LA to Austin: What the Numbers Actually Say About the Move

A recent UCLA survey found quality of life in Los Angeles County is at its lowest level in more than a decade. If you're one of the Angelenos quietly Googling “moving to Austin,” this post is for you — built from real data across our database of 175,000+ active listings, refreshed daily.

The headline number

Austin's median asking price is $581,763. LA's is $1,249,000. That's a 115% gap. For the same monthly mortgage payment, that roughly means you can buy about twice the home in Austin that you can in LA.

But median is a blunt tool. It doesn't tell you whether you're getting more space, or just paying less for the same thing. So let's look at per-square-foot.

Price per square foot: the more honest comparison

Our data puts LA at roughly $1,224/sqft on average. Austin: $356/sqft. LA costs about 244% more for the same square footage.

At those rates, $1M buys ~817 sqft in LA vs ~2,809 sqft in Austin — nearly 3.4× the home for the same money.

What the “typical” home looks like

The average Austin listing in our data has 3 bedrooms, about 2,206 sqft, and was built in the 2000s. The average LA listing: 4 bedrooms, about 2,655 sqft, built in the mid-20th century.

Austin gives you roughly more square feet on average — and the homes are newer, which matters for insurance, maintenance, and energy costs. 55% of LA listings are single family; in Austin, 73% are single family.

What $1M actually buys

This is the question most movers actually care about.

• LA at $1M: a 2-bed condo, a fixer in an outlying neighborhood, or a small townhouse. At $1,224/sqft, you're getting around 817 sqft on average.
• Austin at $1M: a 4-bed single-family home with a yard, often newer construction, in a strong school district. At $356/sqft, around 2,809 sqft.

Roughly 81% of Austin listings are under $1M. In LA, it's 39%. The inventory under a million dollars is simply a different universe between the two cities.

The property-tax catch

Texas has no state income tax but property taxes around 2.0–2.5%. California has state income tax but only ~1.1% property tax(capped by Prop 13). For a $600K Austin home, that's roughly $13K/year in property tax. For a $1.2M LA home: roughly $13K/year. They cross over.

The real tax win for most movers isn't property tax — it's state income tax. California's top bracket is 13.3%; Texas's is zero. If you're a high earner (say, $300K+), the swing is $30–50K/year in take-home. That math doesn't work for everyone — if you're under roughly $150K household income, the property-tax disadvantage in Texas often eats the income-tax advantage.

Days on market

Austin homes are moving faster in our data — around 8 days on market vs 10 days in LA. Both markets have cooled meaningfully from 2022 peaks, but Austin still tilts slightly more toward sellers.

The catch nobody mentions

Austin's median masks huge variation:

• Downtown / East Austin: can rival parts of LA per-square-foot. Walkable, dense, expensive.
• Cedar Park / Pflugerville / Round Rock: where most of the “half the price” narrative comes from. 30–45 min from downtown, suburban, cheaper.
• Westlake / Rollingwood: the Beverly Hills of Austin. Don't expect bargains.

If you want a walkable urban apartment with a great coffee scene, Austin is cheaper than LA — but not dramatically. If you want a detached house with a yard and good schools, the gap is enormous.

Who should actually move

Strong case to move:

• Remote workers earning California salaries
• High earners (tax arbitrage is real above ~$200K income)
• Families wanting space and good schools for dramatically less money
• People fed up with traffic, cost of living, and property crime concerns

Think twice:

• Anyone whose career requires LA's industries (film/TV, aerospace, fashion)
• People who value beach access and year-round 70° weather over everything
• Households under ~$150K income (income-tax savings don't offset Texas property taxes)
• Anyone who hates summer heat — Austin summers are brutal

Explore the numbers yourself

All figures based on 1,726+ active listings in our database between Los Angeles and Austin, refreshed daily. Tax figures are approximate and not legal/financial advice — consult a CPA for your situation.