"We've out-gentrified ourselves" (Austin, Mission: credit, neighborhood, bankrupt)

[steve78757]

Originally Posted by orngkat

I am glad to hear there is somplace that doesn't just equate house with investment. The concept of home as a place to spend one's life or greater parts of it seems to be vanishing. And that is one of several reasons our culture here is becoming so vapid. It wasn't always so...

True.

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

Amazing how this seems to be a common sentiment in Texas. What a culture shock moving back from Hawaii-- over there the property taxes are very low because a house is viewed as a home. It's common to pass on a house for several generations. In Texas the property tax cheerleaders seem to view a house as an investment. Your value and taxes doubled? No problem, just sell and move to a droll suburb like the rest of us schmucks!! Who cares about quality of life? This is Texas and you shouldn't value frivolous things like neighborhoods and walkability and trees. All you need is skwuare feetz!! I thought that type of thinking was mostly confined to Houston...

I get what you're saying; but , it's not exactly apples to apples:
From a To Hawaii travel guide:
Fee Simple (FS): With a fee simple property, you own the land and the structures on it. This is the typical form of ownership that you can find everywhere. In Hawaii, it is possible for foreigners to own land since the late 1800s.
Advantage: You own the land that your home is built on and you don't have to pay a monthly lease.
Disadvantage: Higher purchase price.
Leasehold (LH): Buying a leasehold property means that you own the improvements on the land, but not the land itself. The ground leases are mostly negotiated for a term of 55 years and when the time is up you (or your heir) will have to renegotiate with the property owners, who are not obliged to extend or renegotiate the lease.
Advantage: Initial purchase price mostly lower than with fee simple properties and the lease can be a tax advantage.
Disadvantage: Extra monthly costs through lease and insecurity about future of lease after end of term.





The median sales price for a single-family home on Oahu for example was $640,000 in November 2012, a 10.3% increase from the median price in November 2011. The median price of an Oahu condo was $325,000 in November 2012, a 10.2% increase from November 2011.
The following is an estimate of what type of properties you can buy for a certain dollar amount based on information from the Multiple Listing Service.
Less than $200,000: There are very few homes in Hawaii that fall in this price range. Those that do generally provide under 1,000 square feet of living space and are often leasehold properties.
$200,000- $400, 000: This price range offers a wide-array of homes that range from 600 square feet of living up to about 1,300 square feet. Most of the houses in this price range are fee simple. The majority of condos in Hawaii also fall into this price range.
$400,000- $700,000: Homes get bigger and relatively newer in this price range, although the size and condition of the properties varies greatly. There are properties that offer less than 700 square feet of living space as well as those that offer over 2,000 square feet in this category.
$700, 000 and up: For this amount you are usually going to get around three bedrooms, 1.5 baths and about 1,500 square feet of living space.

[gpurcell]

Originally Posted by Novacek

False. Millions of dollars _per year_ isn't "minimal".

Budget Facts: Budget 101 at The University of Texas at Austin

In the UT Austin budget it is minimal.

[ScoPro]

Dunno what the argument here is about, but we park in the garage across from Scholz's, then walk up to our family tailgate in the park area next to the Blanton Museum. We range in age from 38 to 75.

We all consume some really good home BBQ and most of us have a considerable amount of adult beverages to take the sting out of watching Mack Brown's latest product. After three hours of that, we're as sober as any MADD mom.

To keep on topic with the "gentrifying" business, I'll bet not many of y'all know what MLK between Guadalupe & I-35 looked like when it was known as 19th Street.

Just sayin'

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

Dunno what the argument here is about, but we park in the garage across from Scholz's, then walk up to our family tailgate in the park area next to the Blanton Museum. We range in age from 38 to 75.

We all consume some really good home BBQ and most of us have a considerable amount of adult beverages to take the sting out of watching Mack Brown's latest product. After three hours of that, we're as sober as any MADD mom.

To keep on topic with the "gentrifying" business, I'll bet not many of y'all know what MLK between Guadalupe & I-35 looked like when it was known as 19th Street.

Just sayin'

woah, woah granpa, tell us bout the good ol days

[winkosmosis]

I think gentrification is a good thing. The main problem is Texas property taxes.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

I think gentrification is a good thing. The main problem is Texas property taxes.

They are high for a reason. You don't have state income tax.
And they are not high all over Texas.
Plus you need to look at all the entities taking their little piece.
That is something that should be considered when making a real estate purchase in Texas.

I moved further east and am now paying 1/3 of what I paid when I was in Travis county.
I have only 2 entities in my taxes..the county and the ISD.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

They are high for a reason. You don't have state income tax.
And they are not high all over Texas.
Plus you need to look at all the entities taking their little piece.
That is something that should be considered when making a real estate purchase in Texas.

I moved further east and am now paying 1/3 of what I paid when I was in Travis county.
I have only 2 entities in my taxes..the county and the ISD.

exactly, I love property taxes over income taxes because each person can choose what is important to them.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by Austin97

exactly, I love property taxes over income taxes because each person can choose what is important to them.

Yes and most folks don't understand that.
And that's what makes Texas affordable to many with varying income.

You pay for your local services. The decisions are local, the services are local and the taxes are local.

[Ultrarunner]

That's exactly why I like sales and income tax... I can decide to buy or not buy or to work more or less.

The problem with Property Taxes is they just happen and keep happening without any regard to ability to pay and they are opinion based in most States. Every property is unique and absent a current sale... any valuation is a best a guesstimate...

The most blatant example is someone comes into an area and pays an outlandish price and this is used to boost every one's assessment... it can have a chilling effect of driving people out solely because others can pay more.

Prior to California voters enacting Prop 13 there were frequent incidences of assessment corruption... Assessors even committed suicide or did hard prison time for sweetheart deals to those of influence/power.

Prop 13 based assessment on fair market at the time of transfer greatly reducing the operating costs to assess taxes and streamlining the process as well almost eliminating corruption statewide...

Volumes of assessment policy and procedure were replaced by a few simple paragraphs... in other words the entire process with streamlined and simplified.

Real Property is unique and the only accurate valuation is when a willing buyer and seller complete the sale/purchase.