Are you thinking about moving to Austin Texas? You must be one smart cookie ;) Austin Texas is such an incredible city, with friendly people, endless entertainment and outdoor activities, and the BEST food! It's no wonder that it tops most lists of the best places to live in the country, has increasing home values, and has seen the highest number of people relocating here from other states. Here's our top 10 reasons why you should move to Austin! 1. Austin has a Small Town Feel photo credit: @universitycoop The first reason why we love Austin and we feel you will too, is it has a great small town feel. Even though Austin is a pretty big sized city with close to 3 million people in the surrounding area, it still feels like a small town. There's a few reasons for that. One of the biggest reasons is I think people here in Austin try to keep most things local. A lot of the local things prosper here in Austin. I think another reason why it feels like a small town is because there's really no professional sports teams here. So everybody cheers on the University of Texas Longhorns. Another reason it still feels like a small town is because wherever you live, you know, you're pretty much about 30 or 45 minutes away from everything in Austin. I love that the city does not feel overwhelming. 2. Austin Has Great Jobs  A lot of people are calling Austin "Silicon Valley 2.0"... a lot of jobs are coming here, many of them in the technology niche. There's companies like Dell, eBay, Facebook, Amazon Tesla, IBM, Google national instruments, Oracle, PayPal, just to name a few. Now what's even more amazing is that there's more companies coming into town all the time. We have made some good friends that have come here to Austin because of the job, with the most recent being of the Hollywood variety (Netflix and HBO). 3. Austin ia a Dog Lover's Paradise photo credit: Austin Eastciders This is definitely one of the things we love about Austin! Especially since we have two puppies in our household right now, one of them is our Havanese, Hero. And the other one is our daughter's Shitzu, Ripley. A lot of the restaurants in Austin have outdoor patios where they allow dogs. A lot of times they'll even have water bowls and treats for puppies. There's a lot of parks and trails where you can take your dogs. I definitely see more flexibility here in Austin and surrounding areas for dogs as compared to other cities that we've lived in or visited. 4. Austin Has Great Weather We love Austin's weather! I know there's people that say they hate the heat, but I actually love it. Yes, there have been some years where the heat in the summer for maybe a month or two got to a hundred degrees, but it wasn't unbearable. We've lived in Utah where the heat - being up in the mountains - you're up there and it feels like the sun is just hitting, burning your skin. Even when it's just 85-90. And here you don't feel that. I don't know. I love the warm weather. I love that we have so many sunny days where it allows us to be outside a lot more throughout the year! And with the exception of "Snovid" in February 2021, there's almost never snow. I love that I don't have to drive in the snow here for sure.  5. Austin Has the Friendliest People photo credit: Austin Beerworks That's been one of the BEST things about living here in Austin. We made some very good friends and there are a lot of amazing people here. It's not uncommon that you go to a bar and make a one or two new friends by the time you leave. I don't know what it is about Austin. Maybe it's that small town feel or the lovely weather we spoke about, or maybe that you have your companion on your side and your little puppy. I don't know what it is, but people are just friendly.  And it's not only our opinions. We've heard this from a lot of people, and Austin is often ranked as one of the friendliest cities in the nation. 6. Austin is Great for Outdoor Living You can go to downtown Austin and get a paddle board on Lady Bird Lake (that's what the locals call the part of the Colorado river that runs through the city). If you're a boat lover, we have lake Travis as well as tons of smaller lakes like lake Georgetown. And there's just so many things around here, not just here in Austin, but so near to Austin that you can go use your boat. There are tons of parks around town that you could go on hikes, running or biking. There's a lot of people that like to do dirt bikes, go ziplining, horseback riding, and so much more! There's an infinite amount of activities to do here in Austin. You just have to get out and do them! 7. Austin Has an Awesome Food Scene photo credit: Vaquero Taquero If you're a foodie, then you will love Austin. There are so many wonderful places to dine here. Austin food trucks have some of the best food you'll ever taste, not to mention a community vibe like no other. And if you have special dietary restrictions, you're still going to love Austin because there's always gluten-free options or vegan options. And they go out of the way to make sure that they can prepare a dish just for you. Austin is definitely a big melting pot. So there's a lot of different tastes that you can get here in Austin. If you are a foodie, check out our Tasty Tuesday playlist on YouTube where we showcase all of the best places to eat and drink in Austin Texas! 8. Austin is a Healthy City photo credit: samantharunskindafast We love Austin for this one reason alone, because we've been to other cities where all there is to do is go out to the movies. Lol. Austin really goes above and beyond to make sure that people are active. Like we said before, because of the weather, there's a lot of things to do outside and people really take pride in staying healthy. The healthy food options are plentiful, and the communities are built around being able to walk outside. All of that plays a big role in Austin being healthy and it is consistently ranked as one of the healthiest cities in the U.S.  9. Austin is the Live Music Capital of the World Austin is known as the "live music capital of the world". There are so many great places to go to here and catch some live music... There is live music playing on almost every corner, day and night. It's a vibe, for sure. You can find top 10 musicians playing here every day of the week. We have a lot of music festivals here in Austin, like Austin City Limits, South by Southwest and Pachanga Fest. Just to name a few! We've visited other cities and we asked ourselves, "where's the music?". We've gotten so used to it and it's definitely something that's not in most other cities.  10. Austin Has a Central Location in Texas  You've probably heard the phrase "location, location, location" when it comes to real estate, but Austin really exemplifies that we're in the heart of Texas. We're only about an hour and a half away from San Antonio, about two and a half from Houston and almost three to Dallas and Fort worth. We're really close to the beach and the hill country, so you get the best of all worlds. Austin is definitely an Oasis in the middle of Texas. Reach Out! Did our Top 10 miss any of YOUR favorite things about Austin? Drop us a line and let us know (or leave a comment on YouTube). Thinking of moving to Austin and have questions or need help? Get in touch with us! We're happy to help, and are glad to be your first friends in Texas :)