There is an old joke about Austin Duane.
Q: 'What's the best part about Austin?'
A: 'It's a 10 minute drive from Texas'
However, the area used to be focused around the university. Now it's grown a lot with the influx of high technology that flooded the region. Tesla, Samsung, Dell, IBM, Apple, etc. all have a large presence in the area.
Williamson County (about 1/2 the population of Travis County(Austin)), just north of Austin used to be a solid republican stronghold, was won by biden in 2020. That was a political shift that disturbed a lot of folks, and has served as a wake up to many.
Have some friends who sent their two daughters to UT (they are both grads). Her comment was that she sent two strong young women to Austin, UT sent back two sluts. The indoctrination that is going on at that state university is frightening these days. The drug culture is approaching San Francisco, Portland, Philadelphia type of places in it's scale. Homeless camps are a large source of problems are supported by the city/county while crime is largely ignored and covered up by LEO. All this on top of some of the highest tax rates and cost of living in Texas. For example, the average cost of a house in Austin is over $120K more than any other major city in Texas!