NBR - Austin cost of living

billybumbler

Is anyone from the Austin area? My company is thinking about offering a program for an employee to study for a semester there. I need to have an idea of cost of living there, to see what kind of stipend we have to offer for the employee to live on. 

Keep in mind the person would be living a kind of student life, i.e. they wouldn't be relocating there permanently and it's more geared towards younger employees without families. So the stipend would basically have to cover rent, utility bills, food and transportation. Health insurance would not have to paid by the employee.

For similar programs in other cities we give a US$ 3.600 a month stipend. Would that be enough? 

Thanks so much in advance!

kbl13

Have you checked out the Cost of Living calculators/comparisons on websites like salary.com and bankrate.com? Those are what I've used in the past to research relocations. Bankrate is nice bc it breaks down specifics from avg home prices and repair costs to clothing and food for each location.

billybumbler

Thanks for the tip @kbl13, I will look into that!