"So, all this growth has been great, right?" (Austin suburbs vs Boston susburbs) (Dallas: rental car, real estate market)

[Boston Shudra]

Sorry this is so long. First, a little background...

There was a thread on the Massachusetts subforum recently where the OP wanted to compare two wealthy, rural suburbs of Boston (Dover vs Sherborn). The thread got off-the-rails pretty quickly and launched into a discussion about how these towns (and ones like them) affect the vitality of the area.

Basically: MA has no county governments and no regional planning. Each individual town has full jurisdiction over zoning and development within their borders. Certain towns (such as Sherborn, MA) decided in 1980 that they didn't want to see another house, apartment, or condo built in their town. Since then, their population has absolutely flatlined.

Since 1980, the region's economy has largely flourished due to an investment in tech, medicine, healthcare, etc. Demand to live close to Boston or 128 (our inner ring highway) has skyrocketed. However because of towns like Sherborn, supply hasn't come close to keeping up with demand. Only a few towns and cities have been willing to build more housing to accommodate the new demand, and it's not enough. As a result, folks have been willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy small, 50-100 year old properties in towns that were once considered lower/middle class. Domestic migration from the state has been very large; we've been bleeding people. Many suburbs are truly stuck in the past. Despite rising prices, their strip malls and commercial districts look the same as they did in 1990.

So I mentioned in that thread how places like Austin, Nashville, Charlotte, and Dallas seem to be capitalizing on their economic growth while keeping prices under control and flooding the real estate market with newer, fresher offerings. Some of MA's urban locales have been doing pretty well in adding housing and keeping up with the times (like Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville), but the suburbs have been lagging horrendously.

I was told to start a thread in this subforum to see if my appraisal of sunbelt vs Boston-area suburbs was correct. Do they actually feel more modern and offer a better quality of life? I tried to familiarize myself with a few before writing this post. Round Rock and Cedar Park seem particularly nice. By a few metrics (namely population density, median household income, and % with a Bachelor's degree) they seem a lot like Woburn, MA and Burlington, MA. However they're also different in 2 key ways: population growth and median value of owner-occupied housing units. Housing is twice as expensive in the MA cities and they're growing at a fraction of the rate. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fa...exas/RHI725218

So my questions are: how do you feel about the growth of the Austin metro area? Would you choose to slow that growth in exchange for 2x the housing cost? If you have experience with the Boston suburbs, how do they compare to Austin ones: would you call them better or worse?

[ashbeeigh]

My only experience with Boston versus Austin is being confused when people say Boston and it sounds like Austin. But that's just me.

[m1a1mg]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

My only experience with Boston versus Austin is being confused when people say Boston and it sounds like Austin. But that's just me.

I had that exact experience on the airport shuttle in Boston. The lady asked why I was going to the rental car counter if I lived in Boston. I had to say Austin three times.

[Swizzle Stick]

Growing up, there was a kid in my class whose name was Austin, but I called him "Boston" for like 3 years because I didn't hear him correctly the first time.

[Boston Shudra]

Aww hell. I just noticed the typo in the title.

Well thanks for the responses so far. Maybe not exactly what I came looking for, but enjoyable nonetheless.

[Need4Camaro]

Boston suburbs remind me a bit like Atlanta's and D.C.'s suburbs in the aspect they seem to be filled with older homes and they also seem to offer more acres in their yard than what we get in TX... although I had no idea that Boston purposefully staunted most of their development.

There is a big debate in the city vs city subforum about Dallas/Austin vs Boston/Seattle - most seem to prefer Boston's suburbs.. ..well truthfully I still prefer Seattle's suburbs over Austins with the exception of the Lakeway area which is pretty nice (but not commute functional) of which comes within fair margin but...yeah.. Boston looks nothing like Seattle, heck most of America outside of Portland looks nothing like Seattle. If it were a choice I would probably choose Austin or Dallas over Boston's suburbs because I personally like newer developments / homes but each person has their own niche, and citydata as a forum also has a niche for prefering older / grittier neighborhoods. I just personally have no desire to spend $500 - $800k for a home built in the 80's.

Now the shortcoming of Austin / Dallas suburbs which will be reamed and reamed into you again and again in this forum, is they are mostly all cookie cutter and have 0 distinction from eachother, the term 'McMansion' gets tossed about as if you could drive up to a McDonalds and order your house right from the drive-thru menu, and many on this forum I personally believe underrate Austin/Dallas suburbs due to this, but I personally don't see it being different from anywhere USA that is designing newer developments today.

Bottom line, dont give a flying **** about what they think of your opinion - go for what makes you happy in a home.

[riaelise]

I come from the Northeast and I live in Round Rock.

It's less expensive for one reason really - there's still plenty of land to build houses on.

But that being said, it's all relative. Suburban housing prices are increasing, and when you factor in property taxes and assorted other costs, you're paying more than you'd like to think. You also make less.

Yes, there are plenty of cookie cutter new developments because of the exponential growth. But there are also many hidden, pocket neighborhoods that aren't, that have mature trees and distinctive houses.

Austin and its MSA isn't really all that inexpensive.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by Boston Shudra

So my questions are: how do you feel about the growth of the Austin metro area? Would you choose to slow that growth in exchange for 2x the housing cost? If you have experience with the Boston suburbs, how do they compare to Austin ones: would you call them better or worse?

What do I think about the growth of the Austin metro?

It is what it is. People want to be here for whatever reason it is. I feel bad for natives who lived in Cedar Park, Leander, Buda, Kyle, etc when things were cheap and now they're being priced out of their once country suburb. My family is looking for a needle in a haystack of a house and they have been for the last something like 20 years. An area that was on their radar in 2000, Kyle/Buda, once super attainable, is now hard to find.

Would I choose to slow down the growth for more housing cost?

No. I can't afford the $1300 I'm paying already.

I have no experience with Boston/Austin outside of what I said earlier.

[Need4Camaro]

Also for what its worth Boston has a CSA population of about 8 million people. It doesn't appear that slowing down on building really stopped it from growing, it only changed the way it grew.

Originally Posted by riaelise

I come from the Northeast and I live in Round Rock.

It's less expensive for one reason really - there's still plenty of land to build houses on.

But that being said, it's all relative. Suburban housing prices are increasing, and when you factor in property taxes and assorted other costs, you're paying more than you'd like to think. You also make less.

Yes, there are plenty of cookie cutter new developments because of the exponential growth. But there are also many hidden, pocket neighborhoods that aren't, that have mature trees and distinctive houses.

Austin and its MSA isn't really all that inexpensive.

I agree in some sense but I still put Boston in another league when it comes to affordability, you would be paying close to intown Austin prices for a shack in the middle of boonsville out there. In Austin its still possible to find something under $300k if you're willing to compromise a bit, and still get something fairly nice and newer in the outer suburbs.

[Boston Shudra]

Originally Posted by riaelise

.
It's less expensive for one reason really - there's still plenty of land to build houses on.

This was a point briefly raised in the MA forum, but it really isn’t true. There’s a lot of undeveloped land very close to Boston. The metro as a whole is chalk full of rural areas that could easily become suburban, but won’t.