Charlotte vs Austin: which should you move to?
Charlotte or Austin? 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.
Both cities price in US dollars, so the figures net directly, and the house is where they part. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,644 a month on Charlotte's July 2026 median and about $4,041 on Austin's August median; about $83 of the $1,397 gap is the two mortgage rates being read a month apart, 6.67% against 7.03%. Most of the rest is a $560,000 house against a $430,000 one and a property tax of $9,019 a year against $3,010, which is how Texas collects what it does not take in income tax. The labor markets are level on the headline, 3.7% unemployment in both metros on about 1.4 million jobs each, but Austin's pays more, $1,957 a week on average in early 2026 against Charlotte's $1,515 in late 2025. Austin is the safer city on every count published here, with 51 homicides in 2025 against 96. Choose Charlotte to own a house on a median income, for banking and for a hub airport. Choose Austin for technology pay, lower crime and no state income tax, and budget for the property tax.
| Measure | Charlotte | Austin | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 964,784 (2025) | 1,002,632 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 2,938,830 (2025) | 2,620,945 (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. | 10.3% (2020-2025) | 4.6% (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 | Charlotte | Austin | 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. | $430,000 (July 2026) | $560,000 (August 2026) | Charlotte |
| Detached house benchmark | $420,000 | $527,943 | Charlotte |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | $292,000 | $355,596 | Charlotte |
| Two-bedroom rent | $1,781/mo (average, August 2026) | $1,812/mo (average, August 2026) | Charlotte |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,470/mo | $1,421/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. | 24.7% of a year's income | 24.0% of a year's income | Austin |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 30-year amortization on American monthly compounding, the convention in both. | $2,213/mo at 6.67% | $2,990/mo at 7.03% | Charlotte |
| Price to household income Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not. | 5.0× | 6.2× | Charlotte |
| 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. | $3,010/yr (0.70%, 2026) | $9,022/yr (1.611%, 2025) | Charlotte |
| 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. | $860 (seller pays) | None | 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 |
Charlotte: About 0.70% of market value. Charlotte levies 0.7857%: Mecklenburg County's 49.27¢ plus the City's 29.30¢ per $100, but against a value frozen at the 1 January 2023 revaluation. North Carolina measures that gap itself: the Department of Revenue certifies Mecklenburg's assessment level at 88.78% of sale price, which is how it publishes an effective county rate of 0.4374% against a nominal 0.4927%. The next revaluation takes effect 1 January 2027, and it will move assessments to what houses are worth then, not to what you paid. 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%.
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 | Charlotte | Austin | 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 | 607 (2025) | 421 (2025) | Austin |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 3,639 (2025) | 3,093 (2025) | Austin |
| 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. | 96 (2025) | 51 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
CMPD's 15 January 2026 year-end report put overall crime down 9% in 2025, violent crime down 21% (5,852 offenses versus 7,436 in 2024) and property crime down 6%, with homicides falling from 110 to 96, robberies down 24% and vehicle thefts down from 7,442 to 5,960. Homicides had been above 100 a year since 2020, so 2025 was the first clear drop in several years; the August 2025 killing of a passenger on the LYNX Blue Line kept transit safety in the news despite the citywide numbers.
What the rates cover: 5,852 violent offenses (UCR summary definitions) reported by CMPD for 2025, divided by the 964,784 city population estimate. CMPD's jurisdiction is the city plus unincorporated Mecklenburg County, so the true rate per resident is slightly lower.
Homicides: 96 homicides in 2025 versus 110 in 2024, about 10 per 100,000 on the city population; CMPD reports a 79% clearance rate.
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.
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Charlotte | Austin | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | 5.6 °C | 11.2 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 26.7 °C | 29.9 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 1,107 mm | 921 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 9 cm | 1 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | 2,821 hours | 2,644 hours | Charlotte |
NOAA 1991-2020 normals for Charlotte Douglas International Airport (station USW00013881): January mean 42.1F, July mean 80.1F, annual mean 61.4F, 43.60 in of precipitation, 3.5 in of snow. July is the warmest month at 80.1F, ahead of August's 78.6F. The set this file carried until September 2026 was an older normal under the 1991-2020 label: a degree low in January and in July, and a fifth high on snow. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means (2,821 hours, 62% of possible) since the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.
Hazards: Humid subtropical: long hot summers with regular thunderstorms, mild winters with occasional ice storms that close the city for a day or two, and remnant tropical systems (Hugo in 1989 hit Charlotte directly; Helene in 2024 devastated the mountains two hours west but mostly spared Charlotte). Flash flooding along creeks and summer heat indexes above 100F are the routine risks; wildfire smoke is rare.
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.
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Charlotte | Austin | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $86,416 USD (2024) | $90,430 USD (2024) | Austin |
| Unemployment rate | 3.7% (June 2026) | 3.7% (July 2026) | Even |
| Sales tax | 8.25% | 8.25% | Even |
| 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. | 41.25% | 37% | Austin |
| 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. | $17,158 USD | $13,449 USD | Austin |
BLS counted 1,413,000 nonfarm jobs in the Charlotte MSA in June 2026, up 1.6% on the year, with construction (+9.0%) and education and health (+3.5%) growing fastest and manufacturing (-3.6%) and information (-5.8%) shrinking. Financial activities employ 128,500, a much larger share than in most metros of this size; average weekly wages in Q4 2025 were $1,515 against $1,569 nationally.
Main sectors: Banking and financial services (Bank of America HQ, Truist, Wells Fargo east coast hub), Professional and business services, Trade, transportation and logistics (CLT hub, distribution), Health care (Atrium Health, Novant Health), Construction and manufacturing (energy, motorsports).
North Carolina's flat rate drops in steps: 4.25% (2025), 3.99% (2026), with further cuts after 2026 tied to revenue triggers. Mecklenburg property tax is separate and was revalued in 2023.
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.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Charlotte | Austin | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS): LYNX Blue Line light rail (19 miles, Uptown to UNC Charlotte and I-485/South Blvd), CityLYNX Gold Line streetcar, local and express buses | 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 | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 2.3% (2024) | 3.0% (2024) | Austin |
| Walk or cycle to work | 2.4% (2024) | 4.1% (2024) | Austin |
| Airport | Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), 53.6 million passengers in 2025, second busiest year after 58.8 million in 2024; an American Airlines hub where about 65% of passengers connect. | 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. | Not directly comparable |
CATS carried about 15.7 million passenger trips in calendar 2024, up 11% on 2023 but still only about 65% of 2019 levels; bus ridership has lost roughly 65% of riders since 2013 while the Blue Line was at about 70% of its 2019 ridership (WFAE, February 2025). A November 2025 referendum passed 52.3% to 47.7% and adds a 1 cent sales tax from July 2026 expected to raise about $19.4 billion over 30 years, split 40% roads, 40% rail and 20% bus; the Red Line commuter rail to Lake Norman comes first, then the Silver Line light rail to the airport. A state audit in August 2026 estimated 45% of riders do not pay fares.
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.
Health care, schools and what each city is like
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or individual private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid (North Carolina expanded Medicaid in December 2023), and uninsured adults still face full charges at hospitals. Two systems dominate: Atrium Health (part of Advocate Health, with Carolinas Medical Center as the region's Level I trauma centre and a new Wake Forest University School of Medicine campus in Charlotte) and Novant Health (Presbyterian Medical Center); primary care and specialist wait times run weeks rather than months, and costs depend far more on your plan than on the provider.
Education
UNC Charlotte enrolled a record 32,207 students in fall 2025 and is the city's main research university; Davidson College, Queens University, Johnson C. Smith University and Central Piedmont Community College round out the options. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is a single county-wide district of roughly 140,000 students with a large magnet lottery system and a sizeable charter sector; enrollment fell to its lowest level since 2010-11 in 2025-26, and school quality varies sharply by neighbourhood.
Living there
Charlotte is a banking city that grew fast and recently: most of what you see was built after 1990, the Uptown skyline is compact and quiet after office hours, and daily life runs through car-oriented suburbs like Ballantyne, University City and the Lake Norman towns. South End and NoDa along the Blue Line are where the walkable apartment-and-brewery growth has concentrated. Summers are hot and humid, traffic on I-77 and I-485 is the main complaint, and the city is still working out what transit, schools and housing it wants to be as it passes a million residents.
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.
Where each city wins, and where it loses
Both cities price in US dollars, so the figures net directly, and for once the two prices are the same instrument: each is the MLS median of what sold inside the city limits. Charlotte's was $430,000 in July 2026 on Canopy MLS, down 2.3%, and Austin's $560,000 in August on Unlock MLS, down 4.3%, 5.0 and about 6.2 times each city's 2024 median household income. At 20% down, Charlotte's $344,000 loan at 6.67%, Freddie Mac's rate for 13 August 2026, is $2,213 a month, and Austin's $448,000 loan at 7.03%, the rate for 24 September, about $2,990. Property tax is about $3,010 a year in Charlotte, 0.70% of price, against $9,019 from Austin's five taxing units, an effective 1.61% with a homestead and $11,460 without. Insurance is budgeted at $180 and $300 a month. The three lines come to about $2,644 and $4,041, roughly 37% and 54% of local median income; at the same 7.03% Charlotte's would be about $2,727. Renting is close for the smaller units. On the same RentCafe series for August 2026 a one-bedroom averaged $1,470 in Charlotte and $1,421 in Austin and a two-bedroom $1,781 and $1,812, though a three-bedroom was $2,117 against $2,405. Neither state allows rent control.
Austin's rates are lower on every count, and the two cities are close enough in size, 964,784 and 1,002,632 people, that the counts compare almost directly. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police counted 5,852 violent offenses in 2025 on UCR summary definitions, about 607 per 100,000, and 35,112 property offenses, about 3,639. Austin's are the FBI's summarized counts for the Austin Police Department: 4,221 violent offenses of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, 421 per 100,000, and 31,011 property offenses, 3,093. Homicide is the cleanest line. Charlotte recorded 96, about 10 per 100,000, down from 110 in 2024; Austin recorded 51, about 5.1, after 66 in 2024 and 81 in 2021, though APD's assistant chief put 2025 at 55 and nothing published explains the difference. Both fell in 2025, violent crime by 21% in Charlotte and 10% in Austin, and vehicle thefts from 7,442 to 5,960 in Charlotte and by 26% in APD's own records. Every rate here is a count divided by a Census estimate. CMPD's patch includes unincorporated Mecklenburg, which pushes Charlotte's rates up a little, and the Austin counts were read on 27 September 2026 from a federal feed that can still be revised.
Austin is warmer in both seasons. Its July mean of 29.9 C at Camp Mabry is the second-warmest of the fourteen cities this site compares, behind Dallas, against 26.7 C at Charlotte Douglas, and January averages 11.2 C against 5.6 C, with 0.5 cm of snow a year against 8.9 cm. Charlotte is wetter, 1,107 mm against 921 mm, and on the same 1961-1990 series sunnier, 2,821 hours against 2,644. The profiles measure the heat differently. Charlotte's routine risk is summer heat indexes above 100F (37.8 C), humidity included; Austin's normals count 28.7 days a year when the air itself reaches 100F (37.8 C), and 2023 had 80. Both cities flash-flood along their creeks; the Central Texas floods of July 2025 killed 139 people, 18 of them in Travis, Williamson and Burnet counties. Charlotte's other hazards are the ice storm that closes the city for a day or two and remnant tropical systems: Hugo hit directly in 1989, and Helene devastated the mountains two hours west in 2024 but mostly spared the city. Austin's are drought on the Highland Lakes and the rare hard freeze, as in February 2021, when Winter Storm Uri brought 7F (-13.9 C) and ERCOT cut power across the state grid.
The labor markets are the same size and in the same condition, and they pay differently. Both metros had 3.7% unemployment, seasonally adjusted, Charlotte in June 2026 and Austin in July, on 1,413,000 nonfarm jobs up 1.6% on the year and 1,421,700 up 1.7%. Charlotte is a banking city, with 128,500 jobs in financial activities around Bank of America, Truist and Wells Fargo. Austin's largest sector is professional and business services at 294,600, beside chip making, state government and the University of Texas. Average weekly wages were $1,515 in Charlotte in the fourth quarter of 2025, below the national $1,569, and $1,957 in Austin in the first quarter of 2026, against $1,654. City median household incomes were $86,416 and $90,430 in 2024. The tax story is North Carolina's flat income tax against none. A single filer on $100,000 pays about $17,158 in Charlotte for 2025, $3,709 of it to the state, and $13,449 in Austin, and North Carolina's rate falls from 4.25% to 3.99% for 2026. Sales tax is 8.25% in both. Property tax runs the other way: on the two medians, a single filer would need about $154,000 of income before North Carolina's 4.25% took as much as Austin's extra $6,012 a year.
Neither is a transit city, and Austin's commute share is the higher even though only Charlotte has light rail. In 2024, 3.0% of Austin workers took transit and 4.1% walked or cycled, against 2.3% and 2.4% in Charlotte, and about a quarter in each worked from home. CapMetro carried 26,283,400 trips in 2025, 620,600 of them on the Red Line, a 32-mile commuter rail line from Leander to downtown. CATS carried about 15.7 million in 2024, roughly 65% of its 2019 level, and an August 2026 state audit estimated that 45% of riders do not pay; its LYNX Blue Line runs 19 miles of light rail through Uptown. Both electorates have voted for more. Mecklenburg's 1 cent sales tax, collected since July 2026, is expected to raise about $19.4 billion over 30 years, 40% of it for rail, with commuter rail to Lake Norman first. Austin voters approved light rail in November 2020; its first phase, now 9.8 miles at an estimated $8.2 billion or more, is due in 2033 and counts on about $4.1 billion in federal money not yet awarded. The airports differ most: CLT handled 53.6 million passengers in 2025 as an American Airlines hub where about 65% connect, against 21,666,852 at Austin-Bergstrom.
Health coverage is where the state line shows. North Carolina expanded Medicaid on 1 December 2023, and from 1 January 2027 most expansion adults face a work requirement of 80 hours a month. Texas is one of the ten states that have not expanded it and had the highest uninsured rate of the fifty states in 2024, 16.7%; the City of Austin's was 13.0%. Charlotte's systems are Atrium Health, whose Carolinas Medical Center is the region's Level I trauma center, with a new Wake Forest medical school campus, and Novant Health. Austin's are Ascension Seton, whose Dell Seton Medical Center is the teaching hospital of UT's Dell Medical School and the region's only adult Level I trauma center, St. David's and Baylor Scott & White. Charlotte's profile puts primary care and specialist waits in weeks; this site found no published wait time for Austin. Both districts are shrinking. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has roughly 140,000 students and fell to its lowest enrollment since 2010-11 in 2025-26. Austin ISD counted 65,951 in fall 2026, down 3,765 in a year, and approved closing or consolidating 10 schools. UNC Charlotte enrolled a record 32,207 in fall 2025 and the University of Texas a record 55,000.
What people underestimate is where each metro's growth is landing. Charlotte's city grew 10.3% from 2020 to 2025, as fast as its metro, and added 20,731 residents in the last year, the largest numeric gain of any US city. Austin's city grew 4.6% while its metro grew 14.8%, and in 2024-25 Travis County lost 6,590 more people to the rest of the country than it gained while Williamson and Hays gained 14,764 and 7,545. Austin's domestic movers are settling in the counties around it, and its $9,019 is the bill for an address inside the City of Austin and Austin ISD. A house in another county or school district pays a different stack, and outside the full-purpose limits many subdivisions add a municipal utility district tax, on newer streets a large share of the whole bill. Neither seller's bill is a guide. Texas lets a homestead's taxable value rise no more than 10% a year and drops the cap on a sale, so a buyer is taxed on full value from the first year and must apply for the exemptions. Mecklenburg revalues on 1 January 2027 from assessments the state measured at 88.78% of sale prices, so Charlotte's $3,010 has further to move too.
Better here
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,644 a month on the July 2026 median, roughly 37% of the city's 2024 median household income, and about $2,727 at September's 7.03%, against $4,041 and 54% in Austin.
- Property tax on the median is about $3,010 a year for fiscal 2027, 0.70% of price, against $9,019 and an effective 1.61% on Austin's median for the 2025 tax year.
- The LYNX Blue Line already runs 19 miles of light rail, where Austin's first 9.8 miles are due in 2033, and the 1 cent sales tax collected since July 2026 is expected to raise about $19.4 billion over 30 years.
- CLT handled 53.6 million passengers in 2025 as an American Airlines hub, against 21,666,852 at Austin-Bergstrom.
- North Carolina expanded Medicaid in December 2023, where Texas has not and had the highest uninsured rate of the fifty states in 2024, 16.7%.
- July averages 26.7 C on the 1991-2020 normals against 29.9 C in Austin, where the same normals count 28.7 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C).
Worse here
- There were 96 homicides in 2025, about 10 per 100,000, against 51 and about 5.1 in Austin, in cities of about a million people each.
- Violent crime ran about 607 per 100,000 and property crime about 3,639 in 2025, against 421 and 3,093 in Austin, though CMPD's patch includes unincorporated Mecklenburg.
- A single filer on $100,000 pays about $17,158 in income tax for 2025, $3,709 of it to North Carolina, against $13,449 of federal tax alone in Austin.
- Average weekly wages were $1,515 in the fourth quarter of 2025, below the national $1,569, against $1,957 in Austin in the first quarter of 2026.
- Only 2.3% of workers commuted by transit in 2024, and CATS carried about 15.7 million trips that year, roughly 65% of 2019, against CapMetro's 26,283,400 in 2025.
- January averages 5.6 C with 8.9 cm of snow a year on the 1991-2020 normals and the occasional ice storm that closes the city, against 11.2 C and 0.5 cm in Austin.
Choose Charlotte if
- you work in banking or corporate finance and want 128,500 financial jobs inside one metro
- you want to own a house on a median income, at about 37% of it a month rather than about 54%
- you fly often enough that a hub handling 53.6 million passengers in 2025 changes how you travel
- you may need Medicaid, or work in a job with thin health coverage
The Charlotte guide · Neighborhoods · Charlotte rent vs buy · Charlotte mortgage calculator
Better here
- There were 51 homicides in 2025, about 5.1 per 100,000, against 96 and about 10 in Charlotte.
- Violent crime was 421 per 100,000 and property crime 3,093 in 2025 on the FBI's counts, against about 607 and 3,639 in Charlotte.
- Texas levies no income tax, so $100,000 pays $13,449 in federal tax for 2025 and $13,170 for 2026, against about $17,158 in Charlotte for 2025.
- Average weekly wages in the metro were $1,957 in the first quarter of 2026, against $1,654 nationally and Charlotte's $1,515 at the end of 2025.
- January averages 11.2 C with 0.5 cm of snow a year on the 1991-2020 normals, against 5.6 C and 8.9 cm in Charlotte.
- 3.0% of workers commuted by transit and 4.1% walked or cycled in 2024, against 2.3% and 2.4% in Charlotte, and CapMetro carried 26,283,400 trips in 2025.
Worse here
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $4,041 a month on the August 2026 median, roughly 54% of the city's 2024 median household income, against about $2,644 and 37% in Charlotte.
- Property tax on the median house is $9,019 a year for the 2025 tax year with a homestead, an effective 1.61%, and $11,460 without one, against about $3,010 and 0.70% in Charlotte.
- Texas had the highest uninsured rate of the fifty states in 2024, 16.7%, and in August 2026 was one of ten states that have not expanded Medicaid.
- July averages 29.9 C, the second-warmest July mean of the fourteen cities this site compares, behind Dallas, and 2023 had 80 days at or above 100F (37.8 C).
- Light rail's first 9.8 miles are not due to carry passengers until 2033 and count on about $4.1 billion in federal money not yet awarded, while Charlotte's Blue Line already runs 19 miles.
- Home insurance is budgeted at $300 a month against $180 in Charlotte, and the Texas Department of Insurance's statewide average premium is $3,489 a year.
Choose Austin if
- you work in technology, chip making, state government or the University of Texas and want pay above the national average
- you rent, or earn more than about $154,000, the point where no state income tax outweighs the extra property tax on the median house
- you want the lower crime rates, with 51 homicides in 2025 against 96
- you want an 11.2 C January and can plan a summer around days at 100F
The Austin guide · Neighborhoods · Austin rent vs buy · Austin mortgage calculator
Charlotte or Austin, in short
Is Charlotte or Austin cheaper to live in?
Charlotte, to own, by a wide margin. Both cities price in US dollars, so the figures net directly. Charlotte's median sale price was $430,000 in July 2026 and Austin's $560,000 in August, 5.0 and about 6.2 times each city's median household income. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,644 a month in Charlotte and $4,041 in Austin, roughly 37% and 54% of local median income. Part of the $1,397 gap is timing: Charlotte's payment uses August's 6.67% rate and Austin's September's 7.03%, and at the same rate Charlotte's would be about $2,727. The rest is price and property tax, $9,019 a year in Austin against $3,010. Renting is close on the same RentCafe series for August 2026: a one-bedroom averaged $1,421 in Austin and $1,470 in Charlotte, a two-bedroom $1,812 and $1,781. Sales tax is 8.25% in both, and Charlotte adds North Carolina's income tax, $3,709 on $100,000 for 2025.
Is Charlotte or Austin safer?
Austin, on every count published here, in two cities of about a million people each. Austin recorded 51 homicides in 2025, about 5.1 per 100,000, against 96 in Charlotte, about 10, though APD's assistant chief put Austin's year at 55. Violent offenses ran 421 per 100,000 in Austin against about 607 in Charlotte, and property offenses 3,093 against about 3,639. Both improved in 2025, violent crime falling 10% in Austin and 21% in Charlotte. The figures are built differently: Charlotte's are CMPD's own counts on UCR summary definitions over a patch that includes unincorporated Mecklenburg, which pushes its rates up a little, and Austin's are the FBI's summarized counts, read on 27 September 2026 and still open to revision. Both are divided by Census estimates rather than published as rates.
Which has the better job market, Charlotte or Austin?
They are the same size and equally tight, and Austin's pays more. Unemployment was 3.7% in both metros, seasonally adjusted, Charlotte's in June 2026 and Austin's in July, with 1,413,000 nonfarm jobs growing 1.6% in Charlotte and 1,421,700 growing 1.7% in Austin. Charlotte's are concentrated in banking, 128,500 in financial activities around Bank of America, Truist and Wells Fargo. Austin's largest sector is professional and business services at 294,600, with technology and chip making, the state government and the University of Texas behind it, and information jobs fell 4.9% on the year. Average weekly wages were $1,957 in Austin in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally, and $1,515 in Charlotte in the fourth quarter of 2025 against $1,569. City median household incomes were $90,430 and $86,416 in 2024.
Does Texas having no income tax make Austin cheaper than Charlotte?
For a renter, yes; for an owner at the median, not until income is high. A single filer on $100,000 pays about $17,158 in Charlotte for 2025, $3,709 of it to North Carolina, against $13,449 in federal tax alone in Austin, and North Carolina's flat rate falls from 4.25% to 3.99% for 2026. Texas collects through property instead. Austin's five taxing units take $9,019 a year on the median house with a homestead, an effective 1.61%, against about $3,010 on Charlotte's median, 0.70%, a difference of $6,009 a year. On those two medians a single filer would need about $154,000 of income before North Carolina's 4.25% took as much. Sales tax is 8.25% in both, so it does not tip the balance. Both property tax bills are set to move: Mecklenburg revalues on 1 January 2027, and a Texas buyer loses the seller's homestead cap on the sale.
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.
- Population Growth Holds Steady in Midsized Cities Amid Widespread Slowdown (Vintage 2025 city and town estimates) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth
- 2020 Census, North Carolina: Total Population by Municipality (PL 94-171) · North Carolina General Assembly · retrieved Supports: Five-year growth
- Resident Population in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC (MSA) (CGRPOP) · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (Census Bureau data) · retrieved Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth
- CMPD End of Year Report: Violent, Property and Overall Crime Decrease · Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- NOAA 1991-2020 US Climate Normals, station USW00013881 Charlotte Douglas International Airport (NCEI data service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, January 42.1F, July 80.1F and August 78.6F from the monthly series, and annual mean 61.4F, precipitation 43.60 in and snowfall 3.5 in from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours
- Charlotte, NC profile (ACS 2024 1-year), tables B19013 and B08301 · Census Reporter (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- Unemployment Rate in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC (MSA) (CHAR737UR) · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS LAUS) · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Charlotte, NC-SC, Area Economic Summary · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate, Main sectors, Labour market
- Important Notice: Mecklenburg County Sales and Use Tax Increase · North Carolina Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Tax Rate Schedules · North Carolina Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- North Carolina Standard Deduction or North Carolina Itemized Deductions · North Carolina Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Income tax on $100,000
- 2025 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- CATS sees ridership grow by 11% in last year · WFAE · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- In a historic vote, Mecklenburg transit and transportation sales tax wins approval · WFAE · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Sales tax
- Rapid Response Special Report: Charlotte Area Transit System · North Carolina Office of the State Auditor · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Crime trend
- CLT Welcomes 53.6 Million Passengers in 2025, Second Busiest Year on Record · Charlotte Douglas International Airport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- UNC Charlotte's enrollment surge sets another record · UNC Charlotte University Communications · retrieved Supports: Education
- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools enrollment hits lowest since 2010-11 · WSOC-TV · retrieved Supports: Education
- 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
- 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
- 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
- More choice, steady sales define Charlotte's July housing market · Canopy Realtor® Association / Canopy MLS · retrieved Supports: City of Charlotte median sale price of $430,000 in July 2026, down 2.3% year over year, with the year-to-date median also $430,000, Charlotte region median sale price of $410,000, up 1.1% year over year, and Mecklenburg County's $468,500, up 2.0%, City of Charlotte inventory of 3,754 homes, up 15.8%, at 3.7 months of supply against 3.2 a year earlier, City of Charlotte days on market of 40, against 38 a year earlier, Regional medians by type: single-family $420,000, townhome $349,990 and condominium $292,000, all of which are regional rather than city figures
- Charlotte, NC average rent and rent trends, August 2026 · RentCafe / Yardi Matrix · retrieved Supports: Average Charlotte apartment rent of $1,672 across 949 sq ft, down 0.92% year over year, Average rents of $1,377 studio, $1,470 one-bedroom, $1,781 two-bedroom and $2,117 three-bedroom
- Charlotte multifamily market insights, 2026 · Northmarq · retrieved Supports: Charlotte apartment vacancy of 6.2%, Approximately 18,000 units under construction, a 6.2% expansion of inventory, More than half of Charlotte apartment properties offering concessions, Eleven consecutive quarters of year-over-year asking rent declines
- Fiscal Year 2026 Fair Market Rents · US Department of Housing and Urban Development · retrieved Supports: Two-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,847 for the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia NC-SC HUD Metro FMR Area
- Tax rates, fiscal year 2027 · Mecklenburg County Office of the Tax Collector · retrieved Supports: Mecklenburg County rate of 49.27 cents per $100 of assessed value, unchanged for FY2027, City of Charlotte rate of 29.30 cents per $100, applied on top of the county rate inside the city
- Board of County Commissioners adopts $2.6 billion operating budget for FY2027 · Mecklenburg County · retrieved Supports: The county property tax rate holds at 49.27 cents per $100 for FY2027
- Charlotte City Council adopts the FY2027 budget · WCNC Charlotte · retrieved Supports: City property tax rate rising 1.89 cents from 27.41 to 29.30 cents per $100, adopted 8 June 2026, The increase is dedicated to police and fire pay and raises about $85 million
- Sales assessment ratio studies as of January 1, 2025 · North Carolina Department of Revenue, Local Government Division · retrieved Supports: Mecklenburg County last revalued in 2023, A certified median sales assessment ratio of 88.78%: assessed values are 88.78% of sale prices, An effective county tax rate of 0.4374% against a nominal 0.4927%, computed as rate × assessment level, A coefficient of dispersion of 9.63, among the lowest in the state
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 13 August 2026 · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.67%, against 6.58% a year earlier
- Commissioner Causey negotiates settlement on Rate Bureau's homeowners' insurance request · North Carolina Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: Statewide average base rate increases of 7.5% on 1 June 2025 and 7.5% on 1 June 2026, Charlotte territory increases of 9.3% and 9.2%, No further rate filing before June 2027
- Conforming loan limit values for 2026 · Federal Housing Finance Agency · retrieved Supports: Baseline one-unit conforming loan limit of $832,750 for 2026, which is the limit in Mecklenburg County
- 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
- 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
- Annual estimates of the resident population for incorporated places, 2020 to 2025 · United States Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program · retrieved Supports: A population of 1,002,632 for Austin on 1 July 2025, against 961,855 at the 2020 census
- 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