Affluent people leaving Harris County for Montgomery County (The Woodlands, River Oaks: home, construction)

[14Bricks]

Originally Posted by nilkn

Once people settle down with families, River Oaks and West U are mostly for those who hate commuting and are willing to pay a huge premium not to do so. There's also a silly prestige factor involved which attracts some misguided buyers into spending more than they should.

It's really not surprising to me at all that there are quite a few affluent folks out there who don't mind commuting or enjoy the country and hence live further out. The CTO of the company I work for, who has an 8 figure net worth, has like an hour-long commute each way. He says he enjoys the drive, he gets a lot of thinking done during it, and he loves living out in the country.

I guess the point is not every wealthy person is an urbanite. Not every wealthy person cares one bit about the "prestige" of living in West U or even River Oaks. And many wealthy people are still quite frugal (which shouldn't come as a surprise--it's been well-known for a while now that the average American liquid millionaire lives far below their means).

You sound very envious. And I'm pretty sure the wealty people out in the suburbs aint living in some small 1500 sq ft house either.

[rynetwo]

Are they going for "earned income" in the article?

For instance people in San Antonio that "earn" 250K or more a year will usually live in Stone Oak or Beorne but the people that have "family wealth" which will not show up on them making 250K in compensation generally live close in to DT in Alamo Heights, Terrell Hills, and Olmos Park.

[nilkn]

Originally Posted by 14Bricks

You sound very envious.

A strange presumption, considering I haven't even been outside of the loop in Houston in my entire time being here except when flying. You sound offended.

As for people living in a small house in the suburbs, where exactly did you get that notion from? The whole point, obviously, is to get a bigger house for less. And there's almost no countryside in the city on matter how many millions you pay. You missed the entire point.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by DejaBlue

I want to know why I can't read that article. It's the chronicle.I'm not subscribing to anything to them free or otherwise.

What are they calling affluent? I think it's the max $450k house people and if so I can see this being true. Attainable "wealth" for the "average" American. The River Oaks,Memorial ones are in a different class. Considering the thought of top is $250k and high household income I see this being true.

The soccer/SAHM mom, one six figure income dad who want well rounded kids and say hey she doesn't work, we have 5 kids so we need space and we'd rather just bus them to the neighborhood school because we need to save for college and right now shelling out 25k for "high school" is kind of dumb for us since their going to my alma UT/TAMU/Tech anyway not East/West Ivys. May as well send them to the minis in SL, TW, Spring, etc and get ready because Abby and Katie will be getting married the weekend after graduation anyway so double savings to send my girl off with a big wedding.

^^^ 3 good good friends this is them straight up. I live in Spring. Neighbors? Check and check.

I think this hits upon what is happening.

[testmo]

Articles about the breakdown of the census also state the huge number of transplants from houston area and abroad movin into the city and harris county and increase in proeprty values, gentrification, and gentrification of hisd schools. Census data is so massive you can read into things a million different ways

[blondie267]

My husband and I are late forties and fifties. Our children are grown and gone. We are selling our lovely home after 15 years in East Montrose (near Texas Art Supply on Montrose Blvd) because of overcrowding, escalating crime, noise pollution, obnoxious out-of-control bars, no parking, and the City of Houston constantly tearing up area streets to repair water mains they repaired two years ago. I so look forward to getting out of this particular part of Montrose.

We watch builders come in, demolish the old bungalows, then throw together a 3-4 story dwelling in the blink of an eye - selling it for almost double what it went for 2-3 years ago. We hear horror stories about the quality of these instant homes. The traffic problem is growing and the newcomers don't seem to know our driving rules. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why people are leaving. It appears that newbies are all too eager to live inside the loop. I agree there are advantages. But please, don't think Montrose is a paradise. Come back in a couple of years and ask those same people who paid way too much for shoddy construction if it was worth it.

[smuggy_mba]

Originally Posted by dejamiller

"Harris County, which with more than 4 million residents is the nation's third most populous, is losing thousands of its wealthiest, best-educated residents to neighboring Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, a U.S. Census Bureau study released Thursday shows."


Harris County losing residents to affluent neighboring counties, Census finds - Houston Chronicle

If I had money to buy a house in the Woodlands Carlton Woods area, I'd move too. Would love to have my name added to this list

[curbur]

Originally Posted by smuggy_mba

If I had money to buy a house in the Woodlands Carlton Woods area, I'd move too. Would love to have my name added to this list

Agreed, but since I can't, I'd rather live in town than in a little square box out in Katy.

[Augiec]

Originally Posted by DejaBlue

I want to know why I can't read that article. It's the chronicle.I'm not subscribing to anything to them free or otherwise.

What are they calling affluent? I think it's the max $450k house people and if so I can see this being true. Attainable "wealth" for the "average" American. The River Oaks,Memorial ones are in a different class. Considering the thought of top is $250k and high household income I see this being true.

The soccer/SAHM mom, one six figure income dad who want well rounded kids and say hey she doesn't work, we have 5 kids so we need space and we'd rather just bus them to the neighborhood school because we need to save for college and right now shelling out 25k for "high school" is kind of dumb for us since their going to my alma UT/TAMU/Tech anyway not East/West Ivys. May as well send them to the minis in SL, TW, Spring, etc and get ready because Abby and Katie will be getting married the weekend after graduation anyway so double savings to send my girl off with a big wedding.

^^^ 3 good good friends this is them straight up. I live in Spring. Neighbors? Check and check.

$450K inside the loop is hitting on a remodeled ~2K sq ft ranch style house, or 2.5k 3 story home with no yard inside the loop. By that same token, it will barely get you into the hyper competitive suburbs. There are some places in the suburbs where $450K will see you in a fairly large home with lots of amenities, but it seems like those places are shrinking and getting farther away from the city as more people move here from out of state.

That second part with the 5 kids and all is just scary, and a good anecdote for why family planning is important. My wife is a SAHM mom and we have one reasonably good income, but we keep costs low and have two kids. As a result, we're in a ranch house inside the loop. We have memberships to the Childen's museum & the Zoo, so the kids can go whenever they want. Heck, we even bring our nephews & nieces. It's nice being so close to the good stuff.

Originally Posted by tstone

What does it matter what the rate is? Is it something to brag about on here or am I misunderstanding something? At the end of the day (year), I need to know the total dollars I need to pay. And total tax $ per year in the good parts of the city will always be higher than the burbs for comparable square footage and desirability. In many cases, it is significantly higher.

As for the property tax rates, well... I'm not an actuary, or other form of math whiz, but "the total dollars" you need to pay are dependent on that rate you seem so dismissive about multiplied by the value of the property. Since the amount of land in the US is fixed & the population is growing, it stands to reason the value of that land is unlikely to drop. As a result, I'd say it's better to focus on the rate. As PedroMartinez would gladly point out, we're all just renting our homes from the state anyway, why pay more than you should?

[Dopo]

As if .... Houston is the only city where people "move out to the suburbs"
But as usually... Let's write the story with a spin to make it interesting