Me and my family are wondering why Houston Texas is super cheap! (Sugar Land: hardwood floors, real estate)

[Need_affordable_home]

Hello here! My first post. I am a young guy getting a job but have no place to live as a half decent house here in South Florida is more than 1/4 million! So I have been searching on the MLS and realtors for a nice city with affordable houses/homes. I came across Houston, a very large city in east Texas, near the gulf with weather like south Florida. What amazed me is I can easily get a very nice house for $100,000 or an OK house for $50,000! Condominiums can be had for $30,000! The cost per square foot for condos is around $30, for a house its $50 because of the land/lot. Over here, houses cost around $200 a square foot! Condos are cheaper at about $133/foot.

What does south Florida have that Houston doesnt? Are there good jobs with decent salary in Houston? Is property tax reasonable(what percent) and how much is home insurance? Here is very high due to hurricanes! Is there anything bad about Houston? Whats the catch with houses and condos being almost free? Why is real estate 1/4th the price in Houston vs. south Florida?

[Need_affordable_home]

does anyone know??????

[irb_mom]

Houston is a great place to live. I am a Houstonian by choice. If you do some research you will find that Sugar Land, TX is among the top 5 places to live in the US. It is a suburb of Houston. There is affordable living and good jobs. Taxes can vary depending on what part of Houston you live. There are places that are very expensive. HTH.

~Michelle

[Tigerjag]

I've lived in Houston all my life. I don't know why our housing is lower than the rest of the US, but it is. Home are well built as long as you stay away from KB Homes. You can get good, well paying jobs here and we have no state income tax. If you are already acclimated to extremely high humidity and oppressive heat - you'll love Houston!

[marysally]

As the previous poster said the only real drawback is the heat and humidity. Since you are already accustomed to that, you should love it in Houston. Housing prices are some of the most reasonable in the country. There is no state income tax but that is made up by the super high property taxes. You know they have to get their money some where!!

[Need_affordable_home]

Thanks so much for your replies! My mom's friend used to live in Houston and moved to south Florida and is trying to sell her house in Houston without luck. She said all those poor immigrants that moved from New Orleans when hurricane Katrina wiped out that city to Houston has raised the crime, increased competition for cheap labor and hurt property values. How much truth is there to that? How much have you seen your property values decrease? How hard is it to now get a decent paying job in Houston? I need to carefully assess the situation there after my mom's friend gave me good reasons why housing has become so cheap there.

[Master Shake]

Houston will have good and bad areas, just like every other major city. You will need to do some basic research ahead of time to find the areas with less crime, etc. From what I have gathered, the closer you are to downtown, the more prone to crime the area will be (not in all cases, of course). Most people are suggesting you look somewhere north or west, outside the 8 loop (Sam Houston Toll) -- but then you will have to deal with traffic issues.

As for the property values, they seem to be lower than most other areas due to high property taxes and the weather, and the endless open land available for development. The property taxes are somewhat offset by the fact that there is no State Income tax in Texas. As another poster mentioned, since you are from Florida, you are most likely already used to the weather (hot, humid summers, with a chance for hurricanes).

[TGM]

A good rule of thumb for finding a good low crime area is buy far away from where the Houston Metro (city busses) run. When the city annexed the Willowbrook area (North) and put in alot of Metro bus stops, crime increased. Another big factor is that the city is short about 600 police officers, so unless you are reporting a major life threatening crime in progress - it will be an hour before you see a cop. This means the criminals don't have to worry about being seen breaking into your house or car because the police will take an hour to get there once called.

I don't mean to scare you away from Houston, but to guide you further out into the county and out of the city limits. The Sugarland area is great, and may have a little higher prices on property - as well as the Woodlands area to the north. I live in the northwest suburbs, and have everything around me that you get in the big city but without the crime. I live close to US 290, so a drive downtown is only about 40 minutes.

Prices are cheap because homebuilders are building new homes as fast as they can. Many homebuilders are putting up cheap homes, which keeps the older (and higher quality) homes from gaining alot in value. An example would be my house, which I plan to put on the market for $110k in a few weeks. It is 30 years old, but completely updated with moulding, hardwood floors, new appliances, double pane cat3 hurricane windows, and is on a beautiful quarter acre lot with big trees. For the same price, you can go a few miles north and buy a brand new home and pick your carpet and wall colors, and have a larger master bathroom. Seems most people are choosing the new houses. One subdivision to the north of me is trying to finish out the back of the subdivision and complete construction, so the builder is offering 50 year financing!

[randtbrown]

I agree with the above posts- stay outside the loop- we live in the Woodlands area and have seen no effects from the New Orleans disaster. Jobs seem abundant. We lived away for 8 years, moved back here and have been back about 1.5 years. I do have to say we are trying to leave now. Too hot and humid for us. The difference between here and Flordia is there is rarely a breeze in the summer- just still heat. And the water here is not Flordia- pretty nasty on the gulf. We are leaving because of the heat and lack of outdoor activities. And other personal reasons. But I do love Texas....always will. And because of the low cost of living that we are use to it is hard to go anywhere else......Good luck to you!

I'll sell you a nice almost new home in the north houston area! lol

[law]

Living South Florida doesn't seem to make much sense unless you're a multi-millionaire, have a disease that requires you to be close to the beach, obsessed with clubbing found in Miami or Fort Lauderdale, or you love being broke all the time.