Tech pipeline to Texas: Tax money, people flow out of Bay Area

Austin is looking to be a favorite alternative to SF.  Housing in Austin is CHEAP.  I think the quality of life is much better.

Along with household names like Google, Apple, Dropbox and Oracle — which all recently built or expanded major campuses in Austin — nearly two dozen Bay Area tech companies also reportedly relocated to Texas or opened outposts there since 2014. Thousands of residents made a similar trek throughout the 2000s, taking roughly $1 billion in taxable income out of California and into the Lone Star State, according to a Chronicle analysis of Internal Revenue Service data.

Texas’ growing tech sector doesn’t mean the Bay Area’s is faltering; Silicon Valley is still the heart of the industry. It also doesn’t mean the state’s economy is hurting; most forecasts show strong job growth and shrinking unemployment in California. The expansion of Bay Area firms into Texas does, however, reveal a strong business pipeline between the two regions, particularly for companies trying to escape California’s high taxes and the Bay Area’s soaring cost of living.