California Losing To Texas (sale, neighborhood, taxation)

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by silverkris

Noticed that you are in Maui, Hawaii. How are the property taxes in HI by comparison?

Maui is 0.555%, Honolulu is only 0.350%! Property taxes are very low, even with the high cost of real estate here.

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by jifie

If you are buying a house(mansion) worth 500k in TEXAS, then you can afford the extra 15000 a yr on taxes. And figuring I can get a 2000sf 4 bdrm house for 200k or less, and in CA that would cost me around 350k-400k at best, plus around a 1.25% prop tax rate, I'd still take TX.

Out in the distant suburbs, yes $500k buys a huge house... But check out the values for an urban neighborhood in Austin:
Zilker Austin TX Homes for Sale & Zilker Real Estate - Zillow

For $550k you can get a 1900sqft house


Now look at a suburban neighborhood that's close to downtown:
http://www.zillow.com/homes/zilker,-...06_rect/13_zm/

$1 mil gets you about 4000sqft

A distant suburb is much cheaper but still pretty expensive
http://www.zillow.com/homes/zilker,-...65_rect/11_zm/


But... Austinites tend to blame the high property values on the hordes of Californian invaders


There are dirt cheap houses in Houston suburbs, but who wants to live in Houston? The only Texans who like the city are the ones who live there and have no choice.

[rgb123]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

BTW, the Californians that people in other states hate are the the hipsters and yuppies who want to turn everywhere into San Francisco. Those particular Californians should just all move to Portland... and not Austin! If you can leave the passive aggressive stickers off your Prius, buy some cowboy boots without any ironic intent, and not complain about the weather all the time, Texans aren't going to hate you. I'm sure the same goes for Montana, Arizona, etc.

that's the funniest thing I've read in a long time....and a nice way to sum up why most of the country...why most people don't like arrogant fools....in general.

[ZhugeLiang]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

FYI, Texas isn't doing as well economically as the rightwing talking heads would have you believe. The Texas government has a bigger deficit than California.

Analysis: Texas vs California: A tale of two budget deficits | Reuters

And regarding taxes... The place I immigrated to and became American was Texas, and I'll always be a Texan, but I really can't see myself ever buying a house in Texas. The property taxes are so high that it's as though you're renting from the state government. I consider it fundamentally unfair to tax someone's property 3%+ under pain of confiscation. There's a myth that houses in Texas are dirt cheap. Well yes, they are dirt cheap in the far flung suburbs, but not urban neighborhoods and not in the suburbs of desireable cities (IE Austin). 3% of $500k is $15,000/yr, just in property tax.

That's pretty misleading. Texas runs close budgets as the norm. Taxes are handled at the local level as there is no state income tax and those who favor spikes in taxes tend to get replaced come election time. Paul Krugman already attempted to paint Texas as broke and got owned for it.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by jifie

For someone in CA, 500k for a house isn't that much. As someone who is planning on moving to Texas, I've done plenty of research on the topic and I can assure you it will get you quite more than anyone would need in TX.

Again your comments are essentially meaningless, real estate costs are not uniform in Texas. For example, $500k in central Austin isn't going to get you much....

[ZhugeLiang]

Originally Posted by rgb123

I've expereinced a lot of very rude people in California. Rude isn't even the right word, more like I've seen the stereotypes in action.

Texas would be better if education were better and there was less blind pride.

Californians are only tolerant of people who think exactly like them, everyone else is an uneducated bigot, see how this works?

Not sure about Texas K-12, but their universities are excellent. I'd take UT, A&M, and Baylor over just about every school in California.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by rgb123

If I had the kind of money to put down on a 500,000K house it probably wouldn't bother me as much as it does coming out of my salary.

Lower income folks don't pay a lot of income tax in California.....

[ZhugeLiang]

Originally Posted by user_id

Lower income folks don't pay a lot of income tax in California.....

It's a lot of money to them.

[jifie]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

Out in the distant suburbs, yes $500k buys a huge house... But check out the values for an urban neighborhood in Austin:
Zilker Austin TX Homes for Sale & Zilker Real Estate - Zillow

For $550k you can get a 1900sqft house


Now look at a suburban neighborhood that's close to downtown:
Zilker Austin TX Homes for Sale & Zilker Real Estate - Zillow

$1 mil gets you about 4000sqft

A distant suburb is much cheaper but still pretty expensive
Zilker Austin TX Homes for Sale & Zilker Real Estate - Zillow


But... Austinites tend to blame the high property values on the hordes of Californian invaders

Those links aren't working for me, but I'm assuming you are attempting to show me houses from an expansive neughborhood in Austin, any city in the US is going to have a neighborhood o two like that, even back home in Baltimore. I'm on realtor.com right now and typed in Austin and max price of 200k, and the very first one that showed up, with an address in the city of austin, is 4 bd 3 bth, 2538 sq ft.

I'm not sure what your definition of a "distant" suburb is, but when I've been looking in the area I want to live, cedar park, which is 20 min from downtown, I find houses almost all the way down to 150k that are 4 bdrm 2000 sq ft.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by ZhugeLiang

It's a lot of money to them.

Perhaps, but lower income folks are going to pay more in Taxes in states like Texas. California has a very progressive tax structure, those that are middle-class and below get off easy while those above pay a lot.