, SF/LA, etc)
- Cold winters. Much easier to get to the caribean in the winter.
- Hard to get "out" of the city during the summer that doesn't have stupid logistics (e.g. hamptons). You can get to one of the lakes 15~60 min depending on where you live in Austin.
- Everyone talks about work (austin, people don't care what you do for a living)
Downsides of Austin:
- It's a small town. If you're social, you'll know everyone in about a year.
- Opportunity is limited.
- Satellite airport (gotta connect via HOU and DFW)
- Summers get HOT.
As someone from the northeast, I'm intrigued!
Is that why net immigration to Texas is positive?
On what quality of life metrics does Texas rank poorly?
However, I presume that you will not be choosing to move to a rural county. Houston has the worlds largest medical center and the neighborhood where I live has some of the best public schools in the country.
The web sites and newspapers that rank cities do so by using some sort of strange linear combination of factors, like so many points for having four distinct seasons and so many points for having professional sports teams and so many negative points for having more police per capita, etc.
I think that the best way to judge location attractiveness is to look at how people vote with their feet. The states that have a net gain in population have been judged to be better places to live.
It depends how wealthy you are. If you make enough money to afford all the niceties of CA, then you won’t see a reason to move to TX.