Inflated home prices (Dallas, Plano, Carrollton: tech jobs, to live in, zoned)

[Sunbather]

Originally Posted by NP78

I don't think that will stop it to be honest. I live in Lakewood, an area that has also traditionally been almost all owner-occupied homes and certainly well maintained. Yet, I see pretty decent 3/2/2 houses purchased, torn down, and replaced with $1.5M new builds.

Quite a bit of that occurring in OLH as well within the Hexter Zone (although I do agree that it doesn't seem to be that common right now in Eastwood from what I can tell).

It doesn't have to necessarily be a bad thing, if done right, but it seems pretty common in all desirable Dallas neighborhoods.

Oh absolutely it won't stop it entirely. The pace and quantity tends to be a bit more curbed in the well-maintained, owner-occupied. But that only works to an extent.

I also don't disagree about it necessarily being a bad thing. It's a roll of the dice though, depending on how it is done. Living in the M streets before buying here, I've seen some pretty strange decisions for house types being built. I'm a modern house fan (hence part of why we ended up in this area with some mid-century ranch homes) - and by some extension appreciate a large amount of contemporary modern homes. But some of the contemporary houses going up in lower greenville were just frustrating to see.

I saw swathes of western-facing glass with no shading. Poor workmanship on kitchen cabinet installs. Poor HVAC installs. Finished grading with areas sloping toward the house (no visible trench drain). Tearing down all the trees on a lot to make room for a larger home (which affects surrounding homes), etc. So, while I can appreciate tasteful, high quality new builds, it is always frustrating when I see an older home that just needs some TLC (new plumbing, new electric, and a facelift) but has largely stood for 50, 60, 70 years, being replaced by cheap, large boxes that just mimic a high end look from the street. It will be interesting to see how some of these houses hold up over time.

The age of those houses means the plumbing has failed, the foundation is probably not great, the windows and layout are outdated, not enough bathrooms, etc. I mean at some point, you have to do so much work modernizing, it's better to tear the whole house down. That may suck for young first time buyers, but they aren't driving the internal new build market, and teardowns are not every home even in the nicest areas of DFW.

Some of those are a bigger issue than others. If you're buying a 60 year old house, it just depends on how well previous owners took care of it. Some of those houses have original wiring that needs to be replaced. Some of those have original plumbing that may be near end of life etc. But we found a lot of houses were a mixed bag. Our house is 70 years old but has windows that are ~15 years old. The above ground plumbing (in the crawl space) was largely replaced over the years, and we replaced the items that were left (so the only original piping that's left is the sanitary main heading to the easement demarcation). Similar for the wiring - it was about half upgraded in the last 15 years and we went ahead and updated the rest.

I definitely don't agree that the house needs to be torn down just because the plumbing and windows are at an age that they should be replaced. To me, that's normal maintenance over the life of the house and not prohibitively expensive if you're buying a house with total cost of ownership in mind (which admittedly is harder when pricing is rapidly increasing).

[TheOverdog]

that's normal maintenance over the life of the house

That's real easy for you to say but it's not your money being spent. And yes, if someone does all that regular maintenance then they probably aren't going to tear down. But it was not that long ago that most people didn't upgrade their homes in DFW, they just moved to a new one, and the number of people I personally know who are pretty angry at the previous home owners for cheaping out on maintenance is not small, and doubly we have no specific love for the style of the homes being torn down, which were built en-mass all over DFW. Most would have moved to a new home if new home locations weren't so terrible.

[Sunbather]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

That's real easy for you to say but it's not your money being spent. And yes, if someone does all that regular maintenance then they probably aren't going to tear down. But it was not that long ago that most people didn't upgrade their homes in DFW, they just moved to a new one, and the number of people I personally know who are pretty angry at the previous home owners for cheaping out on maintenance is not small, and doubly we have no specific love for the style of the homes being torn down, which were built en-mass all over DFW. Most would have moved to a new home if new home locations weren't so terrible.

I understand it's not my money being spent. But I would expect that at least a majority of people buying homes that are decades old have some sort of understanding about the potential upcoming maintenance (since the ones that aren't or the idea just scares them avoid older homes to begin with). And, despite the range of quality of home inspectors, you should be getting some idea of the quality of your main systems and infrastructure, especially in the older homes with a crawl space.

I do agree that it is frustrating how many people forego proper maintenance. Especially when you have less leverage in a seller's market.

[camom_ptn]

Any thoughts on why is frisco popular with new construction and migrants to dallas?

[DFWGuy422]

Originally Posted by camom_ptn

Any thoughts on why is frisco popular with new construction and migrants to dallas?

1. Strong school district that doesn’t follow the Allen/Plano mega-school model
2. More entertainment relative to the rest of Collin county, e.g. the Star
3. Everything is brand new and very eye-catching
4. Considered to be one of the nicer areas in Collin county/the Dallas area
5. Every mid to high end chain store, restaurant etc you can think of

Realistically, I think Frisco’s appeal is the exact same as any new, hot suburb anywhere in the U.S. save a few very specific points like the non-mega high school model.

[TheOverdog]

2. More entertainment relative to the rest of Collin county, e.g. the Star

And minor league baseball, major league soccer, and the PGA Headquarters, and a slate of museums better than the surrounding suburbs (soccer, video games, trains). With all that, I'd say it's roughly equal to Dallas proper. Dallas has better concerts of course.

[DFWGuy422]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

And minor league baseball, major league soccer, and the PGA Headquarters, and a slate of museums better than the surrounding suburbs (soccer, video games, trains). With all that, I'd say it's roughly equal to Dallas proper. Dallas has better concerts of course.

I would not go that far, but I agree re your point that it’s the best in Collin county.

[camom_ptn]

Originally Posted by DFWGuy422

1. Strong school district that doesn’t follow the Allen/Plano mega-school model
2. More entertainment relative to the rest of Collin county, e.g. the Star
3. Everything is brand new and very eye-catching
4. Considered to be one of the nicer areas in Collin county/the Dallas area
5. Every mid to high end chain store, restaurant etc you can think of

Realistically, I think Frisco’s appeal is the exact same as any new, hot suburb anywhere in the U.S. save a few very specific points like the non-mega high school model.

Thanks, we are looking for a SFH 4 bedroom with decent yard and there is nothing less than 700K in the area and new constructions are insanely priced.

[Leonard123]

Other than being as new, Plano has a lot more going for it than Frisco. Frisco doesn't even have a Whole Foods like most affluent cities its size, but they have horrific traffic on every street at all hours. It's got a lot of PR though and seems geared towards people who like sports. I think most people moving there and who have moved recently are probably coming from India.

Frisco will not have a 4 bedroom house with a "decent" yard at any price. You could easily get one under 700K in other nearby cities like McKinney or Little Elm, but your odds of winning the lottery are better than finding anything on the market before someone else does.

[camom_ptn]

Originally Posted by Leonard123

Other than being as new, Plano has a lot more going for it than Frisco. Frisco doesn't even have a Whole Foods like most affluent cities its size, but they have horrific traffic on every street at all hours. It's got a lot of PR though and seems geared towards people who like sports. I think most people moving there and who have moved recently are probably coming from India.

Frisco will not have a 4 bedroom house with a "decent" yard at any price. You could easily get one under 700K in other nearby cities like McKinney or Little Elm, but your odds of winning the lottery are better than finding anything on the market before someone else does.

Thats what it looks like, we are looking at the border of frisco closer to prosper. There was a SFH we liked which was listed at 625K, there were 15 offers on the home within 5 days and we cant bid 100K+ to win the crazy offer..