Why is Houston housing so reasonable? (Sugar Land, China: lofts, condo, mortgage)

[jfre81]

You do have to consider the possibility that your house on the Gulf Coast could be standing up to hurricane-force winds at some point, though...when the big one comes here we'll see how much of this new development survives.

[Ryan3230]

Plain and simple its the abundance of land! Basic Econ 101. The higher the supply the lower the price. In Virginia, where I went to school, I noticed that when traveling along the interstate from Norfolk to DC, there are towns dotted along the way. They are pretty much one next to another. So since in Virginia there's relatively no more land to build on the price of it keeps going up, so long as there are willing and able buyers in the market competing for the same house.

However, in Texas, there may be a lot of willing and able buyers, but they have an abundance of options. Example: If all the houses are taken in The Woodlands, well I could build basically the same house with the same community amenities in Sugar Land, Richmond/Rosenberg, Pearland, Kingwood, Katy, and Cypress, and there are places within Houston that I could build the same house for not much higher price. Some say homes within Houston are comparable to price to other big cities, and thats not the case at all. Homes in the 300k price range here, sell for 700k in Norfolk, and probably close to 1mm closer to DC. So here its all about the land. As long as people are willing to drive farther and farther away, the prices of homes in Houston will slowly increase, 3-6% per year. And as long as we have developers that are willing to take risks like The Woodlands and sugar Land, then we'll continue to build office space in these places that will create suburbs of suburbs. Example: Sugar Land was once just a suburb of Houston, where many of the residents worked downtown. Now that Sugar Land is attracting large companies like Flour and others, there workers can seemingl move to Richmond/Rosenberg area and make that area a subrub of Sugar Land.

[texas7]

Houston is developed in concentric rings. At one time, Spring Branch was considered a far suburb because it was just outsisde of loop 610 but now is considered near-town as the far suburbs are outside of BW8. The suburbs build around the various loops, the businesses then come to that area, another loop is built and another ring of suburbs.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by Bike4Life

It all broils down to having more NON-demanding-$25-an-hour-unions-just-to-screw-a-bolt in the South. The higher the wage a city has commands comes with higher prices of houses.

Stop scapegoating the unions with that corporate socialist crap. It has a lot to do with depressed wages and undesirability. There is really no natural beauty here; no mountains, lakes, blue oceans, or great weather. The trees and the other flora and fauna are the only beauty here.

[mpope409]

Originally Posted by JuggerNoggin

Home prices in Houston are really not significantly lower than the rest of the country. The housing data is skewed because it looks at Houston Metro, which includes areas like Baytown, Alvin, Brazosport, and the Woodlands.

The Woodlands area is 45 MILES north of Downtown Houston. Alvin and Brazosport are 40-60 miles away.

Come inside the Loop, and suddenly the housing is not as affordable and is comparable to other cities.

Go 45 miles outside of most major cities and you will find much more reasonable housing prices. How far away from the city is that $400K house in VA?

Also, we have lots of land, cheap labor, and ridiculous property taxes, which adds significantly to the monthly house payment.

Thank you. That's what I've been trying to tell people.

Look how much some luxury condos in Houston cost, and see if they don't run about the same price as something in Manhattan or Chicago. Houston is not always that affordable.

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by mpope409

Thank you. That's what I've been trying to tell people.

Look how much luxury penthouses in Houston cost, and see if they don't run about the same price as something in Manhattan. Houston is not always that affordable.

well thats really not the *reasonable* part of the OPs question. but I understand, we need to find the extremes in houston in order to compare to other cities' norm. if you stick to the averages you know houston is cheap - atleast the base price of buying a residential property.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by mpope409

Thank you. That's what I've been trying to tell people.

Look how much some luxury condos in Houston cost, and see if they don't run about the same price as something in Manhattan. Houston is not always that affordable.

Yeah, walk around the Galleria (II) and you'll see a banner that advertises luxury condos in the area. $1-5M!!

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by tstone

Yeah, walk around the Galleria (II) and you'll see a banner that advertises luxury condos in the area. $1-5M!!

wow thats like a loft in Harlem!

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by Dixiedude

We intend to relocate from Central Virginia to the Woodlands in the next
year or two. Excluding the $500,000-plus homes (although the same
principle applies), why are homes so reasonably priced?
We have examined comparable residential properties in our market (which
nationally is not the "high priced spread") with homes in the Woodlands. A 3-4 bedroom abode with comparable features/neighborhood ambiance here costs
$350-400K. A "matching" property in the Woodlands goes for $225-250K (and may have a swimming pool to boot).
Assuming building materials and "suburban" land costs are the same or similar,
is it that Houston area homes are built by undocumenteds for a much lower
hourly wage?
Of course, the annual property taxes are double what we pay in this
suburban community where every student has a school-furnished laptop,
SAT scores are high, etc. Yes, I know. No state income tax. Granted,
but as retirees, we don't pay much in the way of VA taxes any way.
The tax issue digresses. The 64-dollar question is: "why the favorable pricing status of the Woodlands vs. suburban Central VA?"

Higher risks on investment (if you can call it that), undesireable living conditions, lower buying power of potential customers means lower price.

[keepthefaith]

The primary reason for the lower prices in the south is due to the relaxed housing restrictions in regards to urban sprawl. I understand that Virginia is south of the M-D line, but I'll still call it the NE. In the NE, you have tighter regulations/codes on sprawl. In the south, we don't have the same restrictions and it makes for lower prices since builders can continue to build out and find cheaper land. . This is why there is such a sprawl problem in the south. You can see it in a Houston, Atlanta, or Dallas etc. Any major southern city has sprawl.