Moving to Austin, Texas in 2026? Everything You NEED to Know

Austin has been booming over the last decade and it's become such a popular place to move, especially for recent grads and young professionals. The city officially crossed 1 million residents in 2025 and it's a relatively young city too with a median age of about 35. Between the growing job market, huge tech presence, no state income tax, and obviously the food, nightlife, and social scene, I totally understand why so many people look at Austin as the perfect place to start their post-grad life. But Austin has changed a lot and if you're thinking about There are definitely some things you should know first. Seven years ago, I moved to Austin right after college, and the crazy part is, is that I had never visited Austin before actually moving here. This was before COVID and the huge Austin boom, so I tried to do as much research online as I possibly could. I was trying to figure out where I should live. What were the areas like what was there to do and what my day-to-day life would look like and a lot of that I kind of had to just figure out once I got here looking back now There are so many things that I wish I would have known that may have changed some of the decisions that i've made But austin has truly changed so much since I moved here and I didn't want to just give you my perspective I'm partnering with zillow rental So you can hear from other austinites and make this the ultimate guide for anyone thinking about moving to austin right now If you could live anywhere, where would you choose on this map? Maybe I would do somewhere like here, it looks pretty nice. Okay, so South Congress area. Yeah, good shopping down there. Oh yeah. Big fan of these areas out here, like the Tarrytown section. I'm gonna say Rainy. Okay. Yeah, unpopular opinion, but it's, yeah. I feel like Rainy's back. Yeah, it's so back. I really like the downtown area, and mainly I really like being near. The, you know, the river slash lake. What area would you recommend for someone who's moving here in their 20s? Well, as somebody who just moved here in my 20s, I really like Rainy Street. East Side is the top tier. I definitely say Riverside is a pretty good area, especially because you got really close access to downtown. Anywhere downtown. I feel like downtown is central to everything. When picking your Austin apartment, what is the most important to you? Would it be amenities, location, price? All of the above. I think close to work. Amenities are Nice, but I don't think they're my number one. I think price and location are definitely what I look for the most. Location, location, location. Location, 100%. Got to be close to the trail. What was the amenity that was the most important for you when choosing your apartment? I would love to have a sauna. I actually have a gym. A couple miles away because it has a sauna. Parking. Yeah, because I have a different car. I have two cars because I have one for work. Probably a gym because I would like to not have to also pay for a gym membership on top of my rent. I'm going to say having a pool. It hits like 100 plus degrees 70% of the time here, so I was really looking for a nice pool at a luxury apartment that fit my price range. What's the biggest mistake someone can choose? When moving here, I actually made this mistake my second year living in Austin was I lived just too far away. So anytime my friends would be going out, I have to think about driving. It just ended up staying home way more than you want. What's something that's so worth the hype in Austin? The coffee and matcha scene. I think it's top tier. Sometimes it even beats Japan for me. So to know. Yeah. I would have to second that. And I think I'd also say the wellness scene in Austin's pretty top tier. Barbecue. 100% worth the hype. There's so many great places here. Make sure you get the sides, too. Oh, my God. Don't just go for the meat. You got to get the sides with the barbecue. I think the river. I like being able to go paddle boarding. I like having some nature with the city. I think it's a good mix of both. Definitely the food, but not just barbecue. The barbecue is phenomenal, obviously, but there's a lot of other good foods. The cool thing about Austin is the food truck culture. That's new to me. What do you think somebody who is moving from out of state would be the most shocked by? The U-turns in Texas and Austin in particular, I absolutely love. I drive a lot for work. I feel like that saves me so much time. I don't think Austin is your traditional southern, the rest of Texas. I think there's a lot of... city here like a lot of people that aren't from Texas live here. It's not all cowboy boots. How friendly people are. I was really surprised when I moved here how many people in the elevator or just walking down the street would just strike up a conversation. I feel like people here are really really friendly and everyone just wants to make friends. Exactly. The best thing about living in Austin is everything. The people, the food, the nature, and the city. I love it all. The people. The people. I've made some really, really awesome lifelong friends here, and I just love the community here. Okay, so obviously everyone has a very different experience living in Austin, but I did agree with so many of those answers. And since I moved here without ever visiting, I had to learn a lot of these things the hard way. So now I want to get into things that I personally wish I knew before moving to Austin. But first, a little backstory of how I even ended up in Austin. I graduated college and my boyfriend at the time, now my fiance, got a job and the two options for the locations were Santa Monica and Austin at first i was very team California because i'm in the creative industry and i just thought that would be the next best step for me and honestly Texas and Austin wasn't on my radar at all but then he asked me one very important question which was would you rather have a smaller not so updated apartment in California or would you rather have a newer apartment probably with a lot more space Since I work from home and film content in my space, it was just It was just really important for me to have like. Good natural lighting and, you know, storage for all of my camera equipment. We ended up renting off of Riverside for two years and then East Austin for two years. And now we have owned a home for three years in South Austin. I think renting in two different parts of Austin was the best thing we could have done because it gave us time to figure out what we really cared about in a neighborhood. I will say that one of my biggest regrets when renting in Austin was that we never lived in a super walkable area. I really wish we would have done it for just at least one year, especially when we were younger. misconception is that you have to live downtown if you want that walkable lifestyle, which you definitely don't. One of my favorite features on Zillow Rentals is the walk score. It's so helpful when finding out how walkable an area is before you actually move there. There are so many pockets of Austin that are technically walkable. They have the coffee shops, they have the workout classes, grocery stores, restaurants, bars right outside your door. This could be South Congress, Hyde Park, East Austin, and I love that these little pockets. Feel like their own little community inside a bigger city. Unfortunately, neither of the areas that we rented were walkable areas. Now I feel like they might be because they've been developed so much. The city is just booming. I swear I like drive down East 7th Street and there are two new restaurants every week. So now that you know a little bit about my background, here's some advice I would give if you are thinking about moving to Austin. Don't choose where to live based on where you work. Especially post-grad jobs can change. Think about the rest of your life too. Where are you spending time on the weekends? Where are your friends located? What do you actually like doing? Don't sign somewhere just because the apartments are brand new. Sometimes the older complexes are in a really great location and will give you a better experience here in Austin rather than that gorgeous new build that's a little bit isolated. Austin changes fast and your area could look totally different in a year or two. And if you get in at a good time, you could score a really good deal on rent. Two very niche things that I wish somebody would have told me is that Covered parking is so worth it. And pay attention to which direction your windows face when you do get to tour your apartment. Good lighting is really important to me, but also if it's west-facing, good luck because the apartment will heat up and your AC bill will be crazy. You have to be so intentional about building a community after college. Unfortunately, friends are not built into your life anymore, so I would recommend becoming a regular somewhere. Whether it's a coffee shop, a workout class, or a run club, just seeing the same people consistently makes making friends so much easier. Lastly, you do not need to know if Austin is your forever city before moving here. That is the beauty of renting. When I moved to Austin, remember we had never visited before. We booked a short-term rental for three days and basically had those three days to run all over the city, tour apartments, and figure out where we were going to live. Safe to say it was a little bit stressful. Back then, I felt like you really had to have an apartment locator to help you figure out everything, especially if you were new to the city. But now you can do so much of that own time with Zillow Rentals. So if you're moving to Austin or any new city, let me show you how I would use it. In the Zillow app, you'll want to switch over to the for rent tab and start with the basics like your price range, where you would want to live, how many bathrooms, bedrooms you need and your move-in date. Then this is where I would get specific. You can narrow things down based on the amenities that actually matter to you the most. If I were renting in Austin again, a pool would 100% be on my list. I'd want a fitness center, parking, and obviously if you're moving Moving in with a pet, you can also search for pet-friendly places. I also really like... using the map feature because if you don't know a city that well yet, it's nice to just see it on a map instead of just a list of apartments that you have no idea where they're even located. Then once you find something you like, you can actually schedule a tour right in the app. Knowing what I know now, I would have spent so much time researching before I got to Austin instead of being stressed out for three days trying to find a place to live. If you're thinking about moving to Austin, start your search with Zillow Rentals. I linked it in the description. And if you have any questions about renting here in Austin, I'd be happy to help. So comment them. I'm here and I will see you guys in my next video. Bye.