"Austin Weird" (Dallas, Clarksville: for sale, condos, motel)

[malarkey]

Originally Posted by TheHarvester

Driving up prices so that people like you can't afford to live there?

Good point, however I'm not bringing buttloads of equity in, in fact, I'm not bringing any equity in, I'll be a first time buyer.

However, twange is right about people fixing up crack houses~ even if they are making only marginal incomes and have no savings, the fact that they *can* spend something on fixing up a place will label them as "yuppies" to some. The trick is to fix up the inside only and let the outside look like hell.

[b. frank]

So, is there any way to purchase property in a "weird" area without "driving up prices"? What about people who like Austin's weirdness and want to live among it but who are not willing to settle for 500 sft and who want to own their own space? I'm sorry to tell you, Harvester, but people like us are already very priced out of 78704, and this has been the case since I first arrived in Austin about 2 yrs ago. So it's down the road to 78745 for me. The zip code is largely ignored by people on this forum - guess it's not very attractive to new buyers. Without going into details, I'll say that my neighborhood has a definite "weird" feel to it and it also lacks expensive trendiness. I would invite people seeking out affordable weirdness to come look in my area but this forum has scared me into feeling like my neighborhood is an undiscovered gem that needs to stay hidden. Anyway, savvy people looking for weirdness will find it on their own. This forum is clearly for people who either want to live in the 'burbs or have 300k+ to spend on a house. But those are not the only options left.

[TheHarvester]

Originally Posted by twange

...it was the East that caught my eye(even though relatives in Austin have been heavily discouraging that idea). As I started researching, I found a lot of articles about the backlash going on there.
...Check out this link:

I checked out that link and want to quote from it:
Displacement, whether by the bulldozer of urban renewal or by market forces, is the most hated aspect of gentrification, because it is essentially an act of force. It denies self-determination to an existing community.
I think this is total BS. I was one of those "yuppies" who literally lived in a converted crack house on the east side, and I was enthusiastically embraced by the African-Americans in my area. It's the PC white people who think they're really hip who do all the spray-painting of stop signs. I gave people jobs. I helped people improve the quality of their lives in many ways in my decade of living in east Austin, and the only problems I ever had were with white liberals who pawned off their own guilt for living in a Black neighborhood by attacking those of us who actually tended to our yards, EMPLOYED people, and fixed up our houses.

Prices and taxes go up, but the price of those taxes compared to the rising equity of the home owners who paid off their mortgages many years ago, forget about it. I think the whole anti-gentrification movement is just PC garbage, an excuse for some to complain about being victims and others to feel self-righteous. Gentrification is a positive thing if you include your neighbors in the process of self-improvement. On the other hand, if you're a developer who forces people out and destroys the character of a neighborhood, that's a different story. But anyone who improves a ghetto area while being an active part of the community is contributing positively to everyone in that neighborhood who isn't a crack addict or dealer.

Originally Posted by b. frank

So, is there any way to purchase property in a "weird" area without "driving up prices"? What about people who like Austin's weirdness and want to live among it but who are not willing to settle for 500 sft and who want to own their own space? I'm sorry to tell you, Harvester, but people like us are already very priced out of 78704, and this has been the case since I first arrived in Austin about 2 yrs ago. So it's down the road to 78745 for me.

Why would you be "sorry to tell" me what I already know about the 04 zip code? It's out of my price range too, except for my willingness to squeeze into 400 sq. ft. of funky space in the low-end of the market.

Prices are determined by supply and demand. There is no way to buy property without improving value in that area unless you destroy your property and cause your street to look like a dump. And some people actually do that. It's not just a Texas thing. One of my brothers lives in rural northern VT and there are a lot of people with lots of money out in those woods. They have a "wink wink" attitude about trashing their front yards in order to keep their property taxes lower, and it works!

[malarkey]

Originally Posted by TheHarvester

I checked out that link and want to quote from it:
...It denies self-determination to an existing community.

I'm not sure I know what the hell that means.

It's always seemed to me that those being 'displaced,' *if they owned property in said neighborhood* will be walking away with a wad of cash because of the rising equity. Even if they have low incomes and can't afford to keep up with the taxes and are forced to leave, they aren't walking away empty handed... yes? no?

I agree with you Harvester, if you are in the community and actively making it better, how can it be a bad thing?

[twange]

Originally Posted by TheHarvester

But anyone who improves a ghetto area while being an active part of the community is contributing positively to everyone in that neighborhood who isn't a crack addict or dealer.

Yes. You would think this would be obvious, but there seems to be a cool factor in yuppie-bashing by those who somehow think they have a more authentic connection to a bad part of town

[TheHarvester]

Originally Posted by twange

...there seems to be a cool factor in yuppie-bashing by those who somehow think they have a more authentic connection to a bad part of town

That's for sure. I've seen that everywhere I live. It's a contradiction I have to deal with in myself because I tend to be attracted to people who are outside the mainstream, very liberal and creative and "hip." But those are often the same people who are so anti-Bush that they would support Islamism just to spite Republicans, they're the same people who are so politically correct that they cannot see that The White Man is NOT the cause of problems in the Black community through racism but rather our policies to try to "help" are more of a cause of the problems.

LBJ's Great Society was probably the single biggest setback for African-Americans since slavery. He introduced them to a new kind of bondage: dependency on government programs and guilty white liberals. And it destroyed many thriving Black neighborhoods, replacing them with Stalinist housing developments that became so blighted they had to be torn down. The greatest hope for Black America lies within their own people, millions of whom are pioneering their own way to a new life in spite of the good intentions of government programs. That's one of many reasons I'm supporting Barak Obama for president.

"Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong..." (Dennis Miller's rant-closing line)

[Trainwreck20]

Umm.....can we be weird without politics? It usually becomes a mess .

[twange]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

...politics? It usually becomes a mess .

Man, that's an understatement

[fil]

You lost me at the zip codes...

So is it all condos in 78704 and 78745?

I used austinhomesearch.com with unlimited price and did not see anything on interest.

I like looking at property.

[b. frank]

Fil,
You can't rely on generic online house searches to show you available properties. The only useful ones are those that require you to "sign-up" and then you might be provided with good MLS listings of available properties because an actual person (realtor) will refine your search and provide you with listings that match your search parameters. There are definitely single-family homes in both zip codes - not just condos.