I've lived in Texas for four years(2 for grad school and 2 working). Dallas' market has been quite hot over the last couple years. Higher salaries, plenty of job openings. But...I'm also leaving Dallas after two years at the end of the month because I can't stand it anymore. Between Dallas, Houston and Austin, it seems like Dallas just has a larger concentration of morons. I love Houston and Austin is great as well...there's just something about Dallas. 

Maybe it's the insane sprawl I see every time I fly back to what I'd consider the worst major airport in the country or the distinct lack of neighborhoods. Actually the last part is what really kills me...so you're driving on a toll road, yes because if you want to go anywhere you have to be slowly drained of your hard earned money on the immaculate toll roads, from Frisco to Ft Worth and if you look right you see an endless sea of homes built like square castles about 6 feet apart from each other...if you look to the left you see the exact same thing. You have no way of knowing where you are unless you're in the city. But when you're in the city you see no people on the weekends because no one lives there. Everyone seems so content to purchase their cube with steep roofs and spires on the corners. I could never purchase a home here because I don't understand where the value is.  There is nothing to separate your cube from the other 20,000 currently up for sale. Yet the housing prices continue to rise at unsustainable rates. 

But it's not all bad! The DART light rail system is the largest in the country and you can just about go anywhere on it(except Frisco, which is where I live/work because they're afraid of brown people). 

In short, F*ck Dallas and their $30,000 millionaires(look it up).

Ok ok...I'm not going list all the bad...so here's the good I've experienced...

Contractors generally have their shit together here. They build fast and often, something is always going up or being renovated. Seriously, this market builds and they know how to do it. Infrastructure is actually quite good, because of the number of toll roads.

The public schools are usable, the #1 ranked high school in the country resides in Dallas.

Travel...you can quite literally get anywhere in the world on a direct flight from DFW. As mentioned above, I don't like flying in and out of the airport because the design is awful but I'm flying to Tokyo direct on Monday which is always nice. I had a direct flight in from Beijing last week. You can also explore South American quite easily, flights to Brazil are dirt cheap for example. If you're feeling quite adventurous you can even snag a deal on a direct flight all the way to Sydney. And if domestic travel is your thing, it's 3 hours to LA or 3.5 hours to NYC for a nice weekend. 

Museums - by far the best in the country. I go to the Kimbell as often as I can. Sorry, not sorry. 

Now Austin!

Austin is part of the silicon hills. Tech companies, start-ups, finance, energy...Austin is doing just fine. In fact they really had no part in the whole downturn, they just got bigger and better.

If live music and bbq are your thing, welcome home.

Austin is a great city, fueled by the constant influx of UT students/grads and imported high income jobs. Real estate is pretty crazy due to high demand and the larger incomes that keep showing up in the city. During SXSW you often see people wearing shirts saying "Welcome to Austin, Please Don't Move Here" because it really can be a great place to live. 

Hipsters and heroin

I have lived in Texas all of my life and have spent a good amount of time in both Austin and Dallas. I have also visited NYC, so I can compare it with Texas. The economy is great in Texas and the Great Recession has ceased in TX, and architecture firms are starting to boom again. With your experience, I don't think finding a job will be a problem. However, Texas is very different from New York. Compact development has never found its way in TX, and the transit systems down here are nothing compared to NY. 

Dallas is very spread out. Traffic is awful and you have to drive everywhere. You can't walk to the store or to work. There may be areas in downtown that you can, but most of Dallas is made of suburbs. Downtown is tiny and is wrapped with layers upon layers of suburbia. This is typical of Texas cities like Houston and San Antonio. However, Dallas is a nice city and has a night scene. Dallas also has terrible weather. They get humidity from their manmade lakes, snow, hail, thunderstorms, tornados, and sometimes floods. And Dallas is of course hot, but all of Texas is hot. I'm born here so it does not phase me, but I have heard complaints from Californians who moved here during the Great Recession. Texas in general has horrible allergies. I believe Houston, San Antonio, and Austin is worse than Dallas. Dallas also has great Museums, restaurants, and a nice downtown with great Modern Architecture from famous architects like Foster, Piano, and IM Pei. I like downtown Dallas, but hate the suburbs and weather. Dallas also has a decent transit system, though not as good as NY and Dallas has international architecture firms if you like to work internationally.

Austin is a different climate, it is not as humid and does not snow. It is also hotter. Although Austin has less people it is more congested because it only has one interstate. Austin has its own culture different from the rest of Texas. Austin is laid back, artsy, innovated, techy, and does its own thing. Austin is great for sustainable architecture and also has a night life. Downtown is walkable and Austin is far more walkable than Dallas. Austin is also big on historic preservation as the state capital. However, Austin does not have a good transit system. Overall I like Austin better than Dallas, although both are booming cities with growth and job opportunities.

Thank you all! It is very helpful.

I think I should plan a trip to both cities before I make a decision.