Austin vs Hialeah: which should you move to?
Austin or Hialeah? Housing, rent, crime, climate, income, taxes and transit, side by side, from each city's own published figures. Written for someone deciding where to live, not for a ranking.
.jpg){kind=link}
A city of 1,002,632 people at the center of the fastest-growing metro of more than a million, and one of 230,968 northwest of Miami, the most Cuban city in the country, that lost 2,210 residents in 2024-25, both pricing in US dollars in states with no income tax, so the figures net directly. The prices are different instruments: Austin's is the Unlock MLS median of what sold in the city, $560,000 in August 2026, and Hialeah's is Zillow's typical home value for the city, $445,331 in June, its row in this site's Miami-Dade layer, as Miami's is. On Zillow's index, the same measure in both, Austin stood at $497,418 in August, so the order holds. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $4,041 a month in Austin at Freddie Mac's 7.03% and $3,425 in Hialeah at August's 6.67%, or $3,510 at the same rate, roughly 54% of Austin's median household income of $90,430 and 72% of Hialeah's $57,151. The tax rate runs the other way, about 1.69% of the price in Hialeah against 1.61%, and insurance is budgeted at $505 a month against $300 before any flood policy, in a city where about two in five residents live in a mapped flood zone. On the same FBI counts Hialeah is the lower on every line, 178 violent offenses per 100,000 against 421 and 3 homicides against 51. Choose Austin for technology work, far higher pay, faster job growth and cheaper rent. Choose Hialeah to own for about $531 a month less at the same rate, for low crime, a 19.7 C January and a Spanish-speaking city beside the county's airport and rail, and price flood cover on the street before anything else.
| Measure | Austin | Hialeah | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,002,632 (2025) | 230,968 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 2,620,945 (2025) | 6,391,072 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Five-year growth Growth is pressure on rents and roads as much as it is opportunity, so it is reported without a winner. | 4.6% (2020-2025) | 3.5% (2020-2025) | Not directly comparable |
What a home costs in each
The figures the two cities' rent-versus-buy and mortgage calculators run on, read from the same tables.
| Measure | Austin | Hialeah | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmark home price MLS® HPI or equivalent benchmark. Lower is treated as the advantage, which is the buyer's view rather than the owner's. | $560,000 (August 2026) | $445,331 (June 2026) | Hialeah |
| Detached house benchmark Hialeah publishes a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat. | $527,943 | $445,331 | Hialeah |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | $355,596 | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent | $1,812/mo (average, August 2026) | $2,374/mo (median, June 2026) | Austin |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,421/mo | $2,042/mo | Austin |
| Two-bedroom rent against median income A year of two-bedroom rent as a share of the median household income below. A household paying the median rent out of the median income is a fiction, but it is the same fiction in both columns and it crosses currencies. | 24.0% of a year's income | 49.8% of a year's income | Austin |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 30-year amortization on American monthly compounding, the convention in both. | $2,990/mo at 7.03% | $2,292/mo at 6.67% | Hialeah |
| Price to household income Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not. | 6.2× | 7.8× | Austin |
| Property tax on the benchmark home The effective rate on market value, which is what the two rates have in common and what the Advantage column is decided on; the bills are in each city's own dollars. | $9,022/yr (1.611%, 2025) | $7,534/yr (1.692%, 2025) | Austin |
| Transfer tax on the benchmark home Compared as a share of the price. Where the seller pays it, it is a cost of leaving rather than arriving. | None | $2,672 (seller pays) | Austin |
| Rent control A cap protects a sitting tenant and does nothing for the next lease, so neither column is simply better. | Forbidden by state law | Forbidden by state law | Not directly comparable |
Austin: About 1.61% of value for a homesteaded owner, worked out on the $560,000 median sale price. A house in the City of Austin and Austin ISD is taxed by five units for 2025, which add to 2.046485 per $100 before any exemption. Each takes its own homestead exemption off the appraised value first: Austin ISD the state's $140,000, the City, Travis County and Central Health 20%, and Austin Community College 1% with a $5,000 floor. So Travis County levies 0.375845 per $100 on $448,000 after a $112,000 exemption, $1,684; City of Austin levies 0.524017 per $100 on $448,000 after a $112,000 exemption, $2,348; Austin ISD levies 0.9252 per $100 on $420,000 after a $140,000 exemption, $3,886; Austin Community College levies 0.1034 per $100 on $554,400 after a $5,600 exemption, $573; Central Health levies 0.118023 per $100 on $448,000 after a $112,000 exemption, $529. The five come to $9,019 a year, 1.61% of the price. Without a homestead, as a landlord or a buyer who never files, the same house owes $11,460. These are the 2025 rates, the bills mailed in October 2025. For 2026 the City has adopted 0.579948, the county 0.38621, Central Health 0.132863 and ACC 0.103643, and Austin ISD has proposed 0.9184; on the same house those would come to about 1.67%. Hialeah: About 1.69% of what you pay for the house, which is lower than the 18.6468 mills charged here, and the difference is Florida's homestead exemption rather than any assessment lag. The state assesses at full market value and a purchase resets the assessment to the price. What there is instead is an exemption: $25,000 of taxable value comes off for every taxing authority and a second slice comes off for all of them except the school district, which levies 6.4990 of the 18.6468. That second slice was $25,000 through the 2024 tax roll and has been adjusted for inflation every 1 January since, under the 2024 amendment to Article VII section 6 of the state constitution, so it is now somewhat more than $25,000. The figures here use the base amount, because the Department of Revenue sends the adjusted figure to the county property appraisers rather than publishing it. The difference is worth a few dollars a year on a bill, and the county property appraiser can tell you the amount in force. A homesteaded buyer's first-year bill is therefore about $7,534 on the $445,331 typical home value here. Hialeah runs its own fire department, so it pays none of the county's 2.3965-mill Fire Rescue district levy. One of only five municipalities in Miami-Dade in that position, and worth more than most municipal rates on this table. The exemption is not automatic: you file for it with the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser by 1 March of the year after you buy. The seller's tax bill is not a guide to yours. Save Our Homes caps a homesteaded property's assessed value at 3% growth a year, and that cap resets to full market value the January after the sale, so a long-tenured owner can be taxed on a fraction of what you will be taxed on for the same house. Ask the property appraiser what the assessment would be at your purchase price, not what the current bill is.
How safe each city is, by the numbers it publishes
Police-reported figures for the most recent year each force or statistics agency has released. Rates describe a whole city or metro area, and the spread between neighbourhoods inside one city is usually wider than the gap between the two cities.
| Measure | Austin | Hialeah | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Severity Index Statistics Canada's weighted index for the metropolitan area, where 100 is Canada in 2006. American cities have no equivalent series. | Not published | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Violent crime per 100,000 | 421 (2025) | 178 (2025) | Hialeah |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 3,093 (2025) | 1,417 (2025) | Hialeah |
| Homicides Counts, not rates, and a single year in a small city moves a long way on chance alone. What each figure covers is under the table. | 51 (2025) | 3 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
On the FBI's definitions, violent offenses in Austin went from 5,335 in 2022 to 5,046 in 2023, 4,692 in 2024 and 4,221 in 2025, a 10% drop in the last year and 21% in three, and property offenses from 35,035 to 32,900, 32,407 and then 31,011. APD's own NIBRS records for 2025 show aggravated assaults down 13% (3,038 to 2,652), robberies down 5% (835 to 790) and motor vehicle thefts down 26% (5,908 to 4,345), while rapes rose from 501 to 541 and drug offenses, which rise and fall with enforcement, went from 4,097 to 5,256. The 2025 CDE counts were read on 27 September 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised, and APD notes that its open data may differ from its official figures.
What the rates cover: Computed: 4,221 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Austin Police Department (ORI TX2270100) in calendar 2025, divided by the 1,002,632 Vintage 2025 city population. On the CDE's own agency population of 1,000,639 the rate is 422. APD does not publish a total on this definition: its open NIBRS data sort offenses into crimes against persons (19,469 in 2025, of which 9,464 simple assaults and 5,918 intimidation) and crimes against property (44,250, with robbery, fraud and vandalism inside it), so neither of its totals is the FBI's violent or property count. Summing APD's own 2025 records on the FBI's definition gives 4,219, within two of the CDE.
Homicides: 51 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in both the FBI CDE and APD's open NIBRS data, against 66 in 2024, about 5.1 per 100,000 on the city population. APD's assistant chief put the year's homicides at 55 in January 2026 (KUT), and APD's dataset separately lists 14 negligent manslaughters and 7 justifiable homicides, which the FBI does not count as murder. The high point in the CDE series since 2021 is 81, in 2021.
Down for violent crime, and down for property crime by less than the FBI's totals suggest. On the FBI CDE's counts violent offenses went from 474 in 2022 to 431 in 2023, 415 in 2024 and 412 in 2025, about 210, 187, 178 and 178 per 100,000 on each year's Vintage 2025 population, and January to July 2026 brought 192 against 246 in the same months of 2025, a fall of 22%, mostly in aggravated assaults (165 against 214). Robberies halved, from 66 in 2022 to 31 in 2025. The CDE's property totals fell from 4,329 in 2022 to 3,273 in 2025, but about 500 of that fall is motor vehicle thefts the FBI's series stopped carrying in October 2023; without them property offenses went from 3,801 in 2022 to 3,621 in 2023, 3,610 in 2024 and 3,266 in 2025, a fall of 14% over three years, with larceny down from 3,565 to 3,018. FDLE's file, which kept counting car thefts, has them falling too, from 541 in 2022 and 566 in 2023 to 488 in 2024 and 337 in 2025. January to July 2026 property offenses (1,969) were level with 2025 (1,962). The CDE counts were read on 2 October 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September 2026, whose August 2026 property count (139, about half a normal month) and September figures (none) are incomplete and are not used.
What the rates cover: Computed: 412 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Hialeah Police Department (ORI FL0130400) in calendar 2025, divided by the 230,968 Vintage 2025 estimate for July 2025; on the CDE's own agency population of 238,769 the rate is 173. The department has reported to the FBI through the incident-based system since January 2021 and the CDE has every month from then to August 2026. 2025 is the year the Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Port St. Lucie and St. Petersburg profiles use. That is half Miami's 359, below Tampa's 376, St. Petersburg's 502 and Jacksonville's 514, and above Port St. Lucie's 130 and Cape Coral's 122 for 2023. Aggravated assault is 356 of the 412. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement's incident-based (FIBRS) file, which feeds the FBI and counts somewhat more broadly (its forcible sex offenses include fondling), has 432 violent offenses for the department in 2025, about 187 per 100,000.
Homicides: 3 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in the FBI CDE, about 1.3 per 100,000 on the city population; FDLE's file also has 3. The CDE series is 12 in 2021, 6 in 2022, 6 in 2023, 2 in 2024, 3 in 2025 and 2 in January to August 2026. Miami had 26 in 2025, Tampa 17, St. Petersburg 9 and Port St. Lucie 4.
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Austin | Hialeah | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | 11.2 °C | 19.7 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 29.9 °C | 28.5 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 921 mm | 1,852 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 1 cm | 0 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | 2,644 hours | 3,154 hours | Hialeah |
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for Austin Camp Mabry (station USW00013958), the official Austin climate station: January mean 52.2F, July mean 85.8F, annual mean 70.0F, 36.25 in of precipitation, 0.2 in of snow. August is the warmest month at 86.5F, with a mean high of 97.8F; July's mean high is 96.6F and January's mean low is 41.8F. May (5.04 in) and October (3.91 in) are the wettest months, and February (1.89 in) and July (1.96 in) the driest. The normals count 122.8 days a year at 90F or above, 28.7 at 100F or above and 11.9 nights at or below freezing. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (USW00013904), southeast of downtown, averages 50.1F in January and 84.5F in July with 35.57 in of rain, and its nights run colder, with 33.0 at or below freezing a year. Converted here to 11.2 C, 29.9 C, 921 mm and 0.5 cm. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means (2,644 hours, 60% of possible), since the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.
Hazards: Flash flooding on the creeks that cross the city is the recurring danger. The Memorial Day flood of 1981 sent Shoal Creek through central Austin and killed 13 people. On 30 to 31 October 2013 a band of 12 to 14 in (305 to 356 mm) of rain between Wimberley and Driftwood, with 6 to 10 in (152 to 254 mm) over central Travis County, sent Onion Creek through southeast Austin, damaging more than 500 homes and killing five people; in 2014 the city authorized $60 million to buy out homes in the Onion Creek floodplain. Over Memorial Day weekend 2015 the Blanco River at Wimberley, upstream in Hays County, rose from about 5 ft to 41 ft (1.5 m to 12.5 m) in four hours overnight and destroyed 350 to 400 homes in the town, and on the holiday itself Camp Mabry recorded 5.20 in (132 mm) and Shoal Creek flooded again. On 4 to 5 July 2025, 15 to 20 in (381 to 508 mm) fell on the headwaters of Cow Creek and Big Sandy Creek northwest of the city; the Central Texas floods of that week killed 139 people, 18 of them in Travis, Williamson and Burnet counties. Heat is the season to plan around: the normals give Camp Mabry 28.7 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C), and 2023 had 80, including 45 in a row from 8 July to 21 August that broke the 27-day run of 2011, which still holds the record for a year with 90. The station's highest reading is 112F (44.4 C), in September 2000 and again in August 2011. Cold is rare and badly handled when it comes. Winter Storm Uri left 6.4 in (16.3 cm) of snow at Camp Mabry on 14 to 15 February 2021 and a low of 7F (-13.9 C) on the 16th, the coldest there since December 1989 (the airport reached 6F, or -14.4 C), with 164 hours of freezing temperatures. ERCOT cut power across the state grid from 15 to 18 February, about 4.5 million customers lost it at the worst, more than 40% of Austin Energy's customers were without power and the city was under a boil-water notice for seven days. Texas counted 246 deaths from the storm, 28 of them in Travis County. Drought is the slow hazard. Austin's water depends on Lakes Buchanan and Travis, the Highland Lakes reservoirs LCRA manages; their combined storage fell to 42% in March 2024, when most of LCRA's downstream farm customers went without lake water, and the July 2025 rains took it from 51% to more than 95%. It stood at about 92% on 1 July 2026.
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for the Hialeah cooperative station (USC00083909), about 3.8 miles south-southeast of the city's center and about half a mile outside its southern limit. It is used rather than Miami International Airport (USW00012839), 5.5 miles south, because it is closer and has a complete set of 1991-2020 monthly and annual normals for temperature, precipitation and snowfall. Its temperature normals rest on 27 to 29 years of the 30 and meet NCEI's standard completeness in every month; five months of its precipitation normals (April and July to October) are flagged representative, from 21 to 23 years, while the airport's precipitation rests on all 30. The nearer Opa-locka airport (USW00012882, 2.9 miles) has no snowfall normal and only 18 to 23 years in any element. January mean 67.4F, July mean 83.3F, annual mean 76.6F, 72.93 in of precipitation and 0.0 in of snow. August is the warmest month at 83.5F, with a mean high of 90.1F; January's mean low is 59.1F. September (11.53 in) and June (11.45 in) are the wettest months, June through September bring 40.88 in, 56% of the year, and May through October 76%; January (2.03 in) is the driest. The normals count 91.0 days a year at 90F or above, 0.2 at 100F and none at or below freezing. Converted here to 19.7 C, 28.5 C, 1,852 mm and 0 cm. Miami International, whose normals the Miami profile stores, is a little warmer and drier: 68.6F in January, 84.1F in July and 67.41 in a year, with 91.4 days at 90F. Hialeah's January is the second warmest of the Florida cities this site compares after Miami's, and its rain is the most of any of them. Sunshine is Miami's: the normals carry none, and the 3,154 hours stored here, 70% of possible with 74 clear days, are Current Results' figure for Miami from NCDC's 1961-1990 Comparative Climatic Data, the source of the other US profiles' sunshine hours; Current Results lists no Hialeah station.
Hazards: Hurricanes, rain flooding and heat. The last hurricane to bring hurricane-force gusts was Irma, which came ashore at Cudjoe Key and then Marco Island on 10 September 2017, well to the southwest: nearly every inland station in the Miami-Dade and Broward metro area reported sustained winds just below hurricane force, Opa-locka Airport, 2.9 miles north of the city's center, recorded 56 kt (64 mph) sustained with a gust of 74 kt (85 mph), Miami International a gust of 63 kt (72 mph), and about 1,000 homes in Miami-Dade had major damage (National Hurricane Center). That 72 mph gust is the airport's strongest since 2010, and it had 5.18 in of rain that day. Rain is the more frequent problem in a flat, low city: the airport's wettest day since 2010 was 9.70 in on 22 May 2012, and it had 7.53 in on 15 November 2023 and 6.25 in on 12 June 2024. FEMA's flood map puts City Hall in zone AH, a special flood hazard area for shallow ponding, with a base flood elevation of 8 ft (panel 12086C0284L, effective 11 September 2009), so flood insurance can be a lender's requirement well inland from the coast. Heat: 91.0 days a year at 90F or above on the Hialeah normals; the airport recorded 139 such days in 2023, the most since 2010, and 115 in 2026 through 29 September, and reached 100F (37.8 C) on 18 August 2026, its only reading that high since 2010. Cold is brief: the airport's lowest reading since 2010 is 35F, on 10 January 2010 and again on 1 February 2026, and the normals count no nights at or below freezing.
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Austin | Hialeah | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $90,430 USD (2024) | $57,151 USD (2024) | Austin |
| Unemployment rate | 3.7% (July 2026) | 3.7% (July 2026) | Even |
| Sales tax | 8.25% | 7% | Hialeah |
| Top marginal income tax Federal plus provincial or state. The American figure leaves out payroll taxes and the cost of health insurance, both of which a Canadian household covers through the tax it pays here. | 37% | 37% | Even |
| Income tax on $100,000, single filer Computed from each jurisdiction's brackets at a single filer's $100,000 and rounded to the dollar, so a gap of a dollar is rounding rather than tax. Two cities in one province or state are shown as Even, because there the two cells describe the same tax and whatever separates them is method. | $13,449 USD | $13,449 USD | Even |
BLS counted 1,421,700 nonfarm jobs in the Austin MSA in July 2026 (not seasonally adjusted), up 23,800 or 1.7% on the year. Mining, logging and construction grew fastest (+5.5%), then professional and business services (+3.2%), the largest sector at 294,600 jobs, and other services (+2.7%), while information shrank 4.9% and government, at 201,000 jobs with the state capital and the University of Texas inside it, was flat. The seasonally adjusted series (FRED AUST448NA) was 1,424,000 in August 2026, 1.2% above August 2025. Average weekly wages across the metro were $1,957 in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally. Opportunity Austin, the chamber's economic development program, lists Dell Technologies, Apple, Samsung Austin Semiconductor, Tesla, H-E-B, Amazon's fulfillment centers, the State of Texas, the University of Texas, Ascension Seton, St. David's HealthCare and Baylor Scott & White among the employers with 6,000 or more local jobs. bls.gov answered 403 to curl and FRED refused it, so both were read through the web fetcher.
Main sectors: Professional and business services, the metro's largest sector, Technology and advanced manufacturing (Dell Technologies, Apple, Tesla, Samsung Austin Semiconductor, AMD, Applied Materials), Government and education (the state capital, the University of Texas at Austin, the City of Austin), Trade, transportation and utilities (H-E-B, Amazon fulfillment centers), Health care (Ascension Seton, St. David's HealthCare, Baylor Scott & White).
Property tax is the local levy that matters. Tax Foundation puts Texas's effective property tax rate on owner-occupied homes at 1.40%, and school districts must exempt $140,000 of a homestead's value from their tax, plus another $60,000 for owners 65 or older or disabled, after voters raised the general exemption from $100,000 in November 2025. Part of the City of Austin's own rate, 8.75 cents per $100 of taxable value approved with Project Connect in November 2020, pays for the transit program. In November 2025 Austin voters rejected Proposition Q, a city tax rate increase that would have raised nearly $110 million, by 63% to 37%. The county, school district and other levies on the same bill belong to the housing layer.
BLS counted 1,349,400 nonfarm jobs in the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall metropolitan division, which is Miami-Dade County, in August 2026 (not seasonally adjusted, preliminary), up 6,200 or 0.5% on the year. Professional and business services (+5,300, or 2.5%, to 221,300), private education and health services (+4,600, or 2.0%, to 229,600), leisure and hospitality (+2,900, or 1.9%, to 153,400) and wholesale trade (+1,500, or 1.8%, to 82,800) added the most, while financial activities lost 5,100 (-5.0%, to 96,700), government 1,100 and transportation, warehousing and utilities 1,000. Trade, transportation and utilities is the largest supersector at 324,900, 24% of the county's jobs. The City's 2025 financial report lists its ten principal employers, led by Palmetto General Hospital (1,635), the City (1,492), UPS (1,119) and Hialeah Hospital (1,032), at 8,995 jobs, 7.8% of employment in the city on the City's count; six of the ten carry exactly the headcount they had in 2016, so the list has not been recounted for most of them. Most residents work elsewhere in the county: 61.8% of the city's workers (74,100 of 119,984) worked outside Hialeah in 2024, but only 9.8% (11,754) outside Miami-Dade. 13.2% worked from home, and the mean commute for the rest was 30 minutes, with 11.4% spending an hour or more (ACS 2024 1-year, B08007, B08008, B08013, B08101 and B08303).
Main sectors: Health care: Palmetto General Hospital (1,635 staff) is the city's largest employer, and Hialeah Hospital (1,032), Larkin Community Hospital's Palm Springs campus (683) and La Colonia Medical Centers (527) are also among its ten largest, in a county sector (private education and health services, 229,600 jobs) that added 4,600 jobs over the year, Shipping, wholesale and warehousing: United Parcel Service (1,119) is the third-largest employer, in a city beside Miami International Airport; Miami-Dade's wholesale trade employs 82,800 and its transportation, warehousing and utilities 98,400, Groceries and retail: Publix (771), Fresco y Más (741) and Sedano's (545) among the ten largest employers, the many independent shops and supermarkets on the main streets that Wikipedia describes, and Westland Mall, in a county with 143,700 retail jobs, City government: the City of Hialeah (1,492, down from 1,755 in 2016), which runs its own police, fire department, library and free bus service, Light industry: the garment and manufacturing plants that made Hialeah an industrial city in the 1970s and 1980s have mostly gone, replaced in part by electronics and technology businesses (Wikipedia); Miami-Dade's manufacturing employs 46,800, 3.5% of its jobs.
Property tax is the local levy that matters. Tax Foundation puts Florida's effective property tax rate on owner-occupied homes at 0.78%, and a homestead exemption takes as much as $50,000 off a permanent residence's taxable value and brings the Save Our Homes limit on how fast its assessment can rise (Florida Department of Revenue). A property in the City of Hialeah (Miami-Dade millage code 0400) paid 18.6468 mills for 2025 on the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser's adopted chart, down from 18.6638 in 2024: the City's own 6.3018 plus the 12.3450 of school, county and regional levies every municipality in the county pays. Hialeah runs its own fire department and its own library, so it pays neither the county Fire Rescue district's 2.3965 mills nor the library district's 0.2812. The City has held its rate at 6.3018 for at least ten years while taxable value rose 11.0% in fiscal 2025 to $22.2 billion (City of Hialeah financial report), and the appraiser's proposed 2026 table keeps it there, for a total of 18.6134. Miami-Dade is also the one Florida county with its own deed tax: 60 cents per $100 rather than the statewide 70, plus a 45-cent surtax that is not due on a transfer of a single-family dwelling only (Florida Department of Revenue), so a house at Hialeah's typical value of $445,331 carries about $2,672 and a condominium or duplex at the same price about $4,676, the seller's by convention. Zillow's typical home value for the city was $445,331 in June 2026, down 1.5% on the year, and its observed rent $2,374; the bills, insurance and flood exposure that follow belong to the housing layer.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Austin | Hialeah | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | CapMetro buses, including four CapMetro Rapid (formerly MetroRapid) lines, and the Red Line, a 32-mile, 10-station commuter rail line from Leander to downtown (CapMetro Rail, long branded MetroRail); no light rail yet, with Project Connect's first 9.8-mile phase due in 2033 | Miami-Dade County's Department of Transportation and Public Works runs Metrobus across the city and Metrorail's Green Line, which stops at Okeechobee and Hialeah stations inside the city and at the Tri-Rail and Metrorail Transfer Station on its southern edge; Tri-Rail, the commuter railroad to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, stops at the transfer station and at Hialeah Market (Wikipedia). The City runs its own free bus service, Hialeah Transit, which in 2023 ran two routes, Flamingo and Marlin, with a free on-demand service through the Freebee app from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends, most of its cost covered by a county half-penny tax (NBC 6 South Florida). By road the city is bounded or crossed by Interstate 75, the Palmetto Expressway (State Road 826), the Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike, Okeechobee Road (US 27) and the Gratigny Parkway (Wikipedia). | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 3.0% (2024) | 1.4% (2024) | Austin |
| Walk or cycle to work | 4.1% (2024) | 2.3% (2024) | Austin |
| Airport | Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), 21,666,852 passengers in 2025, 0.4% fewer than 2024's 21,762,904 and below the 2023 record of 22.1 million, per the airport's calendar-year activity report; 1.06 million of them were international. It sits about 5 miles southeast of downtown on the former Bergstrom Air Force Base and replaced Robert Mueller Municipal Airport in 1999. | Miami International Airport (MIA), about 5.4 miles south of the city's center, handled 55,314,661 passengers in 2025, 1.1% below 2024's record 55,926,566 (Wikipedia, from the airport's traffic reports). Tri-Rail, from the Tri-Rail and Metrorail Transfer Station on the city's southern edge, connects the city to it and north to West Palm Beach (Wikipedia). | Not directly comparable |
CapMetro carried 26,283,400 unlinked trips in 2025, 24,067,200 of them by bus and 620,600 on the Red Line, and about 77,400 a weekday in the second quarter of 2026, 1,900 of them by train (APTA ridership reports, as cited by Wikipedia; APTA's PDFs refused the fetcher). Two new CapMetro Rapid lines, 800 and 837, opened in February 2025 and reached 10-minute service in June 2026, and the Red Line gained McKalla Station in 2024, with North Burnet/Uptown Station due in 2027; the Green Line commuter rail project has no funding, environmental review or timeline. Light rail is the unfinished promise. Voters approved Project Connect in November 2020 with a city property tax increase of 8.75 cents per $100 of value, for about 20 miles of light rail reaching the airport at $7.1 billion (Texas Tribune). Its first phase is now 9.8 miles and 15 stations in three directions from downtown, no longer reaching the airport, at an estimated $8.2 billion or more; construction is set to start in 2027 and trains to run in 2033. The FTA gave it environmental clearance in January 2026, but the plan counts on about $4.1 billion in federal money that has not been awarded, and a lawsuit over the scaled-back project is still open.
Miami-Dade's transit system carried 81,459,917 unlinked trips in 2025 on the National Transit Database's monthly ridership file (Federal Transit Administration): 55.6 million on Metrobus, 15.0 million on Metrorail, 7.8 million on the Metromover downtown, 290,161 on its new bus rapid transit and the rest on demand-response, vanpool and commuter bus service. That is 20% below the 102.1 million of 2019 and 4.3% below 2024's 85.2 million, and January to August 2026 ran 1.3% below the same months of 2025. The Miami profile's 80.8 million is APTA's count for the same year. Tri-Rail carried 4,552,250 commuter rail trips in 2025, level with 2024 and above 2019's 4,495,039 (same file). The City's own buses do not report monthly to the NTD; in October 2023 its transit manager put them at almost 30,000 riders a month, 11,000 of them on the on-demand service (NBC 6 South Florida).
Health care, schools and what each city is like
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and Texas is one of the ten states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (KFF, August 2026). It had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024: 16.7%, or 5,152,427 of 30,799,312 people, against 8.2% nationally and 12.0% in Georgia, the next highest, on the ACS 2024 1-year estimates. The City of Austin's rate was 13.0% and Travis County's 12.6%. Ascension Seton runs Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas, the teaching hospital of UT's Dell Medical School, in partnership with Central Health; it is the region's only adult Level I trauma center and serves 11 Central Texas counties. St. David's HealthCare, a partnership between HCA Healthcare and two local nonprofits, has more than 160 sites and calls itself the Austin area's fourth-largest private employer, and Baylor Scott & White joins both systems on the chamber's list of employers with 6,000 or more local jobs. UT and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation are building the UT Dell Medical Center, with a new UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, beside Dell Seton on the former Frank Erwin Center site, to open in 2030; the UT System put the plan at $2.5 billion when it was announced in August 2023. This file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
Austin ISD, which covers 230 square miles in the middle of the metro, counted 65,951 students in fall 2026, down 3,765 from 69,716 in 2025-26 and from 72,702 in 2024-25. More than 6,400 students enrolled at the end of last year did not return, and the district fell more than 2,000 short of its own projection (Austin Current, 24 September 2026); district officials told KUT that more than half of the 2025-26 loss could be attributed to families' fear of immigration enforcement, with housing costs and falling birth rates also named. In November 2025 the board approved closing and consolidating 10 schools from the 2026-27 school year, affecting 3,796 students and removing 6,319 seats, together with 24 turnaround plans the Texas Education Agency requires for campuses with repeated unacceptable ratings, adopted to head off state-ordered closures or a takeover. The University of Texas at Austin enrolled a record 55,000 students in fall 2025, 44,314 of them undergraduates, the largest total in its history.
Living there
Austin is the Texas state capital and a university town that has become a technology metro, and its growth has outrun what the city has built for it. The metro passed 2.6 million in 2025 after adding 337,554 people since April 2020, but the city grew by less than 5%, and in 2024-25 Travis County lost 6,590 more people to the rest of the country than it gained, so domestic movers now settle in Williamson and Hays counties instead. Inside the city a quarter of workers work from home, 57.5% drive alone and 3.0% take transit, and the one rail line carries about 1,900 riders a weekday. Summer sets the terms of daily life, with a July mean of 85.8F at Camp Mabry and about 29 days at 100F or more in a normal year, and the creeks that cross the city flood fast. Texas takes no income tax and has the highest uninsured rate of any state. The open question is whether Austin can build the transit and keep the schools its growth calls for: voters approved light rail in 2020, and six years later the first 9.8 miles are not due until 2033 and have no federal money, while Austin ISD, down more than 14,000 students in a decade, closed ten schools in 2026.
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and Florida is one of the ten states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (KFF). The City of Hialeah's uninsured rate was 15.1% in 2024 (35,490 of 234,398, ACS 2024 1-year), above Miami-Dade's 12.4%, Florida's 10.9% and the national 8.2%. The city has two acute care hospitals, Hialeah Hospital and Palmetto General Hospital, which Steward Health Care bought from Tenet in August 2021 and lost in its bankruptcy: a court approved their sale to Healthcare Systems of America on 25 October 2024, and Hialeah Hospital is now owned by Medical Properties Trust and operated by that company (Wikipedia). Palmetto General is the city's largest employer (1,635 staff) and Hialeah Hospital its fourth (1,032), with Larkin Community Hospital's Palm Springs campus (683) and La Colonia Medical Centers (527) also among the ten largest (City of Hialeah). Wikipedia gives Hialeah Hospital 378 beds from the hospital's own site of 2015; this file did not verify a current bed count for either hospital, or a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
Miami-Dade County Public Schools runs the city's public schools. The district counted 18,910 fewer students on the first days of 2026-27 than at the end of 2025-26, a first-day snapshot it says the October count will refine, with private school vouchers, the cost of living and immigration enforcement among the reasons given; it had already closed or consolidated nine schools, and the 27 more it has put under review or reassessment do not include any named in Hialeah (WLRN; CBS News Miami). Wikipedia's list of the schools serving the city includes Hialeah Senior High, Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High and Westland Hialeah Senior High, with the José Martí MAST 6-12 magnet academy and the City of Hialeah Educational Academy, a charter school (Wikipedia). Miami Dade College has had a Hialeah campus since 1980. The City runs its own public library system, founded in 1924, a year before the city was incorporated, and outside the county's library district, which is why the county library levy does not appear on Hialeah tax bills (Wikipedia; Miami-Dade Property Appraiser).
Living there
Hialeah is the most Cuban city in the United States. It was laid out in 1921 by the aviator Glenn Curtiss and the cattleman James Bright on a prairie between Biscayne Bay and the Everglades, incorporated in 1925, the year Hialeah Park's racetrack opened, and became a working-class city after 1959 as successive waves of Cuban exiles settled there (Wikipedia). On the ACS 2024 1-year estimates 95.3% of its people are Hispanic, 72.7% are of Cuban origin and 77.1% were born outside the United States, against 55.3% for Miami-Dade; 91.9% speak Spanish at home and 59.5% speak English less than very well (2020-2024 5-year). It is dense, about 10,700 people per square mile of land, and one of the few places in the county with a street grid numbered separately from Miami's. It has the second-lowest household income of the Florida cities this site compares ($57,151, above only Tallahassee's) and, after Miami and Orlando, the lowest share of owners (42.8%), but its unemployment is low (2.3% in July 2026) and most of its workers have jobs inside Miami-Dade. It is also older than its reputation, with a median age of 46.0. It barely grew from 2020 to 2025 (3.5%) and lost people in the last year, as Miami-Dade did. Violent crime in 2025 was 178 per 100,000, half Miami's, with three homicides. Its own government does more than most: it runs its fire department, its library and free buses, and its property tax rate has not moved from 6.3018 mills in a decade.
Where each city wins, and where it loses
Both cities price in US dollars, so the figures net directly, though the headlines are different instruments priced at different rates. Austin's is the Unlock MLS median of what sold inside the city, $560,000 in August 2026, 4.3% below a year earlier. Hialeah's is Zillow's typical home value for the city across all homes, $445,331 in June 2026, 1.5% below a year earlier; it is the City's row in this site's Miami-Dade layer, which measures Miami, Hialeah and twenty-two other municipalities in the county on the same series, and no sale median is used beside it. On Zillow's index, the like-for-like measure, Austin stood at $497,418 in August, so the order holds and the gap is about $52,100 rather than $114,669. At 20% down, Austin's $448,000 loan at 7.03%, Freddie Mac's rate for 24 September, costs about $2,990 a month, and Hialeah's $356,265 loan at 6.67%, the layer's August rate, about $2,292, or $2,377 at 7.03%. Property tax is $9,019 a year in Austin and about $7,534 in Hialeah with a homestead, 1.61% and 1.69% of the price, and insurance is budgeted at $300 and $505 a month, the Hialeah figure the layer's single-family policy for mainland Miami-Dade, against a county average of about $6,045 a year, and neither with a flood policy in it. The three lines come to about $4,041 and $3,425, roughly 54% and 72% of each city's 2024 median household income; at 7.03% Hialeah's would be about $3,510. Of the $616 gap about $698 is the mortgage, $85 of it the difference in rates, and $124 the property tax, less the $205 a month more Hialeah pays in insurance. Renting runs the other way. Zillow's observed rent index, the same measure in both, was $2,374 in Hialeah in June 2026 and $1,586 in Austin in August, about 50% and 21% of median income, and RentCafe's August averages for Austin, a one-bedroom at $1,421 and a two-bedroom at $1,812, sit far below this site's modeled split of Hialeah's index, $2,042 and $2,374. So owning is the cheaper way into Hialeah and renting the cheaper way into Austin, and in Hialeah, where owners hold 42.8% of occupied homes, most households rent.
The definitions match: both cities' figures are the FBI's summarized counts for 2025, divided by Census Vintage 2025 populations and read on 27 September and 2 October 2026. Hialeah is the lower on every line. Its 412 violent offenses come to 178 per 100,000 against Austin's 421 on 4,221, and its 3,273 property offenses to 1,417 against 3,093 on 31,011. Homicide was 3 in Hialeah, about 1.3 per 100,000, against 51 in Austin, about 5.1. One caution sits on Hialeah's property figure, and it understates rather than overstates: the FBI's copy of the department's reports carries 30 to 60 motor vehicle thefts a month until September 2023 and almost none since, 7 for all of 2025, where the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's file has 337. With the state's count the rate would be about 1,560, still about half Austin's. Both are falling. Hialeah's violent offenses went from 474 in 2022 to 412 in 2025, its robberies halved, and January to July 2026 brought 22% fewer violent offenses than the same months of 2025; its property offenses, leaving vehicle thefts out, fell 14% in three years. Austin's violent offenses dropped 10% in 2025 and 21% in three years, its murders fell from 66 to 51, and motor vehicle theft fell 26% in its own records. Both sets of counts come from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.
Hialeah has the warm winter and a summer that is long rather than extreme, and its costly weather is wind and rain. January averages 19.7 C at the Hialeah cooperative station, about 3.8 miles south-southeast of the city's center and just outside its southern limit, against 11.2 C at Camp Mabry, with no nights at or below freezing on the normals against 11.9, and July 28.5 C against 29.9 C. Austin's normals count 122.8 days a year at 90F or above against Hialeah's 91.0, and 28.7 at or above 37.8 C (100F) against 0.2. Hialeah's heat is humid and steady: Miami International, 5.5 miles south, recorded 139 days at 90F or above in 2023, the most since 2010, and reached 100F once in that time, on 18 August 2026, where Austin had 80 days of 100F in 2023. Hialeah gets 1,852 mm of rain a year, 56% of it from June through September and twice Austin's 921 mm, and no snow against 0.5 cm; on the 1961-1990 sunshine series, which has no Hialeah station, Miami's 3,154 hours stand against Austin's 2,644. Both cities flood from rain, in different ways. Austin's creeks rise within minutes: the Memorial Day flood of 1981 killed 13 people, and the Central Texas floods of July 2025 killed 139, 18 of them in Travis, Williamson and Burnet counties. Hialeah's water ponds on flat, low ground far from the coast: Miami International's wettest day since 2010 brought 9.70 in on 22 May 2012, and 7.53 in fell on 15 November 2023, and FEMA's map puts City Hall in zone AH, a special flood hazard area for shallow ponding, with a base flood elevation of 8 ft. The last hurricane to bring hurricane-force gusts was Irma in September 2017, which came ashore well to the southwest: Opa-locka Airport, 2.9 miles north of the city's center, recorded a gust of 74 kt (85 mph), and about 1,000 homes in Miami-Dade had major damage. Cold is Austin's rare hazard. Winter Storm Uri took Camp Mabry to 7F (-13.9 C) in February 2021 while ERCOT cut power across the state grid, and Texas counted 28 of the storm's 246 deaths in Travis County. Miami International's lowest reading since 2010 is 35F, on 10 January 2010 and again on 1 February 2026.
Austin's labor market is about the size of Miami-Dade's and growing more than three times as fast. BLS counted 1,421,700 nonfarm jobs around Austin in July 2026, 1.7% more than a year earlier, and 1,349,400 in the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall division, which is Miami-Dade County alone, in August, 6,200 more, a gain of 0.5%; Hialeah holds 8.2% of the county's people, in a metro that also takes in Broward and Palm Beach. Unemployment runs the other way: on the same unadjusted basis it was 4.0% around Austin and 3.7% across the Miami metro in July, the lowest of the Florida cities this site compares, against 4.4% nationally, and 2.3% in the City of Hialeah itself. Austin runs on technology, state government and the University of Texas, with Dell Technologies, Apple, Samsung Austin Semiconductor and Tesla among its largest employers, and its average weekly wage was $1,957 in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally; the Hialeah profile carries no wage figure. Hialeah's own employers are hospitals, shipping and grocers: Palmetto General Hospital, with 1,635 staff, is the largest, then the City itself with 1,492, UPS with 1,119, in a city beside Miami International Airport, and Hialeah Hospital with 1,032, and Publix, Fresco y Más and Sedano's are among the ten largest. In the county, professional and business services added the most jobs in the year, 5,300, and private education and health services 4,600, while financial activities lost 5,100. Most residents work elsewhere in the county: 61.8% of the city's workers worked outside Hialeah in 2024, but only 9.8% outside Miami-Dade, and the mean commute was 30 minutes. City median household income was $90,430 in Austin and $57,151 in Hialeah in 2024, the latter with a margin of error of $5,574 either way, and the metros' $99,897 and $80,625. Neither state taxes income, so $100,000 pays $13,449 in federal tax in both for 2025, and sales tax is 8.25% in Austin, a full cent of it CapMetro's, against 7% in Miami-Dade, whose county cent applies only to the first $5,000 of a single item. The property tax stacks are close in rate and apart in exemptions. Austin's five units add to 2.046485 per $100: the school district grants the state's $140,000 and nothing more, the community college 1% with a $5,000 floor, and Travis County, the City and Central Health 20% each. A City of Hialeah address pays 18.6468 mills, about 1.86 per $100: the City's 6.3018, the school board's 6.499, the county's operating, debt service and Children's Trust levies 5.4549, and 0.3911 for the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Inland Navigation District. Because the City runs its own fire department and library, it pays neither the county's Fire Rescue district levy of 2.3965 mills nor its library levy of 0.2812. Florida takes $25,000 off every levy and a second slice, $25,000 before the inflation adjustment it has carried since 2025, off all but the schools, which is less than Austin's exemptions take off a house this size. So on the same $445,331 house Austin's five units would charge about $6,907 against $7,534, and on $560,000 the Hialeah stack would charge about $9,672 against Austin's $9,019.
Neither is a transit city, though Hialeah sits on more of one. In 2024, 3.0% of Austin workers took transit and 4.1% walked or cycled, against 1.4% and 2.3% in Hialeah; 57.5% of Austin's workers drove alone against 68.5%, and 24.8% worked from home against 13.2%. CapMetro carried 26,283,400 trips in 2025, 620,600 of them on the Red Line commuter rail, and two CapMetro Rapid lines reached 10-minute service in June 2026; its first 9.8 miles of light rail are due in 2033 at an estimated $8.2 billion or more and count on about $4.1 billion in federal money not yet awarded. Miami-Dade's system carried 81,459,917 trips across the county in 2025, about three times CapMetro's, 15.0 million of them on Metrorail, whose Green Line stops at Okeechobee and Hialeah stations inside the city and at the Tri-Rail and Metrorail Transfer Station on its southern edge; Tri-Rail, the commuter railroad to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, carried 4,552,250 and also stops at Hialeah Market. The City runs its own free buses, two routes and an on-demand service, which its transit manager put at almost 30,000 riders a month in October 2023. Two Metrorail stations have not made Hialeah a transit city: the county's share is 3.7% and the City of Miami's 7.7%. The airports differ more than the cities. Austin-Bergstrom, about 5 miles southeast of downtown, handled 21,666,852 passengers in 2025, 1.06 million of them international. Miami International, about 5.4 miles south of Hialeah's center and reached by Tri-Rail from the transfer station, handled 55,314,661, about two and a half times as many.
Coverage is a state problem in both, and here Hialeah's is the larger. Neither Texas nor Florida has expanded Medicaid. Texas had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%, and the City of Austin's was 13.0%; Florida's was 10.9%, Miami-Dade's 12.4% and the City of Hialeah's 15.1%, against 8.2% nationally. The hospitals differ in rank. Austin's anchor is Dell Seton Medical Center, the teaching hospital of UT's Dell Medical School and the region's only adult Level I trauma center, with a new UT MD Anderson Cancer Center due beside it in 2030. Hialeah's two acute care hospitals, Hialeah Hospital and Palmetto General, have changed hands twice in five years: Steward Health Care bought them from Tenet in 2021 and lost them in its bankruptcy, and a court approved their sale to Healthcare Systems of America on 25 October 2024. They are also the city's largest and fourth-largest employers. Neither profile verified a wait time, and the Hialeah one carries no current bed count. The schools are shrinking in both. Austin ISD counted 65,951 students in fall 2026, 3,765 fewer than a year earlier, and closed or consolidated 10 schools. Miami-Dade County Public Schools counted 18,910 fewer students on the first days of 2026-27 than at the end of 2025-26, a first-day snapshot the district says its October count will refine; it had already closed or consolidated nine schools, and the 27 more it has put under review do not include any in Hialeah. The University of Texas enrolled a record 55,000 in fall 2025. Hialeah has a Miami Dade College campus, there since 1980, and the City runs its own library system, founded in 1924, a year before the city was incorporated.
What people underestimate is that Hialeah's flood risk is inland, from rain, and in neither carry here. Homeowners insurance does not cover flood, and on the City's own flood zone layer 90,311 of Hialeah's 223,109 residents at the 2020 census, about two in five, lived in a FEMA special flood hazard area, 77,666 of them in zone AH, FEMA's designation for shallow flooding, and 12,645 in zone AE; a lender can require a flood policy there however far the coast is. The exposure runs from under a tenth of the residents in some parts of the city to all of the newest ground west of Interstate 75, so the street matters more than the city's average, and the Miami-Dade layer notes that unpermitted additions and garage conversions are common enough here that a permit search is a standard step. Austin's flood risk comes down its creeks, and an address in its extraterritorial jurisdiction may pay a utility district. Both bills reset on a sale: Save Our Homes caps a homesteaded Florida assessment at 3% a year and resets it to market value the January after a sale, the Texas 10% cap lapses on a sale too, and in both the exemption has to be filed, in Florida with the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser by 1 March of the year after you buy; without one the two would owe $11,460 in Austin and $8,304 in Hialeah. Closing differs. Texas has no transfer tax and no tax on the loan, and the Texas seller customarily buys the buyer's owner's title policy, $3,052 on Austin's median. Miami-Dade is the one Florida county with its own deed tax, 60 cents per $100 rather than the statewide 70, plus a 45-cent surtax that is not due on a single-family house, so a house at Hialeah's typical value carries about $2,672 and a condominium or duplex at the same price about $4,676, the seller's by convention, and the buyer pays 0.55% of the loan in stamp and intangible tax, about $1,959 at 20% down. A condominium is a different budget again: this site estimates Hialeah's association fee at $850 a month against $350 in Austin, because no authority publishes a Hialeah average and an older low-rise building in the old city and a new master-planned community west of Interstate 75 are not comparable. The City lines are moving differently: Hialeah has held its own rate at 6.3018 mills for at least ten years and the appraiser's proposed 2026 table keeps it there, while Austin voters rejected a City tax increase by 63% to 37% in November 2025. And the populations run apart. Austin added 4,025 residents in 2024-25 and has grown 4.6% since 2020, while its metro grew 14.8%, the fastest of any metro of more than a million. Hialeah lost 2,210, 0.9%, and has grown 3.5% since 2020, in a county whose growth came entirely from abroad: Miami-Dade lost 72,254 more people to the rest of the country than it gained from it in 2024-25, and with international arrivals down to 54,204 it shrank by 10,115. On the census's estimates 95.3% of Hialeah's people are Hispanic, 72.7% of Cuban origin and 77.1% born outside the United States, 91.9% speak Spanish at home, and its median age, 46.0, is second only to Cape Coral's among the Florida cities this site compares.
Better here
- Nonfarm jobs grew 1.7% around Austin in the year to July 2026, to 1,421,700, against 0.5% in Miami-Dade, a labor market of about the same size.
- Average weekly wages across the metro were $1,957 in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally, and city median household income was $90,430 in 2024 against $57,151 in Hialeah.
- Zillow's observed rent index was $1,586 in August, about 21% of median income, against $2,374 and 50% in Hialeah.
- A homesteaded owner pays about 1.61% of the median in property tax against 1.69%, and insurance is budgeted at $300 a month against $505.
- The City of Austin's uninsured rate was 13.0% in 2024 against 15.1% in the City of Hialeah.
- 3.0% of workers took transit and 4.1% walked or cycled in 2024, against 1.4% and 2.3% in Hialeah, and nearly a quarter worked from home.
Worse here
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $4,041 a month on the August 2026 median, against $3,425 in Hialeah, or $3,510 there at the same 7.03% rate.
- Violent crime ran 421 per 100,000 in 2025 against 178 in Hialeah, property crime 3,093 against 1,417, and there were 51 homicides against 3, on the same FBI counts.
- The normals count 28.7 days a year at or above 37.8 C (100F) against 0.2 in Hialeah, and 2023 had 80.
- January averages 11.2 C at Camp Mabry with 11.9 freezing nights a year, against 19.7 C and none in Hialeah.
- Flash floods come within minutes: the Central Texas floods of July 2025 killed 139 people, 18 of them in Travis, Williamson and Burnet counties.
- ERCOT's grid failed during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, and Texas counted 28 of the storm's 246 deaths in Travis County.
Choose Austin if
- you work in technology, semiconductors, state government or at the University of Texas
- you rent, where Zillow's observed rent index was $1,586 in August against $2,374 in Hialeah
- you want a job market adding jobs at more than three times Miami-Dade's pace, with pay to match
- you would pay about $531 a month more to own at the same rate for the higher pay, and will plan around 100F summers and flash floods on the creeks
The Austin guide · Neighborhoods · Austin rent vs buy · Austin mortgage calculator
Better here
- Violent crime ran 178 per 100,000 in 2025 against 421 in Austin, property crime 1,417 against 3,093, and there were 3 homicides, about 1.3 per 100,000, against 51, on the same FBI counts.
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $3,425 a month on the June 2026 typical home, against $4,041 in Austin, or $3,510 at the same 7.03% rate.
- January averages 19.7 C with no freezing nights on the normals, against 11.2 C and 11.9 at Camp Mabry, and 0.2 days a year reach 100F against 28.7.
- Unemployment was 3.7% across the Miami metro in July 2026, the lowest of the Florida cities this site compares, against 4.0% around Austin, and 2.3% in the City of Hialeah.
- Two Metrorail stations and Tri-Rail serve the city, the City runs free buses, and Miami International, about 5.4 miles south, handled 55,314,661 passengers in 2025.
- Sales tax is 7% against 8.25%, and the City has held its own property tax rate at 6.3018 mills for at least ten years.
Worse here
- City median household income was $57,151 in 2024 against $90,430 in Austin, so the carry takes about 72% of it against 54%.
- Zillow's observed rent index was $2,374 in June 2026, about 50% of median income, against $1,586 and 21% in Austin, in a city where most households rent.
- Insurance is budgeted at $505 a month with no flood cover in it, and about two in five residents live in a FEMA special flood hazard area.
- A homesteaded owner pays about 1.69% of the price in property tax against 1.61%, and on the same $445,331 house Austin's five units would take about $6,907 against $7,534.
- The City of Hialeah's uninsured rate was 15.1% in 2024 against 13.0% in the City of Austin.
- The seller pays Miami-Dade's deed tax of about $2,672 on a house at the typical value, or $4,676 on a condominium, and the buyer about $1,959 in stamp and intangible tax on the loan, where Texas taxes neither the deed nor the loan.
Choose Hialeah if
- you want to own at about $3,425 a month rather than $4,041
- you want low crime, a 19.7 C January and almost no 100F days, and will price flood cover on the street first
- you work in health care, shipping, wholesale or retail in Miami-Dade, or near the airport
- you want to live in Spanish, in a city where 91.9% of residents speak it at home, with Metrorail into Miami
The Hialeah guide · Neighborhoods · Hialeah rent vs buy · Hialeah mortgage calculator
Austin or Hialeah, in short
Is Austin or Hialeah cheaper to live in?
Hialeah, to own; Austin, to rent, and against local pay Austin on both. Both cities price in US dollars, though the headlines are different instruments: the Unlock MLS median of what sold in Austin, $560,000 in August 2026, and Zillow's typical home value for Hialeah, $445,331 in June, the City's row in this site's Miami-Dade layer. On Zillow's index, the same measure in both, Austin stood at $497,418, so the order holds. The mortgage at 20% down is about $2,990 against $2,292, though Austin's uses September's 7.03% rate and Hialeah's August's 6.67%. Property tax is $9,019 a year against about $7,534 with a homestead and insurance $300 a month against $505, so the three lines come to about $4,041 in Austin and $3,425 in Hialeah, or $3,510 at the same 7.03%, roughly 54% and 72% of each city's median household income, $90,430 and $57,151. Neither includes flood cover. Zillow's observed rent index was $1,586 in Austin in August and $2,374 in Hialeah in June. Neither state taxes income, and sales tax is 8.25% in Austin against 7% in Miami-Dade.
Is Austin or Hialeah safer?
Hialeah, on every line, on figures built the same way. Both are the FBI's summarized counts for 2025 divided by Census estimates, read on 27 September and 2 October 2026. Violent offenses ran 178 per 100,000 in Hialeah against 421 in Austin, property offenses 1,417 against 3,093, and homicide was 3 in Hialeah, about 1.3 per 100,000, against 51 in Austin, about 5.1. Hialeah's property rate is understated: the FBI's copy of its reports has almost no motor vehicle thefts since October 2023, and with the state's count of 337 for 2025 the rate would be about 1,560. Both are falling: Hialeah's violent offenses were 22% lower in January to July 2026 than a year earlier, and Austin's dropped 10% in 2025. Every rate here is a count divided by a Census estimate rather than a published rate, and the counts can still be revised.
Which has the better job market, Austin or Hialeah?
Austin's, on growth and pay; Hialeah's, on unemployment. The two labor markets are about the same size: BLS counted 1,421,700 nonfarm jobs around Austin in July 2026, 1.7% more than a year earlier, and 1,349,400 in Miami-Dade County in August, 0.5% more. On the same unadjusted basis unemployment was 4.0% around Austin and 3.7% across the Miami metro in July, and 2.3% in the City of Hialeah. Austin's work leans on technology, semiconductors, state government and the University of Texas, and its average weekly wage was $1,957 in early 2026 against $1,654 nationally. Hialeah's leans on its two hospitals, UPS and the shipping and wholesale trade around the airport, and its grocers, and most of its workers commute elsewhere in Miami-Dade. Median household income was $90,430 in the City of Austin in 2024 against $57,151 in Hialeah, and $99,897 and $80,625 across the metros.
How much does flood risk change the comparison?
Enough to check before anything else, in both cities, and neither carry here includes flood insurance. In Hialeah the risk is rain on flat, low ground rather than the sea: on the City's flood zone layer about two in five residents live in a FEMA special flood hazard area, most of them in zone AH, FEMA's designation for shallow flooding, and City Hall sits in AH with a base flood elevation of 8 ft, so a lender can require a flood policy well inland. The share runs from under a tenth of residents in some parts of the city to all of the newest ground west of Interstate 75. In Austin the risk is flash flooding on the creeks: the Central Texas floods of July 2025 killed 139 people, 18 of them in Travis, Williamson and Burnet counties. No flood premium is recorded on this site for either city, so get a quote on the address before comparing.
Where the figures come from
Housing figures are the ones behind each city's calculators, dated on those pages. The rest are listed here with the date they were retrieved. See the methodology for how facts, estimates and opinion are kept apart.
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places in Texas: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Character
- Annual Resident Population Estimates and Components of Change for Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas and Their Counties: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (CBSA-EST2025-ALLDATA) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth, Character
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Austin Police Department (TX2270100): violent crime, property crime and homicide, 2021-2025 · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- NIBRS Group A Offense Crimes (Austin Police Department open data, updated 14 September 2026) · City of Austin Open Data · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- Austin's crime dropped below pre-pandemic highs in 2025 · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00013958 Austin Camp Mabry (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, Climate normals, Climate hazards, Character, January 52.2F, July 85.8F and August 86.5F from the monthly series, and annual mean 70.0F, precipitation 36.25 in, snowfall 0.2 in and the counts of days at 90F and 100F and nights at freezing from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00013904 Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Austin Camp Mabry (USW00013958), 1938-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, 80 days at or above 100F in 2023 and 45 in a row from 8 July to 21 August, 90 in 2011 with a 27-day run, 112F on 5 September 2000 and 28 August 2011, 6.4 in of snow on 14 and 15 February 2021, 7F on 16 February 2021 and 4F on 23 December 1989, 5.20 in on 25 May 2015
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (USW00013904), February 2021 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours
- This Holiday Weekend Marks The 40th Anniversary Of Austin's 1981 Memorial Day Flood · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- October 30-31, 2013 Halloween Flash Flood Event · National Weather Service, Austin/San Antonio · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Lower Onion Creek Flood Mitigation Buyout Project Gets Kudos from Homeowners · FEMA · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- 2015 Memorial Day Weekend Flooding, 23 to 24 May 2015 (Weather Event Summary) · National Weather Service, Austin/San Antonio · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Tornado outbreak and floods of May 23 to 26, 2015 (Wimberley homes destroyed, Shoal Creek on May 25) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- National Weather Service releases new report on deadly Central Texas floods · KXAN Austin (via Yahoo News) · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- 2021 Winter Storm Uri After-Action Review, Findings Report · City of Austin and Travis County · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- February 2021 Winter Storm-Related Deaths, Texas (mortality surveillance report) · Texas Department of State Health Services · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- The Timeline and Events of the February 2021 Texas Electric Grid Blackouts · The University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Highland Lakes and Colorado River · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Most LCRA agricultural customers will go without Highland Lakes water in 2024 · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Drought persists in Central Texas, Water Management Plan under review · Community Impact · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Water Supply Operations · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for Austin city and the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year table B27001 (health insurance coverage) for the 50 states, DC, the US, Travis County and Austin city · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Health care, Character
- Unemployment Rate in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX (MSA), AUST448UR and AUST448URN · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS LAUS data) · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- All Employees: Total Nonfarm in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX (MSA), AUST448NA · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS CES data) · retrieved Supports: Labour market
- Austin Area Economic Summary · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate, Main sectors, Labour market
- Major Employers · Opportunity Austin (Austin Chamber of Commerce) · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Health care
- City Sales and Use Tax (city rate table) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Transit Sales and Use Tax (Austin MTA, effective July 1, 1985) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Sales and Use Tax · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Texas Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes, Character
- 2025 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- 2026 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- Property Tax Exemptions · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- Voters OK property tax breaks for Texas homeowners, businesses · The Texas Tribune · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- Austin voters reject Proposition Q, a tax rate increase to fund city services · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- CapMetro (citing the APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Character
- CapMetro Rail (Red Line: Leander to Downtown, 32 miles, 10 stations) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system
- What's on track and behind schedule with Austin's transit expansion nearly 6 years later · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Tax notes, Character
- How Austin's Project Connect went off the rails · The Texas Tribune · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Character
- Aviation Activity Report, Calendar Year 2025 vs 2024, Combined Terminals · Austin-Bergstrom International Airport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (annual passenger traffic table and history) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions · KFF · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Dell Seton Medical Center · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas · Ascension Seton · retrieved Supports: Health care
- About St. David's HealthCare · St. David's HealthCare · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Building World-Class Health Care in Austin · Michael & Susan Dell Foundation · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Austin ISD Board approves 24 state-mandated turnaround plans, school consolidation and programmatic reassignments · Austin Independent School District · retrieved Supports: Education
- District Demographics · Austin Independent School District · retrieved Supports: Education
- Austin ISD enrollment dips as transportation costs rise · Austin Current · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- Austin ISD loses 3,000 students amid school closures and budget crisis · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- UT Sets All-Time Highs for Enrollment and Student Performance · UT News, The University of Texas at Austin · retrieved Supports: Education
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places of 50,000 or More (all states, SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend, Character, Hialeah city 223,143 (April 2020 base), 222,417 (2020), 220,961 (2021), 225,281 (2022), 230,169 (2023), 233,178 (2024) and 230,968 (2025); Miami city 489,812; Hialeah Gardens 22,777; Miami-Dade County 2,802,029; national and Florida ranks and the 129 cities of 200,000 or more
- 2025 Gazetteer Files: Places, Florida · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: point, City population, Character, Climate normals, Airport passengers, Hialeah city: 21.592 sq mi of land, 1.224 sq mi of water, internal point 25.869941, -80.302865; Miami city 35.997 sq mi of land
- Hialeah, Florida (history, demographics, economy, education, library, transportation) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: City population, Main sectors, Transit system, Education, Character
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Hialeah Police Department (FL0130400): violent crime, property crime, homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson, January 2021 to September 2026 · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend, Character, 2025: 412 violent (3 + 22 + 31 + 356), 3,273 property (236 + 3,018 + 7 + 12); 2022 to 2024 violent 474, 431 and 415, property 4,329, 4,017 and 3,632; motor vehicle thefts 528, 396, 22 and 7 for 2022 to 2025; agency population 238,769 for 2025; data refreshed 15 September 2026
- FIBRS offense data by agency and month, 2021 to August 2026 · Florida Department of Law Enforcement · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend, Hialeah Police Department, every month of 2021 to 2025 and January to August 2026: 432 violent and 3,667 property offenses in 2025; motor vehicle thefts 541, 566, 488 and 337 for 2022 to 2025; homicides 3 in 2025
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USC00083909 Hialeah (cooperative station) (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, Climate normals, Climate hazards, January 67.4F, July 83.3F and August 83.5F, the monthly highs, lows, rain and snow with their completeness flags and years, and annual mean 76.6F, 72.93 in of precipitation, 0.0 in of snow, 91.0 days at 90F, 0.2 at 100F and none at freezing from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012839 Miami International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals, January 68.6F, July 84.1F, 67.41 in of precipitation from 30 years, 91.4 days at 90F
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012882 Miami Opa Locka Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals, No snowfall normal; temperature and precipitation normals flagged representative, from 18 to 23 years
- NCEI data search, normals-monthly-1991-2020 stations within 26.0N to 25.7N and 80.45W to 80.15W · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals, USC00083909 Hialeah at 25.8175N, 80.2858W, USW00012839 at 25.7906N, 80.3164W and USW00012882 at 25.9069N, 80.2803W among ten stations, the rest farther or precipitation only
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Miami International Airport (USW00012839), 2010-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, 72.0 mph gust and 5.18 in of rain on 10 September 2017; 9.70 in on 22 May 2012, 7.53 in on 15 November 2023, 6.25 in on 12 June 2024; 139 days at or above 90F in 2023 and 115 in 2026 through 29 September; 100F on 18 August 2026; 35F on 10 January 2010 and 1 February 2026
- Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Irma (AL112017) · NOAA National Hurricane Center · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Landfalls near Cudjoe Key at 1300 UTC and Marco Island at 1930 UTC 10 September 2017; inland Miami-Dade and Broward stations just below hurricane force; Opa Locka Airport 56 kt sustained and 74 kt gust at 1903 UTC; Miami International gust 63 kt; about 1,000 Miami-Dade homes with major damage
- National Flood Hazard Layer: flood hazard zones and FIRM panels at Hialeah City Hall · Federal Emergency Management Agency · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Zone AH with a static base flood elevation of 8 ft; panel 12086C0284L, effective 11 September 2009 (layer 3)
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B19013, B25003 and B01002 for Hialeah and the other Florida cities this site compares, Miami-Dade County, the Miami MSA, Florida and the US · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year table B08301 (means of transportation) for Hialeah city, and the 2020-2024 5-year table for Hialeah city and Miami-Dade County · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Labour market
- ACS 2024 1-year table B08301 (means of transportation) for Miami-Dade County · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08007 (place of work by county), B08008 (place of work by place), B08013 (aggregate travel time), B08101 (means of transportation by age) and B08303 (travel time to work) for Hialeah city and Miami-Dade County · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Labour market, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year table B27001 (health insurance coverage) for Hialeah city, Miami-Dade County, the Miami MSA, Florida and the US · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Health care
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B03001 (Hispanic or Latino origin by specific origin) and B05002 (place of birth by nativity) for Hialeah, Miami, Miami-Dade County and Florida · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Character, Hialeah: 95.3% Hispanic or Latino, 72.7% Cuban, 77.1% foreign-born
- ACS 2020-2024 5-year table C16001 (language spoken at home) for Hialeah, Miami and Miami-Dade County · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Character, Hialeah: 91.9% speak Spanish at home, 59.5% speak English less than very well; the 1-year release has no language table for the city
- Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL MSA (LAUMT123310000000003), Miami-Dade County (LAUCN120860000000003) and Hialeah city (LAUCT123000000000003), not seasonally adjusted · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate, Character
- Current Employment Statistics, Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metropolitan Division: total nonfarm (SMU12331240000000001), construction, manufacturing, supersectors (SMU1233124xx00000001), wholesale, retail, transportation and local government · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- FY2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, including Principal Employers (Current Year and Nine Years Ago), Property Tax Rates (Direct and Overlapping) and Assessed Values · City of Hialeah (filed with the Florida Auditor General) · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Tax notes, Health care, Character, Principal employers 2025: Palmetto General Hospital 1,635, City of Hialeah 1,492, United Parcel Service 1,119, Hialeah Hospital 1,032, Publix 771, Fresco y Mas 741, Larkin Community Hospital Palm Springs Campus 683, Sedano's 545, La Colonia Medical Centers 527, Bullet Line 450 (7.79% of city employment together); the 2016 list; a City operating rate of 6.3018 in every year from 2016 to 2025; taxable value $22.18 billion in 2025, up 11.0%
- Discretionary Sales Surtax Information for Calendar Year 2026 (DR-15DSS) · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Miami-Dade 1%: 0.5% from January 1, 1992 and 0.5% from January 1, 2003, no expiration
- Discretionary Sales Surtax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, The surtax applies to the first $5,000 of the sales amount of an item of tangible personal property
- Florida Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes
- Property Tax Exemptions and Additional Benefits · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- 2025 adopted millage rates and 2026 proposed millage rate table · Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Education, Millage code 0400 Hialeah: 18.6468 for 2025 and 18.6638 for 2024, with a City rate of 6.3018 and blank Fire Rescue and Library columns (as carried in lib/metro-miami/market.ts); 18.6134 proposed for 2026 at the same City rate
- Documentary Stamp Tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, 60 cents per $100 in Miami-Dade against 70 cents elsewhere, plus a 45-cent surtax not due on a document that transfers only a single-family dwelling
- Zillow Home Value Index and Observed Rent Index, city files, June 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Hialeah all-homes value $445,331, down 1.5% on the year, and observed rent $2,374 (as carried in lib/metro-miami/market.ts)
- Monthly Module Adjusted Data Release, complete monthly ridership with adjustments and estimates (County of Miami-Dade, NTD 40034, and South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, NTD 40077) · Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Database (via data.transportation.gov) · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- Getting around Hialeah? The city offers free public transportation options · NBC 6 South Florida · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- Miami International Airport (annual passenger traffic, 2000 to 2025) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Steward Health Care (Florida hospitals and their 2024 sale) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care, Hialeah Hospital and Palmetto General Hospital bought from Tenet in August 2021; sale to Healthcare Systems of America approved on October 25, 2024
- Hialeah Hospital · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care, 378 beds (from the hospital's site, 2015); owned by Medical Properties Trust and operated by Healthcare Systems of America
- Miami-Dade County School Board to review future of 27 schools amid sharp enrollment decline · WLRN · retrieved Supports: Education
- Miami-Dade schools report nearly 19,000-student enrollment drop on first day, district says count is not final · CBS News Miami · retrieved Supports: Education
- August 2026 Central Texas housing report · Unlock MLS · retrieved Supports: A median residential sale price of $560,000 in the City of Austin in August 2026, down 4.3% from August 2025, 844 homes sold, down 10.3%, 4,554 active listings and 4.6 months of inventory in the City of Austin, No split of the city figures by property type
- Zillow Home Value Index, all homes, middle tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical home value of $497,418 for the city of Austin (region 10221) in August 2026, $516,564 in August 2025, so a fall of 3.7% over the year
- Zillow Home Value Index, single-family and condominium series, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical single-family value of $527,943 in the city of Austin in August 2026, against $546,174 a year earlier, down 3.3%, A typical condominium value of $355,596 in the same month, against $375,347, down 5.3%, from the condominium file at https://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zhvi/City_zhvi_uc_condo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv
- Austin, TX average rent and rent trends · RentCafe / Yardi Matrix · retrieved Supports: An average Austin apartment rent of $1,641, down 2.25% from $1,678 a year earlier, updated 31 August 2026, Average rents of $1,287 studio, $1,421 one-bedroom, $1,812 two-bedroom and $2,405 three-bedroom
- Zillow Observed Rent Index, all homes plus multifamily, smoothed, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: An observed rent index of $1,586 for the city of Austin in August 2026, down 0.31% from $1,591 a year earlier
- Tax rates and truth-in-taxation rate table, all taxing units · Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector · retrieved Supports: 2025 adopted rates per $100: Travis County 0.375845, City of Austin 0.524017, Austin ISD 0.9252, Austin Community College 0.1034, Travis County Healthcare District (Central Health) 0.118023, 2026 adopted rates for Travis County (0.386210), the City of Austin (0.579948), ACC (0.103643) and Central Health (0.132863), and no adopted 2026 rate yet for Austin ISD
- 2026 exemption listing, Travis County taxing units · Travis Central Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: A residence homestead exemption of $140,000 for Austin ISD, with no local option, Local option homestead exemptions of 20% with a $5,000 minimum for Travis County, the City of Austin and the Travis County Healthcare District, and 1% with a $5,000 minimum for Austin Community College, The same exemptions in the 2025 listing, dated 25 July 2025
- Property tax rates · City of Austin Budget Office · retrieved Supports: A fiscal 2026 rate of 0.524017 per $100, maintenance and operations 0.410282 and debt service 0.113735, A fiscal 2027 rate of 0.579948 per $100, adopted on 12 August 2026
- Ordinance No. 20251120-006, reducing the fiscal 2025-2026 tax rate to the voter-approval rate · City of Austin · retrieved Supports: The Council adopted a rate above the voter-approval rate on 13 August 2025, which triggered an automatic election, Proposition Q did not win a majority at the 4 November 2025 election, The rate reduced to the voter-approval rate of $0.524017 per $100 under Tax Code section 26.07(e), effective 1 December 2025
- Notice about tax year 2026 property tax rates and impact statement · Austin Independent School District · retrieved Supports: A 2025 rate of 0.9252 per $100, maintenance and operations 0.8022 and debt service 0.1230, A proposed 2026 rate of 0.9184, maintenance and operations 0.7954 and debt service 0.1230
- Austin ISD claims victory in tax rate election · KUT News · retrieved Supports: Austin ISD's Proposition A passed on 5 November 2024 with about 58% of the vote, raising the district's rate 9.1 cents, from 0.8595 to 0.9505 per $100
- Travis County Prop A, affordable child care passes with majority of vote in 2024 election, unofficial results show · Community Impact · retrieved Supports: Travis County's Proposition A, a tax rate increase of 2.5 cents per $100 to fund child care, passed on 5 November 2024 with 59.43% of the vote, 321,043 to 219,141
- Truth-in-taxation rate table, all Travis County taxing units, 2022 to 2026 · Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector · retrieved Supports: Travis Central Health: a 2026 total rate of 0.132863 per $100, maintenance and operations 0.123603 and debt service 0.00926, against a no-new-revenue rate of 0.118633 and a voter-approval rate of 0.135195; a 2025 total rate of 0.118023, Travis County: a 2024 total rate of 0.344445 per $100 against a voter-approval rate of 0.319445, the 2.5 cents voters approved, Austin ISD: total rates of 0.8595 for 2023 and 0.9505 for 2024, and for 2026 a no-new-revenue and voter-approval rate but no total rate
- ACC approves new property tax rate for fiscal year 2025-26 · Austin Community College District · retrieved Supports: A 2025 rate of 0.1034 per $100
- Central Health board approves fiscal year 2027 tax rate and budget · Central Health (Travis County Healthcare District) · retrieved Supports: The Board of Managers adopted the fiscal 2027 tax rate on Wednesday, 9 September 2026, in a release dated 10 September; the rate itself is in the county's rate table above
- Fiscal year 2027 tax rate impact statement · Travis County · retrieved Supports: A county tax of $1,653.72 in 2025 on a $550,000 homestead after the 20% exemption, the same arithmetic as here, The 2025 rate set with the disaster calculation after the July 2025 floods, which the county said would come out for fiscal 2027
- Valuing property: the homestead cap and the circuit breaker limitation · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: A residence homestead's appraised value may not rise more than 10% a year, from the year after the owner first qualifies, A 20% annual limit on the appraised value of non-homestead property valued at $5 million or less, the circuit breaker, which expires on 31 December 2026
- Tax Code, Section 41.44: notice of protest · Texas Legislature · retrieved Supports: A protest must be filed by 15 May or the 30th day after the appraisal notice is delivered, whichever is later
- 2025 annual report · Travis Central Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: 210,038 property value appeals filed in 2025, A districtwide single-family median level of appraisal of 1.00
- School district property value study, 2024 final findings, Austin ISD · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Austin ISD's local value found within the confidence interval of the state's estimate, so the appraisal district's values stand as market value
- 2026 market values on their way · Travis Central Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: A median residence homestead market value of $493,449 in Travis County for 2026, against $519,677 in 2025
- Annexation · City of Austin Planning Department · retrieved Supports: The City collects no property tax in limited-purpose areas, On full-purpose annexation an area's emergency services district tax may be eliminated
- Senate Bill 2, 86th Legislature: the Texas Property Tax Reform and Transparency Act of 2019 · Texas Legislature Online · retrieved Supports: The enrolled bill summary names Senate Bill 2 of 2019, by Bettencourt et al., the Texas Property Tax Reform and Transparency Act of 2019, with provisions taking effect from 1 January 2020 to 1 January 2022
- Property tax process post-Senate Bill 2 (2019): explanatory Q&A · Texas Municipal League · retrieved Supports: S.B. 2 lowers the multiplier in a city's voter-approval rate from 8 percent to 3.5 percent more maintenance and operations revenue, for nearly every Texas city, A city that adopts a rate above the 3.5 percent voter-approval rate must hold an automatic election on the November uniform election date, where before voters had to petition for one
- Truth in taxation · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: The voter-approval rate gives taxing units other than school districts and special taxing units about the previous year's operating revenue plus an extra 3.5 percent
- Geologic wonders of Texas: Central Texas · Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin · retrieved Supports: In Austin the Balcones escarpment generally parallels MoPac (Loop 1): west of it the city is hilly and east of it relatively flat, Hard Lower Cretaceous limestones and dolostones form the hills to the west, and younger Upper Cretaceous rocks including clays the flatter ground to the east
- Houston Black: Texas state soil · Soil Science Society of America, with USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service figures · retrieved Supports: Houston Black, a smectite clay that shrinks when dry and swells when wet, is found in the Blackland Prairie along the route of Interstate 35 from north of Dallas to just south of San Antonio, Construction on it is often plagued by cracking from the shrinking and swelling, and building foundations need reinforcing
- Floodplain management · City of Austin Watershed Protection Department · retrieved Supports: NOAA's Atlas 14 rainfall study of 2018 found Central Texas getting heavier rain than previously thought, and the City is updating its floodplain maps from it, In November 2019 the City based its development regulations on the current FEMA 500-year floodplain instead of the 100-year floodplain, pending completion of the updated maps; the maps are on ATXFloodPro
- Flood zones · Federal Emergency Management Agency · retrieved Supports: The Special Flood Hazard Area is the land flooded by the 1-percent-annual-chance flood, the base or 100-year flood; the ground between it and the 500-year flood is a moderate-risk zone
- Understanding flood risk: real estate, lending and insurance professionals · Federal Emergency Management Agency · retrieved Supports: Federally regulated or insured lenders must require flood insurance for every building in a Special Flood Hazard Area with a federally backed loan
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 24 September 2026 · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 7.03%, up from 6.95% the week before and 6.30% a year earlier
- Texas homeowners insurance market overview · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: A statewide average homeowners premium of $3,489 a year, from the Texas Statistical Plan for Residential Risks, Hail as the largest cause of paid homeowners losses in every year from 2016 to 2025 except 2021
- Texas homeowners insurance · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Austin premium of $4,250 a year and a Texas average of $5,910, for $500,000 of dwelling cover
- How much is homeowners insurance in Austin, TX? · Insure.com · retrieved Supports: An average Austin premium of $2,698 a year for $300,000 of dwelling cover, $100,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 27 May 2026
- Renters insurance in Texas · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Austin renters premium of $136 a year for $30,000 of personal property
- Monthly homeowners' or condominium association fee, table B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Austin city · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A median monthly association fee of $76 among Austin owner-occupied units that pay one, 88,975 of 199,801 owner-occupied units, or 44.5%, paying such a fee, from table B25142
- City of Austin utility rates and fees, effective 1 July 2026 · City of Austin · retrieved Supports: A residential solid waste charge of $23.80 a month plus $4.70 to $40.30 by cart size, Clean Community fees of $5.45 and $4.80 a month, charged to every residential customer, A transportation user fee of $21.80 a month for a single-family home
- Homebuyer resources: Down Payment Assistance · City of Austin Housing Department · retrieved Supports: Up to $40,000 in assistance for first-time buyers at or below 80% of median family income, A sales price of no more than $440,000, on a home inside Austin's full-purpose city limits
- Conforming loan limit values for 2026, by county · Federal Housing Finance Agency · retrieved Supports: A baseline one-unit conforming loan limit of $832,750 for 2026, which is the limit in Travis County
- 2025 Gazetteer files: places, Texas · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A land area of 325.013 square miles for Austin city, against 319.937 in the 2020 file
- Table 1: Comparison of Taxes Levied, county and municipal governments, fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26: Miami-Dade · Florida Department of Revenue, Property Tax Oversight · retrieved Supports: The adopted 2025-26 millage rate for Miami-Dade County and every municipality in it, The county's own components: countywide 4.5740, Fire/Rescue 2.3965, Library 0.2812 and the Unincorporated Municipal Service Area at 1.9090, Municipal rates from Sunny Isles Beach's 1.7000 to Biscayne Park's 9.3000
- 2025 millage rates and taxing authorities, Miami-Dade County · Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: A published combined rate for unincorporated Miami-Dade of 16.9317 mills, Its components: school district 6.4990, countywide 5.7361, regional water districts 0.3911, Fire Rescue 2.3965 and UMSA 1.9090, which this layer's stack reproduces exactly, Millage code 0100, the City of Miami, at 19.9878 mills for 2025: 7.1080 of city operating levy and 0.2536 of city debt service on the countywide 12.6262, Opa-locka's municipal operating levy of 8.9797, and a 2025 total of 24.0024 for millage code 0800, A city debt service column, which nine of the twenty-four municipalities here carry: Miami 0.2536, Miami Beach 0.2779, North Bay Village 1.1666, Golden Beach 0.6000, Miami Shores 0.1331, North Miami Beach 0.2000, Miami Gardens 0.4331, Doral 0.4810 and Homestead 0.2446, A blank library district column for Hialeah, North Miami, North Miami Beach, Homestead, Miami Shores, Bal Harbour and Surfside, which are outside the county library district, A blank Fire Rescue column for Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah and Key Biscayne, which is the five this layer flags
- About Fire Rescue · Miami-Dade Fire Rescue · retrieved Supports: The Fire Rescue district covering the unincorporated county and twenty-nine municipalities, Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah and Key Biscayne operating their own fire departments and lying outside the district
- Annual estimates of the resident population for incorporated places, 2020 to 2024 · United States Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program · retrieved Supports: 2020 census counts and 2024 estimates for each municipality, Miami at 487,014 and Hialeah at 235,388; Golden Beach at 1,034
- Average cost of home insurance in Florida, 2026 · MoneyGeek · retrieved Supports: A Miami-Dade County average of about $6,045 a year: below Palm Beach County's $6,614, A Florida average of about $3,815 and a national average of about $2,543
- Governmental leasehold intangible personal property tax and the non-recurring intangible tax on mortgages · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: A non-recurring intangible tax of 2 mills: 0.2%, on the obligation secured by a mortgage on Florida real property
- Chapter 2023-17, Laws of Florida: preemption of rent control · The Florida Senate · retrieved Supports: The repeal of the referendum exception that had allowed a local rent control ordinance in a declared housing emergency
- TIGERweb, Census 2020: census blocks, with the 2020 population and housing unit counts · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A 2020 census count of 223,109 residents and 77,475 housing units in Hialeah city, the sum of the blocks in the 2020 place, The resident counts by area and by flood zone on these pages, from the blocks whose internal point falls inside each line
- City Boundary layer (BaseMaps/Parcels_Map, layer 2) · City of Hialeah, ArcGIS Server · retrieved Supports: One feature, NAME HIALEAH, of 14,634 acres, taking in the same census blocks as the 2020 place
- Flood Zones layer (Environmental/Flood, layer 3) · City of Hialeah, ArcGIS Server · retrieved Supports: 90,311 of the city's 2020 residents in a special flood hazard area: 77,666 in zone AH and 12,645 in zone AE, Zone AH with a base flood elevation of 8 feet at City Hall, 501 Palm Avenue
- National Flood Hazard Layer · Federal Emergency Management Agency · retrieved Supports: The effective flood map for Hialeah, panel 12086C0284L, effective 11 September 2009, The same zone and base flood elevation as the City's layer at each point checked, including City Hall
- Hialeah 2050 Master Plan: District Master Plan Recommendations · Plusurbia for the City of Hialeah · retrieved Supports: Six areas and 29 numbered districts covering the whole city, drawn on street lines (Map 01, City of Hialeah Neighborhoods and Districts), Adoption by the City Council in June 2025