Property values compared to Texas - What am I missing? (Los Angeles: renter, buying a house)

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by garxhap

Did you even bother to read all the responses to the long thread you recently started on exactly the same subject? I suggest you go back and read the whole thing a few times, because you seem to be a bit slow.

You mean the thread where people pointed to the garbage treeless desolate cardboard houses in Katy with a 1.5 hour commute as proof of "Houston" being cheap?

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by garxhap

Did you even bother to read all the responses to the long thread you recently started on exactly the same subject? I suggest you go back and read the whole thing a few times, because you seem to be a bit slow.

You mean the thread where people pointed to the treeless desolate cardboard houses in Katy as proof of "Houston" being cheap?

In case anybody is wondering, this is where those cheap $150k-$250k houses are in Houston. Some of these are as high as $360k:

[PA Born]

A house in Newport Beach selling for 2.5 million has lower property taxes than a 400k house in Michigan.

But that's the problem. The home costs so much. Who cares if the property taxes are so low, when you're paying a gigantic monthly nut.

Texas is much cheaper than LA/OC, BTW. I mean, under 400k, you're not going to get a nice house in a nice area in this part of the country. In Texas, you can get something very nice for under 400k (even under 200k, you can get something decent).

[PA Born]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

You mean the thread where people pointed to the treeless desolate cardboard houses in Katy as proof of "Houston" being cheap?

In case anybody is wondering, this is where those cheap $150k-$250k houses are in Houston. Some of these are as high as $360k:

And none of this is true. At $150-$250k, you will easily afford most areas in Houston. You don't need to move to some exurb. Obviously you can't afford the rich areas, but normal middle class areas are all affordable.

[bhcompy]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

Do you honestly buy houses that are only 2.5x your annual income?

Yes, which is why I survived the financial crisis unscathed while many others did not.

The low end of the housing spectrum seems to be $300k in LA... so you'd need $120k income

That's life.

[pears]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Actually, it's on El Molino in Pasadena, and is the same home that was used to film Father of the Bride II. The link that the OP posted must be for some other house (although it looks just like the one in the movie). I thought $1.3 million was a little low for that area...
Movie Locations Guide: Father of the Bride Filming Locations

You are right, I was in San Marino the other day, and I thought the limits included that neighborhood, but they do not. It is definitely S. Pasadena. The OP's link is definitely wrong. That house is clearly not the FOTB house.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by bhcompy

$150k salary for $1m house is way out of line compared to the traditional affordability metric(mortgage of 2.5x annual income)

The 2.5 X annual income went out a long time ago, especially with the very low interest rates today. My home is 5 X my anuual income but my mortgage payment is only 18% of my monthly income which is far below the standard 28% for qualifying. I recently refinanced my mortgage.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by pears

You are right, I was in San Marino the other day, and I thought the limits included that neighborhood, but they do not. It is definitely S. Pasadena. The OP's link is definitely wrong. That house is clearly not the FOTB house.

Pasadena is one of the very expensive areas.

[JohnSoCal]

You cannot make generalizations about taxes and costs in California vs Texas. It depends on many factors including location, housing development, etc. Our son and his family lived in Wichita Falls TX for 4 years. We considered moving there to be near our grandchildren. We are retired. After researching it thoroughly, it would have been far more expensive for us to live there in Texas than here in California. The cost for a comparable home in Wichita Falls TX was more expensive than here and the property tax was triple in Texas. The difference in the property tax was $4500 more than what I pay in California state income tax. However it was resolved as our son and his family moved to Monterey CA.

Having said that, it applies in our particular situation which is an upper middle income retiree who lives in an area with reasonable housing prices and low property tax. Now I can move less than 10 miles to another neighborhood with comparable homes and my effective property tax would increas by $5,000 because of the additional fees. They pay a 2.9% total rate and I pay 1.15% even though our homes are in the same county in comparable neighborhoods built at the same time ( 2002 ).

The house in question that the OP posted is in Pasadena which is a very expensive area.

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by pears

You are right, I was in San Marino the other day, and I thought the limits included that neighborhood, but they do not. It is definitely S. Pasadena. The OP's link is definitely wrong. That house is clearly not the FOTB house.

It says on the blog that they used two FOTB houses. This was the one they used for frontal shots, and there was another for side shots.