I moved my family from California to Texas 2 years ago. A friend warned me we would hate it — 6 months later, other families followed us.

Wed, 10/25/2023 - 05:02

Jian Jiao left the Bay Area in 2021 and moved his family to Austin, Texas.
Jiao was the first of his friends to move but now worries Austin will become like San Francisco.
He warns about extreme weather and says Austin property isn't as cheap as he'd expected.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jian Jiao, the principal data engineer at BP in Austin, Texas. This text has been edited for length and clarity.

I worked at Google in the Sunnyvale-Mountain View area. I had been living in California since graduating from college. My partner and I started considering a move in 2020 during the pandemic. While we liked the area, we worried about its future. The Bay Area social culture and safety were changing.