City comparison · 1,792 km apart

Miami vs Austin: which should you move to?

Miami 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.

The city from the water
Florida · United States

Miami

Photograph: The city from the water · P. Hughes · CC BY 4.0 · source
Downtown across Lady Bird Lake
Texas · United States

Austin

Photograph: Downtown across Lady Bird Lake · Hensbread · CC BY 4.0 · source
The short answer

Both cities price in US dollars and neither state taxes income, so the figures net directly and the tax story is the house. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $4,404 a month on Miami's typical home and about $4,041 on Austin's median sale price, and the $363 gap would be about $475 with Miami's payment priced at Austin's September rate of 7.03% rather than August's 6.67%. Against local pay they are far apart, roughly 80% of the City of Miami's median household income against 54% of Austin's. Austin's labor market is growing faster, 1.7% more jobs on the year against 0.7%, though Miami-Dade's unemployment rate is lower. Crime is close on the FBI's own counts: homicide rates are level at about 5 per 100,000, and Miami's violent and property rates are lower. Choose Miami for a 20.3 C January, a car-light life along Metrorail and a gateway airport. Choose Austin for incomes that carry the house, technology work and insurance at $300 a month rather than $505 before flood.

Population
MeasureMiamiAustinAdvantage
City population489,812 (2025)1,002,632 (2025)Not directly comparable
Metro population6,391,072 (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.
10.8% (2020-2025)4.6% (2020-2025)Not directly comparable
01: Housing

What a home costs in each

The figures the two cities' rent-versus-buy and mortgage calculators run on, read from the same tables.

Housing costs
MeasureMiamiAustinAdvantage
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.
$582,621 (June 2026)$560,000 (August 2026)Austin
Detached house benchmark
Miami publishes a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat.
$582,621$527,943Austin
Apartment or condominium benchmarkNot published$355,596Not directly comparable
Two-bedroom rent$3,004/mo (median, June 2026)$1,812/mo (average, August 2026)Austin
One-bedroom rent$2,583/mo$1,421/moAustin
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.
54.3% of a year's income24.0% of a year's incomeAustin
Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down
30-year amortization on American monthly compounding, the convention in both.
$2,998/mo at 6.67%$2,990/mo at 7.03%Austin
Price to household income
Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not.
8.8×6.2×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.
$10,808/yr (1.855%, 2025)$9,022/yr (1.611%, 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.
$3,496 (seller pays)NoneAustin
Rent control
A cap protects a sitting tenant and does nothing for the next lease, so neither column is simply better.
Forbidden by state lawForbidden by state lawNot directly comparable

Miami: About 1.86% of what you pay for the house, which is lower than the 19.9878 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 19.9878. 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 $10,808 on the $582,621 typical home value here. Miami 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. 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%.

02: Crime and safety

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.

Crime
MeasureMiamiAustinAdvantage
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 publishedNot publishedNot directly comparable
Violent crime per 100,000359 (2025)421 (2025)Miami
Property crime per 100,0002,241 (2025)3,093 (2025)Miami
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.
26 (2025)51 (2025)Not directly comparable
Miami

FBI CDE counts for Miami PD show violent offenses falling from 2,245 in 2023 to 2,225 in 2024 and 1,787 in 2025 (a 20 percent one-year drop), property offenses from 13,928 to 11,178, and homicides from 61 in 2020 to 26 in 2025. Mid-2025 the department reported robberies down 17 percent and auto thefts down 37 percent against the first half of 2024.

What the rates cover: Miami Police Department (ORI FL0130600), FBI Crime Data Explorer NIBRS summarized data, 1,787 violent offenses in calendar 2025 against a CDE agency population of 498,792. 2024: 2,225 offenses, 483.1 per 100k. Miami PD moved to NIBRS mid 2022, so 2021 is blank and 2022 is a partial year in the CDE.

Homicides: Miami PD, FBI CDE: 26 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025, 5.2 per 100k. 2024: 29 (6.4 per 100k), 2023: 32 (7.1), 2020: 61 (12.8). Miami PD said in July 2025 the city might beat its record low of 24 set in 1946.

Austin

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.

03: Climate

Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house

Climate normals
MeasureMiamiAustinAdvantage
January mean20.3 °C11.2 °CNot directly comparable
July mean28.9 °C29.9 °CNot directly comparable
Precipitation a year1,712 mm921 mmNot directly comparable
Snowfall a year0 cm1 cmNot directly comparable
Sunshine a year3,154 hours2,644 hoursMiami
Miami

NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals at Miami International Airport (USW00012839): January mean 68.6 F, July 84.1 F (August is warmest at 84.2 F), annual mean 77.4 F, annual precipitation 67.41 in, snow 0. Sunshine about 3,154 hours a year comes from NOAA Comparative Climatic Data (older period), not the 1991-2020 normals. Hazards: hurricanes and storm surge, seasonal king tide and rainfall flooding, heat and humidity from May to October, frequent thunderstorms (roughly 80 thunder days a year).

Hazards: Hurricanes and storm surge every June to November, with chronic tidal and rain flooding; windstorm and separate NFIP or private flood cover are a real carrying cost and coastal home premiums commonly run $4,000 to $7,000 a year or more.

Austin

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.

04: Income, jobs and taxes

What people earn and what the government takes

Income and taxes
MeasureMiamiAustinAdvantage
Median household income$66,337 USD (2024)$90,430 USD (2024)Austin
Unemployment rate3.0% (June 2026)3.7% (July 2026)Miami
Sales tax7%8.25%Miami
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 USDEven
Miami

Nonfarm employment in the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall metropolitan division was 1,351,000 in June 2026, up 8,800 (0.7 percent) over the year, led by education and health services (+6,100) and professional and business services (+4,800); Broward shed 5,000 jobs over the same period. MIA handled nearly 3.5 million tons of cargo in 2025, the most of any US airport.

Main sectors: Trade, transportation and logistics (port and airport), Tourism and hospitality, Finance and professional services, Health care and education, Real estate and construction.

No state or local income tax. Property tax and insurance are the taxes and costs that bite in Miami: homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes 3 percent assessment cap favour long-time owners over new buyers.

Austin

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.

05: Getting around

Whether you need a car

Transit
MeasureMiamiAustinAdvantage
SystemMiami-Dade Transit (Metrorail, Metromover, Metrobus); Brightline and Tri-Rail regional railCapMetro 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 2033Not directly comparable
Commute by public transit7.7% (2024)3.0% (2024)Miami
Walk or cycle to work5.7% (2024)4.1% (2024)Miami
AirportMiami International Airport, MIA, 55.3 million passengers in 2025 (about 1 percent below 2024's record 55.9 million), per Miami-Dade Aviation Department release of May 4 2026Austin-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
Miami

Miami-Dade Transit carried 80,797,500 unlinked trips in 2025 (APTA ridership report, as cited on Wikipedia): Metrorail 14,971,300, Metromover 7,683,800, the rest on Metrobus. Q4 2025 weekday averages: Metrorail 50,300, Metromover 25,600, system 259,400.

Austin

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.

06: Daily life

Health care, schools and what each city is like

Miami

Health care

Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, and Florida has not expanded Medicaid, so the uninsured share runs above the national rate and emergency rooms carry the gap. Jackson Memorial, the public safety-net hospital with more than 1,500 licensed beds, is the teaching hospital of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; Baptist Health South Florida, Mount Sinai Medical Center and the Miami VA are the other large systems.

Education

Miami-Dade County Public Schools is the third largest district in the country but enrolled 313,220 students in 2025-26, down about 13,000 in a year as charters and vouchers grew, and the board approved school closures and consolidations in 2026. Florida International University enrolls roughly 50,000 students and the private University of Miami about 20,000; magnet programs such as Design and Architecture Senior High and the choice-heavy system mean school assignment is something families actively manage.

Living there

The city proper is dense, young and majority Hispanic, with Spanish as common as English in daily business, and it has grown almost 11 percent since 2020 on finance and tech arrivals who pushed rents and condo prices up fast. Summers are long, wet and hot, winters are the reason people stay, and every household budgets for hurricane season, windstorm insurance and flooded streets at king tide. Driving is the default outside the Metrorail and Metromover corridors, and traffic is the complaint residents raise most.

Austin

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.

07: The trade-offs

Where each city wins, and where it loses

Both cities price in US dollars, so the figures net directly, though the two prices are different instruments. Miami's is Zillow's typical home value for the city, $582,621 in June 2026, down 0.7%; Austin's is the Unlock MLS median of what sold, $560,000 in August, down 4.3%. Against local pay they are far apart: 8.8 times the City of Miami's 2024 median household income of $66,337, and about 6.2 times Austin's $90,430. At 20% down, Miami's $466,097 loan at 6.67%, Freddie Mac's August rate, costs $2,998 a month, and Austin's $448,000 loan at 7.03%, the rate for 24 September, about $2,990. A homesteaded buyer's first-year property tax is about $10,808 in Miami, 1.86% of price, against $9,019 in Austin, 1.61%, and insurance is budgeted at $505 a month against $300, Miami's excluding flood. The three lines come to about $4,404 and $4,041, roughly 80% and 54% of local median income, and Miami's would be about $4,516 at September's rate. Renting shows the income gap more plainly: a median two-bedroom was $3,004 in Miami in June 2026 and an average one $1,812 in Austin in August. Neither state allows rent control.

This is one of the pairs where the definitions match, since both cities' figures are the FBI's Crime Data Explorer counts. Miami Police submitted 1,787 violent offenses for 2025, 358.6 per 100,000 on the FBI's agency population of 498,792, and 11,178 property offenses, 2,240.8. Austin's 4,221 violent offenses are 421 per 100,000 on the Census estimate, or 422 on the FBI's own population, and its 31,011 property offenses 3,093. Homicide is level: 26 in Miami, 5.2 per 100,000, and 51 in Austin, about 5.1, in a city about twice the size, though APD's assistant chief put Austin's year at 55 and nothing published explains the difference. Both are falling. Miami's violent offenses dropped 20% in 2025, from 2,225, and its homicides have come down from 61 in 2020; Austin's violent offenses dropped 10% in 2025, and its homicides from 81 in 2021. Miami's police reported auto thefts down 37% in the first half of 2025, and APD's own records show motor vehicle thefts down 26% over the year. Miami's department moved to the FBI's incident-based system in mid-2022, so its series before 2023 is incomplete, and the Austin counts were read on 27 September 2026 and can still be revised.

Miami has the warm winter and Austin the hotter summer. January averages 20.3 C at Miami International against 11.2 C at Camp Mabry, but July averages 29.9 C in Austin, the second-warmest July mean of the fourteen cities this site compares, behind Dallas, against 28.9 C in Miami. Austin's normals count 28.7 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C), and 2023 had 80; Miami's heat is humid from May to October, with roughly 80 thunder days a year. Miami gets 1,712 mm of rain and no snow, Austin 921 mm and 0.5 cm, and Miami records about 3,154 hours of sun against 2,644, both on older series. The hazards differ in kind. Miami's are hurricanes and storm surge every June to November, with chronic tidal and rain flooding, which is why coastal home premiums commonly run $4,000 to $7,000 a year or more. Austin's are flash floods on its creeks, as in July 2025, when the Central Texas floods killed 139 people; drought on the Highland Lakes; and the rare hard freeze, as in February 2021, when Winter Storm Uri left 6.4 in (16.3 cm) of snow and ERCOT cut power across the state grid.

Austin's labor market is growing faster and Miami-Dade's is tighter. Miami-Dade County's unemployment rate was 3.0% in June 2026, not seasonally adjusted; on the same basis Travis County's was 3.9% and the Austin metro's 4.0% in July, and the metro's seasonally adjusted rate 3.7%. Growth runs the other way: the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall division had 1,351,000 nonfarm jobs in June, up 0.7%, and the Austin metro 1,421,700 in July, up 1.7%. Miami's work leans on the port, the airport, tourism, finance and health care; Austin's on professional and business services, technology and chip making, state government and the University of Texas. Median household income was $66,337 in the City of Miami in 2024 and $90,430 in Austin, and $80,625 and $99,897 across the metros. Neither state taxes income, so a single filer on $100,000 pays the same $13,449 in federal tax for 2025 in both. Sales tax is 7% in Miami-Dade against 8.25%. The difference is the house: with insurance at $505 and $300 a month, property tax and cover on the typical home come to about $16,868 a year in Miami and $12,622 in Austin.

Miami is the one of the two where a household can reasonably drop a car, and only along its corridors. In 2024, 7.7% of City of Miami workers commuted by transit and 5.7% walked or cycled, against 3.0% and 4.1% in Austin, where 57.5% drove alone. Miami-Dade Transit carried 80,797,500 trips in 2025, 14,971,300 of them on Metrorail and 7,683,800 on the fare-free Metromover, and Brightline and Tri-Rail run regional trains. CapMetro carried 26,283,400, 620,600 of them on the Red Line, a 32-mile commuter rail line from Leander to downtown. The metro shares are closer, 2.6% in greater Miami and 1.4% around Austin, and outside the Metrorail and Metromover corridors Miami drives, with traffic the complaint residents raise most. Austin voters approved light rail in November 2020; its first phase, now 9.8 miles and 15 stations at an estimated $8.2 billion or more, is due in 2033 and counts on about $4.1 billion in federal money that has not been awarded. The airports are far apart: MIA handled 55.3 million passengers in 2025 and is the direct gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean, against 21,666,852 at Austin-Bergstrom.

Neither state has expanded Medicaid, so coverage in both runs through an employer or marketplace plan, Medicare or Medicaid. Texas had the highest uninsured rate of the fifty states in 2024, 16.7%, and the City of Austin's was 13.0%; Miami's profile says only that the uninsured share there runs above the national rate, which was 8.2% in 2024. Miami's anchor is Jackson Memorial, the public safety-net hospital with more than 1,500 licensed beds and the teaching hospital of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, alongside Baptist Health, Mount Sinai and the Miami VA. Austin's 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 St. David's and Baylor Scott & White. This site found no published wait time for either city. Both school districts are shrinking and closing schools. Miami-Dade County Public Schools enrolled 313,220 in 2025-26, down about 13,000 as charters and vouchers grew, and approved closures in 2026. Austin ISD counted 65,951 in fall 2026, down 3,765, and approved closing or consolidating 10 schools. FIU enrolls roughly 50,000 students and the University of Miami about 20,000; the University of Texas enrolled a record 55,000 in fall 2025.

What people underestimate is that the two property taxes are the same size on paper and part only at the homestead. The City of Miami levies 19.9878 mills, about 2.0% of value, and Austin's five taxing units $2.046485 per $100, about 2.05%. Florida takes $25,000 off the value for every levy and a second slice off all but the school district's; Texas takes $140,000 off the school district's and 20% off three of the other four. That accounts for the gap between 1.86% and 1.61%, and because the Texas school exemption is a flat amount, Austin's effective rate falls as the price falls. Both states cap a homestead's taxable value, Florida at 3% a year and Texas at 10%, and both caps end with a sale, so the seller's bill is no guide in either city and the exemption has to be filed. Each figure also describes one jurisdiction. The City of Miami holds 489,812 people in a metro of 6,391,072 and is one of five Miami-Dade municipalities that pay no county fire district levy, and barrier-island insurance is budgeted at $800 a month. Austin's $9,019 holds only inside the City and Austin ISD, and outside the full-purpose limits many subdivisions add a municipal utility district tax.

Miami

Better here

  • January averages 20.3 C with no snow on the 1991-2020 normals, against 11.2 C in Austin, where Winter Storm Uri brought 7F (-13.9 C) in February 2021.
  • In 2024, 7.7% of city workers commuted by transit and 5.7% walked or cycled, against 3.0% and 4.1% in Austin, on a system that carried 80,797,500 trips in 2025.
  • MIA handled 55.3 million passengers in 2025 against 21,666,852 at Austin-Bergstrom, and moved nearly 3.5 million tons of cargo, the most of any US airport.
  • Violent crime was 358.6 per 100,000 and property crime 2,240.8 in 2025 on the FBI's counts, against 421 and 3,093 in Austin.
  • Miami-Dade's unemployment rate was 3.0% in June 2026, not seasonally adjusted, against 4.0% for the Austin metro in July on the same basis.
  • Sales tax is 7% in 2026 against 8.25% in Austin, and the county's 1% surtax applies only to the first $5,000 of a single item.

Worse here

  • Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $4,404 a month on the June 2026 typical home, roughly 80% of the city's 2024 median household income, against $4,041 and 54% in Austin.
  • A homesteaded buyer's first-year property tax is about $10,808, 1.86% of price, against $9,019 and 1.61% in Austin for the 2025 tax year.
  • Insurance is budgeted at $505 a month against $300 in Austin and excludes flood, and coastal home premiums commonly run $4,000 to $7,000 a year or more.
  • City median household income was $66,337 in 2024 against $90,430 in Austin, and the typical home is 8.8 times it against about 6.2.
  • A median two-bedroom rented for $3,004 in June 2026 against a $1,812 average in Austin in August, and condominium fees are estimated at $850 a month against $350.
  • Nonfarm jobs in the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall division grew 0.7% in the year to June 2026, against 1.7% in the Austin metro in the year to July.

Choose Miami if

  • you want a January at 20.3 C and will pay windstorm and flood premiums to get it
  • you can live along the Metrorail or Metromover and run the household on one car or none
  • your work is tied to Latin American trade, the port or the airport
  • you want a city where Spanish is as common as English in daily business

The Miami guide · Neighborhoods · Miami rent vs buy · Miami mortgage calculator

Austin

Better 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 $4,404 and 80% in Miami.
  • Median household income was $90,430 in the city and $99,897 in the metro in 2024, against $66,337 and $80,625 in Miami.
  • Nonfarm jobs grew 1.7% to 1,421,700 in the year to July 2026, against 0.7% in the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall division.
  • Home insurance is budgeted at $300 a month against $505 in Miami, and the Texas Department of Insurance's statewide average premium is $3,489 a year.
  • Texas's homestead exemptions bring the owner-occupier's effective property tax on the median to 1.61% for 2025, $9,019 a year, against 1.86% and $10,808 in Miami.
  • A two-bedroom averaged $1,812 in August 2026 against a $3,004 median in Miami in June, and a one-bedroom $1,421 against $2,583.

Worse here

  • Violent crime was 421 per 100,000 and property crime 3,093 in 2025 on the FBI's counts, against 358.6 and 2,240.8 in Miami.
  • July averages 29.9 C, a degree above Miami's 28.9 C and 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).
  • Only 3.0% of workers commuted by transit in 2024 and 57.5% drove alone, and light rail's first 9.8 miles are not due to carry passengers until 2033.
  • Austin-Bergstrom handled 21,666,852 passengers in 2025, against 55.3 million at MIA.
  • Texas had the highest uninsured rate of the fifty states in 2024, 16.7%, and the City of Austin's was 13.0%.
  • In February 2021 Winter Storm Uri left more than 40% of Austin Energy's customers without power and the city under a boil-water notice for seven days.

Choose Austin if

  • you work in technology, chip making, state government or the University of Texas
  • you want a house that costs about half of local median income to hold rather than four-fifths
  • you rent, and would pay about $1,812 for a two-bedroom rather than $3,004
  • you will drive to most things and would trade a hurricane season for a summer of 100F days

The Austin guide · Neighborhoods · Austin rent vs buy · Austin mortgage calculator

08: Questions people ask

Miami or Austin, in short

Is Miami or Austin cheaper to live in?

Austin, and by more against pay than on price. Both cities price in US dollars, so the figures net directly. Miami's typical home was $582,621 in June 2026 and Austin's median sale price $560,000 in August, but Miami's is 8.8 times its city's median household income and Austin's about 6.2. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $4,404 a month in Miami and $4,041 in Austin, roughly 80% and 54% of local median income, and Miami's figure uses August's 6.67% rate against Austin's 7.03%; at the same rate it would be about $4,516. Property tax is about $10,808 against $9,019 a year and insurance $505 against $300 a month. Renting is where the gap shows most: a median two-bedroom was $3,004 in Miami and an average one $1,812 in Austin. Neither state taxes income, and sales tax is 7% in Miami-Dade against 8.25% in Austin.

Is Miami or Austin safer?

They are close, and this is one of the pairs where the definitions match, since both cities' figures come from the FBI's Crime Data Explorer. Miami recorded 358.6 violent offenses per 100,000 in 2025 and Austin 421; property offenses were 2,240.8 against 3,093. Homicide is level: 26 in Miami, 5.2 per 100,000, and 51 in Austin, about 5.1, though APD's assistant chief put Austin's year at 55. Both fell in 2025, violent offenses by 20% in Miami and 10% in Austin. Miami's rates use the FBI's agency population and Austin's the Census estimate, a difference of one point on Austin's violent rate. Miami's department moved to the FBI's incident-based system in mid-2022, and the Austin counts, read on 27 September 2026, can still be revised.

Which has the better climate, Miami or Austin?

Miami in winter, and in summer Austin is the hotter of the two. January averages 20.3 C in Miami with no snow in the normals, and 11.2 C in Austin, where Winter Storm Uri brought 7F (-13.9 C) in February 2021 and ERCOT cut power across the state grid. July averages 29.9 C in Austin, the second-warmest July mean of the fourteen cities this site compares, behind Dallas, against 28.9 C in Miami, which is the wetter city, with 1,712 mm of rain a year against 921 and roughly 80 thunder days. The hazards differ in kind. Miami faces hurricanes, storm surge and chronic tidal and rain flooding from June to November, and coastal home premiums commonly run $4,000 to $7,000 a year or more. Austin's are flash floods on its creeks, as in July 2025, drought on the Highland Lakes and 28.7 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C) in a normal year.

With no income tax in either state, which has the lower tax bill?

Austin, on the house, and it is the only large difference. A single filer on $100,000 pays the same $13,449 in federal tax for 2025 in both cities, and nothing to either state. Sales tax favors Miami, 7% against 8.25%. Property tax favors Austin, though the nominal rates are almost the same: 19.9878 mills in the City of Miami, about 2.0% of value, and $2.046485 per $100 in Austin, about 2.05%. Texas's homestead exemptions are the larger, $140,000 off the school levy and 20% off three others against Florida's $25,000 and a second slice, so a homesteaded buyer pays about $10,808 in Miami's first year, 1.86%, and $9,019 in Austin, 1.61%. With insurance at $505 and $300 a month, the two lines come to about $16,868 a year in Miami and $12,622 in Austin. Both states cap a homestead's taxable value, at 3% and 10% a year, and both caps end on a sale.

Sources

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.

  1. Miami, FL Population (2025) · Every City in the USA (republishing Census Bureau PEP Vintage 2025) · retrieved
    Supports: City population, Five-year growth
  2. U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Miami city, Florida · US Census Bureau · retrieved
    Supports: population.city (page returned 403 on fetch; figure confirmed via search snippet and secondary republisher)
  3. Largest U.S. Metro Areas by Population 2026 (Vintage 2025 estimates) · statranker.org · retrieved
    Supports: Metro population
  4. Florida MSA population estimates, April 1 2025 · Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research · retrieved
    Supports: population.metro (alternative state estimate)
  5. Miami, FL Metro Area and Miami city profiles, ACS 2024 1-year · Census Reporter · retrieved
    Supports: Median household income, population.metro (ACS)
  6. ACS 2024 1-year table B08301 Means of Transportation to Work · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau data) · retrieved
    Supports: Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
  7. Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Miami Police Department (FL0130600) · FBI · retrieved
    Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
  8. Miami Police Report 20% Decrease in Homicides for 1st Half of 2025 · Officer.com · retrieved
    Supports: Crime trend, Homicides
  9. U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly and annual, station USW00012839 Miami International Airport · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall
  10. Comparative Climatic Data · NOAA NCEI · retrieved
    Supports: climate.sunshineHours (approximate; figure taken from search summaries of CCD, not the table itself)
  11. Climate of Miami · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: climate.hazards (thunderstorm days, hurricane exposure)
  12. Broward County June 2026 Unemployment Data · CareerSource Broward (FloridaCommerce data) · retrieved
    Supports: Unemployment rate, Labour market
  13. Discretionary Sales Surtax Information (DR-15DSS) 2026 · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved
    Supports: Sales tax
  14. IRS releases tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2025 · Internal Revenue Service · retrieved
    Supports: Top marginal income tax, taxes.incomeTaxAt100k (brackets)
  15. FAQ: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act Tax Changes · Tax Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: taxes.incomeTaxAt100k ($15,750 standard deduction)
  16. Miami-Dade Transit · Wikipedia (citing APTA Ridership Report) · retrieved
    Supports: Transit ridership
  17. Soaring cargo growth lifts MIA to #1 in the U.S., #3 in the world · Miami International Airport · retrieved
    Supports: Airport passengers, Labour market
  18. Miami (MIA) Airport & Passenger Statistics · RoadGenius · retrieved
    Supports: transit.airport (2024 comparison)
  19. A Guide to Florida Flood Insurance (2026) · Insurify · retrieved
    Supports: climate.hazards (insurance costs)
  20. Enrollment in Miami-Dade schools is lower at the start of this year. Why? · WLRN · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  21. FIU enrollment approaches 50,000 as fall semester nears · Miami Today · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  22. Jackson Memorial Hospital · Jackson Health System · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  23. 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
  24. 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
  25. 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
  26. 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
  27. Austin's crime dropped below pre-pandemic highs in 2025 · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved
    Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
  28. 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
  29. US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00013904 Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: Climate normals
  30. 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
  31. Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (USW00013904), February 2021 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  32. Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved
    Supports: Sunshine hours
  33. This Holiday Weekend Marks The 40th Anniversary Of Austin's 1981 Memorial Day Flood · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  34. October 30-31, 2013 Halloween Flash Flood Event · National Weather Service, Austin/San Antonio · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  35. Lower Onion Creek Flood Mitigation Buyout Project Gets Kudos from Homeowners · FEMA · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  36. 2015 Memorial Day Weekend Flooding, 23 to 24 May 2015 (Weather Event Summary) · National Weather Service, Austin/San Antonio · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  37. Tornado outbreak and floods of May 23 to 26, 2015 (Wimberley homes destroyed, Shoal Creek on May 25) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  38. National Weather Service releases new report on deadly Central Texas floods · KXAN Austin (via Yahoo News) · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  39. 2021 Winter Storm Uri After-Action Review, Findings Report · City of Austin and Travis County · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  40. February 2021 Winter Storm-Related Deaths, Texas (mortality surveillance report) · Texas Department of State Health Services · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  41. The Timeline and Events of the February 2021 Texas Electric Grid Blackouts · The University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  42. Highland Lakes and Colorado River · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  43. Most LCRA agricultural customers will go without Highland Lakes water in 2024 · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  44. Drought persists in Central Texas, Water Management Plan under review · Community Impact · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  45. Water Supply Operations · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  46. 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
  47. 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
  48. 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
  49. 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
  50. Austin Area Economic Summary · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved
    Supports: Unemployment rate, Main sectors, Labour market
  51. Major Employers · Opportunity Austin (Austin Chamber of Commerce) · retrieved
    Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Health care
  52. City Sales and Use Tax (city rate table) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Sales tax
  53. Transit Sales and Use Tax (Austin MTA, effective July 1, 1985) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Sales tax
  54. Sales and Use Tax · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Sales tax
  55. Texas Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes, Character
  56. 2025 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
  57. 2026 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
  58. Property Tax Exemptions · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Tax notes
  59. Voters OK property tax breaks for Texas homeowners, businesses · The Texas Tribune · retrieved
    Supports: Tax notes
  60. Austin voters reject Proposition Q, a tax rate increase to fund city services · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved
    Supports: Tax notes
  61. CapMetro (citing the APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Character
  62. CapMetro Rail (Red Line: Leander to Downtown, 32 miles, 10 stations) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Transit system
  63. 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
  64. How Austin's Project Connect went off the rails · The Texas Tribune · retrieved
    Supports: Transit ridership, Character
  65. Aviation Activity Report, Calendar Year 2025 vs 2024, Combined Terminals · Austin-Bergstrom International Airport · retrieved
    Supports: Airport passengers
  66. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (annual passenger traffic table and history) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Airport passengers
  67. Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions · KFF · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  68. Dell Seton Medical Center · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  69. Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas · Ascension Seton · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  70. About St. David's HealthCare · St. David's HealthCare · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  71. Building World-Class Health Care in Austin · Michael & Susan Dell Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  72. Austin ISD Board approves 24 state-mandated turnaround plans, school consolidation and programmatic reassignments · Austin Independent School District · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  73. District Demographics · Austin Independent School District · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  74. Austin ISD enrollment dips as transportation costs rise · Austin Current · retrieved
    Supports: Education, Character
  75. Austin ISD loses 3,000 students amid school closures and budget crisis · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved
    Supports: Education, Character
  76. UT Sets All-Time Highs for Enrollment and Student Performance · UT News, The University of Texas at Austin · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  77. Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), all homes, mid-tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted: city file, June 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved
    Supports: A typical home value for the 35th to 65th percentile of each municipality's market, computed on one method across all twenty-four, The same series and month the Charlotte, Orlando and Palm Beach pages use, so all four American layers can be read against each other, Year-over-year change to June 2026
  78. 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
  79. 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
  80. 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
  81. Documentary stamp tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved
    Supports: A Miami-Dade deed rate of 60 cents per $100 rather than the 70 cents charged in every other county, A Miami-Dade surtax of 45 cents per $100, not due on a document transferring only a single-family dwelling, 35 cents per $100 on a promissory note, statewide
  82. 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
  83. 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
  84. Primary Mortgage Market Survey · Freddie Mac · retrieved
    Supports: 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.67%
  85. 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
  86. Property tax exemptions and additional benefits · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved
    Supports: A $25,000 homestead exemption applying to all taxing authorities and a second slice, $25,000 in the 2024 base year and adjusted for inflation each 1 January since, applying to all but the school district, The Save Our Homes assessment limitation of 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower, Portability of up to $500,000 of accrued Save Our Homes benefit to a new homestead, The 1 March filing deadline
  87. 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
  88. 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
  89. 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
  90. 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
  91. 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
  92. 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
  93. 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
  94. 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
  95. 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
  96. 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
  97. 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
  98. 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
  99. 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
  100. 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
  101. 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
  102. 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
  103. 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
  104. 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
  105. 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
  106. 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
  107. 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
  108. 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
  109. 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
  110. 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
  111. 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
  112. 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
  113. 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
  114. 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
  115. 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
  116. 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
  117. 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
  118. 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
  119. 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
  120. 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
  121. Renters insurance in Texas · NerdWallet · retrieved
    Supports: An average Austin renters premium of $136 a year for $30,000 of personal property
  122. 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
  123. 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
  124. 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
  125. 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
  126. 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
  127. 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