The move

Moving from Austin to Asheville, NC

For everyone who moved to Austin for the weird and watched it leave: it's alive and well at 2,100 feet.

Austin skyline

Photo: Quintin Soloviev via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

What changes for you

Austin

Asheville

State housing law

No statewide law

No statewide law

Asheville and Buncombe ordinances cover jobs and public places, not housing

State income tax

No state income tax

Flat, low

Flat 3.99% for 2026, scheduled to drop to 3.49% in 2027

Summer / winter

96° / 38°

July high / January low, Austin Bergstrom Airport

85° / 29°

July high / January low, Asheville Regional Airport. NOAA 1991–2020 normals.

The receiving end

Austin's old promise — cheap, weird, unbothered — left with the tech money and the traffic it brought. Asheville sits about 1,600 feet higher and is a fraction of the size, but it's holding onto the version of that promise Austin used to make: live music you can still get into, a food scene that punches above its zip code, and a downtown that hasn't been entirely rebuilt in glass. Texas transplants tend to notice the elevation before anything else — the summers are shorter and milder, and 100 degrees is close to unheard of here (the airport's all-time record is 100°F, set in 1983).

Questions people ask before moving from Austin

About 950 miles and 14.5 hours by car — most people fly. Allegiant has run seasonal nonstops between Austin and Asheville Regional (AVL); outside that, expect one connection.
Texas has no state income tax, which North Carolina doesn't match — but Asheville's overall cost of living and housing market aren't a clear discount either. See the full cost of living breakdown before assuming either way.
That's the pitch a lot of Austin transplants make to themselves — live music you can still get into, a food scene that punches above its zip code, and a downtown that hasn't been entirely rebuilt in glass. The elevation is the first thing most Texans notice: shorter, milder summers, with July highs averaging about 85°F and 100 degrees close to unheard of.
Neither state has comprehensive statewide LGBTQ+ protections. We've laid out North Carolina's actual patchwork of federal, state, and local protections — including Asheville's own nondiscrimination ordinance — on our LGBTQ+ rights and protections page.

Keep reading

Thinking about making the Austin-to-Asheville move?

Researching an LGBTQ+ move to Asheville

Where to next

The honest field guide to moving here: neighborhoods, costs, and the mistakes transplants make.

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