Another national op-ed discourages moving to Austin

In the second anti-Austin op-ed published on a national news site within a couple of weeks, Bloomberg columnist Conor Sen writes, "Young and ambitious? Move to New York, not Austin."

Despite the headline, the story is more praise of low New York rent than a diss toward Austin life like what Brett Adler published in Business Insider last month.

Sen writes that apartment rents have fallen more than 20% in several major metro hubs, including San Francisco, New York, Boston and Seattle, because of the pandemic.

Although Austin rent fell by 4% in the past year and continues to sit below the national average, according to RENTCafe, the deficit appears to not be enough for Sen.

Sen admits that many call Austin the "future of the technology industry" but argues that this window of time is the best to move to "the best cities in America," especially New York. To Sen, the Big Apple represents the prime place to be for those just starting their career so that they can be "exposed to countless other people in one's industry from whom they can learn and grow." If remote work continues to be prevalent after the pandemic, in-person jobs may become scarce, meaning that a move to a "hub for in-person activity" such as New York would be more vital than ever. Austin, by contrast, may "specialize more in remote work."

With historically low rent and high levels of retail and office vacancies, Sen writes that New York is in a prime position to create new business growth spurred on by an economic comeback on the federal level.

Austin has become a hot national news topic as tech giants Tesla and Oracle have made the move to Central Texas. Thousands of Californians and some celebrities have also made the famous "Texodus" to Austin due to the so-called similar spirit to the Golden State, among other reasons like housing costs.

A LinkedIn survey from 2020 found that Austin had the most newcomers of any major city in the country.

Austin may not have a rent decrease like the Big Apple, but it certainly packs a punch in the tech industry, housing market and economic opportunity.

Read about another recently published op-ed:

Californian who wrote viral op-ed attacking Austin life tells Austonia he 'didn't include the positive stuff'