We're not sure if the celebrity-sightings-per-square-foot are comparable, but NeighborhoodX, a data-crunching, real-estate-focused site run by Constantine Valhouli, offers a fascinating map to make the case for various international neighborhoods in terms of their housing cost equivalence to Austin.
If you live, say, in South Austin—particularly in Bouldin or Zilker—check out your neighborhood's equivalents in Spain. Pretty sexy.
We're not sure why (that's NeighborhoodX's job, maybe), but purchase price points in many central Austin equate to those in either tropical, north Mediterranean (Clarksville, Brentwood, South Lamar=Nassau, Turks & Caicos, Lisbon) or Eastern Europe locations (Prague, Budapest). Edinburgh, Scotland, is also a frequent point of comparison.
Check out the full comparison map here. But be warned: It's highly addictive.