If I was moving there it would be into Austin itself. I've been twice to visit friends and enjoyed it both times. The downtown bar/nightclub area (6th street) is an assortment of different types of clubs with gay and straight intermingled with everything else down there. Austin has UT, and you could also consider College Station with TAMU though I think Austin would be more interesting and more gay-friendly.

I don't know pricing, but I know Texas is cheaper than a lot of other areas in the US.