how does austin compare to the bay area with respect to jobs and overall quality of life?
149855
Here are two resources that might be useful to you: 1) for job, check out jobrobots.com, It has over 600,000+ fresh job listings posted within last 3 weeks aggregated from multiple career sites in the US including monster, hotjobs and careerbuilder etc. so you can compare austin and bay area 2) House. Checking out housingrobots.com, it will give you an idea on house price and features. Good luck.
1001058
Pros : its a big city, plenty of jobs, nice places to go for dinner, partying, clubin, etc.\n\n Cons: it rains 3 of 5 days has a high depression rate due to this, it has hills like San Francisco, smells like dead fish ( close to the water)
792858
Inexpensive housing is a relative term. Depends on your price range & what you're looking for in a neighborhood. General rule is stay west of I-35. \n\nTarrytown & Hyde Park areas are central to downtown - the houses are older & expensive, but close. Very liberal area. ($250K+)\n\nWestlake / Travis Country is the best school district & arguably the more conservative area. ($300K+)\n\nOak Hill and SW Austin is more middle class family area. ($150K+)\n\nNW Austin near Great Hills / Arboretum is more upper-middle class family area. ($200K+)\n\nLake Austin houses are where the Dellionaires live. ($$$$)\n\nThere are a lot of new housing developments out by Lake Travis - real nice if you can stand the commute.
180545
The San Francisco Bay Area is beautiful that time of year.  The weather is mild, most of the days are clear and you can have any setting you want within miles of each other.
812716
I've only been there once, (for the January 2003 anti-war assembly in Frisco) but I must say Berkeley is well worth a visit.  The city is just north of Oakland on the east shores of the San Francisco Bay.  Much of the university is built on a hillside overlooking the bay.  There are several quaint co-op student houses on the eastern, uphill side of the campus.  \n \nBerkeley's climate is temperate and moderate all year round, with spring- and fall-like temperatures even at the peak of summer or winter.  Berkeley also gets slightly more rain than most other Bay localities.  The moisture and summer coolness allows for a somewhat greener landscape with a mix of eucalyptus/palms, conifers, and deciduous trees.  As a resident of western Oregon I felt quite at home in the mini-forest on Berkeley's hillside.  \n\nThe downtown has a lot of shops and small businesses.  There's also, from what I've been told, a ton of independent and alternative-type radio and music in the town.  Berkeley, of course, has a reputation for radical politics due to the 1960s student movements, but in reality this stereotype is overexaggerated.  The political balance is liberal but no more so than any other liberal city.  (UC Berkeley did, however, have a fairly strong chapter of the International Socialist Organization in 2002-03.)  \n\nBerkeley is well worth a visit, and I hope I get to visit again someday, but I'm not sure if I'd want to live there.  It probably is a pretty good place to live if you can afford the slightly higher rents than you'd find in Oakland (but in Oakland the culture is less enlightened and far less idealistic).  I never understood why affordable housing and leftist politics don't geographically overlap more than they do.
1025294
CA is soooo expensive. It's true. The housing prices are hyperinflated....as for job opportunities....it's hard to tell without knowing what your background is. CA is also overpopulated.\nI'm a former CA girl.
169756
I think you would do well in California.  There is a wide variety of styles here, as it is a very large state.  Our economy is usually a bit healthier than the country as a whole, and we have a lot of beautiful places to live.\n\nI live in Santa Cruz County, near the middle of the state, and it is the most wonderful place I have ever been.  We are within commute distance of San Jose and the silicon valley, but on the ocean.  People are friendly, but not too in-your-face, and respect privacy.  Newcomers are welcome if they bring marketable skills and have enough resources not to need public assistance.  There is a general tolerance, as there are many different ethic and racial backgrounds in California and in Santa Cruz in particular.  You have to appreciate weirdness, though!
1177311
It's great, if you like city life.  There are lots of fun things for families to do together.  Parks, zoo, childrens museum, market place, on and on.  I love Seattle, but choose to live on the outskirts only because of the cost of living.  It's pretty high.  Of course you never want to have the kids out and about in Seattle at night, there are lots of homeless people and dark alleys.\nThe weather isn't as bad as everyone says, it can be quite beautiful.  And there hasn't been an earthquake worth noting in 5 years or so.  Don't let that scare you away.
584406
well my brother in law just moved to Sydney Australia and lived in California all his life and wished he moved sooner he said  cheaper to live better quality of life and what not , people are way nicer than here and lot of good thing don't have the space to say all the things he said, good luck in all you ever do
483980
You might want to try The Saint or The Bonham. It'd probably be better to try Austin, though.
328550
Whatever, the bay is where it's at.  People spend their lives dreamin bout coming to Cali.. can't say that about ATL tho...
675771
OK, there's GOTTA be a good reason you want to move to Bay City.  It's an industrial area with several chemical plants.  The air is pretty rank, though you do get used to it quickly and only notice again after you return from a trip out of town.  But, houses are pretty darn cheap (a decent 3BR/2BA can be found for under 70K), the schools are excellent (great tax base from the plants).  Jobs are pretty scarce, unless you want to work for one of the chemical companies.  And you're close to the beach (or in some cases, on it).
1006007
We have several of these in the Bay Area.  They range from very small, moderate prices to high end.  I'm married and trying to start a family, so this would not appeal to me.  However, if I were single, I would be very interested in the high end type.  The one around here has apartments for rent and condos for sale.  The shopping center has mostly high end shops (Tommy Bahama, Furla, Diesel, etc.), restaurants, bars, a hotel, and a movie theater.  I would expect this type of community to appeal to single, professionals with fairly high income.
14867
I'm currious what you think is screwed up.  I find San Francisco to be one of the nicest cities in the United States.  I would argue that in many areas it should be a model to other cities.
70572
I'd have to say Austin. Plenty of stuff to do, large parks, and it's a big college town.
64837
I moved to the SF bay area from Wisconsin last summer and I am totally loving it out here.\nWeather here is not as nice as southern CA, but never gets below like 40.
1152212
Of all the schools you mentioned, a degree from UT-Austin will carry the most weight around the country, especially on the JD side of things.  In addition, Austin is a great place to live, and is full of great companies that can hire people right out of school.  That would be my pick.