Truly, for me, the Hippie scene isn't that much of a drawback, I can ignore it. All big cities in Texas are sanctuary cities, including Houston, so that wouldn't put one over the other.
The geographical location of Austin, is much more desirable, because it is, well danged purty. The Hill Country is some of the prettiest country I have seen.
Houston CAN be nice, I suppose, if you are living in the right place, and you get a much better deal on gulf shrimp down there.