What is your budget for central Austin by HHI? (Spring: real estate market, rentals)

[balor123]

Curious what house budget people consider comfortable for buying in central Austin. What is your ~HHI and what price would you be willing to spend now? What would you consider to be comfortable with a HHI of $200k?

[centralaustinite]

What the heck is HHI?

Herfindahl-Hirschman index? are you interested in market concentration? I don't see how that applies to an individual buying a home.

[sojourner77]

HHI = Household Income.

For 200K DINKS? I would consider 600K comfortable if you want to pay it off in 30 years.

with kids? (-) $50K per kid

If you want ot pay it off in 10 years? Then 400K if you're a DINK, same rules about the kids.

[balor123]

You saying to reduce that amount by $50k/kid or increase it?

[centralaustinite]

I don't think that household income alone is a sensible measure. What about savings? investments etc. Total net worth maybe? I don't know. For us, we always want to own at least 20% of our home, so a substantial down payment and no PMI. And I just get unhappy when my property taxes starting getting closer to $20K a year instead of $10K. We never escrow, always pay in lump sum. Lots of individual factors to consider.

[sojourner77]

Originally Posted by balor123

You saying to reduce that amount by $50k/kid or increase it?

Reduce it. Kids cost money. If I didn't have kids, I would have spent more on my house than I did.

[austinnative69]

I agree with centralaustinite. My family can be comfortable living in Brentwood (i know, right on the edge of Central Austin) in a 2000 sqft house with two kids, on a single income. The difference is this is my third house so i could easily put 20% down. Also interest rates at 3.25% are a gift.

[gpurcell]

What is the stability of the income?

If reasonably so, I wouldn't see the problem with a 500K-600K mortgage.

As far as willing to spend, you'll be surprised how far $500K does NOT go in Central Austin these days.

[eirenecat]

$500k doesn't even go that far in North/Northwest Austin. My husband and I were willing to spend up to $500k in 78759/78750/78731. I naively, stupidly thought (before we started looking 3 mos ago) that for that budget we could get a great 2400+ sq ft house that would not need renovation. Instead we've seen a lot of truly fascinating time capsules from the 70-90s, often replete with original carpeting (I've seen dark green and maroon), eye-burning floral wallpaper, wood paneling and cracked Formica countertops. Most houses have had little if any make-ready done. The one house we looked at in Great Hills for $509k that had been truly tastefully remodeled inside had literally a giant mulch pit for the entirety of the backyard. Not a shred of grass or any living plant--just mud and mulch.

I'm not willing to spend at the top of our budget and need to drop another $50k to bring these houses into the modern age. I know this is what buyers here are paying but it *feels* like a rip off to me--and shame on me for not figuring out what was happening in our real estate market 3-4 years ago and buying something better then when our budget would have gone farther. I remember seeing a gorgeous house at the top of Aralia Drive in Jester that was in the mid-300s in 2010. $490k in Jester now gets you the 1980s green carpeting.

I've lived in Austin for 30 years, and prior to buying the house we live in in Quail Creek right now I always lived in (rentals) in Crestview or Central East Austin. I am not a suburban kinda girl by nature but we are thinking now that 78729 and the RR ISD portion of Wells Branch doesn't look so bad. I don't really feel that the house quality of the $500k houses on the Spicewood Springs side of 183 are worth $200k more than the $300k houses a mile or two across on the McNeil side in Hunters Chase.

[riaelise]

You can find things thin your budget in many zip codes in Austin. You're jut not going to get everything on your shopping list. It's as simple as that. People don't have to remodel in a sellers market and if that's what you want, then be prepared to pay an exorbitant amount.

As first HHI for central Austin, it varies. People with larger HHIs could afford homes that are actually homes not dollhouses masquerading as SFhs.