Austin Market has truly gone to **** (Plano, Sunnyvale: camps, square footage, income)

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

He actually just didn't want to be under the control of a city council, I suspect....

Yeah that too, lol. Just an interesting location is all. I love the valley/coastal bend and I dunno, I'm not exactly feeling warm and fuzzy that he's turning it into Musk Land. Kinda reeks of a "Celebration, FL"

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by riaelise

Yeah that too, lol. Just an interesting location is all. I love the valley/coastal bend and I dunno, I'm not exactly feeling warm and fuzzy that he's turning it into Musk Land. Kinda reeks of a "Celebration, FL"

Kississimee is one of the most wide varying of suburbs I've seen, mainly due to it being heavily influenced by Disney World and the local amusement parks. West of I-4 its all upscale, high-end, full of time shares, resorts, expensive housing (nearby it). Then you keep going east on U.S. 192 until you actually get to Kississimee itself and they pretty much should just put up a sign on that road that reads 'This is where the magic ends'

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by riaelise

I'm going to have to adjust the amount that I escrow each month to accomodate the tax increase. The value is capped, but it's still going to be a jump. I really wish taxes were a static number.

I can't even fight Wilco on this one. I fought them once in 2019 and managed to get it lowered by 25k, and even then they told me that the appraiser that had appraised our home was on crack and wouldn't lower it to the appraised number. This year it was pretty spot on. It didn't help that asking prices rose by 80k in two months, and the 875k home didn't help either.

Yup that’s what sucks. There’s no grounds to fight it since everyone took a big jump in property value. They will just say shut up, suck it up and pay up! Unfortunately even those who made all the right decisions home ownership wise will still eat this too.

What I found funny was the letter even included a giddy little note about how all of our home values appreciated in a record year despite the pandemic and the bottom of the letter happily let’s you know your new taxation value.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by riaelise

I'm going to have to adjust the amount that I escrow each month to accomodate the tax increase. The value is capped, but it's still going to be a jump. I really wish taxes were a static number.

I can't even fight Wilco on this one. I fought them once in 2019 and managed to get it lowered by 25k, and even then they told me that the appraiser that had appraised our home was on crack and wouldn't lower it to the appraised number. This year it was pretty spot on. It didn't help that asking prices rose by 80k in two months, and the 875k home didn't help either.

I'm in Travis County and have successfully protested my appraisal every year that it has gone up. They haven't released values for this year yet, but there's probably no way I'm going to be able to argue it. Truthfully, I could probably get twice as much for my house as their current appraised value.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by CarnivalGal

I'm in Travis County and have successfully protested my appraisal every year that it has gone up. They haven't released values for this year yet, but there's probably no way I'm going to be able to argue it. Truthfully, I could probably get twice as much for my house as their current appraised value.

The crappy part is despite how much equity these homes may have is there's nowhere else to really go if you sell unless one wants to contend with someplace more extreme in either weather, politics, CoL, economy, isolation, or all of the above... that or else all of that equity will be used as a down payment on a house just as expensive, if not more expensive somewhere else. Its like having a lot of unusable money.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

The crappy part is despite how much equity these homes may have is there's nowhere else to really go if you sell unless one wants to contend with someplace more extreme in either weather, politics, CoL, economy, isolation, or all of the above... that or else all of that equity will be used as a down payment on a house just as expensive, if not more expensive somewhere else. Its like having a lot of unusable money.

That's why we decided to do a cash-out refinance and let a bit of that stored equity pay for whatever big ticket home renovation we desire instead of continuing to use our own funds. We used our savings to pay for a lot of the replacing/updating and we want to let it grow. At the time of refinance, we were already at 40% equity in the home despite having put down only 5% and purchasing only six years ago. Within less than two years, we hit 75% LTV and had PMI/mandatory escrow removed.

That feeling of being 'stuck' is probably why the inventory remains low. Many people decide what's out there currently is not worth it. I know for me that is the case.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

The crappy part is despite how much equity these homes may have is there's nowhere else to really go if you sell unless one wants to contend with someplace more extreme in either weather, politics, CoL, economy, isolation, or all of the above... that or else all of that equity will be used as a down payment on a house just as expensive, if not more expensive somewhere else. Its like having a lot of unusable money.

This is our forever home. We've been here for 16 years and have absolutely no intention of moving. But I feel for anyone who has to move right now. A Realtor friend has said that while houses are still selling in a day with multiple offers, there aren't as many offers as before - so like maybe 5-10 offers instead of 25, which is still crazy. He's said that he's noticed a lot more people deciding to sit it out and putting their home search on hold for now.

Our house is almost paid off, so it's almost all equity for us. We did tap in to some of it to do a kitchen remodel, though.

[ashbeeigh]

Well, I think it's been about a week since the million-dollar listing in manchaca went live and it's still there. The 730k one in Kyle is also still active. If both were priced correctly they would have gotten the offers to push them up further...but no.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

Well, I think it's been about a week since the million-dollar listing in manchaca went live and it's still there. The 730k one in Kyle is also still active. If both were priced correctly they would have gotten the offers to push them up further...but no.

The overpriced one in Steiner I mentioned is still available too. Eevery other house that went on the market afterwards has gone under contract or will be by the end of the week (have offers), with the exception of one, but that is a $2.1 million dollar house.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by CarnivalGal

The overpriced one in Steiner I mentioned is still available too. Eevery other house that went on the market afterwards has gone under contract or will be by the end of the week (have offers), with the exception of one, but that is a $2.1 million dollar house.

It is interesting that steiner has a premium over great hills and NW hills.

Im seeing homes forsale in steiner for 1+ million that would let you buy a similarly sized home in nw hills. Probably with less views and older, but still, there is probably some movement within the city that can be done.

There is more competition for family sized homes that feed to vandegrift, so if you sell in steiner for 1M+ you can move closer in to a smaller home for say 600K. Then you can do an add on to get you back to 1M+.

My friend's youngest is graduating HS and so they are selling their steiner home. They have lived charmed lives regularly managing to get great timing.