Raleigh vs Austin: which should you move to?
Raleigh or Austin? Housing, rent, crime, climate, income, taxes and transit, side by side, from each city's own published figures. Written for someone deciding where to live, not for a ranking.
Both cities price in US dollars and both were priced at Freddie Mac's 7.03% rate of 24 September 2026, so the figures net directly with no rate gap. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,808 a month on Raleigh's typical home and $4,041 on Austin's median sale price, and $442 of the $1,233 gap is property tax, $3,717 a year against $9,019, which is how Texas collects what North Carolina takes in income tax. The two economies have almost the same shape, with professional and business services a fifth of jobs and government, with the state capital's payroll and a large university inside it, about a seventh. Raleigh's labor market is the tighter, 3.1% unemployment against 3.7% in July 2026, and Austin's pays more, $1,957 a week against $1,621. On the same FBI counts Raleigh is a little safer, 396 violent offenses per 100,000 against 421 and about 4.9 homicides per 100,000 against 5.1. Choose Raleigh to own on a median income, for Medicaid expansion and the Triangle's universities and drug plants. Choose Austin for technology pay, no income tax and the busier airport, and budget for the property tax.
| Measure | Raleigh | Austin | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 506,306 (2025) | 1,002,632 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 1,595,720 (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. | 8.2% (2020-2025) | 4.6% (2020-2025) | Not directly comparable |
What a home costs in each
The figures the two cities' rent-versus-buy and mortgage calculators run on, read from the same tables.
| Measure | Raleigh | Austin | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmark home price MLS® HPI or equivalent benchmark. Lower is treated as the advantage, which is the buyer's view rather than the owner's. | $428,671 (August 2026) | $560,000 (August 2026) | Raleigh |
| Detached house benchmark | $440,555 | $527,943 | Raleigh |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | $270,056 | $355,596 | Raleigh |
| Two-bedroom rent | $1,655/mo (average, August 2026) | $1,812/mo (average, August 2026) | Raleigh |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,409/mo | $1,421/mo | Raleigh |
| 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. | 23.3% of a year's income | 24.0% of a year's income | Raleigh |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 30-year amortization on American monthly compounding, the convention in both. | $2,288/mo at 7.03% | $2,990/mo at 7.03% | Raleigh |
| Price to household income Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not. | 5.0× | 6.2× | Raleigh |
| Property tax on the benchmark home The effective rate on market value, which is what the two rates have in common and what the Advantage column is decided on; the bills are in each city's own dollars. | $3,717/yr (0.867%, 2026) | $9,022/yr (1.611%, 2025) | Raleigh |
| 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. | $857 (seller pays) | None | Austin |
| Rent control A cap protects a sitting tenant and does nothing for the next lease, so neither column is simply better. | Forbidden by state law | Forbidden by state law | Not directly comparable |
Raleigh: About 0.87% of market value. Raleigh levies 90.91 cents per $100 for fiscal 2027, Wake County's 53.71 cents plus the City's 37.20 cents, against values set at the 1 January 2024 revaluation. North Carolina measures the gap itself: the Department of Revenue puts Wake's assessment level at 95.39% of sale price, which is how it publishes an effective county rate of 0.4933% against a nominal 0.5171%. Wake revalues again on 1 January 2027 and every two years after that, so the next bill resets to what houses are worth then. Inside the downtown municipal service district the bill carries a further 6.8 cents per $100. Austin: About 1.61% of value for a homesteaded owner, worked out on the $560,000 median sale price. A house in the City of Austin and Austin ISD is taxed by five units for 2025, which add to 2.046485 per $100 before any exemption. Each takes its own homestead exemption off the appraised value first: Austin ISD the state's $140,000, the City, Travis County and Central Health 20%, and Austin Community College 1% with a $5,000 floor. So Travis County levies 0.375845 per $100 on $448,000 after a $112,000 exemption, $1,684; City of Austin levies 0.524017 per $100 on $448,000 after a $112,000 exemption, $2,348; Austin ISD levies 0.9252 per $100 on $420,000 after a $140,000 exemption, $3,886; Austin Community College levies 0.1034 per $100 on $554,400 after a $5,600 exemption, $573; Central Health levies 0.118023 per $100 on $448,000 after a $112,000 exemption, $529. The five come to $9,019 a year, 1.61% of the price. Without a homestead, as a landlord or a buyer who never files, the same house owes $11,460. These are the 2025 rates, the bills mailed in October 2025. For 2026 the City has adopted 0.579948, the county 0.38621, Central Health 0.132863 and ACC 0.103643, and Austin ISD has proposed 0.9184; on the same house those would come to about 1.67%.
How safe each city is, by the numbers it publishes
Police-reported figures for the most recent year each force or statistics agency has released. Rates describe a whole city or metro area, and the spread between neighbourhoods inside one city is usually wider than the gap between the two cities.
| Measure | Raleigh | Austin | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Severity Index Statistics Canada's weighted index for the metropolitan area, where 100 is Canada in 2006. American cities have no equivalent series. | Not published | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Violent crime per 100,000 | 396 (2025) | 421 (2025) | Raleigh |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 2,316 (2025) | 3,093 (2025) | Raleigh |
| 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. | 25 (2025) | 51 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
On the FBI's definitions, violent offenses in Raleigh went from 2,573 in 2023 to 2,399 in 2024 and 2,007 in 2025, a 16% drop in the last year, and property offenses from 12,665 to 13,854 and then 11,725. RPD's own 2025 report shows motor vehicle thefts down 32% (2,444 to 1,664), thefts from vehicles down 27%, non-fatal shooting incidents down from 91 to 79 and aggravated assaults without a firearm down 12%, while its all-assault total was flat at 7,418 and murders held at 25 after 24. The 2025 CDE counts were read on 26 September 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.
What the rates cover: Computed: 2,007 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Raleigh Police Department (ORI NC0920100) in calendar 2025, divided by the 506,306 Vintage 2025 city population. On the CDE's own agency population of 508,719 the rate is 395. RPD's 2025 annual report does not publish a count on this definition: its total violent crime of 8,541 counts every assault, simple assaults included (7,418 in all), and lists no rapes, so it runs more than four times the FBI figure and measures something else.
Homicides: 25 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in both RPD's annual report and the FBI CDE, against 24 in 2024, about 4.9 per 100,000 on the city population. RPD's wider count of homicide incidents, which adds one negligent manslaughter and two justifiable homicides, was 28. The high point in the CDE series since 2021 is 45, in 2022.
On the FBI's definitions, violent offenses in Austin went from 5,335 in 2022 to 5,046 in 2023, 4,692 in 2024 and 4,221 in 2025, a 10% drop in the last year and 21% in three, and property offenses from 35,035 to 32,900, 32,407 and then 31,011. APD's own NIBRS records for 2025 show aggravated assaults down 13% (3,038 to 2,652), robberies down 5% (835 to 790) and motor vehicle thefts down 26% (5,908 to 4,345), while rapes rose from 501 to 541 and drug offenses, which rise and fall with enforcement, went from 4,097 to 5,256. The 2025 CDE counts were read on 27 September 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised, and APD notes that its open data may differ from its official figures.
What the rates cover: Computed: 4,221 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Austin Police Department (ORI TX2270100) in calendar 2025, divided by the 1,002,632 Vintage 2025 city population. On the CDE's own agency population of 1,000,639 the rate is 422. APD does not publish a total on this definition: its open NIBRS data sort offenses into crimes against persons (19,469 in 2025, of which 9,464 simple assaults and 5,918 intimidation) and crimes against property (44,250, with robbery, fraud and vandalism inside it), so neither of its totals is the FBI's violent or property count. Summing APD's own 2025 records on the FBI's definition gives 4,219, within two of the CDE.
Homicides: 51 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in both the FBI CDE and APD's open NIBRS data, against 66 in 2024, about 5.1 per 100,000 on the city population. APD's assistant chief put the year's homicides at 55 in January 2026 (KUT), and APD's dataset separately lists 14 negligent manslaughters and 7 justifiable homicides, which the FBI does not count as murder. The high point in the CDE series since 2021 is 81, in 2021.
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Raleigh | Austin | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | 5.5 °C | 11.2 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 26.9 °C | 29.9 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 1,170 mm | 921 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 13 cm | 1 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | 2,606 hours | 2,644 hours | Austin |
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for Raleigh-Durham International Airport (station USW00013722): January mean 41.9F, July mean 80.5F, annual mean 61.2F, 46.07 in of precipitation, 5.2 in of snow. July is the warmest month, ahead of August's 78.8F, with a mean high of 90.8F; January's mean low is 31.8F. Most of the snow falls in January (2.6 in) and February (1.4 in), and September (5.15 in) and July (5.02 in) are the wettest months. Converted here to 5.5 C, 26.9 C, 1,170 mm and 13.2 cm. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means (2,606 hours, 58% of possible), since the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.
Hazards: Humid subtropical, with long hot summers and thunderstorms, and winters mild enough that snow is an event. The record storm, on 24 to 25 January 2000, left 20.3 in (52 cm) at the airport, 17.9 in of it in 24 hours, beating a 1927 record of 17.8 in. Hurricanes reach Raleigh weakened but not harmless: Fran in September 1996 dropped 8.80 in (224 mm) of rain at RDU, uprooted trees across the region and did about $900 million of damage in Raleigh and Wake County, and the State Climate Office writes that no storm since has had so wide or lasting an impact on the Triangle. Flooding along the creeks after heavy rain and summer heat are the routine risks.
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for Austin Camp Mabry (station USW00013958), the official Austin climate station: January mean 52.2F, July mean 85.8F, annual mean 70.0F, 36.25 in of precipitation, 0.2 in of snow. August is the warmest month at 86.5F, with a mean high of 97.8F; July's mean high is 96.6F and January's mean low is 41.8F. May (5.04 in) and October (3.91 in) are the wettest months, and February (1.89 in) and July (1.96 in) the driest. The normals count 122.8 days a year at 90F or above, 28.7 at 100F or above and 11.9 nights at or below freezing. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (USW00013904), southeast of downtown, averages 50.1F in January and 84.5F in July with 35.57 in of rain, and its nights run colder, with 33.0 at or below freezing a year. Converted here to 11.2 C, 29.9 C, 921 mm and 0.5 cm. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means (2,644 hours, 60% of possible), since the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.
Hazards: Flash flooding on the creeks that cross the city is the recurring danger. The Memorial Day flood of 1981 sent Shoal Creek through central Austin and killed 13 people. On 30 to 31 October 2013 a band of 12 to 14 in (305 to 356 mm) of rain between Wimberley and Driftwood, with 6 to 10 in (152 to 254 mm) over central Travis County, sent Onion Creek through southeast Austin, damaging more than 500 homes and killing five people; in 2014 the city authorized $60 million to buy out homes in the Onion Creek floodplain. Over Memorial Day weekend 2015 the Blanco River at Wimberley, upstream in Hays County, rose from about 5 ft to 41 ft (1.5 m to 12.5 m) in four hours overnight and destroyed 350 to 400 homes in the town, and on the holiday itself Camp Mabry recorded 5.20 in (132 mm) and Shoal Creek flooded again. On 4 to 5 July 2025, 15 to 20 in (381 to 508 mm) fell on the headwaters of Cow Creek and Big Sandy Creek northwest of the city; the Central Texas floods of that week killed 139 people, 18 of them in Travis, Williamson and Burnet counties. Heat is the season to plan around: the normals give Camp Mabry 28.7 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C), and 2023 had 80, including 45 in a row from 8 July to 21 August that broke the 27-day run of 2011, which still holds the record for a year with 90. The station's highest reading is 112F (44.4 C), in September 2000 and again in August 2011. Cold is rare and badly handled when it comes. Winter Storm Uri left 6.4 in (16.3 cm) of snow at Camp Mabry on 14 to 15 February 2021 and a low of 7F (-13.9 C) on the 16th, the coldest there since December 1989 (the airport reached 6F, or -14.4 C), with 164 hours of freezing temperatures. ERCOT cut power across the state grid from 15 to 18 February, about 4.5 million customers lost it at the worst, more than 40% of Austin Energy's customers were without power and the city was under a boil-water notice for seven days. Texas counted 246 deaths from the storm, 28 of them in Travis County. Drought is the slow hazard. Austin's water depends on Lakes Buchanan and Travis, the Highland Lakes reservoirs LCRA manages; their combined storage fell to 42% in March 2024, when most of LCRA's downstream farm customers went without lake water, and the July 2025 rains took it from 51% to more than 95%. It stood at about 92% on 1 July 2026.
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Raleigh | Austin | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $85,060 USD (2024) | $90,430 USD (2024) | Austin |
| Unemployment rate | 3.1% (July 2026) | 3.7% (July 2026) | Raleigh |
| Sales tax | 7.25% | 8.25% | Raleigh |
| Top marginal income tax Federal plus provincial or state. The American figure leaves out payroll taxes and the cost of health insurance, both of which a Canadian household covers through the tax it pays here. | 41.25% | 37% | Austin |
| Income tax on $100,000, single filer Computed from each jurisdiction's brackets at a single filer's $100,000 and rounded to the dollar, so a gap of a dollar is rounding rather than tax. Two cities in one province or state are shown as Even, because there the two cells describe the same tax and whatever separates them is method. | $17,157 USD | $13,449 USD | Austin |
BLS counted 784,100 nonfarm jobs in the Raleigh MSA in July 2026 (not seasonally adjusted), up 15,900 or 2.1% on the year. Construction grew fastest (+6.8%), then education and health (+4.7%), while information (-5.9%), manufacturing (-1.7%) and trade, transportation and utilities (-0.4%) shrank. Professional and business services is the largest sector at 156,200 jobs, and government, with the state capital and NC State inside it, employs 107,400. The seasonally adjusted series (FRED RALE537NA) reached 786,100 in August 2026, 2.5% above August 2025. Average weekly wages across Wake, Johnston and Franklin counties were $1,621 in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally. The newest large employers are drug plants in Holly Springs: Fujifilm Diosynth plans 1,400 jobs there by 2031 after a $1.2 billion expansion announced in April 2024, and Amgen about 725 across two plants after a $1.02 billion second one announced in December 2024.
Main sectors: Professional and business services, the metro's largest sector, Government (the state capital, NC State University, the county school system), Education and health care (WakeMed, UNC Health Rex, Duke Raleigh), Trade, transportation and utilities, Biomanufacturing and life sciences (Fujifilm and Amgen in Holly Springs, Research Triangle Park between Raleigh and Durham).
North Carolina's flat rate has come down every year since 2022: 4.99% (2022), 4.75% (2023), 4.50% (2024), 4.25% (2025) and 3.99% for 2026 and later, with further cuts from 2027 only if revenue triggers are met. Property tax is separate, with Wake County and the City of Raleigh each levying a rate on assessed value.
BLS counted 1,421,700 nonfarm jobs in the Austin MSA in July 2026 (not seasonally adjusted), up 23,800 or 1.7% on the year. Mining, logging and construction grew fastest (+5.5%), then professional and business services (+3.2%), the largest sector at 294,600 jobs, and other services (+2.7%), while information shrank 4.9% and government, at 201,000 jobs with the state capital and the University of Texas inside it, was flat. The seasonally adjusted series (FRED AUST448NA) was 1,424,000 in August 2026, 1.2% above August 2025. Average weekly wages across the metro were $1,957 in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally. Opportunity Austin, the chamber's economic development program, lists Dell Technologies, Apple, Samsung Austin Semiconductor, Tesla, H-E-B, Amazon's fulfillment centers, the State of Texas, the University of Texas, Ascension Seton, St. David's HealthCare and Baylor Scott & White among the employers with 6,000 or more local jobs. bls.gov answered 403 to curl and FRED refused it, so both were read through the web fetcher.
Main sectors: Professional and business services, the metro's largest sector, Technology and advanced manufacturing (Dell Technologies, Apple, Tesla, Samsung Austin Semiconductor, AMD, Applied Materials), Government and education (the state capital, the University of Texas at Austin, the City of Austin), Trade, transportation and utilities (H-E-B, Amazon fulfillment centers), Health care (Ascension Seton, St. David's HealthCare, Baylor Scott & White).
Property tax is the local levy that matters. Tax Foundation puts Texas's effective property tax rate on owner-occupied homes at 1.40%, and school districts must exempt $140,000 of a homestead's value from their tax, plus another $60,000 for owners 65 or older or disabled, after voters raised the general exemption from $100,000 in November 2025. Part of the City of Austin's own rate, 8.75 cents per $100 of taxable value approved with Project Connect in November 2020, pays for the transit program. In November 2025 Austin voters rejected Proposition Q, a city tax rate increase that would have raised nearly $110 million, by 63% to 37%. The county, school district and other levies on the same bill belong to the housing layer.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Raleigh | Austin | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | GoRaleigh city buses (38 fixed routes), GoTriangle regional buses to Durham, Chapel Hill, Research Triangle Park and RDU, and Amtrak's Piedmont, Carolinian and Floridian at Raleigh Union Station; no rail transit inside the city | CapMetro buses, including four CapMetro Rapid (formerly MetroRapid) lines, and the Red Line, a 32-mile, 10-station commuter rail line from Leander to downtown (CapMetro Rail, long branded MetroRail); no light rail yet, with Project Connect's first 9.8-mile phase due in 2033 | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 1.7% (2024) | 3.0% (2024) | Austin |
| Walk or cycle to work | 1.5% (2024) | 4.1% (2024) | Austin |
| Airport | Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), 15.6 million passengers in 2025, a record just above 2024's 15.5 million, per the Airport Authority. It sits between Raleigh and Durham, and a $1.1 billion replacement primary runway, 10,639 ft long, has been under construction since October 2023. | 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 |
GoRaleigh carried 7,991,200 unlinked trips in 2025 and about 25,300 a weekday in the second quarter of 2026 (APTA ridership reports, as cited by Wikipedia). Fares came back on August 1, 2024, at $1.25 a ride after the pandemic fare-free years, and riders 65 and over or 18 and under still ride free once enrolled. The half-cent Wake Transit sales tax pays for the expansion. Its first bus rapid transit line, on New Bern Avenue east of downtown, has two of three construction phases under way, and the city expects the corridor finished by the end of 2028, with lines south to Garner, west to Cary and north to North Hills planned after it. Commuter rail between Durham and Clayton, the rail half of the same plan, met what GoTriangle calls significant feasibility challenges, and the two regional planning bodies are now studying smaller, incremental passenger rail options instead. Intercity rail is moving faster: NCDOT holds a $1.09 billion federal grant (December 2023) for the Raleigh to Wake Forest segment of the S-Line to Richmond, with bridges replacing road crossings under construction in 2026, and Amtrak counted 289,230 passengers at Raleigh Union Station in fiscal 2025.
CapMetro carried 26,283,400 unlinked trips in 2025, 24,067,200 of them by bus and 620,600 on the Red Line, and about 77,400 a weekday in the second quarter of 2026, 1,900 of them by train (APTA ridership reports, as cited by Wikipedia; APTA's PDFs refused the fetcher). Two new CapMetro Rapid lines, 800 and 837, opened in February 2025 and reached 10-minute service in June 2026, and the Red Line gained McKalla Station in 2024, with North Burnet/Uptown Station due in 2027; the Green Line commuter rail project has no funding, environmental review or timeline. Light rail is the unfinished promise. Voters approved Project Connect in November 2020 with a city property tax increase of 8.75 cents per $100 of value, for about 20 miles of light rail reaching the airport at $7.1 billion (Texas Tribune). Its first phase is now 9.8 miles and 15 stations in three directions from downtown, no longer reaching the airport, at an estimated $8.2 billion or more; construction is set to start in 2027 and trains to run in 2033. The FTA gave it environmental clearance in January 2026, but the plan counts on about $4.1 billion in federal money that has not been awarded, and a lawsuit over the scaled-back project is still open.
Health care, schools and what each city is like
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or individual private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and North Carolina expanded Medicaid on December 1, 2023; about 740,000 people are covered by the expansion. Federal changes narrow it: non-citizen eligibility rules tighten from October 1, 2026, and from January 1, 2027 most expansion adults face a work requirement of 80 hours a month (or equivalent earnings) and renewals every six months. Three systems run Raleigh's hospitals. WakeMed's Raleigh Campus is a Level I trauma center, with a Level III center at WakeMed Cary, and WakeMed describes itself as Wake County's only provider of trauma services. UNC Health Rex, founded in 1894, is the UNC Health hospital in the city, and Duke Raleigh Hospital has 204 inpatient beds for cancer, heart, neuroscience and gastrointestinal care. The academic medical centers of Duke in Durham and UNC in Chapel Hill are inside the same region. This file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
The Wake County Public School System is one county-wide district and enrolled 160,413 students in 2025-26, 702 fewer than the year before; it projects 161,461 across 204 schools for 2026-27. More than a quarter of the county's students now attend charter or private schools or are home-schooled, according to the News & Observer. Every address has a base school, and families can also apply to magnet and year-round calendar schools. NC State University enrolled 40,503 students in fall 2025 (30,504 undergraduate, 9,999 graduate) and is the city's research university; Meredith College, William Peace University, Shaw University and Wake Technical Community College are also in Raleigh, and Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill are in Durham and Chapel Hill. Saint Augustine's University, a historically Black university in the city, filed for Chapter 11 in April 2026 after a long fight over its accreditation and is offering no classes in fall 2026.
Living there
Raleigh is a state capital and a university town at the center of a metro of 1.6 million, and most of it lives like a ring of suburbs around a compact downtown. Two workers in three drive to work alone, fewer than one in fifty rides a bus, and more than one in five works from home. The city's greenways run for more than 100 miles along its creeks and the Neuse River, yet walking and cycling together carry 1.5% of commutes. Work is spread across the Triangle rather than gathered in the city: state government and NC State in the city, Research Triangle Park between Raleigh and Durham, drug plants in Holly Springs, and Durham and Chapel Hill close enough to share the airport. Summers are long, hot and humid, with a July mean of 80.5F, and winters are mild. The open question is whether the region can build the transit its growth now calls for. The half-cent tax Wake voters approved in 2016 is paying for more buses and a first bus rapid transit line on New Bern Avenue, due by the end of 2028, but the commuter rail at the center of that plan is back at the study stage, so for now living here without a car depends on choosing exactly where to live.
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and Texas is one of the ten states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (KFF, August 2026). It had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024: 16.7%, or 5,152,427 of 30,799,312 people, against 8.2% nationally and 12.0% in Georgia, the next highest, on the ACS 2024 1-year estimates. The City of Austin's rate was 13.0% and Travis County's 12.6%. Ascension Seton runs Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas, the teaching hospital of UT's Dell Medical School, in partnership with Central Health; it is the region's only adult Level I trauma center and serves 11 Central Texas counties. St. David's HealthCare, a partnership between HCA Healthcare and two local nonprofits, has more than 160 sites and calls itself the Austin area's fourth-largest private employer, and Baylor Scott & White joins both systems on the chamber's list of employers with 6,000 or more local jobs. UT and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation are building the UT Dell Medical Center, with a new UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, beside Dell Seton on the former Frank Erwin Center site, to open in 2030; the UT System put the plan at $2.5 billion when it was announced in August 2023. This file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
Austin ISD, which covers 230 square miles in the middle of the metro, counted 65,951 students in fall 2026, down 3,765 from 69,716 in 2025-26 and from 72,702 in 2024-25. More than 6,400 students enrolled at the end of last year did not return, and the district fell more than 2,000 short of its own projection (Austin Current, 24 September 2026); district officials told KUT that more than half of the 2025-26 loss could be attributed to families' fear of immigration enforcement, with housing costs and falling birth rates also named. In November 2025 the board approved closing and consolidating 10 schools from the 2026-27 school year, affecting 3,796 students and removing 6,319 seats, together with 24 turnaround plans the Texas Education Agency requires for campuses with repeated unacceptable ratings, adopted to head off state-ordered closures or a takeover. The University of Texas at Austin enrolled a record 55,000 students in fall 2025, 44,314 of them undergraduates, the largest total in its history.
Living there
Austin is the Texas state capital and a university town that has become a technology metro, and its growth has outrun what the city has built for it. The metro passed 2.6 million in 2025 after adding 337,554 people since April 2020, but the city grew by less than 5%, and in 2024-25 Travis County lost 6,590 more people to the rest of the country than it gained, so domestic movers now settle in Williamson and Hays counties instead. Inside the city a quarter of workers work from home, 57.5% drive alone and 3.0% take transit, and the one rail line carries about 1,900 riders a weekday. Summer sets the terms of daily life, with a July mean of 85.8F at Camp Mabry and about 29 days at 100F or more in a normal year, and the creeks that cross the city flood fast. Texas takes no income tax and has the highest uninsured rate of any state. The open question is whether Austin can build the transit and keep the schools its growth calls for: voters approved light rail in 2020, and six years later the first 9.8 miles are not due until 2033 and have no federal money, while Austin ISD, down more than 14,000 students in a decade, closed ten schools in 2026.
Where each city wins, and where it loses
Both cities price in US dollars and both were priced at Freddie Mac's 7.03% rate for 24 September 2026, so the figures net directly with no rate gap. Raleigh's price is Zillow's typical home value, $428,671 in August 2026, down 1.7%; Austin's is the Unlock MLS median of what sold, $560,000 in August, down 4.3%, and on Zillow's single-family index Austin's typical house was $527,943 against Raleigh's $440,555, about 20% higher. Raleigh's is 5.0 times its 2024 median household income of $85,060 and Austin's MLS median about 6.2 times its $90,430. At 20% down, Raleigh's $342,937 loan costs about $2,288 a month and Austin's $448,000 loan about $2,990. Property tax is about $3,717 a year in Raleigh, 0.867% of value, against $9,019 in Austin with a homestead, an effective 1.61%, and insurance is budgeted at $210 a month against $300. The three lines come to about $2,808 and $4,041, roughly 40% and 54% of local median income; of the $1,233 gap about $702 is the mortgage, $442 the property tax and $90 the insurance. On the same RentCafe series for August 2026 a one-bedroom averaged $1,409 in Raleigh and $1,421 in Austin, a two-bedroom $1,655 and $1,812, and a three-bedroom $2,028 and $2,405. Neither state allows rent control.
This is one of the pairs where the definitions match: both cities' figures are the FBI's summarized counts for 2025, divided by Census Vintage 2025 populations and read a day apart, on 26 and 27 September 2026. Raleigh is lower on all three lines, a little on violence and more on property. Raleigh Police's 2,007 violent offenses come to 396 per 100,000 and Austin's 4,221 to 421, and property offenses to 2,316 against 3,093. Homicide rates are close: 25 in Raleigh, about 4.9 per 100,000, after 24 in 2024, and 51 in Austin, about 5.1, after 66, though APD's assistant chief put Austin's year at 55. Each department publishes its own total on a wider definition that counts simple assaults, 8,541 violent crimes in Raleigh and 19,469 crimes against persons in Austin, each more than four times the FBI's count, which is why neither is used here. Both are falling. Violent offenses dropped 16% in Raleigh in 2025, from 2,399, and 10% in Austin, from 4,692, and motor vehicle thefts fell 32% and 26% in each department's own records. Austin is about twice Raleigh's size, 1,002,632 people against 506,306, and both sets of counts can still be revised.
Raleigh has a winter and Austin a longer, hotter summer. January averages 5.5 C at Raleigh-Durham International against 11.2 C at Camp Mabry, and July 26.9 C against 29.9 C, the second-warmest July mean of the fourteen cities this site compares, behind Dallas. Austin's normals count 28.7 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C), and 2023 had 80. Raleigh is wetter, 1,170 mm against 921, gets 13.2 cm of snow against 0.5 cm, and on the older 1961-1990 series sees a little less sun, 2,606 hours against 2,644. The storms differ. Raleigh's record is snow, 20.3 in (52 cm) at the airport on 24 to 25 January 2000, and its worst hurricane was Fran, which in September 1996 dropped 8.80 in (224 mm) of rain at RDU and did about $900 million of damage in Raleigh and Wake County. Austin's floods come down its creeks, as in July 2025, when the Central Texas floods killed 139 people, and its rare hard freeze came with Winter Storm Uri, 7F (-13.9 C) in February 2021, while ERCOT cut power across the state grid. Insurance prices the difference at $210 a month against $300, and an owner's utility premium over a renter at $130 against $150.
The two economies have almost the same shape. Professional and business services is the largest sector in both, 156,200 of Raleigh-Cary's 784,100 nonfarm jobs in July 2026 and 294,600 of Austin's 1,421,700, about a fifth each, and government about a seventh, 107,400 and 201,000, with state government and NC State or the University of Texas inside each count. Raleigh's other work spreads across the Triangle, through Research Triangle Park to Duke and UNC and out to the Holly Springs drug plants, where Fujifilm plans 1,400 jobs by 2031. Austin's is technology and chip making, with Dell, Apple, Samsung Austin Semiconductor and Tesla among its employers of 6,000 or more. Raleigh's market is tighter and growing faster, 3.1% unemployment in July 2026 against 3.7% and jobs up 2.1% on the year against 1.7%; Austin's pays more, $1,957 a week in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,621, either side of the national $1,654. Tax is North Carolina's flat rate against none: a single filer on $100,000 pays about $17,157 in Raleigh for 2025 and $13,449 in Austin, and the state rate falls to 3.99% for 2026. On the two medians Austin's property tax is $5,303 a year higher, which North Carolina's 2025 rate would match only at about $137,500 of income.
Both are car cities, and Austin's transit carries more. In 2024, 3.0% of Austin workers took transit and 4.1% walked or cycled, against 1.7% and 1.5% in Raleigh, where 66.3% drove alone against 57.5%. CapMetro carried 26,283,400 trips in 2025, 620,600 of them on the Red Line commuter rail from Leander, and GoRaleigh 7,991,200, all by bus. Both electorates have taxed themselves for more and both are waiting. Wake's half-cent sales tax, collected since 2017, is building a first bus rapid transit line on New Bern Avenue, due by the end of 2028, while its commuter rail is back at the study stage. Austin voters approved light rail in 2020; its first 9.8 miles are due in 2033 at an estimated $8.2 billion or more and count on about $4.1 billion in federal money not yet awarded. Raleigh also has Amtrak at Raleigh Union Station, and a $1.09 billion federal grant is paying to build the first 18 miles of the S-Line toward Richmond, from Raleigh to Wake Forest; the grant covers that section only. The airports are closer in size than the cities, because RDU also serves Durham and Chapel Hill. Austin-Bergstrom handled 21,666,852 passengers in 2025, 1.06 million of them international; RDU handled a record 15.6 million and has been building a $1.1 billion replacement runway, 10,639 ft (3,243 m) long, since October 2023.
Medicaid is the state line that matters most here. North Carolina expanded it on 1 December 2023 and about 740,000 people are covered through the expansion, though from 1 January 2027 most expansion adults face a work requirement of 80 hours a month. Texas has not expanded it and had the highest uninsured rate of the fifty states in 2024, 16.7%; the City of Austin's was 13.0%, and Raleigh's profile gives no rate. Raleigh's hospitals are WakeMed, whose Raleigh campus is a Level I trauma center, UNC Health Rex and Duke Raleigh, with the academic medical centers of Duke and UNC in the same region. 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. This site found no published wait time for either city. Wake's district is holding its size and Austin's is shrinking. The Wake County Public School System enrolled 160,413 in 2025-26, 702 fewer than a year earlier, and gives every address a base school. Austin ISD counted 65,951 in fall 2026, down 3,765, and approved closing or consolidating 10 schools. NC State enrolled 40,503 in fall 2025 and the University of Texas a record 55,000.
What people underestimate is how differently the two property taxes behave. Raleigh's bill is two rates, Wake County's 53.71 cents and the City's 37.20 cents per $100 for fiscal 2027, on values set at the 1 January 2024 revaluation; the state measured those at 95.39% of sale prices a year later, so the 90.91 cents is 0.867% of what a buyer pays. Wake revalues next on 1 January 2027 and every two years after, and the rates set after that are unknown. Austin's is five taxing units' rates on a value the Travis Central Appraisal District sets every year, at a median level of 1.00 of market value in 2025. The homestead exemptions have to be filed, and a homestead's taxable value may rise no more than 10% a year, but the cap starts the year after the owner qualifies and ends with a sale, so a buyer is taxed on full value. Both sets of rates are going up. Wake and Raleigh raised their rates 2.0 and 1.7 cents for fiscal 2027, and the 2026 rates Austin's units have adopted or proposed would put its median house at about 1.67%, though the Travis median homestead value fell from $519,677 in 2025 to $493,449 for 2026.
Better here
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,808 a month at the 7.03% rate of 24 September 2026, roughly 40% of local median income, against $4,041 and 54% in Austin at the same rate.
- Property tax is about $3,717 a year on the typical home for fiscal 2027, 0.867% of value, against $9,019 and 1.61% on Austin's median for 2025.
- Metro unemployment was 3.1% in July 2026, seasonally adjusted, and nonfarm jobs grew 2.1% on the year, against 3.7% and 1.7% around Austin.
- Violent crime was 396 per 100,000 and property crime 2,316 in 2025 on the FBI's counts, against 421 and 3,093 in Austin on the same basis.
- North Carolina expanded Medicaid on 1 December 2023, where Texas has not and had the highest uninsured rate of the fifty states in 2024, 16.7%.
- A three-bedroom averaged $2,028 in August 2026 against $2,405 in Austin on the same RentCafe series, and a two-bedroom $1,655 against $1,812.
Worse here
- A single filer on $100,000 pays about $17,157 in income tax for 2025, $3,708 of it to North Carolina, against $13,449 of federal tax alone in Austin.
- Average weekly wages in the metro were $1,621 in the first quarter of 2026, below the national $1,654, against $1,957 around Austin.
- RDU handled a record 15.6 million passengers in 2025, against 21,666,852 at Austin-Bergstrom, 1.06 million of them international.
- Only 1.7% of workers commuted by transit in 2024 and 66.3% drove alone, and GoRaleigh's 7,991,200 trips in 2025 were all by bus.
- January averages 5.5 C with 13.2 cm of snow on the 1991-2020 normals, against 11.2 C and 0.5 cm in Austin.
- Bills rest on values set on 1 January 2024 until Wake revalues on 1 January 2027, and the rates the county and city will set after that are not yet known.
Choose Raleigh if
- you want to own a house on a median income, at about 40% of it a month rather than 54%
- you work in state government, a university, life sciences or professional services, or at Duke, UNC or Research Triangle Park
- you may need Medicaid, or work in a job with thin health coverage
- you want a property tax bill under 1% of value that follows the market every two years
The Raleigh guide · Neighborhoods · Raleigh rent vs buy · Raleigh mortgage calculator
Better here
- Texas levies no income tax, so $100,000 pays $13,449 in federal tax for 2025 and $13,170 for 2026, against about $17,157 and $16,651 in Raleigh.
- Average weekly wages in the metro were $1,957 in the first quarter of 2026, against $1,654 nationally and $1,621 around Raleigh.
- Professional and business services employed 294,600 in July 2026, and Dell, Apple, Samsung Austin Semiconductor and Tesla are among the metro's employers of 6,000 or more.
- Austin-Bergstrom handled 21,666,852 passengers in 2025, 1.06 million of them international, against 15.6 million at RDU.
- 3.0% of workers commuted by transit and 4.1% walked or cycled in 2024, against 1.7% and 1.5% in Raleigh, and CapMetro carried 26,283,400 trips in 2025 against GoRaleigh's 7,991,200.
- January averages 11.2 C with 0.5 cm of snow on the 1991-2020 normals, against 5.5 C and 13.2 cm in Raleigh.
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 $2,808 and 40% in Raleigh at the same 7.03%.
- 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 $3,717 in Raleigh.
- Texas had the highest uninsured rate of the fifty states in 2024, 16.7%, and in August 2026 was one of ten states that have not expanded Medicaid.
- July averages 29.9 C, the second-warmest July mean of the fourteen cities this site compares, behind Dallas, and 2023 had 80 days at or above 100F (37.8 C).
- Metro unemployment was 3.7% in July 2026, seasonally adjusted, against 3.1% around Raleigh, and information jobs fell 4.9% on the year.
- Violent crime was 421 per 100,000 and property crime 3,093 in 2025 on the FBI's counts, against 396 and 2,316 in Raleigh on the same basis.
Choose Austin if
- you work in technology or chip making and want pay above the national average
- you rent, or own and earn more than about $137,600, the point where North Carolina's 2025 rate outweighs Austin's extra property tax on the two medians
- you fly often enough that the busier airport and its 1.06 million international passengers in 2025 matter
- you would rather have an 11.2 C January and plan a summer around 100F days
The Austin guide · Neighborhoods · Austin rent vs buy · Austin mortgage calculator
Raleigh or Austin, in short
Is Raleigh or Austin cheaper to live in?
Raleigh, to own, by about $1,233 a month. Both cities price in US dollars and both were priced at the same 7.03% mortgage rate of 24 September 2026, so the figures net directly. Raleigh's typical home was $428,671 in August 2026 and Austin's median sale price $560,000, and at 20% down the mortgage is about $2,288 against $2,990. Property tax is about $3,717 a year against $9,019 and insurance $210 a month against $300, so the three lines come to about $2,808 in Raleigh and $4,041 in Austin. Renting is closer on the same RentCafe series for August 2026: a one-bedroom averaged $1,409 in Raleigh and $1,421 in Austin, a two-bedroom $1,655 and $1,812. North Carolina takes income tax, $3,708 on $100,000 for 2025, and Texas does not; sales tax is 7.25% in Wake against 8.25%.
Is Raleigh or Austin safer?
Raleigh, by a little, on figures built the same way. Both are the FBI's summarized counts for 2025 divided by Census estimates. Violent offenses ran 396 per 100,000 in Raleigh against 421 in Austin, and property offenses 2,316 against 3,093. Homicide is close: 25 in Raleigh, about 4.9 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 16% in Raleigh and 10% in Austin. Each department's own violent total counts simple assaults and runs more than four times the FBI's, so neither is used. The counts were read on 26 and 27 September 2026 and can still be revised.
Which has the better job market, Raleigh or Austin?
Raleigh's is tighter and growing faster; Austin's is nearly twice the size and pays more. Unemployment was 3.1% in Raleigh-Cary and 3.7% around Austin in July 2026, seasonally adjusted, and nonfarm jobs grew 2.1% to 784,100 against 1.7% to 1,421,700. Average weekly wages were $1,621 around Raleigh and $1,957 around Austin in the first quarter of 2026, against $1,654 nationally. The mix is close: professional and business services is about a fifth of jobs in both and government about a seventh, with NC State and the University of Texas inside the count. Raleigh adds Research Triangle Park, Duke, UNC and the Holly Springs drug plants; Austin adds Dell, Apple, Samsung Austin Semiconductor and Tesla. City median household incomes were $85,060 and $90,430 in 2024, and the metros' $102,144 and $99,897.
How do the property tax systems in Wake County and Travis County differ?
In the rate, in how often values move and in what a buyer inherits. Raleigh's bill is Wake County's 53.71 cents and the City's 37.20 cents per $100 for fiscal 2027, on values set at the 1 January 2024 revaluation, which the state measured at 95.39% of sale prices; that is about 0.867% of market value, $3,717 on the typical home. Wake revalues on 1 January 2027 and every two years after. Austin's is five units at 2.046485 per $100 before exemptions, on a value the Travis Central Appraisal District sets every year; a homestead takes $140,000 off the school levy and 20% off three others, which brings the median house to $9,019, an effective 1.61%. A homestead's taxable value may rise no more than 10% a year, but the cap ends with a sale, so an Austin buyer is taxed on full value. Travis owners filed 210,038 appeals in 2025.
Where the figures come from
Housing figures are the ones behind each city's calculators, dated on those pages. The rest are listed here with the date they were retrieved. See the methodology for how facts, estimates and opinion are kept apart.
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places in North Carolina: 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
- 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
- Annual Resident Population Estimates for Combined Statistical Areas: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (CSA-EST2025-ALLDATA) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: Metro population
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Raleigh Police Department (NC0920100): violent crime, property crime and homicide, 2021-2025 · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- 2025 Annual Crime Data · Raleigh Police Department · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- Raleigh's Crime Data · City of Raleigh · retrieved Supports: Crime trend
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00013722 Raleigh-Durham International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, Climate normals, January 41.9F, July 80.5F and August 78.8F from the monthly series, and annual mean 61.2F, precipitation 46.07 in and snowfall 5.2 in from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours
- Raleigh's Record Snow Surprised Everyone in January 2000 · North Carolina State Climate Office · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Then and Now, Fran a Standard-Bearer for Hurricane Destruction · North Carolina State Climate Office · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Hurricane Fran, September 1996 · National Weather Service, Raleigh · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for Raleigh city and the Raleigh-Cary MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Character
- Unemployment Rate in Raleigh-Cary, NC (MSA), RALE537UR and RALE537URN · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS LAUS data) · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- All Employees: Total Nonfarm in Raleigh-Cary, NC (MSA), RALE537NA · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS CES data) · retrieved Supports: Labour market
- Raleigh, NC, Area Economic Summary · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate, Main sectors, Labour market
- FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies Expanding Manufacturing Operations in Holly Springs · Wake County Government · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Amgen to add 370 jobs as part of $1B investment in Holly Springs, NC, officials say · WRAL · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Current Sales and Use Tax Rates (effective July 1, 2026) · North Carolina Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Investment in Wake County Transit System Begins · Research Triangle Park · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Transit ridership
- Prepared Food & Beverage Tax · Wake County Tax Administration · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Tax Rate Schedules · North Carolina Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes
- North Carolina Standard Deduction or North Carolina Itemized Deductions · North Carolina Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Income tax on $100,000
- 2025 D-401 North Carolina Individual Income Tax Instructions · North Carolina Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Income tax on $100,000
- 2025 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- 2026 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- GoRaleigh (citing the APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- GoRaleigh Resumes Fare Collection · GoRaleigh · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- Raleigh City Council Awards Second Construction Contract for Wake BRT: New Bern Avenue · City of Raleigh · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Character
- Wake BRT: New Bern Avenue · City of Raleigh · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- Commuter Rail · GoTriangle · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Character
- Construction Advances on S-Line Rail Corridor in Wake County · North Carolina Department of Transportation · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- Raleigh Union Station (citing Amtrak fiscal 2025 station ridership) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- Just in: RDU Airport welcomed 15.6 million total passengers in 2025, up slightly from the previous year · Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority (RDU Airport on X) · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Raleigh-Durham International Airport (2025 and 2024 passenger totals) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Big Runway, Big Numbers, Big Progress · Raleigh-Durham International Airport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- NCDHHS Launches the Know What's Next Toolkit on Medicaid Changes Starting Oct. 1, 2026 · North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Trauma Centers · WakeMed Health & Hospitals · retrieved Supports: Health care
- About Duke Raleigh · Duke Health · retrieved Supports: Health care
- UNC Rex Healthcare · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Wake's student enrollment has dropped overall, but pockets of growth remain · The News & Observer (via Yahoo News) · retrieved Supports: Education
- Stats and Facts · Wake County Public School System · retrieved Supports: Education
- Base Schools · Wake County Public School System · retrieved Supports: Education
- About Us (fall 2025 headcount enrollment) · North Carolina State University Catalog · retrieved Supports: Education
- Bankrupt Saint Augustine's Will Not Offer Fall Classes · Inside Higher Ed · retrieved Supports: Education
- Saint Augustine's University (North Carolina) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- Trails · City of Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources · retrieved Supports: Character
- 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
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Austin Police Department (TX2270100): violent crime, property crime and homicide, 2021-2025 · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- NIBRS Group A Offense Crimes (Austin Police Department open data, updated 14 September 2026) · City of Austin Open Data · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- Austin's crime dropped below pre-pandemic highs in 2025 · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00013958 Austin Camp Mabry (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, Climate normals, Climate hazards, Character, January 52.2F, July 85.8F and August 86.5F from the monthly series, and annual mean 70.0F, precipitation 36.25 in, snowfall 0.2 in and the counts of days at 90F and 100F and nights at freezing from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00013904 Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Austin Camp Mabry (USW00013958), 1938-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, 80 days at or above 100F in 2023 and 45 in a row from 8 July to 21 August, 90 in 2011 with a 27-day run, 112F on 5 September 2000 and 28 August 2011, 6.4 in of snow on 14 and 15 February 2021, 7F on 16 February 2021 and 4F on 23 December 1989, 5.20 in on 25 May 2015
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (USW00013904), February 2021 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- This Holiday Weekend Marks The 40th Anniversary Of Austin's 1981 Memorial Day Flood · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- October 30-31, 2013 Halloween Flash Flood Event · National Weather Service, Austin/San Antonio · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Lower Onion Creek Flood Mitigation Buyout Project Gets Kudos from Homeowners · FEMA · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- 2015 Memorial Day Weekend Flooding, 23 to 24 May 2015 (Weather Event Summary) · National Weather Service, Austin/San Antonio · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Tornado outbreak and floods of May 23 to 26, 2015 (Wimberley homes destroyed, Shoal Creek on May 25) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- National Weather Service releases new report on deadly Central Texas floods · KXAN Austin (via Yahoo News) · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- 2021 Winter Storm Uri After-Action Review, Findings Report · City of Austin and Travis County · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- February 2021 Winter Storm-Related Deaths, Texas (mortality surveillance report) · Texas Department of State Health Services · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- The Timeline and Events of the February 2021 Texas Electric Grid Blackouts · The University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Highland Lakes and Colorado River · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Most LCRA agricultural customers will go without Highland Lakes water in 2024 · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Drought persists in Central Texas, Water Management Plan under review · Community Impact · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Water Supply Operations · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for Austin city and the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year table B27001 (health insurance coverage) for the 50 states, DC, the US, Travis County and Austin city · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Health care, Character
- Unemployment Rate in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX (MSA), AUST448UR and AUST448URN · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS LAUS data) · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- All Employees: Total Nonfarm in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX (MSA), AUST448NA · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS CES data) · retrieved Supports: Labour market
- Austin Area Economic Summary · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate, Main sectors, Labour market
- Major Employers · Opportunity Austin (Austin Chamber of Commerce) · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Health care
- City Sales and Use Tax (city rate table) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Transit Sales and Use Tax (Austin MTA, effective July 1, 1985) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Sales and Use Tax · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Texas Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes, Character
- Property Tax Exemptions · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- Voters OK property tax breaks for Texas homeowners, businesses · The Texas Tribune · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- Austin voters reject Proposition Q, a tax rate increase to fund city services · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- CapMetro (citing the APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Character
- CapMetro Rail (Red Line: Leander to Downtown, 32 miles, 10 stations) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system
- What's on track and behind schedule with Austin's transit expansion nearly 6 years later · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Tax notes, Character
- How Austin's Project Connect went off the rails · The Texas Tribune · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Character
- Aviation Activity Report, Calendar Year 2025 vs 2024, Combined Terminals · Austin-Bergstrom International Airport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (annual passenger traffic table and history) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions · KFF · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Dell Seton Medical Center · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas · Ascension Seton · retrieved Supports: Health care
- About St. David's HealthCare · St. David's HealthCare · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Building World-Class Health Care in Austin · Michael & Susan Dell Foundation · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Austin ISD Board approves 24 state-mandated turnaround plans, school consolidation and programmatic reassignments · Austin Independent School District · retrieved Supports: Education
- District Demographics · Austin Independent School District · retrieved Supports: Education
- Austin ISD enrollment dips as transportation costs rise · Austin Current · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- Austin ISD loses 3,000 students amid school closures and budget crisis · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- UT Sets All-Time Highs for Enrollment and Student Performance · UT News, The University of Texas at Austin · retrieved Supports: Education
- Zillow Home Value Index, all homes, middle tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical home value of $428,671 for the city of Raleigh in August 2026, $436,286 in August 2025, so a fall of 1.7% over the year
- Zillow Home Value Index, single-family and condominium series, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical single-family value of $440,555 in the city of Raleigh in August 2026, down 1.5% on the year, A typical condominium value of $270,056 in the same month, down 8.0% on the year, 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
- Raleigh, NC average rent and rent trends · RentCafe / Yardi Matrix · retrieved Supports: An average Raleigh apartment rent of $1,588, down 1.61% from $1,613 a year earlier, updated 31 August 2026, Average rents of $1,322 studio, $1,409 one-bedroom, $1,655 two-bedroom and $2,028 three-bedroom
- Wake County tax rates, current to 2017 · Wake County Department of Tax Administration · retrieved Supports: A Wake County rate of 53.71 cents per $100 for 2026, against 51.71 cents in 2025, A City of Raleigh rate of 37.20 cents per $100 for 2026, against 35.50 cents in 2025, A Raleigh downtown municipal service district rate of 6.8 cents per $100, levied only inside the district, 2024 marked as a revaluation year
- Sales assessment ratio studies as of January 1, 2025 · North Carolina Department of Revenue, Local Government Division · retrieved Supports: Wake County last revalued in 2024, A median sales assessment ratio of 95.39% for Wake: assessed values are 95.39% of sale prices, An effective county tax rate of 0.4933% against a nominal 0.5171%, computed as rate times assessment level, A coefficient of dispersion of 8.64 for Wake, Wake's next reappraisal scheduled for 2027
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 24 September 2026 · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 7.03%, up from 6.95% the week before and 6.30% a year earlier, Rates for first-lien prime conventional conforming home purchase mortgages with a loan-to-value of 80%, which is the 20% down payment the hub's payment figure assumes
- Zillow Observed Rent Index, all homes plus multifamily, smoothed, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: An observed rent index of $1,577 for the city of Raleigh in August 2026, up 0.45% from $1,570 a year earlier
- Wake County commissioners adopt $2.28 billion fiscal year 2027 budget · Wake County · retrieved Supports: The county property tax rate rises 2 cents to 53.71 cents per $100 for FY2027, adopted 1 June 2026
- Raleigh leaders approve budget with property tax increase · WRAL · retrieved Supports: The City of Raleigh's FY2027 budget raises the property tax rate by 1.7 cents per $100
- Wake County shortens revaluation cycle · Wake County · retrieved Supports: The last revaluation took effect on 1 January 2024, The next revaluations take effect on 1 January 2027 and 1 January 2029, and every two years after that
- Commissioner Causey negotiates settlement on Rate Bureau's homeowners' insurance request · North Carolina Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: Base rate increases of 7.5% on 1 June 2025 and 7.5% on 1 June 2026 in territory 270, the cities of Durham and Raleigh, against a Rate Bureau request of 39.8%, No further rate filing before 1 June 2027
- How much is homeowners insurance in Raleigh, NC? · Insure.com · retrieved Supports: An average Raleigh premium of $2,850 a year for $300,000 of dwelling cover, $100,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 27 May 2026
- North Carolina homeowners insurance · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Raleigh premium of $2,420 a year and a North Carolina average of $3,025, for $400,000 of dwelling cover
- Renters insurance in North Carolina · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Raleigh renters premium of $160 a year for $30,000 of personal property
- Monthly homeowners' or condominium association fee, table B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Raleigh city · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A median monthly association fee of $114 among Raleigh owner-occupied units that pay one, 58,527 of 108,529 owner-occupied units, or 53.9%, paying such a fee, from table B25142
- Homebuyer assistance · City of Raleigh Housing and Neighborhoods · retrieved Supports: 0% deferred loans for first-time buyers at or below 80% of area median income, Up to $45,000 citywide on a home priced up to $389,500, and up to $60,000 in designated areas on a home up to $450,000
- 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 is the limit in Wake County
- Annual estimates of the resident population for incorporated places, 2020 to 2025 · United States Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program · retrieved Supports: A population of 506,306 for Raleigh on 1 July 2025, against 467,665 at the 2020 census
- 2025 Gazetteer files: places, North Carolina · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A land area of 152.263 square miles for Raleigh city, against 147.116 in the 2020 file
- 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
- 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
- Tax rates and truth-in-taxation rate table, all taxing units · Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector · retrieved Supports: 2025 adopted rates per $100: Travis County 0.375845, City of Austin 0.524017, Austin ISD 0.9252, Austin Community College 0.1034, Travis County Healthcare District (Central Health) 0.118023, 2026 adopted rates for Travis County (0.386210), the City of Austin (0.579948), ACC (0.103643) and Central Health (0.132863), and no adopted 2026 rate yet for Austin ISD
- 2026 exemption listing, Travis County taxing units · Travis Central Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: A residence homestead exemption of $140,000 for Austin ISD, with no local option, Local option homestead exemptions of 20% with a $5,000 minimum for Travis County, the City of Austin and the Travis County Healthcare District, and 1% with a $5,000 minimum for Austin Community College, The same exemptions in the 2025 listing, dated 25 July 2025
- Property tax rates · City of Austin Budget Office · retrieved Supports: A fiscal 2026 rate of 0.524017 per $100, maintenance and operations 0.410282 and debt service 0.113735, A fiscal 2027 rate of 0.579948 per $100, adopted on 12 August 2026
- Ordinance No. 20251120-006, reducing the fiscal 2025-2026 tax rate to the voter-approval rate · City of Austin · retrieved Supports: The Council adopted a rate above the voter-approval rate on 13 August 2025, which triggered an automatic election, Proposition Q did not win a majority at the 4 November 2025 election, The rate reduced to the voter-approval rate of $0.524017 per $100 under Tax Code section 26.07(e), effective 1 December 2025
- Notice about tax year 2026 property tax rates and impact statement · Austin Independent School District · retrieved Supports: A 2025 rate of 0.9252 per $100, maintenance and operations 0.8022 and debt service 0.1230, A proposed 2026 rate of 0.9184, maintenance and operations 0.7954 and debt service 0.1230
- Austin ISD claims victory in tax rate election · KUT News · retrieved Supports: Austin ISD's Proposition A passed on 5 November 2024 with about 58% of the vote, raising the district's rate 9.1 cents, from 0.8595 to 0.9505 per $100
- Travis County Prop A, affordable child care passes with majority of vote in 2024 election, unofficial results show · Community Impact · retrieved Supports: Travis County's Proposition A, a tax rate increase of 2.5 cents per $100 to fund child care, passed on 5 November 2024 with 59.43% of the vote, 321,043 to 219,141
- Truth-in-taxation rate table, all Travis County taxing units, 2022 to 2026 · Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector · retrieved Supports: Travis Central Health: a 2026 total rate of 0.132863 per $100, maintenance and operations 0.123603 and debt service 0.00926, against a no-new-revenue rate of 0.118633 and a voter-approval rate of 0.135195; a 2025 total rate of 0.118023, Travis County: a 2024 total rate of 0.344445 per $100 against a voter-approval rate of 0.319445, the 2.5 cents voters approved, Austin ISD: total rates of 0.8595 for 2023 and 0.9505 for 2024, and for 2026 a no-new-revenue and voter-approval rate but no total rate
- ACC approves new property tax rate for fiscal year 2025-26 · Austin Community College District · retrieved Supports: A 2025 rate of 0.1034 per $100
- Central Health board approves fiscal year 2027 tax rate and budget · Central Health (Travis County Healthcare District) · retrieved Supports: The Board of Managers adopted the fiscal 2027 tax rate on Wednesday, 9 September 2026, in a release dated 10 September; the rate itself is in the county's rate table above
- Fiscal year 2027 tax rate impact statement · Travis County · retrieved Supports: A county tax of $1,653.72 in 2025 on a $550,000 homestead after the 20% exemption, the same arithmetic as here, The 2025 rate set with the disaster calculation after the July 2025 floods, which the county said would come out for fiscal 2027
- Valuing property: the homestead cap and the circuit breaker limitation · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: A residence homestead's appraised value may not rise more than 10% a year, from the year after the owner first qualifies, A 20% annual limit on the appraised value of non-homestead property valued at $5 million or less, the circuit breaker, which expires on 31 December 2026
- Tax Code, Section 41.44: notice of protest · Texas Legislature · retrieved Supports: A protest must be filed by 15 May or the 30th day after the appraisal notice is delivered, whichever is later
- 2025 annual report · Travis Central Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: 210,038 property value appeals filed in 2025, A districtwide single-family median level of appraisal of 1.00
- School district property value study, 2024 final findings, Austin ISD · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Austin ISD's local value found within the confidence interval of the state's estimate, so the appraisal district's values stand as market value
- 2026 market values on their way · Travis Central Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: A median residence homestead market value of $493,449 in Travis County for 2026, against $519,677 in 2025
- Annexation · City of Austin Planning Department · retrieved Supports: The City collects no property tax in limited-purpose areas, On full-purpose annexation an area's emergency services district tax may be eliminated
- Senate Bill 2, 86th Legislature: the Texas Property Tax Reform and Transparency Act of 2019 · Texas Legislature Online · retrieved Supports: The enrolled bill summary names Senate Bill 2 of 2019, by Bettencourt et al., the Texas Property Tax Reform and Transparency Act of 2019, with provisions taking effect from 1 January 2020 to 1 January 2022
- Property tax process post-Senate Bill 2 (2019): explanatory Q&A · Texas Municipal League · retrieved Supports: S.B. 2 lowers the multiplier in a city's voter-approval rate from 8 percent to 3.5 percent more maintenance and operations revenue, for nearly every Texas city, A city that adopts a rate above the 3.5 percent voter-approval rate must hold an automatic election on the November uniform election date, where before voters had to petition for one
- Truth in taxation · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: The voter-approval rate gives taxing units other than school districts and special taxing units about the previous year's operating revenue plus an extra 3.5 percent
- Geologic wonders of Texas: Central Texas · Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin · retrieved Supports: In Austin the Balcones escarpment generally parallels MoPac (Loop 1): west of it the city is hilly and east of it relatively flat, Hard Lower Cretaceous limestones and dolostones form the hills to the west, and younger Upper Cretaceous rocks including clays the flatter ground to the east
- Houston Black: Texas state soil · Soil Science Society of America, with USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service figures · retrieved Supports: Houston Black, a smectite clay that shrinks when dry and swells when wet, is found in the Blackland Prairie along the route of Interstate 35 from north of Dallas to just south of San Antonio, Construction on it is often plagued by cracking from the shrinking and swelling, and building foundations need reinforcing
- Floodplain management · City of Austin Watershed Protection Department · retrieved Supports: NOAA's Atlas 14 rainfall study of 2018 found Central Texas getting heavier rain than previously thought, and the City is updating its floodplain maps from it, In November 2019 the City based its development regulations on the current FEMA 500-year floodplain instead of the 100-year floodplain, pending completion of the updated maps; the maps are on ATXFloodPro
- Flood zones · Federal Emergency Management Agency · retrieved Supports: The Special Flood Hazard Area is the land flooded by the 1-percent-annual-chance flood, the base or 100-year flood; the ground between it and the 500-year flood is a moderate-risk zone
- Understanding flood risk: real estate, lending and insurance professionals · Federal Emergency Management Agency · retrieved Supports: Federally regulated or insured lenders must require flood insurance for every building in a Special Flood Hazard Area with a federally backed loan
- Texas homeowners insurance market overview · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: A statewide average homeowners premium of $3,489 a year, from the Texas Statistical Plan for Residential Risks, Hail as the largest cause of paid homeowners losses in every year from 2016 to 2025 except 2021
- Texas homeowners insurance · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Austin premium of $4,250 a year and a Texas average of $5,910, for $500,000 of dwelling cover
- How much is homeowners insurance in Austin, TX? · Insure.com · retrieved Supports: An average Austin premium of $2,698 a year for $300,000 of dwelling cover, $100,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 27 May 2026
- Renters insurance in Texas · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Austin renters premium of $136 a year for $30,000 of personal property
- Monthly homeowners' or condominium association fee, table B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Austin city · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A median monthly association fee of $76 among Austin owner-occupied units that pay one, 88,975 of 199,801 owner-occupied units, or 44.5%, paying such a fee, from table B25142
- City of Austin utility rates and fees, effective 1 July 2026 · City of Austin · retrieved Supports: A residential solid waste charge of $23.80 a month plus $4.70 to $40.30 by cart size, Clean Community fees of $5.45 and $4.80 a month, charged to every residential customer, A transportation user fee of $21.80 a month for a single-family home
- Homebuyer resources: Down Payment Assistance · City of Austin Housing Department · retrieved Supports: Up to $40,000 in assistance for first-time buyers at or below 80% of median family income, A sales price of no more than $440,000, on a home inside Austin's full-purpose city limits
- Conforming loan limit values for 2026, by county · Federal Housing Finance Agency · retrieved Supports: A baseline one-unit conforming loan limit of $832,750 for 2026, which is the limit in Travis County
- 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