About this series: The Cost of Living will explore how Austin became so expensive, who is being squeezed by the city’s economic boom and what local leaders are — or aren’t — doing to address it.
I n 1988, Robert Thayer packed his keyboard, his cat and everything else he owned into a Ford LTD coupe and drove east from El Paso to Austin.
Like a lot of young musicians at the time, he had heard the same promise: if you wanted to make it in music, Austin was the place to be…