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Old 12-28-2010, 04:26 PM
 
Location: Houston, Texas
1,668 posts, read 4,685,799 times
Reputation: 3037

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We have personal friends & family living in San Antonio, Phoenix, Jacksonville, Austin & Dallas (even some parts of the outstanding Highland Park ISD)......living in comparable homes/locations/schools where prices are less than than $200-$250 sq ft POS's here.

Houston shouldn't be painted as a cheap city. It's not NYC or LA pricey, no way. But Houston homes in the best public schools & close-in locations aren't cheap on a national level.

Yes- our urban core is cheaper than other cities, but we don't really reside in our urban core on the same level as other big cities.

Are the neighborhoods by 610 & I-10 suburban like our modern day suburbs in Katy, Pearland, Sugarland, The Woodlands or Friendswood? Not so much to me. But hey! That's just me. This question has come up before & I remember a wide variety of responses.
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Old 12-28-2010, 04:42 PM
 
Location: ✶✶✶✶
15,218 posts, read 30,401,995 times
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Right, as I suspected. Arizona and Florida post-housing bust in the mix there, and all those cities are basically peers of Houston. This is not to be confused with the likes of LA, Chicago, San Francisco, NYC, Boston. Those are where the "cheap" comes from. I'm guessing the OP came from one of these places and lived there.

This goes back to the whole perspective thing.
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Old 12-28-2010, 05:00 PM
 
Location: West Houston
1,075 posts, read 2,904,024 times
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I got into this discussion with a friend of mine in Philadelphia.

Compared to almost all cities in the Northeast, as well as the West Coast cities, almost all of Houston (including "Inside the Loop") looks SUBURBAN to them. When they think "urban", they think Manhattan-style urban, skyscrapers with row houses and huge apartment buildings mixed in, or at the very most Queens-like (think Archie Bunker's house) row houses with tiny yards front and back. Montrose/Museum District/Rice Military looks like nice little suburban areas to them, and that's as urban as it gets around here other than the few lofts/etc downtown.

It's hard to get pure "apples to apples", but compared to the major cities in the US, with the exception of, say, the TEXAS cities of Dallas, Ft. Worth, Arlington, Austin, San Antonio, Houston is cheaper.
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Old 12-28-2010, 05:33 PM
 
Location: Sugar Land
2,465 posts, read 5,761,220 times
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Hehehe, Houston is CHEAP trust me....
Try pay monthly rent of:

$6000 Hong Kong
$7000 London
$10.000 Moscow

I am not even debating owing something there....

Houston is really affordable comparing with many places in the world.
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Old 12-28-2010, 10:04 PM
 
Location: Westbury
3,283 posts, read 6,014,209 times
Reputation: 2950
in the US you rarely get housing allowance from your employer that pays for a home. do they even exist?

i mean germany still pays families a pretty good amount of money every month to help support children. and by family i mean every single family regardless of how much money they earn.

US is cheap, but a lot less social benefits than a lot of other countries.
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Old 12-29-2010, 08:13 AM
 
Location: Charleston Sc and Western NC
9,273 posts, read 26,373,824 times
Reputation: 4740
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfre81 View Post
What are these "big cities" in which your friends live? Just wondering.

When I say "urban core" I mean the traditional one. 610/Katy Freeway is the suburban "edge city." It has tall buildings. It looks urban and dense from a distance. It's not. See that photo thread I posted the other day and compare it with the ones from in and around downtown. There is a difference in design. People who buy homes around there are still buying into a suburb.

But that's Houston. You buy a single family home, on a block with other single family homes it's suburban...but perhaps not a suburb. They need a new term for them. Close in neighborhoods are Urban-Suburban or maybe Urbs. But what they really are are just city NEIGHBORHOODS. It really doesn't matter what they were 100 years ago, they have been engulfed by the city..however sunbeltish it is in it's make up.

I agree with some, you can't compare River Oaks/West U/Memorial/Meyerland/Bellaire etc., to anything in an MPC. The only thing they have in common is a cluster of single family homes.

This "nice,new single family home for 125k" discription from the OP is definately not within City limits.And I can almost bet it includes an hour commute each way.

As to Houston being "cheap:" Sure it is when you compare it to the 3 larger cities. It has pockets that that are price prohibitive. But honestly if you want the "new and cheap" you see on TV, you're going to have to drive baby and drive hard.And then you aren't really in Houston anymore are you? You're in that blob called the Metro..which could extend 60 miles from the core at this point.

JMHO
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Old 12-29-2010, 11:03 AM
 
Location: The land of sugar... previously Houston and Austin
5,429 posts, read 14,780,327 times
Reputation: 3672
Like what I've always said, the "Houston is cheap" idea is mostly a myth. It's only true if you're in a not very good area of town (i.e. poor public schools) and/or really far out. Add to that our high property tax rates, insurance, etc. and it's not "cheap" at all. In fact, it can be quite expensive to get what you want.

Maybe compared to NY, CA, NJ and a few other high-priced places, but not compared to much else.
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Old 12-29-2010, 12:05 PM
 
125 posts, read 237,518 times
Reputation: 140
Quote:
Originally Posted by EasilyAmused View Post
As to Houston being "cheap:" Sure it is when you compare it to the 3 larger cities. It has pockets that that are price prohibitive. But honestly if you want the "new and cheap" you see on TV, you're going to have to drive baby and drive hard.And then you aren't really in Houston anymore are you? You're in that blob called the Metro..which could extend 60 miles from the core at this point.

JMHO
Well, I doubt the "core" of Houston is the only place where one can find a reason to live in Houston (jobs, culture, restaurants, retail, etc).

Matter of fact, I believe one can live their lives, spending the vast bulk of their time without even having to go to the "core".

But just like the beach, the "core" is close when you do want to go there!
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Old 12-29-2010, 12:18 PM
 
Location: Charleston Sc and Western NC
9,273 posts, read 26,373,824 times
Reputation: 4740
Quote:
Originally Posted by mistergus75 View Post
Well, I doubt the "core" of Houston is the only place where one can find a reason to live in Houston (jobs, culture, restaurants, retail, etc).
Not saying it is. But for the most part employment and culture is easier to find closer to the core/medcenter/energycorridor/greenway. Definately culture.
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Old 12-29-2010, 03:36 PM
 
2,541 posts, read 4,012,305 times
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I agree for the most part with the comments here... it is definitely tough to find an affordable house with good schools in Houston without going way OUT of Houston. But, it's not impossible. People will chime in and disagree, but here in the Westbury area we have pretty good schools (several good elementary schools plus Johnston and Pin Oak middle) high school is the only problem but there are magnets and privates, and you can get a nice, 2000 square foot house for under 250K. We're 15 minutes from Rice U, museum district, Galleria, etc.

I was looking at a move to the DC area and to get anything remotely similar for 350K, we would have been looking at a 60-90 minute commute each way.

My point is, there are options in Houston that you don't have in the pricier cities.
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