@Jaclyn B. Austin is wonderful but I bought y place there in 2009. I feel Austin was eat for buy and hold in 2009-2012ish. Now the prices have rebounded so much it's hard. Austin is an appreciation play but Columbus (can be) a cash flow town. Like Corey said there are rough neighborhoods in Columbus. The different is that a very rough neighborhood in Austin is $90-120k in Columbus a similar neighborhood is $7-30k. I am just now narrowing down but from what I can tell there are decent neighborhood with low to moderate crime in the $30-60k range so that's my focus in Columbus.
That said, I keep in good contact with my neighbors in Austin so if they want to sell hopefully I'll be one of the first to know because the rental market in Austin is much more in demand.
The demographics of Columbus and Austin are very similar on paper (capital, large university and lots of tech industry) BUT Columbus is no where near as affluent oand te downtown is just now becoming desirable so prices are lower. Because of climate I'm not sure columbus would ever be like Austin but my wallet is ok with the best tree cash flows to be had! Let's keep in touch for sure. I would love to have a contact on the ground in Austin and would be happy to be yours in columbus.