Another one of those annoying relocation posts... (Austin, Huntsville: sales, real estate)

[sliverbox]

So.. I hate to say this, but... I'm yet ANOTHER one of those Californians that might possibly move to Austin. To be fair though, I'm originally from TN and have been in CA for 8 years. My reasons are the same as everyone else for moving: expense, jobs, etc etc.

But.. Here's a few things I was wondering about. What's the affordability situation in Austin? Is it like here in the Bay Area where anything remotely close to commuting distance that doesn't look like cookie-cutter hell is insanely overpriced? Seems that when I look at homes on web sites in Austin, there's areas that are almost as expensive as it is here, and by the look of the homes, it must be because of their proximity to jobs.

Has some of the jumping ship from other states like CA, NY, and others slowed down a bit or are there still hordes of people moving in? Is it remotely possible to buy a decent home ( when I mean decent, I mean like a 70's boring rancher home in the burbs) without spending out the wa-zoo?

Anyhow, I know a lot of you all are probably sick of answering questions like these. Just trying to get a feeler out there...

[TexasHorseLady]

Define insanely overpriced. And "out the wazoo".

Seriously, I help clients do it all the time, so I'm in a position to say, yes, you can find a nice home built in the 1970's for a reasonable price based on what I understand of California prices. Even ones much newer, and convenient, as well.

What are your parameters and I can give you a better idea of the number of properties currently on the market that might fit them and how much a home fitting them might cost you.

[sliverbox]

Well, obviously the cheaper the better. But to be realistic, probably under250k. under 200k if possible. I'm not against buying a fixer upper.I am good with my hands. So we're talking about a smallish, probably mundane home in the burbs. Me and my Wife don't have kids. So we could care less about schools. If a home is not near a good school, I assume its cheaper, which would be fine.

Commuting distance, well I'd hope to not be more than 20 miles from Austin. I commute 45 miles each way now. So I have some flexibility. Depends on how bad traffic is there. Out here, its AWFUL and it takes us an hour and a half to get to and from work. So I don't have to live in the middle of the city. But not a crazy distance from it either.

I'm not crazy about super-generic, cookie cutter communities. Like 99.8% of the people who probably come to this site, we like the idea of an area with character like some of those 50's suburbs. But I'd bet those are more expensive, just like it is out here.

Lastly- I'd like an honest opinion of what the housing market is doing. Around here, stuff sells, but it takes a very long time, and generally sells for less than asking. The market has slowed greatly. Prices are coming down more so in the suburbs than the city centers. What's the situation in Austin? I imagine that since RE taxes are so high there, there would be some sort of slowing going on.

[TexasHorseLady]

Oh, good heavens, there'd literally be dozens of homes that fit your criteria. I added some more criteria and was a bit picky about location (and kept it within 13 miles of city center) and came up with 72. Didn't look at all of them, but it would be a nice batch to start sorting from.

In all honesty, the market has slowed here. However, we didn't have the big bubble, so we're not having the big "pop" that other areas are experiencing. And the slowing has been odd - there've been periods where number of sales was down, but prices were up. Right now inventory is high, but if someone asked me if Austin is a buyer's market or a seller's market, I'd have to first ask "what part of Austin" and then, perhaps, "what price range within that area".

A 20 mile drive into Austin gives you a BUNCH of options. (We live on 55 acres 45 miles from North Austin and it takes my husband 45 minutes to an hour to get to work, depending on time of day - 5 minutes can make a big difference in the commute.) You may not care about the school district for your own purposes, but you might want to keep it in mind for resale.

[austin-steve]

Me and my Wife don't have kids. So we could care less about schools. If a home is not near a good school, I assume its cheaper, which would be fine.

Search in the 78745 zipcode at AustinHomeSearch.com and you'll find some older (1970s, 1980s) places with character and some fixup candidates.

If you're going to forego good schools, try to make it up on location. South Austin accomplishs that, in that 78745 zipcode, and you can stay in your budget and be close to the action downtown, and have a funky cool neighborhood.

Schools are important to your future value even if you don't have kids or care about the schools, so don't completely ignore the effect that poor schools can have on value if you don't have other valuable attributes (location). In other words, don't get lured further out by cheap prices unless you know what you're doing.

The other area you might find appealing is 78723 zipcode (NE Austin, east of IH35 and close to downtown). That area is well into the revitalization stage of the neighborhood life cycle and you'll find a lot of rehab candidate properties.

Most of the closer in areas of Austin are selling ok. Not great, but not bad either. It's a fairly even market right now. Upper ranges (above $400K) are having a harder time. Homes below $300K are not having any trouble IF priced right, staged right, and in top condition.

Steve

[sliverbox]

Thanks for the honest assessment. That's sort of what I figured. We're not really in a big rush at the moment. I've probably got another year or two before I pull the trigger and move. We intend to buy the whole house with cash, which is why a lower price is ideal for us.

All I know is that of all the companies that are the competitors of the tech company I work for, half of them are in Austin. So we could potentially have the same kinds of jobs but not be hopelessly priced out of the market like we are here. Trust me- If I had my financial savings goals met right now, I'd move tomorrow. We're considering other cities too- like Atlanta, Nashville, Raleigh, and maybe even Huntsville,AL. So far all of those places are still reasonable. But Austin has a better job market. But if Austin becomes too expensive, we'll go with other cities instead.

[TexasHorseLady]

78745 is, in my experience, a zip code that has just been discovered, so you could, indeed, get a deal there if you move fast.

The Crestview area (north) has been hot for a while, but just south and east f there are areas of older homes ripe for fix-up - though it, too, already has some movement.

[stanfordgrad]

You won't be paying 700-800k for a 1000 sq ft ranch (needing work), like our friends in Sunnyvale did, but the areas closer in to downtown run easily 500-600k for fixed up bungalows. Hey, at least they are updated. They area really cute, but small (usually less than 2000 sq ft).

We looked at ranch homes in Northwest Hills, which is about a fifteen minute drive down MoPac to downtown (during non-peak times), and is wedged between 360 and 2222. You can find fixer upper ranches in the low 400k range (once in a while, upper 300's)- but the ones we saw in this range needed at least 50k worth of work (looked as if nothing had been touched since the late 60's...or maintained for that matter). Otherwise, the lowest we saw (in the decent or better category) was around 450. You could get a wonderful home-better than decent- in that area in the 500 range. Great location if you like ranch homes. I'm sure people on this forum can tell you of other places as well. We liked Northwest Hills because it wasn't too far out and was close to MoPac, 360, and 2222 (major roads), and was well established with beautiful older trees.

Keep in mind that the real estate taxes are very high. I think most of the MLS listings list the annual taxes for the homes. We had to lower our price range almost 100k because the taxes pushed out mortgage payment up so much- even with 20% down.

Coming from the Bay area, I think you will still find the costs more reasonable (not just homes), if not a deal, in comparison. You certainly won't have to live 1 hour plus outside of Austin to find something affordable.

I don't know about the influx of people from out of state- we fall into that category ourselves, as we moved here in June. Someone else will be able to tell you though!

Good luck!

[sliverbox]

Yeah... 400k is a bit steep for us. Like I mentioned, 250k max is my desired budget. I say this because Nashville and Raleigh have tons of nicer homes for less then that. If we absolutely had to, we could buy in one of those places, get joe jobs, and still come out ahead. I'm really not interested in having a mortgage. Then again, I guess we're oddballs in that respect.

Anyhow, I'll start looking in all of these cities once the time draws closer.

[Trainwreck20]

Heh.....in Texas, it will always seem like you have a mortgage.....the tax rate is ~2.5% in most of the areas mentioned above (and those are relatively low-tax areas), so a 225k house will owe (after homeowners exemption) around $440/month in taxes......