Is Austin Creating Another Housing Bubble? (Round Rock, Spring: 2014, broker, first time home buyer)

[Chip_Vanilla]

Originally Posted by 355spider

My wife and I are from Houston then we moved to Dallas and paid 30% more for a house(not worth it) then we moved to Austin and paid another 30% more for a house(so worth it). It's amazing how much more expensive houses are here than the rest of Texas.

Kind of my thread's point. (Thanks for remembering!) Why do you feel Austin housing is worth so much more than the other cities'?

[Trainwreck20]

It is worth what it costs to me because my job is here, so a cheap house in Houston or Dallas wouldn't do much for me. Btw, my house is currently at the 'old' median value, give or take, and was probably below median when we bought it...

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by Chip_Vanilla

If a RE website should exclude some areas of Austin to make the median price appear lower, then that would be "skewed" rather than accurate. MV sets its total current listings at 1525.

She didn't say she excluded some areas of Austin, she excluded areas outside the city limits. Though if you want, including those would _lower_ the median (due to less expensive houses in Leander, Pflugerville, Round Rock etc.).

[centralaustinite]

OP! Dude, you are not looking at the MLS! You are looking at some skewed subset of the MLS filtered through who knows what!

The Multiple Listing Service is the ONLY accurate source of real estate listings in Austin. Period.

Movoto, Zillow, Trulia, whatever, are all trash!

[riaelise]

There are some very expensive areas of Houston and Dallas too...

I think what stands out about Austin is that the housing is more expensive but the salaries aren't in line with other major Texas cities.

[Trainwreck20]

I think it is even simpler than that - the affordable housing, compared to salary, is there - but the commute sucks worse.

[verybadgnome]

It's always a good idea to compare the median price to the mean price, over time and compared to other cities.

[Chip_Vanilla]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

I think it is even simpler than that - the affordable housing, compared to salary, is there - but the commute sucks worse.

Exactly. If one can find work in Austin proper but the congested commute is to the suburbs or even further out, then why bother saying you're in Austin? I don't get why the pseudo-hipsters and the Chamber of Commerce propaganda makes it a better Texas city. And an increase of 55% over two years in an already inflated housing market suggests to me an imminent wave of financial refugees and given the listings, the richer Austinites are just the avant-garde.

MV by the way is one of the best-regarded RE websites and it's touted by Forbes and Business Week.

[Trainwreck20]

If one can find work in Austin proper but the congested commute is to the suburbs or even further out, then why bother saying you're in Austin?

Because that is how every other city in the U.S. is pretty much discussed? I know tons of people that commute from Friendswood or Pearland or Katy into Houston. Similar to Dripping or Round Rock or Cedar Park. Btw, have you seen the cost of housing inside the loop in Houston lately?

I live in Austin proper in a house appraised at 277k, I think, and 2,400 sf. There are a lot of smaller, less expensive houses in our neighborhood - all below any of the medians that have been quoted in this thread.

[Chip_Vanilla]

A lot of cities including mine get a media-fueled reputation that's undeserved. But the commuter culture in Houston, for example, is served by efficient public transport from suburbs like the Woodlands.

The bargains in Austin are mostly old, falling-apart shacks -- often not even in good locations. I've perused them and I know what's available.