Soaring home prices put a dent in Houston's reputation for affordability (Spring: 2013, renting)

[swopoe]

Originally Posted by Oildog

Maybe we can go back to when young couples had to share an apartment for a few years while they saved a down payment for a starter home. Now we just graduate, get easy credit and a Mcmansion in the burbs.

Agree. We used to live in the second floor apartment of an elderly lady's home in New Jersey. Not ideal, but we could afford it, and we have some interesting and fun stories to tell all these years later!

[tstone]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

Casey and Caitlyn Schaefer hit town a year ago and started looking for a house to buy. But the young couple quickly learned that, in Houston's white-hot real estate market, it wasn't going to be easy or cheap. They didn't even pretend to look inside Loop 610.
"If you find something inside the Loop with a '1' in front of the price, it's going to be followed by 'million,' " Casey Schaefer said. "I mean, it's crazy. And there was only so much we could afford right out of school."

Lots of housing available <$199k "inside loop 610." Really half of it by area. The problem is "Casey" and "Caitlyn" wouldn't dare set foot over there unless it's to go to Ninfa's.

[txdemo]

Originally Posted by texas7

Can we just "close the borders" at the city limits to halt this overcrowding and excess demand for housing? It's ruining everything -- too much traffic, increased commutes, increased crime, unaffordable housing and too much whining about what the newcomers don't like.

I think some of these are unique City Data poster phantom phenomenom.

[PDXNative2Houston]

Originally Posted by Oildog

Jobs (professional) in the energy or health sectors & cost of living. Met several relocated from the left coast who say they miss Cali weather but having a nice house, yard and schools for under 300k with a half hour commute is well worth it.

Describes my situation to the "T".

[DaveGl]

Originally Posted by tstone

Lots of housing available <$199k "inside loop 610." Really half of it by area. The problem is "Casey" and "Caitlyn" wouldn't dare set foot over there unless it's to go to Ninfa's.

Hahaha, "Casey and Caitlyn meet The Comical." The Comical must have run out of divas and "trendy" eateries to cover for the day.

[Meyerland]

I feel the rising prices in the Meyerland area big time. I would feel the pinch if I moved here now, versus when I moved here a few years ago.

[Black Jack22]

Prices never stay low in any region forever.

Population increases causes prices to go up but this is excellent news if you're a real estate investor.

Inflation will also cause homes to increase in cities all over year after year.

Houston is still more affordable than many cities but even the most affordable places cannot escape the forces of population growth and inflation due to the continuous printing of the U.S. by the Federal Reserve.

The question shouldn't be how are you going to escape rising prices but what are you going to DO in your own financial life to prepare yourself for rising prices.

Disposable income is going to continue to drop due to inflation.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by texas7

Can we just "close the borders" at the city limits to halt this overcrowding and excess demand for housing? It's ruining everything -- too much traffic, increased commutes, increased crime, unaffordable housing and too much whining about what the newcomers don't like.

We don't need to "close the borders"
we need to make our city officials stop giving in to developers creating subdivisions like crazy and start creating "smart growth" with more public parks (sorry, less subdivisions)
Doing that could reduce by 1/2 the number of families that live in an area.


Houston neighborhoods see skyrocketing home values
Hey, but "it's a good housing market" .... for realtors

[jerbear30]

Originally Posted by tstone

Lots of housing available <$199k "inside loop 610." Really half of it by area. The problem is "Casey" and "Caitlyn" wouldn't dare set foot over there unless it's to go to Ninfa's.

This characterization is probably more true than not, but there are other mitigating factors. The main one for myself and my family is the quality of the schools. I am not one of those parents who acts like only the best schools are good enough for my kid. I am however not interested in sending my son to a "dropout factory" high school. What is left when you can't afford more than 300k on a home in the city of Houston is Westside High School, Reagan High School and maybe Waltrip. Westside is actually outside the beltway, Reagan is getting too expensive as I type and Waltrip is, well, still a question mark. That leaves almost nothing. I for one would be happy living in many parts of the near northside or eastside or wherever if there was halfway decent schooling available there but there is not. (I recognize that there are wonderful selective admissions high schools too but I'm not going to bet my son's future on his admission to one of these.)

The way HISD is set up is to accommodate the wealthy even at great pains to its less fortunate learners. This imho is what is driving the cost up in certain areas of town while development/renewal languishes in others. BTW, please do correct me if there are other good high school options I've left out.

[hendersj31]

You mean that you are too good for schools with limited english and economically disadvantaged students percentages in the upper 80s and 90s? Or you want your white child to have some white kids in his class? How dare you... Houston is an urban mecca and people should never consider the suburbs when you should be perfectly happy with a school that resembles something from a hip hop video.

I am being sarcastic with this post I hope it's not to offensive.

Originally Posted by jerbear30

This characterization is probably more true than not, but there are other mitigating factors. The main one for myself and my family is the quality of the schools. I am not one of those parents who acts like only the best schools are good enough for my kid. I am however not interested in sending my son to a "dropout factory" high school. What is left when you can't afford more than 300k on a home in the city of Houston is Westside High School, Reagan High School and maybe Waltrip. Westside is actually outside the beltway, Reagan is getting too expensive as I type and Waltrip is, well, still a question mark. That leaves almost nothing. I for one would be happy living in many parts of the near northside or eastside or wherever if there was halfway decent schooling available there but there is not. (I recognize that there are wonderful selective admissions high schools too but I'm not going to bet my son's future on his admission to one of these.)

The way HISD is set up is to accommodate the wealthy even at great pains to its less fortunate learners. This imho is what is driving the cost up in certain areas of town while development/renewal languishes in others. BTW, please do correct me if there are other good high school options I've left out.