Second-Best City to move for startups
Mz: Some years back, I knew someone with a hacker career who bought one of those "Best Places" books and used the CD that came with it to do some custom searches for someplace low cost, high tech.  Much to their frustration and chagrin, no matter how they tweaked it, the results showing low cost places with good opportunities for high tech jobs strongly favored Texas.Obviously, the data is old.  But I would think Texas is still your best bet for family-friendly prices and access to the tech scene.  The state is quite large, so there are several large cities you could look at.  All you would need to do would be to confirm this general trend, then check out which of the larger cities had the other factors you are looking for.  (I personally would avoid Houston.  It's horribly polluted.  But that's just me.)  So I don't think Austin is a bad idea at all.Good luck with this.EDIT:  You can do some city comparisons here for free:  http://www.bestplaces.net/