I live within commuting distance. The Californuts are the reason property taxes are so ridiculously high. Exactly, they come here to get out of CA but immediately turn us into what they left. They don’t know a tax they don’t want.
Property taxes and property values both have sky rocketed because the fools left the west coast where houses are unaffordable and came here where their eyes bugged out at how far their cash would go. When the wiley Texans figured out what was happening, they quickly raised their asking prices and got full price offers and then some. Just last week I heard a radio ad that told people that they might not know how much their house is worth and they might be leaving money on the table with too low of an asking price.
A lot of the Texans have moved out of town and bought ranches. Others that I know of are renting and putting commercial developments on property. They are milking it for all it’s worth while it lasts.
Twice in recent memory, Austin has gone completely bust economically. I don’t know if it could happen again because the engine driving this boom is different now, but the late 80’s were a time of intense pain in this city. Those of us who lived through it know how bad it can get.