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Comment by ilaksh | Hacker News Reader

Is _this_ the point where everyone and their grandpa has finally figured out that Austin is cool, and therefore it is automatically not cool anymore?

What's the next hip town?

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Hip is where you make it. Sometimes the best communities form in places where you wouldn't expect it. Freaks, hippies, and weirdos seem to stick together better in conservative places where they have a common enemy.

It's always dynamic. Being near some success is good for artists and creators because they can tap into the revenue stream without being priced out. Too few customers and the density of innovation can't exist. Too much success and only the most successful and profitable ventures can survive.

Perhaps Boulder, unless it's already too late?

10 years too late.

Just moved from Boulder because it had priced out the people that brought it's whimsy.

I’ve been also hearing a lot about Miami.

NY -> Miami

California -> Austin

I think you could probably chalk a lot of this up to where company leadership has their vacation homes.

No one has vacation homes in Austin.

My sister is building a vacation home there.

The house we bought was a vacation home for a little old couple from Omaha. A remote place on a hill overlooking Lake Travis, 30 minutes from downtown. Amazing sunsets, the weather is in the 60s and 70s in January, the springtime wildflowers are unreal, there's great food, good live music, lots of charming little hill country towns just a short trip away.

It doesn't make sense from a weather perspective, since Austin has brutally hot summers and cold winters.

Uh, yeah they do. Just because the climate isn't as nice as the Bay Area doesn't mean people don't have homes there. For one, the culture/night life is incredible there.

Lol, like people have "vacation homes" in Austin.

I can think of two in my extended network just off the top of my head. One is a run-of-the-mill general practitioner and the other is a brilliant entrepreneur. And these are people I live near in out here in East BFE.

You are being downvoted for a seemingly flippant remark, but someone should really check whether senior execs conveniently are already well positioned to move there.

They are being downvoted because people who live in Austin think it's laughable that execs are moving to Austin because it's some cushy vacation spot. Execs are moving to Austin from CA for the exact same reason a huge chunk of the rest of the techies are moving to Austin:

1. No state income tax.

2. Comparatively cheaper home prices, though with news link this perhaps not for long, centrally located Austin single family homes are incredibly expensive now.

3. Vibrant tech and VC community - not at the same level as SV but a not-too-distant second-or-third.

I would be very interested to see data and analysis about migration within the US by income deciles. I suspect outside of the tier 1 cities, the biggest migrations for higher income populations are to WA/NV/FL/TX/TN due to no income tax.

This Bloomberg article had a chart showing change in adjusted gross income from 2017 to 2018, but I'd be interested in something going back a few decades.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-05/even-befo...

https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iPUtINXvmFd...

> 3. Vibrant tech and VC community - not at the same level as SV but a not-too-distant second-or-third.

Uh, no.

Austin has a lousy VC community. There are countless articles about it.

And, as for tech, for software it's mainly only Tivoli alums--and a lot of the best ones decamped for greener (read: better salary not in Austin) pastures. IBM as a technical presence has been gone forever (the Advanced Workstation Division was quite amazing and IBM Somerset was one of the PowerPC development arenas). Apple just came in so hasn't spun anybody out yet.

Totally disagree. In software you have vibrant alumni communities from Trilogy, Indeed, HomeAway/VRBO, etc., not to mention tech giants that have large engineering outposts in Austin, e.g. Google, PayPal.

I was being downvoted. I kinda want the downvotes back. Makes me feel like a rebel.

That does seem to be how Bezos chose HQ2 after a nation wide search.

based on the skyrocketing real estate prices in Phoenix, I suspect many Californians are moving to AZ.

Really? Never been in Phoenix but I saw last summer they had some heat waves reaching temperatures around 120F (on top of being very humid). Why is it popular?

Phoenix is a very dry heat, very little humidity. 120F is toasty, but its nothing a pool and margarita can't solve :). Our winters are fantastic. We have 300+ days of sun shine! We are 2-3 hours to the Mexican beaches, 2 hours to snow for snowboard/ski (flagstaff), lots of golf, lots of hiking, lots of Tech work (Motorola was a monster back in its day, Intel has a huge presence, Godaddy, Paypal, the list goes on), Baseball Spring Training is awesome!

Oh right it's dry, confused it with Houston :) But still, an average high above 100F for 4 months is pretty brutal. I'm guessing people don't spend much time outside during the summer months (during the day at least), unless it involves some water activity.

A lot of people don't spend time outside in most places :|

I personally like the heat (over the cold). I mountain bike with my kids at dawn in summer. We camp in Flagstaff which is 30-40 deg cooler (7500ft elevation) and only 2 hours away.

But Bay Area has all of that and more? You just gotta pay for it with a higher COL.

Enjoy the water while it lasts.

About 60k people moved from CA to AZ last year (latest available data), making it the #2 destination.

Of course, California is also by far the largest destination of people who move out of Arizona. They are adjacent states after all and Phoenix is, let's face it, basically in Los Angeles already.

What was #1? TX?

Yep. The state-to-state flow tables for 2019 are at:

https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/tables/geograp... [an XLS file]

Somewhere in the Southeast would be my guess. Nashville, or in the Carolinas, maybe.

Asheville would be my guess in that space. Huge beer and art scene. Still a blue dot in a very red state.

Maybe Raleigh/Durham?

New Orleans, if you dare.

Austin has been dead since 1990. I leave it to you to remember why.

CA can save the strong lose the weak

Why?

pretty harsh to blame austin dying on richard linklater!

^^^ winner

Bloom County ended? ;p

The next hip town is wherever you happen to be as long as you are doing something interesting.

The idea that location matters is so last 20 years.

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