Austin TX: Model Evaluation

Austin passes our test, and passes it more convincingly than Dallas. Whereas I had to bend the rules a little to pass Dallas on cost of living, Austin is genuinely 4.5% lower than Cleveland OH - 9% lower than Dallas.

Though Austin is smaller than Dallas, it is a better city for technology, and therefore a better city for us. Indeed, Austin was picked as the #1 tech city by insidetech.com; Dallas was #9.

Austin also wins on quality of life: it is the Live Music Capital of the World (or so they claim), and seeing how we are here with our musical instruments, you can guess that this is important to us. It also has beautiful scenery -- the hill country, with its 6 lakes, surpasses any scenery available in Dallas.

The complete Austin model looks like this:

Austin TX (Decision)

• ●Austin TX is a good choice for our next home.
• ●AND [1 of 5] : Austin TX has a good climate.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Austin TX has moderate winters.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : The number of days each year at or below freezing should be 10 or less.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : The average winter temperature should be at least 10 degrees warmer than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Austin TX has a good balance of sunshine and summer heat.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : Austin TX has moderate summers in exchange for lots of sunshine.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Austin TX has lots of sunshine but hot summers.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 5] : Austin TX has an affordable cost of living.
• ●AND [1 of 4] : Austin TX has health insurance available for less than $1500 a month.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 4] : Austin TX has lower taxes than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [3 of 4] : Austin TX has a lower cost of living index than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [4 of 4] : Austin TX has good housing for less than $800,000.
• ●True
• ●AND [3 of 5] : Austin TX has good work opportunities.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : Austin TX has good fulltime work opportunities.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Austin TX has good freelance work opportunities.
• ●True
• ●AND [4 of 5] : Austin TX provides a good quality of life.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Austin TX can provide a healthy lifestyle.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Austin TX has neighborhoods that provide a walkable urban lifestyle.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Austin TX has at least one neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : The neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90 has a crime rate no greater than 125% of the national average.
• ●False
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Austin TX has areas with affordable nature 'compounds'.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Austin TX can provide an inspirational lifestyle.
• ●OR [1 of 3] : Austin TX has a high quality university.
• ●True
• ●OR [2 of 3] : Austin TX has cultural diversity.
• ●True
• ●OR [3 of 3] : Austin TX has beautiful scenery and views.
• ●True
• ●AND [5 of 5] : Austin TX has good accessibility.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Austin TX is within 2 hours of a major airport.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Austin TX is within 30 minutes of high quality hospitals.
• ●True