Jump to content
IGNORED

A thread to discuss Central Texas real estate


bestbike85

Recommended Posts

I'm a bit lucky in that I bought my first home last year for 228k. Zillow, which is where I saw the first time, was pretty near that same price for most of last year, but is now showing it as possibly as much as 280k. I haven't even been here a year yet. One of the things that led to this situation, or at least didn't help, is that new construction halted, or slowed quite a bit, over past year, leading to a dearth of new homes. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, TheX said:

Anyone that sells at these prices is smart to do it, as long as they can relocate at a more realistic price.

indeed! looking at the value of our home, we've considered selling and moving elsewhere... but where? where could I possibly want to live (and find employment) where I could not lose tons of money on the deal? probably nowhere!

Edited by mack_turtle
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

A little update here. 

We had a lead on a house opportunity from an old co worker of my wife’s. Her and her husband are retiring next year and we could have the first spot in line to purchase. We went visit this weekend and came out with the same unknowns. 

Wife and I went back to the drawing board. What exactly do we want? Where do we want to be? What’s the future about? 

We’re going start a family here in the next 2 years and I ultimately want to raise my kids the way I was raised (not in a major city). So as of right now we’re calling an audible and probably going to more rural Texas.

My career even before covid was mostly remote, now it’s completely remote and there’s no sign of it going back. Wife has better opportunities in more rural places with less demand anyway. She’s from the greater Waco area, so I think we’re trying to head there. 

The goal is to get into a home in the next 18 months, then acquire 40+ acres within 5 years (somewhere even more rural). Waco as a home makes that more than achievable. 

This is still fluid, but I am all in about ditching the major cities. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We are likely selling at some point. We already own land in Salida, CO, but construction material and labor costs are thru the roof, so we will have to wait 2-3 years before even thinking about building. We do own another house in Houston (near Rice, so not too sucky) which might do for a while - perhaps buy a nice van and do a little 'remote' working!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My realtor called me last week letting me know she had a client needing a place within the next 30 days, and they were getting desperate. Said she was willing to pay $130k more than what I bought my place for in 2018. It's pretty tempting to grab that cash, and run.  Thinking (hoping) this bubble will at least sustain another year or so and we'll list next spring. 

We don't own any second homes or property, so we'll have to be confident this is the right choice before buying again. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, ATXZJ said:

My realtor called me last week letting me know she had a client needing a place within the next 30 days, and they were getting desperate. Said she was willing to pay $130k more than what I bought my place for in 2018. It's pretty tempting to grab that cash, and run.  Thinking (hoping) this bubble will at least sustain another year or so and we'll list next spring. 

We don't own any second homes or property, so we'll have to be confident this is the right choice before buying again. 

 

How does that compare to Redfin and Zillow estimates?  I get two very different estimates.  Both way above 2003 purchase price, but I also think well above 2018 prices.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, TAF said:

We are likely selling at some point. We already own land in Salida, CO, but construction material and labor costs are thru the roof, so we will have to wait 2-3 years before even thinking about building. We do own another house in Houston (near Rice, so not too sucky) which might do for a while - perhaps buy a nice van and do a little 'remote' working!

no kidding! We need our roof re-done some time in the next year or two. one of the roofers with whom we've spoken will give a quote that's good for 45 days. after that, he says the price of material is so volatile that he'll need to reassess that quote to reflect the new, much higher price of everything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It started out with rising lumber prices, and quickly escalated into a complete lack of materials available (eg. joist hangars), then local contractors raising their prices as high as they could (my builder says this will not be forgotten when times are lean again) and in some cases simply entering into flat-out bidding wars. "You want your electric installed, so-and-so is paying x ... you need to outbid em". Not something I want any part of.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, TAF said:

It started out with rising lumber prices, and quickly escalated into a complete lack of materials available (eg. joist hangars), then local contractors raising their prices as high as they could (my builder says this will not be forgotten when times are lean again) and in some cases simply entering into flat-out bidding wars. "You want your electric installed, so-and-so is paying x ... you need to outbid em". Not something I want any part of.

ugh. more inspiration to learn more DIY. I am not about to re-shingle my roof, but I'll try to do everything else on my own. I found a broken PVC pipe in my yard this week and "fixed" it myself. after four trips to Home Depot and $60 in tools and parts, I think it's good. probably won't impress any actual plumbers, but I am pleased.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, mack_turtle said:

ugh. more inspiration to learn more DIY. I am not about to re-shingle my roof, but I'll try to do everything else on my own. I found a broken PVC pipe in my yard this week and "fixed" it myself. after four trips to Home Depot and $60 in tools and parts, I think it's good. probably won't impress any actual plumbers, but I am pleased.

You don’t need to reshingle your roof, I have had a dozen people call me this week about it.

I just tell them I don’t have a roof.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, mack_turtle said:

no kidding! We need our roof re-done some time in the next year or two. one of the roofers with whom we've spoken will give a quote that's good for 45 days. after that, he says the price of material is so volatile that he'll need to reassess that quote to reflect the new, much higher price of everything.

I got a quote for a fence and it was only good for 2 weeks!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, mack_turtle said:

Just found a listing for a house with the exact same floorplan as ours and is three blocks away. It's been nicely modernized but the list price is $600k. That's over three times what we paid 7 years ago.

That's pretty crazy. It's awesome, but I'd probably be willing to pay that to never have to move again. We paid $165K for our house 14 years ago, and I swore I'd never move again if I could help it.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, mack_turtle said:

Just found a listing for a house with the exact same floorplan as ours and is three blocks away. It's been nicely modernized but the list price is $600k. That's over three times what we paid 7 years ago.

We are easily 6X what we paid in 1997. So you are doing much better off in a short period of time.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, Barry said:

There is a ton of new construction going on at Wolf Ranch in Georgetown. Looks like modern and sizeable homes in the 250-500 range.

We were there 2 weeks ago speaking with the sale agent.  He said nothing is available its currently all sold out.  He would not even be able to discuss anything with us for 6 mos.  THEN...if were able to get ahold of a lot for the next phase it would take 18 mos to get the house completed.  So he said that we'd need to be on a 18 mo to 2 yr time frame starting now.  AND EVEN THEN, he talked about how challenging it may be to actually secure a lot given how packed the wait list is.

Just and FYI for any of you all...

Cheers,
CJB

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And to keep with the theme of increasing home values....

I house on the other side of our hood just got locked in at $100k over asking price, landing at $730k!!  It was a slightly smaller house, with less updates that ours.  That price would more than double the price of our home in under 4 yrs. (and we are in a school district that is less than sought-after).

cRaZiNeSs

-CJB

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, CBaron said:

And to keep with the theme of increasing home values....

I house on the other side of our hood just got locked in at $100k over asking price

So counting on this^

Never in a million years did I think our place would be valued almost $200k than what we paid for it in 2018. We were thinking we'd have to turn it over to a property management company as a rental, and take a loss on it every month😳

Edited by ATXZJ
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man!  I've been watching bike races in Europe and every time I do that, I go look and see how much it would cost to buy a place there.  It's soooo cheap.  I recently found a 2 bedroom apartment in the Alps region of France, shuttle ride to the lift.  It has a management contract until March 2022 (so you make rental income) only 80k Euros.  Found other stuff as well for 1/5 to 1/3 the cost of here.    I'd love to give it a shot living in Europe for a while. A friend did it...was going to be for 1 year in Madrid and ended up spending 7 years there then a couple of years in Woking, Surrye, UK.  They loved it.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, AntonioGG said:

Man!  I've been watching bike races in Europe and every time I do that, I go look and see how much it would cost to buy a place there.  It's soooo cheap.  I recently found a 2 bedroom apartment in the Alps region of France, shuttle ride to the lift.  It has a management contract until March 2022 (so you make rental income) only 80k Euros.  Found other stuff as well for 1/5 to 1/3 the cost of here.    I'd love to give it a shot living in Europe for a while. A friend did it...was going to be for 1 year in Madrid and ended up spending 7 years there then a couple of years in Woking, Surrye, UK.  They loved it.

Please keep sharing this info!  We've got a Sr & Jr and once the Jr graduates we may find ourselves stepping out on something.  Don't know for sure what that would look like, but my wife has long since wanted to try living in Europe.  Agreeing on the location may be the challenge...she prefers Italy, I'd like Spain (Gerona) or Germany.  I'd also be interested in Central America.  I've been to Costa Rica before and while it was pretty great (ca 1998), I feel its also become too popular now.

 

9 minutes ago, AntonioGG said:

8FE30490-6D50-4407-816E-9A5986C742A3.jpeg

 

We live in the 78727 zip code and it looks like our zip may have increased the most.  My theory is that its because our houses were generally cheaper than the other zip codes, thus demand has risen our prices at a greater %.  I watched a video a few weeks back stating that there WILL NOT be a bubble burst here in the foreseeable future.  Primary evidence for that was the fact that most of the 'hyped companies' who have announced their coming to ATX have not had those people/jobs arrive yet (Oracle, Tesla, Boring Company, new Apple campus).

Buckle up, the rocket is going to continue climbing!

-CJB

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, CBaron said:

Please keep sharing this info!  We've got a Sr & Jr and once the Jr graduates we may find ourselves stepping out on something.  Don't know for sure what that would look like, but my wife has long since wanted to try living in Europe.  Agreeing on the location may be the challenge...she prefers Italy, I'd like Spain (Gerona) or Germany.  I'd also be interested in Central America.  I've been to Costa Rica before and while it was pretty great (ca 1998), I feel its also become too popular now.

Having lived in Mexico, and with a cousin in Ecuador, the idea of living in South/America or Mexico (big chunk above tropic of Cancer and all far from Equator) is nice but the reality is harsh.  Living abroad gives you a perspective on the nice things we take for granted here (we water our lawns with freaking potable water!) and the things we are missing here (je ne sais quoi).  I stayed in an old hacienda in Guanajuato (I highly recommend visiting central Mexico) owned by a couple of Americans from San Diego.  I'm talking about 100+ year old properties that were being sold for cheap in the 2000's.  Maybe $100k, sink another $100k into repair and either live there or turn it into a b&b.  This is the place I've stayed in and highly recommend it:  https://www.casadeespiritusalegres.com Not sure what they go for now.   Almost like an Andy dream from Shawshank dream, fixing up an old place and entertaining Americans.

To my point, lot of things are really nice in Mexico but there are frustrating things, everyday things, like doing business, etc.   

Europe-wise, I have a colleague that lived in Barcelona.  He recommends it.  I asked him "France or Spain"  He did not hesitate to answer France.  As a cyclist though, Girona would be awesome.  I also just finished watching G.P. Miguel Indurain and the region they went through has 2000 miles of MTB trails according to them. I need to find out more details about that!  The cool thing about Europe (and one reason why my friends enjoyed it so much) is that everything is so close and connected by great trains.  So you could go visit a different country on long weekends.

My wife and I are looking at smaller places in central Austin now.  The prices are on par with what we could get for our house now, but we think maybe buy now and rent it out while our son finishes HS.  I've also been looking at lots in NW Arkansas.  So cheap I wanted to do it just for the fun of saying I'm a property owner in Arkansas.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, AntonioGG said:

Living abroad gives you a perspective on the nice things we take for granted here

Amen to that. I would like to live in Perth W.A. and even though I can get a job easily, the cost of living is staggering. I loved living in the PI, but I'm not 20 and single anymore.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...