Austin’s population has boomed in recent years thanks to an influx of prominent tech companies and venture capital, but new data from moving company aggregator moveBuddha shows that individual interest to relocate to Austin fell dramatically in the latter half of 2022. The move-in-to-move-out ratio for the Austin region peaked at 2.30 in January 2021, much in part from major corporations like Tesla moving their workforce from California to Central Texas. That’s because Texas is a magnet for Silicon Valley tech companies and startups due to its cheap corporate taxes, lack of a state income tax, and cheap cost of living. But now it seems that the hype around packing up and moving to Austin has lost its luster.
The number of searches for moves into Austin has decreased since August 2021. In fact, the search volume inflow-to-outflow ratio was negative between July and September of 2022, indicating that more people were considering relocating out of Austin than in. In December 2022, the Austin metro area had a move-in-to-move-out ratio of 1.26.
Now that the economy is slowing, market fundamentals have changed. The report’s findings reinforce the idea that mass tech layoffs have clobbered the capital of the Lone Star State. Not only is Austin grappling with waning interest, it’s also contending with an increasing amount of vacant office space.