Is Austin as great as the top 10 lists say? (Dallas: real estate market, appliances)

[Raggy dee Ann]

No s*t and all these years I thought of it as Palmer???? My faux pas. In any case shi shi area or not, Austin is a really cool place to live, however one thing I have discovered is that you don't limit the quality of your life to your particular "hood"...it's all there...

[DWong]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

It's Parmer.
scong has a point. The 'cool' Austin is expensive. Probably less expensive than a similar amount of coolness in LA/NY/DC, but still pretty darn expensive.

What does this "cool" part of cost in TX? Just a few numbers; a 3 bedroom 5 bath home relatively avg size is listed for 25million. Granted it's on a beach, but no lot, small home... 25 million, buys you what in Austin?

NY/LA - Cool parts 2 bed 2bath 1400 sqft you're looking at 3-5 million (and that's low balling most places).

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by DWong

NY/LA - Cool parts 2 bed 2bath 1400 sqft you're looking at 3-5 million (and that's low balling most places).

What is your definition of cool? I grew up in Silverlake (LA neighborhood) that was really "cool" a couple of years back (in fact, I am going to totally name drop here, but my little sister used to be super close friends with Beck Hanson when they were teenagers and dated his little brother Channing for a while) I suppose it got really cool when Madonna bought a house there in the late 90's.

Our old house which is a little bit bigger than that (3 beds, two baths, 1790sqare feet) shows up on Zillow as 777,000K. So I am not sure what your definition of cool is. Needless, to say, 777k is still a bit out of my budget so I don't think that I could move back to my old neighborhood.

It seem like you can find some small houses in the central Austin area north of 500K.

[mimimomx3]

I guess this is my definition of cool:

Listing Details
$4.9MM in Tarrytown on the lake (you may be late on that one, it's sale pending)

Listing Details
$1.9MM in Travis Heights, 1890 mansion totally restored

Listing Details
$13MM in Westlake (not my kind of cool, but maybe for some) from the pages of architectural digest...

Listing Details
$12MM in Northwest Hills on Lake Austin, amazing views

That's the Austin that makes the list that few here can afford....

[scongress1234]

Originally Posted by Raggy dee Ann

Seriously, if you live on Palmer and McNeil yet can't spell Palmer and can't see beyond the view from your bathroom.....you deserve to be miserable...there is an Austin and lovely surroundigns beyond your intersection. It aint that bad

....again, only someone waxing from afar can lust after the city like all the people who say they can't wait to move here....yes, it has its beauty....I never denied that...however, after all is said, the city doubled in pop the last 10 years, and that was dealt with by creating 150 mega-apartment complexes, 500 big-box stores, and reams of strip-malls........the old Austin is still pretty, but its getting overwhelmed by the new, along with the road infrastructure.
The old Austin, the central city, from say 45th north, around UT, to maybe a few miles south of DT, is the Austin everyone has in mind. This is where all the funky, unique things are. The cool area was just as large, and MORE unique, when the population was 400,000 25 years or so back..now, that area
itself is even getting diluted, and you have this HUGE, overwhelming addition of 150 new strip malls, and even more mega-apartment complexes, all over the north and near north, and a bit of the south.......It's sorta like a filled donut, with all the good stuff in the small middle, and all the junky stuff forming the rest of the donut....

My question is, how much longer can the city as a whole stay unique when they just pave over and junk up the metro with a zillion more franchises
and out of area stores? I really don't think Austin was meant to get much bigger than 500K or so, and I think they are just overstuffing it out of sheer greed with all the new developments, traffic, and big-boxes, and ruining the old ambience with a Tempe/Houston/LA/Orlando big-box/franchise sprawl.
And what kills me is that it seems to never stop, with some predicting Austin peaking at 1,000,000 in 6-7 years or less.
Sorry, I just don't get it, but maybe its just me....


I think ALL of texas has something to offer as well as Austin....in fact, I think you can best understand Austin in that context, as a central rallying and pivot point fot the rest of the state. I think we belittle Austin when we sell it to outsiders without its proper context as a central focus for the rest of the state, actually more so than many states. It is the one thing that folks from dallas, houston, and the rest can have in common and rally around, and the place that makes them feel most texan, and proud of the same. When they sell the city as if it was floating in its own cloud, unconnected to the whole that is Texas, we belittle the city, and distort its meaning.
I guess the best way to say it is Austin IS Texas, to a large extent. I Hope this makes sense to someone out there.....

[DWong]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

What is your definition of cool? I grew up in Silverlake (LA neighborhood) that was really "cool" a couple of years back (in fact, I am going to totally name drop here, but my little sister used to be super close friends with Beck Hanson when they were teenagers and dated his little brother Channing for a while) I suppose it got really cool when Madonna bought a house there in the late 90's.

Well, cool wouldn't be the world - maybe exclusive... but again I guess exclusively rich would be a better word.

Our old house which is a little bit bigger than that (3 beds, two baths, 1790sqare feet) shows up on Zillow as 777,000K. So I am not sure what your definition of cool is. Needless, to say, 777k is still a bit out of my budget so I don't think that I could move back to my old neighborhood.
Wow, 777k. Well that is slightly higher than median in LA, so needless to say, it's got a ways to go. I'm sure a nice home in nice area. Having lived here all my life, drive up the 5 or 1 from san Diego through Santa Barbara, going about 3 hours and you have nothing short of 1 millions smackers. In fact, I bet the median along that part of the country is more likely to 4 to 5 million. Avg size probably around 2,000 sq ft, 3 beds 2 baths. Literally a stretch of homes cramped about 1/2 mile from the coast running as long as Houston to Dallas.
It seem like you can find some small houses in the central Austin area north of 500K.

REally? small houses running for 500k in TX? I never knew that existed except maybe in Dallas high rises?

[DWong]

I must say very nice homes! I guess living here in SoCal, I'm not used to seeing such big homes on acres of land. What impressed me the most was the interior. That is where much of the cost probably is, plus the amount of land.
Question, I see the median cost of a home is about to crest 200k in Austin. What does exactly buy u? With those multimillion dollar homes why is the median so low? Who is buying those homes?

Guess the thing that bites on those homes would be the taxes.. eek what is 3% of 5 million????? 150k a year?

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

I guess this is my definition of cool:

Listing Details
$4.9MM in Tarrytown on the lake (you may be late on that one, it's sale pending)

Listing Details
$1.9MM in Travis Heights, 1890 mansion totally restored

Listing Details
$13MM in Westlake (not my kind of cool, but maybe for some) from the pages of architectural digest...

Listing Details
$12MM in Northwest Hills on Lake Austin, amazing views

That's the Austin that makes the list that few here can afford....

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by DWong

REally? small houses running for 500k in TX? I never knew that existed except maybe in Dallas high rises?

I am not really sure what you mean. Do you mean that you didn't think small houses existed in Texas? Or that small houses were that pricey? When we lived in Austin back in the late nineties, there were plenty of 1200 square foot houses in central Austin going for 250K. When I was down there in April meeting with a realtor, she told me that those same houses were going for closer to 500K now.

I think you, the other poster, and I are all using the term cool differently. When I hear cool, I think bohemian and funky ala Melrose in the eighties (I guess I am dating myself) Based on what you are describing, cool to you means very high end.

Wikipedia says about Silver lake
"Silver Lake is a district east of Hollywood in the City of Los Angeles, California. Silver Lake is inhabited by a wide variety of ethnicities and socioeconomic groups, but it is best known as an eclectic gathering of the creative class. Silver Lake is known for its bohemian vibe, mix of class levels, and neighborhood feel. Silver Lake contains some of the most famous modernist architecture in the United States."

I think Wikepedia's description is pretty apt to how I remember it, and in my book bohemian vibe with modern architecture is pretty cool

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by DWong

Question, I see the median cost of a home is about to crest 200k in Austin. What does exactly buy u? With those multimillion dollar homes why is the median so low?

Multimillion dollar homes are outliers so while they would affect the mean(average) they have little to no bearing on the median (the point where there are just as many homes above as below a certain level). Are you asking who buys the big, high end homes?
Dellionaires and the like.
Or who buys the median priced homes? The middle class. That's the great thing about Austin, there is still a middle class that can afford to live there as homeowners. Unlike, LA and most of Southern California for that matter, the Bay area, Seattle, DC, ect, etc, ect.

I am guessing that 200k would buy you a decent 3 bedroom 2 bath rambler type home in the suburbs or maybe an older condo in town. I am not really sure because that wasn't the price range I was investigating while down there.

[love roses]

200K out in the suburbs in some neighborhoods can get you 5 or 6 bedrooms.