I'm So Confused. I'm moving to Fort Worth. Please help me!

[BrokerRon]

Ms Bellemae, I have been in FW for a few months , moved from NYC. My son lived here after the military and his girlfriend was in College here. He took a job overseas and I was hoping to stay a while until I put his stuff in storage, but its turning out to be a nice alternative to NYC. There are lots of good apts in that price range and most have pools, tennis courts etc and golf courses are everywhere. FW is dog friendly, its me and the dog and a truck. They will ask for a deposit for the dog. I am a Commercial Real Estate Broker in NYC and will be doing Solar Design,am still working over the internet and dont need to get around much, close to grocery store and do most of buying on the internet. The job situation might be good,because I hear about companies ( toyata) moving here. There if football,baseball ( I am weaning myself) and craft beer and meat( I am a vegetarian). I found people to nice and friendly and very polite.Home prices are a fraction of NYC. Its not a bad place, dont see the gangs, crime etc. And there is water issue as in California. good luck

[ringwise]

Originally Posted by KathieT

I've been told by numerous real estate agents, as well as a bank notary who grew up in Hurst, that any property south of 820 is not worth buying. It's becoming a higher crime area. Also, we were told by real estate agents not to buy in Arlington. I was told by a local person that Euless property values dropped after Hurricane Katrina because the city built a lot of government apartments, the people came and never left. She (an African American) said, "that's what's wrong with Euless." We are here only temporarily. As we were told, look north of Harwood Road and we did. Much better but more expensive. So, there are a lot of aspects to home buying here that don't appear on the surface at all. If you want to protect your equity, you need to buy where the values will be maintained, if not rise.

Statistically, by a government website for this area, you need to have about $5,000 per month income to be able to comfortably afford to own a home, pay the taxes, higher insurance rates, etc. A State Farm agent said, "Yes, the homeowners and auto insurance rates are higher here than in northern California due to increased damage claims for weather." Those are all statistics, like them or not, and actual words by many people who grew up here. I don't ask just anyone here for information.

Yes, it is less expensive to live in NORTHERN California than here, as opposed to living in Southern California or the Bay area. Those last two locales are very expensive.

It's just not working out for us here, nearing retirement, but we tried to live here to be close to our adult children and be part of their lives. The metroplex is not for retired people. Our kids sure didn't know that either. My cousin, a Dallas native, sure didn't tell me anything about it either. I guess people would think family would be the first information link. My mom was born in northeast Texas and all of my maternal relatives are buried there. They all lived here their entire lives. and yes, I am a Republican! Most of northern California is Republican, Independent, or Libertarian. Do not judge all of California by la la land Los Angeles or the Bay area!

No, it's not less expensive to live in NORTHERN California. And by NORTHERN, I mean the Sacramento area. When you factor in housing costs, insurance, taxes, gas, and cost of living, it IS more expensive in NORTHERN California.

A comment by a insurance agent is not a "statistic". If you see them again, ask how they justify the huge fire tax that is being put on homeowners in NORTHERN California. I wonder how that changes the statistics.

So a real estate agent steered you away from homes you can afford, and into higher priced homes, by scaring you into thinking the homes you could afford were in a bad area. Hm, go figure.

As for equity in homes rising, the equity in my home has risen 10% in 3 years. I'd call that a pretty good return on investment. Especially since during the last 3 years I lived in NORTHERN California, the equity in my home dropped to half.

[Frog_fan89]

Just a little extra: We're looking at homes in the HEB area. There are actually many homes to chose from in our budget that have some decent updating. However, looking at the same price range in Chico, we can only afford mobile homes. We'd have to spend almost TWICE our budget to afford a similar home in Chico, California.

[aandie]

The department of insurance is in the pocket of the high priced insurance companies. This is why this costs more.

[kopakatz]

Oh gosh...please don't take the advice of one of the other posters to "ditch the dog." Please.

[KathieT]

We now live in Arlington and love our fixer-upper in a great location. Yes, so glad we left California! It has really gone down the drain. Arlington has a lower tax rate than the surrounding areas. I would love to live in Mansfield, but we can't afford the taxes. It's only 20 minutes down the road, so we can still enjoy it when we visit our children. There are parts of Arlington that are not desirable and we had to stay on the real estate agent, making sure she didn't steer us into those neighborhoods. We found a great neighborhood.

[jbb303]

The annual difference between Arlington and Mansfield on a $300k house is just over $1000. If someone is living on that thin of a margin, they probably can’t afford to live in either city. I always get a kick out of people on this board pitching property tax differences as a big selling point. Most city per $100 rates are within a dime of each other. To see a huge rate difference, you have to go to a town with a thousand people or all million dollar homes. I get it. No one likes paying higher taxes. We moved out of Bedford last year after 16 years and the fact that the tax rate went up there every single year played into that decision. But not because we couldn’t afford it. I’ve generally found that, if you can afford the house, you can afford the taxes.

[KathieT]

Hello...We are retired and live on a fixed income. We found a fixer-upper in a great neighborhood and have done a lot to it after we sold land for the funds. The house we bought has increased in value since November 2015, but so have the homes in Mansfield. Homes in the mid-200K are what my children bought. They can afford any tax increases. When we first moved to Texas, we bought a home in far northwest Ft Worth and the taxes were $5K per year, along with the quarterly association fees. So, now we live in Arlington and it's busy, but things are much closer for us, such as grocery and hardware/big box stores. Car wash nearby, restaurants with "deals" and many other amenities. Actually, we would love to live in the country and do have friends who live in the county in Mansfield. But, they can afford it. We don't live beyond our means. It's also nice to get the over-65 exemption. Arlington's taxes are lower due to the entertainment district money that comes in. Of course, this year that will be a lot lower, so we'll see what happens to property taxes here. When we were first looking for a home, I read about Arlington's tax rate here on city-data and which zip codes are the best. We bought a home that is in a great location, but the timing was right to find a home a lot less than $150K then. A real estate agent remarked that what we paid for this does not exist now for this area. The homeowner was about to go into foreclosure is the only thing we could guess which would make the home price so low. We're happy and it fits us, as well as having friendly neighbors.