Round Rock is just north of Austin, has good housing prices and is home to Dell. Samsung is also nearby. Most of the big high tech firms are in the northern part of Austin and area, but you can find one anywhere. Freescale(Motorola) and AMD have office in a few areas of town.
The trendy place to live is Hyde Park where you can spend lots of money for small box houses that are 40 to 50 years old. For some reason, the high tech rich people are buying them up and remodeling them. They look good, but are a bit pricey. It isn't faw from the UT campus area. South Austin is a great place to live and a bit more economical. It will probably be the next area to see the yuppies come in and start the refurbishing. Another area that is growing is Dripping Springs. It is a small community west/southwest of Austin. There are large acreage lots out there with scenic views of the hill country.
Traffice isn't as bad as some like to make it out to be. There are alternate routes to every destination. I travel just over 100 miles a day in my car for work and really dont' feel like I spend that much time in traffic. Most people I either know personally or have just met and talked to have long commutes only because they choose to live a long way from work. If they work north, they live south and so forth. If you can avoid I.H. 35 during rush hour you can get anywhere you want in a timely fashion.
Go to dinner and a movie at any of the 4 Alamo Drafthouses. "Alright, well you can walk into a movie theater and buy a beer. And, I don't mean just like a paper cup, I'm talking about a glass of beer. "
Magnolia Cafe and Kerbey Lane Cafe are good places to eat. Freebirds burritos and Amy's Ice Cream. Any Mexican food dive is usually worth stopping.
Austin is a great place. I have been out to San Diego and loved it. If I move from Austin, that is where I am heading.
