Why is Houston housing so reasonable? (Spring: school, live, licensed)

[crbcrbrgv]

Houston is the only metropolitan area where a married couple with one child who were both first year teachers could easily afford a nice house and two cars.

[Rocket Power]

Originally Posted by davidt1

I am not sure everyone got this.

I'm pretty sure I get it. Some people think Houston is now a crime infested hellhole, and it's all because of the Katrina people.

Before they got here, Houston was nothing but happyland U.S.A where everybody loved each other and did no wrong.

[Chinadoll]

Originally Posted by Wysiwyg

bah dont worry about it. everyone knows the overall effect of this tragedy to houston's characteristics and economy. I have to live with NOLA evacuees and their ghetto ways. and I'm doing my part to get them under control and 'educated' thru the HOA - maybe i should get MS13 tattoos in case theyre actually gangsta

See what I mean about being honest and getting blasted?
I hear you, things are out of control in many ways. The tattoo probably wouldn't hurt. You might get a promotion at work.

[Chinadoll]

Originally Posted by Rocket Power

I'm pretty sure I get it. Some people think Houston is now a crime infested hellhole, and it's all because of the Katrina people.

Before they got here, Houston was nothing but happyland U.S.A where everybody loved each other and did no wrong.

No, it's always sucked just now in a new and unique way. Happyland USA? Maybe if you've been inhaling Benzene for 30 years. Hmm, well then I guess it is Happyland USA.

Peace, Love, perfection

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by Chinadoll

No, it's always sucked just now in a new and unique way. Happyland USA? Maybe if you've been inhaling Benzene for 30 years. Hmm, well then I guess it is Happyland USA.

Peace, Love, perfection

I'm curious - Aside from the Ship Channel/Manchester/Refinery areas, are there any other Houston areas with high benzene levels?

It seems that perceptions of Houston largely originate from the community that one spent time in. I am NOT from that area, and I had a normal upbringing, so I do not have negative memories of Houston.

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by nana053

Bull****. While my family was fortunate in not having large losses, you obviously know nothing about the real victims on Mississippi's gulf coast and New Orleans.

I have pictures from the damages in New Orleans from 2007, two years after the storm. Many families lost everything. I'm not sure if these will show up since I never tried posting pictures here before.

This is a news photo, but...

This is a photo from several months later in our suburb of a child's playground

This is from two years later in New Orleans proper (we drove in and wandered around a mostly deserted neighborhood that had been pretty middle class)

I have many, many more pics I took and even 3 years later, there are many parts of the city still like this.

Dorothy

I'm sure theyre nice people in their own habitat, I hear people visit them and live with them and fallen in love with their nature (in the said habitat). but seriously a huge number of people dont have extended periods of sympathy for people who live near volcanoes or living below sea level near the sea. someone f'd up and claimed victims, NOLA people and their nature just had to que sera sera their way thru life.

[Vicman]

Wysiwyg, you may want to check out Houston's Noble Experiment, which was an article produced in 2005: Houston’s Noble Experiment by Nicole Gelinas, City Journal Spring 2006

A wonderful quote:
"Confronting New Orleans’s legacy, the Houston Police Department has shown over the past few months that competent policing can make a big difference in the lives of criminals and victims alike. Some of the HPD’s early post-Katrina work was easy. As officer Orlando Patterson told me as we rode around southwest Houston, New Orleans evacuees don’t even seem to know that possessing or smoking marijuana, or carrying unlicensed weapons, is a crime. “They say, ‘Y’all ain’t like N’Awlins’ when we arrest them,” Patterson observed."

[Wysiwyg]

Thanks Vicman. This is a good article to help me understand the details of the plague Katrina 'brought' to Houston in general. sadly it doesn't mention about the affect to SW and W side land value. as i understand it was already low pre-Katrina

"Their isolated courtyards, designed for after-work barbecues and cocktail parties, serve just as well as venues for gang loitering and drug dealing"
...it HAS to be in plain sight, which explains why my neighbor designated his garage for after-work and weekend up to latenight gatherings. well the HPD and HOA did good for me. I wonder for how long tho

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by Wysiwyg

Thanks Vicman. This is a good article to help me understand the details of the plague Katrina 'brought' to Houston in general. sadly it doesn't mention about the affect to SW and W side land value. as i understand it was already low pre-Katrina

"Their isolated courtyards, designed for after-work barbecues and cocktail parties, serve just as well as venues for gang loitering and drug dealing"
...it HAS to be in plain sight, which explains why my neighbor designated his garage for after-work and weekend up to latenight gatherings. well the HPD and HOA did good for me. I wonder for how long tho

There is also a page about the apartment complexes and how the gang activity is disguised with normal-looking façades: District 68

The quote: "A common misconception about the southwest side is that when driving along any major street, one will likely get the impression that is it a reasonably safe area. This is again because of the apartment complexes. From outside their gates, most complexes look inviting with their custom landscaped entrances and large grown-in trees. However, once inside the complex, and inside the actual units, the conditions rival that of Houston’s most traditional "shotgun-shack" ghettos."

The New Orleans article had this quote as well: "While Houston has seen some fighting between Houstonians and New Orleans evacuees over turf, much of the evacuee bloodshed results from the intact relocation of New Orleans’s relentless gang violence to Houston. “The crimes we’re seeing are homicides, robberies, and assaults of people who knew each other and had problems before,” said Houston police lieutenant Humberto Lopez. This is “legacy fighting,” says Bernazzani." - This shows that the increased crime rate seemed to be due to a lot of murders that may have happened anyway in New Orleans.

In my opinion, this quote is the money shot: "All this good police work actually has an effect in Houston, because, in contrast to New Orleans, it has a functioning prosecutor’s office, complemented by judges who actually sentence criminals to prison. Says Lieutenant Lopez of New Orleans suspects: “They’re not used to being policed. . . . A lot of them are surprised—and after a few weeks are surprised that they’re still in jail. They’re not really aware of how Texas works.” Concurs Bernazzani: “The HPD does not experience the frustration that the NOPD experiences. . . . There is a sense that the revolving door is closing as individual cases are resolved” in Houston."

[sheri257]

This article from Texas A&M probably explains best why Texas housing prices have remained relatively low:

What's Happening With Home Appreciation? - Tierra Grande (April 2006) (broken link)

* Builders have been building homes at a relatively fast pace ... outpacing demand in some cases.
* Construction labor in Texas is very cheap.
* Generally, incomes are stagnant in Texas, only increasing 1 percent a year in the last five years so, people couldn't afford to pay more for houses and didn't have to with the excess inventory.
* With no shortage of inventory and lower prices, speculators didn't come in to flip properties and drive up prices.
* For the same reasons ... lenders didn't issue ARMS and other unconventional loans to finance higher priced purchases.