Self Storage Results - Austin, Texas, United States

Gateway to the Texas Hill Country, capital of the state, and nicknamed Silicon Hills for all the tech companies that are located here, Austin Texas – ATX to locals – is an entrepreneurial juggernaut when it comes to start-up incubation centers. Austin is known globally as the “Live Music Capital of the World” mainly for its long-running show on PBS “Austin City Limits” which premiered in October of 1974 with a 30-minute live performance by Austin resident, Willie Nelson. The unofficial city motto is “Keep Austin Weird.”

58% of Austin residents are single and of the 324,892 households, 48.1% are occupied by unrelated persons. The largest age demographic group in Austin is from 25 to 44 at 35% with an average age of new Austinites at 32.7. Some of this high percentage of residents can be explained by the fact that the University of Texas-Austin is located in the downtown corridor along with the state capital and all the legislative office buildings. 14% of the 50,000 students live on campus in rooms that are about 120 square feet. Many parents opt to use an Austin storage unit to expand that space. Austin also has one of the best public transportation services in the country utilizing bus, train and a series of bike paths to smooth out the morning commute.

Since the dot-com crash in early 2000, Austin city government launched a metro-wide incubator called "Opportunity Austin" in September 2003. The purpose was to not just to attract new industries to the area but to support and grow those already located there. The existing industries like computer software, digital media, wireless technology, semiconductors, and tourism were part of a multi-million dollar ad campaign that served to attract new companies. It was so successful that after five years, 72,000 jobs and 2.9 billion in payroll were added. Diverse new industries like automotive, warehousing and logistics, medical devices and green energy companies moved to Austin.

Top Employers in the Austin Metro area:

• Dell
• IBM
• Freescale Semi-Conductor
• Ascension Health Network
• Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
• Apple Computers

The average salary in Austin is $62,250 coupled with the lower cost of housing, makes the city very attractive to both transitioning employees and companies that are relocating. Brookings Institute did a survey of 50 major metropolitan areas and found that Austin, with 8.2% of the workforce telecommutes full time making it number one and well above the national average of 5%. This leads both transitional and telecommuting employees to use one of the over 50 companies that provide self storage in Austin TX. With an estimated 159 people per day moving into the metro area for work and a better quality of life, this is a net gain annually of about 8.28%. This number includes graduates of UT-Austin with degrees in Computer Science, Economics, Bio-Science and Ethnic Studies. Fun Fact: UT-Austin has more women graduating with advanced degrees by 19% which could possibly explain the delay in starting a family to the ages of 30-34 and the lower birthrate of 5.1% in the Austin area.

Top Job Listings for Austin Texas

• Enterprise Architect $96,490
• Public School Teacher $54,155
• Energy Auditor $63,640
• Software Engineer $77,537
• Healthcare Professional (BSN) $61,649

The housing market in Austin has made a rapid comeback since the market downturn in 2007-2008. Not only have home values rebounded but have risen 8.6% over the last year and expected to rise 3.5% in the coming years. There are a wide variety of home styles to pick, ranging from classic 1940’s bungalows to a collection of mid-century modern and a hybrid style called Hill Country craftsmen. Austin has also embraced the tiny house movement that began during the market collapse. There are tiny house communities as well as some homeowners building an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) in their spacious backyards to rent out either monthly or through one of the many nightly rental companies. The standard size is 400 square feet and really not a lot of space for extras but they are very popular transitional housing for those moving to the Austin area. Using an Austin self storage company for holding extra furniture, sports equipment, and family heirlooms is a great option.

Austin single family homes average about 2068 square feet however homes built since 2010 are being built on average about 350 square feet smaller within the Austin city limits making the cost per square foot in new builds $217/sqft. Homeownership is at 44.4% of all home types with 38% renting some part of their dwelling to non-family members. Rather than add to the additional space constraints, many owners use a storage unit in Austin to make room for a tenant. At $1.21/sqft, self-storage is a more cost-effective and safer option to keep valuables off premise.

Popular single family home neighborhoods in Austin Texas:

• Downtown Austin $519,900
• West Oak Hill $399,997
• Steiner Ranch $489,000
• South Lamar (SoLa) $370,900
• Central East Austin $460,000

The rental market in Austin offers a variety of choices from tall sleek high-rise buildings in downtown, converted bungalows and traditional apartment complexes. The average rental unit in Austin for a 2 bed / 2 bath is $1595 at 900 square feet. Each rental unit averages 2.3 persons per unit making it just under 400/sqft per person. With so many companies providing self storage in Austin, it makes sense to not keep rarely used seasonal items in that tiny space.

Average cost of an apartment in Austin:

• Downtown $1790.00
• East Congress $1332.00
• Old West Austin $1317.00
• Triangle State $1429.00
• Ziker $1682.00

Two large global events are held annually in Austin. The ACL Music Festival held over two weekends in October in Ziker Park with 8 stages of live music. SXSW (South by Southwest) is an entertainment event held every March since 1987. Starting as a music festival, it has evolved now to a branded film, music, and interactive technology event with sponsors like Intel, Panasonic, Armani, and Mazda having large pavilions with their newest apps, fashion collections and the latest peripherals for technology. Just these two festivals are attended by over 1 million people during the course of the events, adding $600 million dollars to the local economy. Hotel rooms are at a premium so a large number of homeowners put their valuable belongings in a storage unit in Austin, rent out their house for the duration and go on vacation during that time period.