City comparison · 1,595 km apart

Orlando vs Austin: which should you move to?

Orlando 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.

Downtown from Lake Eola
Florida · United States

Orlando

Photograph: Downtown from Lake Eola · JER3L1337 · 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 property tax and insurance. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,745 a month on Orlando's typical home and about $4,041 on Austin's median sale price, a $1,296 gap that would be about $1,225 with Orlando's payment at Austin's September rate of 7.03% rather than August's 6.67%. Both property taxes take 1.61% of the price, so the gap is the house, $375,175 against $560,000, and Austin's carry is about 54% of local median household income against 42%. Austin has the tighter labor market, 4.0% metro unemployment in July 2026 against greater Orlando's 4.6% in June on the same unadjusted basis, and one Orlando job in five is in leisure and hospitality. On crime only homicide lines up, since the FBI has no complete Orlando figures after 2022: 10 in Orlando in 2025, about 3.0 per 100,000, against 51 in Austin, about 5.1. Choose Orlando to own for less, for a 15.9 C January and the country's seventh busiest airport. Choose Austin for technology pay, a tighter job market and cheaper one- and two-bedroom rents.

Population
MeasureOrlandoAustinAdvantage
City population333,888 (2025)1,002,632 (2025)Not directly comparable
Metro population2,957,672 (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.
8.3% (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
MeasureOrlandoAustinAdvantage
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.
$375,175 (June 2026)$560,000 (August 2026)Orlando
Detached house benchmark
Orlando publishes a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat.
$375,175$527,943Orlando
Apartment or condominium benchmarkNot published$355,596Not directly comparable
Two-bedroom rent$1,904/mo (median, June 2026)$1,812/mo (average, August 2026)Austin
One-bedroom rent$1,637/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.
29.4% 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.
$1,931/mo at 6.67%$2,990/mo at 7.03%Orlando
Price to household income
Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not.
4.8×6.2×Orlando
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.
$6,043/yr (1.611%, 2025)$9,022/yr (1.611%, 2025)Even
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.
$2,626 (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

Orlando: About 1.61% of what you pay for the house, which is lower than the 18.0878 mills Orlando is taxed at, and the difference is the homestead exemption rather than any assessment lag. Florida assesses at full market value and a purchase resets the assessment to the price, so there is no gap to correct for. 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 Orange County school district, which levies 6.4490 of the 18.0878. 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. So a homesteaded buyer's first-year bill is the school millage on the price less $25,000 plus everything else on the price less $50,000, about $6,043 a year on the $375,175 typical home value here. The exemption is not automatic: you file for it with the county property appraiser by 1 March of the year after you buy, and until you do the rate is the full 1.81%. 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
MeasureOrlandoAustinAdvantage
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 100,000836 (2022)421 (2025)Austin
Property crime per 100,0004,036 (2022)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.
10 (2025)51 (2025)Not directly comparable
Orlando

Orlando PD reports overall crime down 18% in 2024 and another 19% in 2025, violent crime down 10% in 2024 and 9% in 2025, and shootings with victims down 41% from 2023 to 2025. Homicides fell from 31 in 2023 to 10 in 2025. The FBI's public feed has no usable Orlando data after 2022, so these are the department's own figures.

What the rates cover: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Orlando Police Department (ORI FL0480400), 2022: 2,597 violent offenses, 835.8 per 100k. 2022 is the last year with twelve complete months in the FBI feed; 2023 through 2025 show zeros for this agency, so no FBI rate exists for those years. Orlando PD's own count of violent crime incidents (a broader in-house definition) was 6,754 in 2023 and 5,928 in 2025, which would be about 1,775 per 100k on the 2025 population.

Homicides: Orlando Police Department: 10 homicides in 2025, the lowest since 1971, down from 23 in 2024 and 31 in 2023 (OPD's 2023 figure was reported as 38 in a January 2025 release and 31 in the February 2026 release). About 3.0 per 100k on the 2025 city population. FBI CDE 2022: 32 homicides, 10.3 per 100k.

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
MeasureOrlandoAustinAdvantage
January mean15.9 °C11.2 °CNot directly comparable
July mean28.1 °C29.9 °CNot directly comparable
Precipitation a year1,307 mm921 mmNot directly comparable
Snowfall a year0 cm1 cmNot directly comparable
Sunshine a yearNot published2,644 hoursNot directly comparable
Orlando

NOAA 1991-2020 normals at Orlando International Airport (USW00012815): January mean 60.6F, July mean 82.6F, annual precipitation 51.45 in, annual snowfall 0.0 in, annual mean 73.0F. June through September each average 6.4 to 8.1 in of rain. Sunshine hours are not part of the NOAA normals product and were not verified.

Hazards: Hurricanes are the main hazard: Charley (2004), Irma (2017), Ian (2022, 14 in of rain and 74 mph gusts at MCO) and Milton (2024, over 15 in of rain in parts of Central Florida plus a record one-day tornado outbreak) all damaged the area. The city sits about 100 ft above sea level and 42 mi inland, so storm surge is not a concern but inland flooding, wind damage and long power outages are. Summer heat and daily thunderstorms with lightning are routine.

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
MeasureOrlandoAustinAdvantage
Median household income$77,597 USD (2024)$90,430 USD (2024)Austin
Unemployment rate4.6% (June 2026)3.7% (July 2026)Austin
Sales tax6.5%8.25%Orlando
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
Orlando

Leisure and hospitality employed 305,500 of 1,506,600 nonfarm jobs in the MSA in June 2026 (BLS CES, not seasonally adjusted, preliminary), about 20%, roughly double the national share, and those jobs pay below the private-sector average, which is why household income trails the US median despite fast job growth. Disney is the largest employer at about 77,000 in the region; AdventHealth employs about 37,700 and Lockheed Martin more than 14,000.

Main sectors: Tourism and hospitality (Disney, Universal, convention centre), Health care (AdventHealth, Orlando Health), Aerospace, defence and simulation (Lockheed Martin, Central Florida Research Park), Construction and real estate, Professional and business services.

No state or city income tax. Property tax runs around 1% of assessed value with a homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes 3% cap for owner-occupiers; not verified here.

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
MeasureOrlandoAustinAdvantage
SystemLYNX (bus, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties), SunRail (commuter rail, 16 stations DeLand to Poinciana), Brightline (intercity rail from MCO to South Florida)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 2033Not directly comparable
Commute by public transit1.5% (2024)3.0% (2024)Austin
Walk or cycle to work1.7% (2024)4.1% (2024)Austin
AirportOrlando International Airport (MCO), 57,675,573 passengers in 2025, up 0.8% on 2024, seventh busiest in the US (GOAA press release, July 28, 2026).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
Orlando

LYNX carried 21,476,203 passenger trips in FY2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), more than 67,000 per weekday, on 62 routes (LYNX Facts at a Glance). SunRail passed 1.2 million riders in calendar 2024, up 12% on 2023 (SunRail press release, January 2025); APTA puts 2025 at about 1.32 million. SunRail runs weekdays only.

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

Orlando

Health care

Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare and Medicaid; Florida did not expand Medicaid under the ACA, so a larger share of working adults is uninsured than in most states, and hospitality jobs often come with thin coverage. Two large non-profit systems dominate: AdventHealth Orlando (one of the biggest hospitals in the country) and Orlando Health with Orlando Regional Medical Center, the region's Level I trauma centre, plus Nemours Children's Hospital at Lake Nona and the UCF Lake Nona Hospital.

Education

The University of Central Florida enrols about 70,000 students, among the largest campuses in the US, and anchors the Central Florida Research Park; Rollins College in Winter Park and Valencia College (a two-year college with a national Aspen Prize) are the other main institutions. Orange County Public Schools is the eighth largest district in the US with roughly 200,000 students, and Florida's universal school-choice vouchers, charter schools and magnet programmes mean many families do not attend their zoned school.

Living there

Orlando is a sprawling, car-first region of master-planned subdivisions, toll roads and strip centres, with a small walkable core around Lake Eola, Thornton Park, Mills 50 and College Park, and the theme parks 15 miles southwest in a separate world of their own. Summers are long, humid and stormy, winters mild, and the population skews young and Latino, with the largest Puerto Rican community in Florida. Housing and insurance costs have risen faster than the tourism-weighted wages, and hurricane season shapes the calendar every year.

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 prices are different instruments. Orlando's is Zillow's typical home value for the city, $375,175 in June 2026, down 2.4%; Austin's is the Unlock MLS median of what sold, $560,000 in August, down 4.3%. That is 4.8 times the City of Orlando's 2024 median household income of $77,597 and about 6.2 times Austin's $90,430. At 20% down, Orlando's $300,140 loan at 6.67%, Freddie Mac's August rate, costs $1,931 a month, and Austin's $448,000 loan at 7.03%, the rate for 24 September, about $2,990. Property tax takes the same share in both: a homesteaded Orlando buyer's first-year bill is about $6,043 at the city's 18.0878 mills and Austin's five taxing units take $9,019, each 1.61% of the price. Insurance is budgeted at $310 a month against $300, neither including flood. The three lines come to about $2,745 and $4,041, roughly 42% and 54% of local median income; at 7.03% Orlando's would be about $2,816. Renting is close, on two different series: a median two-bedroom was $1,904 in Orlando in June 2026 and an average one $1,812 in Austin in August, and a three-bedroom $2,361 against $2,405. Neither state allows rent control.

Only Austin has current federal crime figures, so most of this comparison cannot be made like for like. The FBI's feed carries no complete Orlando Police data after 2022, when it published 835.8 violent and 4,035.6 property offenses per 100,000, and shows zeros for 2023 through 2025. Austin's 2025 rates on the FBI's counts are 421 violent and 3,093 property offenses per 100,000. Orlando Police's own 2025 tally of violent incidents, 5,928 on a broader definition, works out near 1,775 per 100,000, and a definition can move a figure that far: APD's own count of crimes against persons, simple assaults included, was 19,469 in 2025, more than four times the FBI's 4,221. Homicide is the one count kept the same way. Orlando recorded 10 in 2025, about 3.0 per 100,000 and its fewest since 1971, down from 31 in 2023; Austin recorded 51, about 5.1, after 66 in 2024, though APD's assistant chief put the year at 55. Both report crime falling: Orlando's department puts overall crime down 19% in 2025 after 18% in 2024, and Austin's FBI violent count fell 10% in 2025. The Austin counts, read on 27 September 2026, can still be revised.

Orlando has the warm winter and Austin the hotter summer. January averages 15.9 C at Orlando International against 11.2 C at Camp Mabry, and July 28.1 C against 29.9 C, the second-warmest July mean of the fourteen cities this site compares, behind Dallas. Orlando gets 1,307 mm of rain a year and no snow; Austin gets 921 mm and 0.5 cm. Orlando's heat is humid, with daily thunderstorms and lightning, and Austin's normals count 28.7 days a year when the air reaches 100F (37.8 C), with 80 in 2023. Charley in 2004, Irma in 2017, Ian in 2022, with 14 in (356 mm) of rain and 74 mph (119 km/h) gusts at the airport, and Milton in 2024, with a record one-day tornado outbreak, all damaged the Orlando area. The city sits about 100 ft (30 m) above sea level and 42 mi (68 km) inland, so surge is not the risk; wind, inland flooding and long power cuts are. Austin's floods come down its creeks, as in July 2025, when the Central Texas floods killed 139 people, and its worst power cut came with Winter Storm Uri, which brought 7F (-13.9 C) in February 2021 and left more than 40% of Austin Energy's customers without power.

Austin has the tighter labor market and Orlando the larger one. On the same unadjusted basis, metro unemployment was 4.0% around Austin in July 2026 and 4.6% in greater Orlando in June; Austin's seasonally adjusted rate was 3.7%. Greater Orlando had 1,506,600 nonfarm jobs in June, 305,500 of them in leisure and hospitality, about one in five, at pay below the private-sector average; Disney alone employs about 77,000 in the region. Austin's 1,421,700 jobs grew 1.7% in the year to July 2026, the largest sector professional and business services at 294,600, beside chip making, state government and the University of Texas, and the metro's average weekly wage was $1,957 in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally. Median household income was $77,597 in the City of Orlando and $90,430 in Austin in 2024, and $81,044 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, and the top rate is 37% in both. Sales tax is 6.5% in Orange County against 8.25%. The difference is the house: property tax and insurance come to about $9,763 a year on Orlando's typical home and $12,622 on Austin's median, before flood cover.

A car is assumed in both. Austin's workers use transit a little more, and Orlando has more rail running. In 2024, 3.0% of Austin workers took transit and 4.1% walked or cycled, against 1.5% and 1.7% in the City of Orlando, and 24.8% of Austin workers worked from home against 13.2%. LYNX carried 21,476,203 trips in fiscal 2025 on 62 routes across three counties, SunRail runs commuter trains through 16 stations from DeLand to Poinciana on weekdays only, at about 1.2 million riders in 2024, and Brightline runs from the airport to South Florida. 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. Austin's light rail is the unfinished part. Voters approved it in November 2020, and 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. Orlando International handled 57,675,573 passengers in 2025, seventh busiest in the country, against 21,666,852 at Austin-Bergstrom, 1.06 million of them international.

Neither state has expanded Medicaid, so coverage in both runs through an employer or marketplace plan, Medicare or Medicaid, and hospitality jobs in Orlando often carry thin coverage. Texas had the highest uninsured rate of the fifty states in 2024, 16.7%, and the City of Austin's was 13.0%; Orlando's profile gives no rate. Orlando's hospitals are two large non-profits, AdventHealth Orlando and Orlando Health, whose Orlando Regional Medical Center is the region's Level I trauma center, with Nemours Children's at Lake Nona. Austin's anchor is Dell Seton Medical Center, the teaching hospital of UT's Dell Medical School and the region's only adult Level I trauma center, with St. David's and Baylor Scott & White, and a UT medical center with a new MD Anderson cancer center is due beside it in 2030. This site found no published wait time for care in either city. Orange County Public Schools is the eighth largest district in the country at roughly 200,000 students, and Florida's universal vouchers, charters and magnets mean many families never use their zoned school. Austin ISD counted 65,951 in fall 2026, down 3,765, and approved closing or consolidating 10 schools. UCF enrolls about 70,000 students and the University of Texas a record 55,000 in fall 2025.

What people underestimate is the tax on a newer house, because the two effective rates match only at an ordinary address inside each city. Much of the Orlando metro's newer housing, Lake Nona inside the city among it, carries a community development district assessment of roughly $1,200 to $3,000 a year, which appears in no millage and in no figure here. Austin's $9,019 holds only inside the City of Austin and Austin ISD; an address in Williamson or Hays County, another school district or a limited-purpose area pays a different stack, and some add a municipal utility district. Both metros are growing past their cities, Austin's by 14.8% since 2020 against 4.6% in the city and Orlando's by 10.3% against 8.3%, and the newer house at the edge is where these figures apply least. Neither seller's bill is a guide. Save Our Homes resets a Florida assessment to market value the January after a sale, and until the buyer files for the homestead by 1 March the rate is the full 1.81%; Texas drops the 10% homestead cap on a sale. At closing Florida charges the buyer 0.55% of the loan, about $1,651 on Orlando's, where Texas taxes neither the deed nor the loan.

Orlando

Better here

  • The typical home was $375,175 in June 2026, 4.8 times the city's 2024 median household income against about 6.2 in Austin, and the mortgage at 20% down is $1,931 a month against about $2,990.
  • Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,745 a month, roughly 42% of local median income, and about $2,816 at September's 7.03%, against $4,041 and 54% in Austin.
  • Orlando Police recorded 10 homicides in 2025, about 3.0 per 100,000 and the fewest since 1971, against 51 and about 5.1 in Austin.
  • January averages 15.9 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.
  • Orlando International handled 57,675,573 passengers in 2025, seventh busiest in the country, against 21,666,852 at Austin-Bergstrom.
  • Sales tax is 6.5% in Orange County in 2026, against 8.25% in Austin, the ceiling Texas allows.

Worse here

  • Metro unemployment was 4.6% in June 2026 against 4.0% around Austin in July on the same unadjusted basis, and 305,500 of 1,506,600 jobs are in leisure and hospitality at below-average pay.
  • City median household income was $77,597 in 2024 against $90,430 in Austin, and $81,044 across the metro against $99,897.
  • Insurance is budgeted at $310 a month against $300 and excludes flood; Charley, Irma, Ian and Milton all damaged the area between 2004 and 2024.
  • The FBI's feed has no complete Orlando Police data after 2022, when violent crime ran 835.8 per 100,000, so no current federal rate stands against Austin's 421 for 2025.
  • A median two-bedroom rented for $1,904 in June 2026 against a $1,812 average in Austin in August, a one-bedroom $1,637 against $1,421, and condominium fees are estimated at $450 a month against $350.
  • Only 1.5% of city workers commuted by transit in 2024, against 3.0% in Austin, and SunRail runs on weekdays only.

Choose Orlando if

  • you want to own a house for about 42% of local median income a month rather than 54%, and will check a new-build address for a district assessment first
  • you want a January at 15.9 C and will plan around a hurricane season instead of days at 100F
  • you work in tourism, health care, aerospace or simulation, or remotely
  • you fly often enough that MCO's 57,675,573 passengers and a rail link to South Florida matter

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

Austin

Better here

  • Metro unemployment was 4.0% in July 2026 on the same unadjusted basis, against 4.6% in greater Orlando in June, and nonfarm jobs grew 1.7% on the year.
  • Average weekly wages in the metro were $1,957 in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally, and median household income was $99,897 across the metro in 2024 against greater Orlando's $81,044.
  • Violent crime was 421 per 100,000 in 2025 on the FBI's own counts, a current federal rate Orlando has not had since 2022.
  • A two-bedroom averaged $1,812 in August 2026 against a $1,904 median in Orlando in June, and a one-bedroom $1,421 against $1,637.
  • 3.0% of workers commuted by transit and 4.1% walked or cycled in 2024, against 1.5% and 1.7% in Orlando, and CapMetro carried 26,283,400 trips in 2025 against LYNX's 21,476,203 in fiscal 2025.
  • Texas taxes neither the deed nor the loan, and its constitution has forbidden a transfer tax since 1 January 2016, where a Florida buyer pays 0.55% of the loan, about $1,651 on Orlando's June 2026 typical home.

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 $2,745 and 42% in Orlando.
  • Property tax on the median house is $9,019 a year for the 2025 tax year with a homestead and $11,460 without one, against about $6,043 on Orlando's typical home.
  • There were 51 homicides in 2025, about 5.1 per 100,000, against 10 and about 3.0 in Orlando.
  • 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).
  • Texas had the highest uninsured rate of the fifty states in 2024, 16.7%, and the City of Austin's was 13.0%.
  • Austin-Bergstrom handled 21,666,852 passengers in 2025 against 57,675,573 at Orlando International, and sales tax is 8.25% against 6.5%.

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, and would pay about $1,812 for a two-bedroom rather than $1,904
  • you want a labor market at 4.0% unadjusted unemployment rather than 4.6%, and one that does not lean on visitor spending
  • you would rather plan around creek floods and 100F days than a hurricane season

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

08: Questions people ask

Orlando or Austin, in short

Is Orlando or Austin cheaper to live in?

Orlando to own, and Austin by a little to rent. Both cities price in US dollars, so the figures net directly. Orlando's typical home was $375,175 in June 2026 against Austin's median sale price of $560,000 in August, and the mortgage at 20% down is $1,931 against about $2,990, though Orlando's uses August's 6.67% rate and Austin's September's 7.03%. Property tax is about $6,043 a year against $9,019, 1.61% of the price in both, and insurance $310 a month against $300, so the three lines come to about $2,745 in Orlando and $4,041 in Austin, or about $2,816 for Orlando at the same 7.03%. That is before flood cover in either and before any district assessment on a newer Orlando house. A two-bedroom averaged $1,812 in Austin in August 2026 against a $1,904 median in Orlando in June. Neither state taxes income, and sales tax is 6.5% in Orange County against 8.25% in Austin.

Is Orlando or Austin safer?

Only homicide can be compared cleanly, and on it Orlando is lower. Orlando Police recorded 10 homicides in 2025, about 3.0 per 100,000 and the fewest since 1971; Austin recorded 51, about 5.1, though APD's assistant chief put the year at 55. Austin's violent rate was 421 per 100,000 and its property rate 3,093 in 2025 on the FBI's counts, read on 27 September 2026 and still open to revision. Orlando has no FBI rate after 2022, when it was 835.8 violent and 4,035.6 property offenses per 100,000, and its department's own 2025 tally uses a broader definition that lands near 1,775 per 100,000, which cannot sit beside Austin's 421. Both cities report crime falling, Orlando by 19% overall in 2025 and Austin's FBI violent count by 10%.

Which has the better job market, Orlando or Austin?

Austin's is tighter and pays more, and Orlando's is larger. On the same unadjusted basis unemployment was 4.0% around Austin in July 2026 and 4.6% in greater Orlando in June. Greater Orlando had 1,506,600 nonfarm jobs in June 2026, 305,500 of them in leisure and hospitality at below the private-sector average, with Disney at about 77,000, AdventHealth at about 37,700 and Lockheed Martin at more than 14,000. Austin's 1,421,700 grew 1.7% in the year to July 2026, the largest sector professional and business services, with technology, chip making, the state government and the University of Texas behind them, and the metro's average weekly wage was $1,957 in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally. Median household income was $99,897 across the Austin metro in 2024 against $81,044 around Orlando.

What does a listing leave out in Orlando and in Austin?

The tax on a newer house and the reset after a sale. Much of the Orlando metro's newer housing, Lake Nona inside the city among it, carries a community development district assessment of roughly $1,200 to $3,000 a year that appears in no millage. Austin's $9,019 describes an address inside the City of Austin and Austin ISD, and one in another county, another school district or a limited-purpose area pays a different stack, sometimes with a municipal utility district on it. In both states the seller's bill is no guide. Save Our Homes resets a Florida assessment to market value the January after a sale, and the full 1.81% applies until the buyer files for the homestead by 1 March, while Texas drops the 10% homestead cap on a sale. At closing a Florida buyer also pays 0.55% of the loan, about $1,651 on Orlando's, and a Texas buyer pays recording fees only.

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. Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places in Florida: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved
    Supports: City population, Five-year growth, crime.homicides rate
  2. Annual Resident Population Estimates for Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (CBSA-EST2025-ALLDATA) · US Census Bureau · retrieved
    Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth
  3. Crime Data Explorer, Orlando Police Department summarized offenses (violent crime, property crime, homicide), 2021-2025 · FBI · retrieved
    Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, crime.homicides 2022
  4. Proactive policing in Orlando yields significant crime reductions · WFTV · retrieved
    Supports: Homicides, Crime trend, crime notes
  5. Police say crimes, including homicides, declining in Orlando · Spectrum News 13 · retrieved
    Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
  6. Orlando Police: 2025 violent crime down 9 percent in the City Beautiful · Headline Surfer · retrieved
    Supports: Crime trend, crime.homicides 2024
  7. Orlando Police Department releases 2024 crime statistics · WFTV via Yahoo News · retrieved
    Supports: Crime trend
  8. U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012815 (Orlando International Airport), monthly and annual · NOAA NCEI · retrieved
    Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall
  9. Orlando, Florida (climate and hurricane history) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards, character
  10. Hurricane Milton · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  11. ACS 2024 1-year, tables B19013 and B08301, Orlando city and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford MSA · US Census Bureau via Census Reporter API · retrieved
    Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
  12. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, series LAUMT123674000000003 (Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford MSA unemployment rate) · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved
    Supports: Unemployment rate
  13. Current Employment Statistics, series SMU12367400000000001 and SMU12367407000000001 (Orlando MSA total nonfarm and leisure and hospitality) · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved
    Supports: Labour market
  14. Top employers and talent report search results (Disney, AdventHealth, Lockheed Martin employment) · Orlando Economic Partnership · retrieved
    Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
  15. Orange County, Florida sales tax rate 2026 · Avalara · retrieved
    Supports: Sales tax
  16. 2025 Tax Brackets · Tax Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
  17. Facts at a Glance · LYNX (Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority) · retrieved
    Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
  18. SunRail Ridership Grows to 1.2 Million Riders in 2024 · SunRail · retrieved
    Supports: Transit ridership
  19. Orlando International Moves Up In 2025 National Rankings for Busiest Airport · Greater Orlando Aviation Authority · retrieved
    Supports: Airport passengers
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. 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
  23. Austin's crime dropped below pre-pandemic highs in 2025 · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved
    Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
  24. 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
  25. US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00013904 Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: Climate normals
  26. 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
  27. Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (USW00013904), February 2021 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  28. Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved
    Supports: Sunshine hours
  29. This Holiday Weekend Marks The 40th Anniversary Of Austin's 1981 Memorial Day Flood · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  30. October 30-31, 2013 Halloween Flash Flood Event · National Weather Service, Austin/San Antonio · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  31. Lower Onion Creek Flood Mitigation Buyout Project Gets Kudos from Homeowners · FEMA · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  32. 2015 Memorial Day Weekend Flooding, 23 to 24 May 2015 (Weather Event Summary) · National Weather Service, Austin/San Antonio · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  33. Tornado outbreak and floods of May 23 to 26, 2015 (Wimberley homes destroyed, Shoal Creek on May 25) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  34. National Weather Service releases new report on deadly Central Texas floods · KXAN Austin (via Yahoo News) · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  35. 2021 Winter Storm Uri After-Action Review, Findings Report · City of Austin and Travis County · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  36. February 2021 Winter Storm-Related Deaths, Texas (mortality surveillance report) · Texas Department of State Health Services · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  37. The Timeline and Events of the February 2021 Texas Electric Grid Blackouts · The University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  38. Highland Lakes and Colorado River · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  39. Most LCRA agricultural customers will go without Highland Lakes water in 2024 · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  40. Drought persists in Central Texas, Water Management Plan under review · Community Impact · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  41. Water Supply Operations · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  42. 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
  43. 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
  44. 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
  45. 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
  46. Austin Area Economic Summary · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved
    Supports: Unemployment rate, Main sectors, Labour market
  47. Major Employers · Opportunity Austin (Austin Chamber of Commerce) · retrieved
    Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Health care
  48. City Sales and Use Tax (city rate table) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Sales tax
  49. Transit Sales and Use Tax (Austin MTA, effective July 1, 1985) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Sales tax
  50. Sales and Use Tax · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Sales tax
  51. Texas Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes, Character
  52. 2026 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
  53. Property Tax Exemptions · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Tax notes
  54. Voters OK property tax breaks for Texas homeowners, businesses · The Texas Tribune · retrieved
    Supports: Tax notes
  55. Austin voters reject Proposition Q, a tax rate increase to fund city services · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved
    Supports: Tax notes
  56. CapMetro (citing the APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Character
  57. CapMetro Rail (Red Line: Leander to Downtown, 32 miles, 10 stations) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Transit system
  58. 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
  59. How Austin's Project Connect went off the rails · The Texas Tribune · retrieved
    Supports: Transit ridership, Character
  60. Aviation Activity Report, Calendar Year 2025 vs 2024, Combined Terminals · Austin-Bergstrom International Airport · retrieved
    Supports: Airport passengers
  61. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (annual passenger traffic table and history) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Airport passengers
  62. Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions · KFF · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  63. Dell Seton Medical Center · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  64. Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas · Ascension Seton · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  65. About St. David's HealthCare · St. David's HealthCare · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  66. Building World-Class Health Care in Austin · Michael & Susan Dell Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  67. Austin ISD Board approves 24 state-mandated turnaround plans, school consolidation and programmatic reassignments · Austin Independent School District · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  68. District Demographics · Austin Independent School District · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  69. Austin ISD enrollment dips as transportation costs rise · Austin Current · retrieved
    Supports: Education, Character
  70. Austin ISD loses 3,000 students amid school closures and budget crisis · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved
    Supports: Education, Character
  71. UT Sets All-Time Highs for Enrollment and Student Performance · UT News, The University of Texas at Austin · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  72. 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, Year-over-year change to June 2026, which is negative in twenty-two of the twenty-four, The same series and month the Charlotte metro pages use, so the two American metros can be read against each other
  73. 2025 Final Millage Rates · Orange County Property Appraiser · retrieved
    Supports: Orange County general at 4.4347 mills, the library district at 0.3748 and the St Johns River Water Management District at 0.1793, School state and local levies totalling 6.449 mills, Municipal rates from Windermere's 3.7425 to Eatonville's 7.2938, A published total against every mill code, including Winter Park's 15.3615 on codes 2, 4 and 6, Maitland's 16.3055 on code 6, and Windermere's 15.2311 on code 35 and 15.4839 on code 75, A blank library column on every Winter Park and Maitland code, which is what puts both municipalities outside the district
  74. Special taxing district information: the Orange County Library District's boundary · Orange County Library System · retrieved
    Supports: The district's boundary is Orange County exclusive of Winter Park and Maitland, each of which operates its own library, Laws of Florida chapter 99-486 as the enabling act behind it
  75. Final 2025 Millage Rates, fiscal year 2025-26 · Seminole County Property Appraiser · retrieved
    Supports: Total millage by taxing authority for every Seminole municipality, from Lake Mary's 14.3929 to Casselberry's 18.1808, School required local and discretionary levies totalling 5.2490 mills, The county fire and road MSTUs, which apply in the unincorporated area and in some cities but not others
  76. 2025 Final Millage Rates · Osceola County Property Appraiser · retrieved
    Supports: Kissimmee at 17.4114 mills and Saint Cloud at 17.8989, School levies totalling 5.3060 mills across required local, discretionary and capital, Dozens of separate municipal service taxing units in the unincorporated county, from 0.13 to 12.42 mills, which is why an unincorporated Osceola address cannot be given one rate
  77. 2025 Final Millage Rates by district, and the 2025 Final Millage Rates and Values Comparison Sheet · Lake County Property Appraiser · retrieved
    Supports: Total millage for every Lake municipality, from Leesburg's 15.9477 to Eustis's 19.8623, Leesburg's own adopted rate of 3.4752 mills, on the district sheet and again as the 2025 adopted rate on the comparison sheet, School board state and local levies totalling 6.0850 mills, The county fire, ambulance and stormwater MSTUs and which municipalities are subject to them, including that an incorporated city pays neither the fire nor the stormwater MSTU
  78. 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 population estimates for each municipality, Leesburg's growth from 27,011 to 37,815, the fastest in the metro in percentage terms, Orlando at 334,854, which is twelve percent of its own metropolitan area
  79. Primary Mortgage Market Survey · Freddie Mac · retrieved
    Supports: 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.67%
  80. Average cost of homeowners insurance in Florida, 2026 · MoneyGeek · retrieved
    Supports: A Florida average of about $3,815 a year against a national average of about $2,543, Orange County premiums in the $3,200 to $4,500 range, at the cheaper end of the state because the metro is inland
  81. Conforming loan limit values for 2026 · Federal Housing Finance Agency · retrieved
    Supports: A baseline one-unit conforming loan limit of $832,750 for 2026, which applies in every county in this metro
  82. Documentary stamp tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved
    Supports: 70 cents per $100 on a deed, in every county except Miami-Dade, which charges 60 cents plus a 45-cent surtax, 35 cents per $100 on a promissory note or other written obligation to pay money
  83. 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
  84. 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
  85. 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
  86. 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
  87. 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
  88. 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
  89. 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
  90. 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
  91. 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
  92. 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
  93. 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
  94. 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
  95. 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
  96. 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
  97. 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
  98. 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
  99. 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
  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
  101. 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
  102. 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
  103. 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
  104. 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
  105. 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
  106. 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
  107. 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
  108. 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
  109. 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
  110. 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
  111. 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
  112. 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
  113. 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
  114. 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
  115. 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
  116. 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
  117. 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
  118. 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
  119. Renters insurance in Texas · NerdWallet · retrieved
    Supports: An average Austin renters premium of $136 a year for $30,000 of personal property
  120. 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
  121. 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
  122. 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
  123. 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
  124. 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
  125. 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