Trading OC for Austin seems funny to me. I’m strongly considering moving there from my cold state if things fall into place. OC is one of the nicer areas of SoCal that’s also relatively affordable.
I’ve never heard of someone refer to OC as “affordable”. It’s one of the least affordable counties in the US [0]. Travis county (Austin) homes are less than half the price [1].
[0] https://www.attomdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Top-10-...
[1] https://www.redfin.com/county/2866/TX/Travis-County/housing-...