P’raps possibly, yeah. T’is a consummation devoutly to be wished for what was once a helluva fun Texas town.
Austin started to lose population in 2023, as the crush of exhausted citizens fleeing the “blue dot in a red state” started to exceed the number of incoming settlers. It wasn’t a huge number, just 2,500 net out-migration that year, but it was still significant in that the net incoming tide of people had been reversed.
While news of Austin losing population was shocking at the time, the trend has continued to accelerate. There was a net loss of 13,400 people in 2024.
With residents fleeing, there is a glut of houses for sale, and prices are plunging as the real estate bubble bursts. This is also deflating prices on homes in the surrounding suburban and exurban counties.
To the tune of ~20% or so in some places. Too bad, so sad. Onwards.
It is my hope that some of the depopulation is because of blue state colonizers returning to their natural coastal habitats, thus leaving Texas a little bit redder overall. Of course, there is also a steady exodus of regular people from Austin – those who just can’t take it anymore. From personal experience, I know that it is a goal of many normies to leave the oppressive and theocratically woke eco-leftism of Austin, as well as the social disorder it has wrought. My wife and I were among them.
Back when Austin was simply weird, it was a delightful melting pot of politicos, educators, hippies, rednecks, musicians, and regular suburban Texans. Music bound those groups together. I can attest that I spent a lot of evenings in my younger days at joints like the Broken Spoke, Continental Cafe, and Green Mesquite, catching great new acts, some of whom went on to significant success.
Unfortunately, Austin has also been pretty effective in killing off its legendary music scene. Apparently, tech bros and AWFLs just don’t foster a music scene the same way that hippies and rednecks once did, and now even the legendary SXSW Festival is largely ditching the music aspect that got the whole thing going.
You can never go home again, but I’ll always enjoy that musical legacy. Which reminds me, I probably need to put some Rusty Wier or Jerry Jeff on my stereo bluetooth, it’s been too long.
Jerry Jeff Walker, Rusty Weir? No offense, but screw that noise, buster. You want a true taste of the good old Austin music scene, now sadly defunct, ain’t but one place you really need to look for it.
Gott DAMN, man: Jimmy Vaughan, Preston Hubbard, Fran Christina, the inimitable Kim Wilson? Texas blues just don’t come no more Texas blusier than that right there.
I was privileged enough to have the great Kim Wilson autograph not just one but TWO (2) of my beater-classic Ford dashboards after we opened for the Fab T-birds, the 61 Galaxy and, later on, the 67 Fairlane. Should be pics around here someplace or other, but damned if I’m gonna go digging around on this hard drive to find ‘em right now. Enjoy another T-birds clip as compensation.
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Austin = Asheville on a larger scale.
Both suck resources from the working man and woman to support the welfare state.
I just pray to God almighty that all the US Gummint cuts in DC don’t make those locusts swarm and come down here to Texas from DC.