15,068 tax returns (27,449 people including dependents) moved from Louisiana to Texas in the 2022-2023 IRS migration year, carrying $858,514,000 in adjusted gross income.
Louisiana to Austin is an oil-and-gas story most of the time and a New Orleans exile story the rest. Twenty-seven thousand people, mostly from the Baton Rouge and Lafayette corridors plus a steady NOLA trickle. The energy industry bridge between the two states is the quietest major pipeline in American migration and it has been running for forty years.
Why this move happens
Two overlapping groups. First, energy and engineering professionals following the Texas-based majors and the growing Austin clean-energy and battery startup scene. Second, New Orleans knowledge workers priced or storm-ed out of a city that insurance is quietly abandoning. Both groups are financially literate, both are looking at the long Texas property math without flinching, and both tend to land in Austin without drama.
The math below is built for a typical two-person, one-house, one-car household clearing $150,000 gross. Your line items will move around. The Austin guide has a calculator you can run with your actual numbers; this page is the context the calculator cannot give you.
The money: Louisiana vs. Austin, TX
Annual line items, $150K household, $450K home, one car. State averages, not quotes.
| Line item | Louisiana | Austin, TX | Delta | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State + local income tax | $4,800 | $0 | $-4,800 | $150K household. Texas has no income tax. |
| Property tax | $2,295 | $8,100 | +$5,805 | $450K home. Effective rate 0.51% vs 1.80%. |
| Homeowners + auto insurance | $6,936 | $6,684 | $-252 | State-average full-coverage auto plus HO3 homeowners. |
| Utilities (electric + gas + water) | $3,420 | $3,540 | +$120 | Monthly average multiplied by 12. |
| Sales tax (on $28K taxable spend) | $2,811 | $2,296 | $-515 | Combined state plus average local. |
| Annual total (these lines only) | $20,262 | $20,620 | +$358 |
On these five lines, the Austin move runs $358 more expensive per year than staying in Louisiana. That ignores housing cost and a dozen smaller lines like HOA, childcare, and groceries.
If the five-line math does not land in your favor, the case for this move has to be made on housing cost, career opportunity, or lifestyle fit. Not taxes.
Housing: what Louisiana money actually buys
Louisiana home prices look cheap and become expensive once insurance is priced in. The Austin premium on the house itself is real. The Austin discount on protecting it more than covers it for most NOLA movers. Baton Rouge and Lafayette are a different story. Those markets are cheaper on both sides of the ledger.
Where Louisiana movers land professionally
The LSU and Tulane alumni networks in Austin are larger than most transplants realize. Reach out before the move, not after. The energy industry overlap makes the career landing softer here than for almost any other origin.
Common landing employers for Louisiana movers
- ExxonMobil Austin-area operations
- Tesla battery and energy teams
- oil-and-gas consultancies on 360 and Mopac
- Dell Technologies
- state government roles tied to the Texas Railroad Commission and energy regulators
Climate shock: what changes when you leave Louisiana
Summer high average in Louisiana: 91°F. In Austin: 96°F. Winter low: 42° vs. 42°. Annual snowfall: 0" vs. 0.6".
Louisiana is subtropical with no winter. Austin is 100+ days above 90F. Winter mild but ice storms 1-2x/decade.. Visit in August before you sign anything, not in March when the weather is flattering the city.
New Orleans and Austin both have real summer. New Orleans is wetter, Austin is hotter. The rain patterns are different: New Orleans gets afternoon showers all summer. Austin gets one rain event a month and then nothing. Water the yard.
Things Louisiana movers do not expect
- Austin food is very good and completely different. Tex-Mex, barbecue, and a young pan-Asian scene are the core. Cajun and Creole are rare and expensive when you find them.
- The music scene is real but the register is wrong. Austin is singer-songwriter and rock. New Orleans is brass and jazz. Do not come expecting to find the equivalent of a Thursday at Maple Leaf.
- Mardi Gras does not meaningfully exist. Austin does SXSW and ACL and neither is a cultural equivalent. This is a big adjustment for New Orleans movers specifically.
- The drinking culture is drier. Texas is a bar state but not a daytime state the way Louisiana is.
- The humidity drops and it is a relief. Your hair will behave. Your AC bill will be lower for the same cooling.
The social rebuild
Louisiana movers tend to join the LSU and Tulane watch parties at St. Elmo Brewing or Roger Beer Garden the first football Saturday. That is a reasonable on-ramp. The faster path is often through church, if that is your framework, because the Louisiana Catholic network in Austin is larger than the demographics suggest.
The regret pattern, if it comes
The Louisiana regret is almost always cultural, not financial. The transplants who stay past year three are the ones who stop trying to find New Orleans inside Austin and start meeting Austin on its terms. The ones who go back go back for family, the food, and a specific kind of street.
Return flow context
In the same year, 19,642 people moved from Texas back to Louisiana. Roughly one person goes the other way for every 1 who make your move. That is the flow you are joining.
The return rate from Austin to Louisiana is small but older. It skews retirees and empty-nesters who moved in their fifties, not young professionals.
Five things a Louisiana transplant wishes someone had told them
- Hurricane insurance savings in Texas are real. Grid insurance is not a product yet and the February 2021 and 2026 cold snaps are a reminder.
- If you are coming from a flood-prone NOLA ZIP, get your lender elevation certificate squared before you close on an Austin home in a floodplain. Some central-Austin lots are still technically floodway.
- Austin property tax notice season is April through May. You have a right to protest and most homeowners who protest save real money. Do it.
- The NOLA foods you will miss most are roast beef po-boys, proper raw oysters, and decent boudin. Lambert's and Quality Seafood take a swing. Nothing else does.
- The commute culture is less forgiving. No drinking and driving the way some NOLA neighborhoods bend the rules. Texas enforces.
The Louisiana to Austin move, in four lines
- Volume. 27,449 people in a single tax year. This is a measurable wave.
- Net annual delta on five lines. $358 more per year for a $150K household. Housing is separate and usually larger.
- Climate. Summer is +5°F hotter than Louisiana on average.
- Timeline. Eighteen to twenty-four months to feeling at home. Year one is mostly logistics.