A Guide to Moving to Austin Alone
There are few adventures more exciting—or more intimidating—than picking up your entire life and relocating to a new city. People with life circumstances that allow them to move on their own can have their pick of locales, which come with endless opportunities to build social circles and discover specific aspects of a city that appeal to their personal interests and passions.
But if you don’t know anyone in the city of your dreams, the prospect of starting over there might feel overwhelming.
For that reason, a naturally open-hearted city like the Texan capital of Austin is an ideal spot for settling down as a solo resident. This town, renowned for its impressive dining landscape, multitude of live-music stages, and lively outdoor culture, offers plenty of ways for newcomers to connect and form their own communities. Austin also has an excellent reputation as it is ranked among the top 10 most desirable cities for millennials by the U.S. News and World Report.
A Rapidly Growing City
The population growth in Austin regularly surpasses that of other U.S. cities; in fact, in 2019, Austin was among the top 10 cities that saw the highest population growth. While prime neighborhoods like Downtown Austin and East Austin have long proven desirable destinations for new arrivals, the city’s rising populace now results in “urban spread” to once-quiet enclaves and suburbs.
Austinites now have ever-increasing options for where to settle down and where to find excellent restaurants, bars, music venues, and outdoor spaces.
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The Best Austin Neighborhoods For Solo Newcomers
Whether you hope to live in the middle of the Austin action or prefer a more serene home base with its own unique personality, the Lone Star Capital has a neighborhood to fit your needs. For newcomers eager to meet their neighbors and find reliable local hangouts, these neighborhoods offer particularly appealing opportunities for both:
Hyde Park
If you’re moving to Austin from a small town or suburb and would feel more at home in a peaceful, residential area that’s still highly accessible to more urban neighborhoods like Downtown Austin, then Hyde Park makes an ideal solution. This historic region includes charming and quiet streets, a speedy commute to Downtown ATX or the University of Texas campus, affordably priced housing, and a genuine “neighborhood spirit” that encourages residents to get to know each other.
Area haunts like The Parlor pizzeria and bar, Quack’s 43rd Street Bakery, and Hyde Park Bar and Grill serve as convivial meeting places for locals, as does the neighborhood’s dedicated greenspace, Shipe Neighborhood Park.
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North Loop
Quirky, artsy, and literary are all apt adjectives for North Loop, a North Austin neighborhood famous for its independent bookstores, cozy coffeehouses, and popularity among UT students and faculty.
Cafes like Epoch Coffee and Flightpath Coffeehouse attract freelancers and laptop-wielding hobbyists of all stripes. Bookshops like BookWoman and Monkeywrench Books cement North Loop’s reputation as a haven for the written word. Its Eateries and watering holes like Foreign & Domestic, The Tigress Pub, and Workhorse Bar draw foodies and discerning imbibers to this quaint, reasonably priced, and thoroughly unique section of town.
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East Austin
New Austinites with bohemian sensibilities who want to live where the “cool kids” live will adore East Austin, the city’s most on-trend section.
This neighborhood has plenty to recommend it, from world-class barbecue venues like Franklin Barbecue and La Barbecue to celebrated bars and breweries like Whisler’s, Lazarus Brewing Co., and Kitty Cohen’s to ATX’s highest volume of food trucks to phenomenal live-music spots like The White Horse, The Eastern, and the Historic Scoot Inn.
There’s always something new to do, see, eat, or drink in East Austin, and the neighborhood’s quick pace and bold personality make it attractive to solo newcomers who feel ready to dive into Austin life headfirst.
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South Congress
A quintessentially Austin neighborhood located on the south side of town, South Congress proves especially popular among ATX Instagrammers because of its impressive street art and its very-walkable infrastructure.
The area’s main drag of South Congress Avenue is ideal for weekend strolls (and for getting oneself acquainted with SoCo as a neighborhood); residents gather at hotspots like Jo’s Coffee, Güero’s Taco Bar, June’s, and Magnolia Cafe to appreciate roasted coffee or a hearty plate while enjoying some of the city’s finest people-watching.
If you have a flair for performance and want to meet some musical South Congress neighbors, head to Ego’s, Austin’s premier karaoke bar, where the drinks are plentiful and the enthusiasm is absolutely on-point.
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Pflugerville
Austin’s meteoric growth, unfortunately, coincides with ever-rising real estate prices. If you want to settle down in the Austin metro area but also need a lower cost of living, the small city of Pflugerville could be the perfect fit.
Pflugerville residents can reach Austin in under 30 minutes by car, and they’ll also find plenty to keep them busy in their own town, like sunbathing at scenic Lake Pflugerville, attending one of the city’s many outdoor festivals and movie screenings, sipping a craft brew at The Growler Bar & Kitchen, or enjoying the communal dining experience at Taste of Ethiopia.
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Meeting New Friends In Austin
While barhopping, park visits, and leisurely neighborhood strolls can certainly yield new friendships, more structured “meet-ups” often prove useful to new arrivals in Austin. Luckily, the city offers abundant opportunities to strike up conversations and find other folks who share common interests.
Austin is home to the headquarters of Bumble, best known as a dating app that requires female members to “make the first move.” However, Bumble also features a “Bumble BFF” mode that connects female friend-seekers with prospective buddies.
The famous festivals of SXSW and Austin City Limits welcome volunteers to assist with event logistics, and if you’re a fan of music, film, and/or tech innovation, signing up for a shift can help you connect with like-minded Austinites.
Austin is proud to be a no-kill city for animals living in shelters, which means that ATX shelters and rescue groups tend to become heavily populated and in need of assistance from volunteers. Help a four-legged friend and possibly make some two-legged friends as well by volunteering with an organization like Austin Animal Center.
Looking for a writers group, a book club, a knitting cohort, an intramural sports league, or another collective of hobbyists? Take a look at the Austin offerings on Meetup, a site designed to facilitate hangouts for people who share interests.