Scots relocating from Perth Australia to Houston (The Woodlands, West: real estate, insurance) - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

Vicky77 · 10-26-2009, 08:21 PM

Hi, my family currently live in Perth Western Australia (we are originally from the north east coast of Scotland and moved to Oz nearly 3 years ago). We are hopefully going to be relocating to Houston early next year and have 2 young children (soon to be 3 and nearly 10 month old).
We are trying to establish what kind of income we should be asking for in order to have a reasonable standard of living!!!!!!
My parents have lived in Kingwood for around 4 years now and have given us some idea of the costs etc but additional/alternative ideas would be greatly appreciated. My mum said as a guide 'double the uk salary and add a bit' - does this sound about right???????????????? What about pensions - are they automatically contributed too over and above your base wage?
We would be looking to buy a house around the $420,000 - $480,000 mark (with around $380,000 deposit, so say $100,000 finance needed) and would have to purchase/run 2 cars (get away with one here in Perth!) I would like a house around 4000 square feet but am a bit scared about air conditioning bills (we live in a bungalow here in Perth with 2,000 square feet and the summer months bills are high - think this would be even worse over there).

A comparison with uk wages (especially Aberdeen/Angus area) would be great (and with Perth Oz too if anyone has made the move there from here too) - either or.
Also looking at Kingwood and the Woodlands area wise (husbands work would be in the Woodlands) and keeping the commute as short as possible plus good schools are our biggest priorities (that and lovely home, garden, pool etc etc etc lol).
I'd appreciate any help/advice anyone can offer

HookTheBrotherUp · 10-27-2009, 08:02 AM

Hello, and I hope things work out great for you. I don't have much information for you, I just wanted to say hello and comment on how nice I think Perth is... my wife and I have friends who live in Cottesloe who actually used to live here in Houston (how my wife knew them). We've been to visit a couple of times, and were there last year. 'Love the Swan Valley area, and Margaret River areas.... and love the chilli mussels in Fremantle!

Well, I will say one thing, Houston and the areas have some very nice homes for far less than most other large cities. I think you could purchase a large home, with a pool, for under 380K for starters.

Good luck.

chris_ut · 10-27-2009, 12:00 PM

Kingwood to The Woodlands is a bit of a drive, especially if you live in the back of Kingwood. I suggest you concentrate on TW for a house unless you must live close to your family there in KW. For a 4k sq. ft. house you would be looking at anywhere from $150-$300 electric bills in the cooler months and probably $250-$400 in the summer depending on the energy efficiency of the home you buy and what temps you set the thermostat to. Not sure about your pension question. Pensions are usually company specific and vary greatly in detail. Most companies no longer offer a defined pension benefit but rather matching funds for individual plans called 401Ks. Your husband should speak to his company HR dept about that. If you mean the national scheme its called Social Security and the company pays half and half is deducted from your salary (7.65%) up to a cap which I think they just raised to 105k. Not sure what salary you live off there but typically people live in a home that costs 2.5 to 3 times their salary so if your living in a 480k house you should be shooting for around 160k -190k per year salary (which would mean your husband makes more than 90% of people in the US so congrats on that).

Vicky77 · 10-27-2009, 04:28 PM

HI, thanks for all that.
Cottesloe and Fremantle are my favourite places in Perth! The chilli mussels in Fremantle rate very highly with my husband too

I think you're right about house prices, we've been looking online a lot and it's just easy to get carried away as the houses are so lovely and CHEAP compared to Perth and back home in Scotland.

Christ_ut - thanks for that help. Is the ratio of wage to house price based on having to borrow most of the house value ie having say a 90% mortgage? We would only be looking at borrowing at most $100,000, I realise the higher the value the higher the property tax but would a mortgage of $100,000 and a salary of around $110,000 (alas no such income of $160k!) sound ok (could we feed, clothe etc etc etc etc ourselves, run two cars?!)

jimboburnsy · 10-27-2009, 04:45 PM

I smell Petroleum Engineers...

chris_ut · 10-27-2009, 04:52 PM

Yes you can live very well on that with only a 100k mortgage. Watch out for MUD taxes though. Your property taxes on a 480k house could run as high as $1520 a month in the highest tax zones.

Vicky77 · 10-28-2009, 05:15 AM

Your nose hasn't failed you!

Ok have to go and google MUD tax now and try to find out about these different tax zones! We are looking in The Woodlands area (any idea if this is a high tax zone?????)

Have googled! To confirm are MUD taxes the same as property taxes????? I can't find specific tax bands but found something that says they range between 2.36 - 4% does this sound about right?

Thanks again for all the help, we have been pretty skint whilst here in Oz (Perth is an expensive place to stay) and I want to make sure we don't stretch ourselves mortgage/house wise again

jimboburnsy · 10-28-2009, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vicky77

Your nose hasn't failed you!

Ok have to go and google MUD tax now and try to find out about these different tax zones! We are looking in The Woodlands area (any idea if this is a high tax zone?????)

Have googled! To confirm are MUD taxes the same as property taxes????? I can't find specific tax bands but found something that says they range between 2.36 - 4% does this sound about right?

Thanks again for all the help, we have been pretty skint whilst here in Oz (Perth is an expensive place to stay) and I want to make sure we don't stretch ourselves mortgage/house wise again

I think I also smell Anadarko.

Painting in very broad strokes, but your total taxes including MUD (Municipal Utility District - these taxes are supposed to help the "municipality" recoup the costs of installing sewer and city water) will probably be in the neighborhood of $2.50 per every $100 of property value, with some places as high as about $3.70 per $100. Assuming your home appraises for $400K, you will probably be looking at yearly taxes of about $10,000 but that could be as high as $16,000.

File your homestead exemption early and often. Protest your appraised value every year.

http://www.hcad.org/pdf/fill/11-13_fill.pdf (broken link) <=== Homestead Exemption

http://www.hcad.org/pdf/fill/41-44_fill.pdf (broken link) <=== Notice of Protest

Also, don't forget to shop for the best electrical rates here: http://www.powertochoose.org/index.asp

Malvie · 10-28-2009, 07:00 AM

Your finances should be ok if you don't get carried away on the top end of the house (not just taxes but insurance as well). In that price range, you can get a very nice house on the LOWER end of the range, with some held back for contingencies.

A caution: don't underestimate the cost to operate two cars in Houston. Gasoline is only part of the equation; the maintenance is both expensive and essential.

Good luck and welcome to Houston!

chris_ut · 10-28-2009, 07:29 AM

The Woodlands is in Montgomery County I believe so you don't have to deal with HCAD or choose your electric provider, those are for Harris County. Montgomery County has MCAD which seems very fair on appraisals and Entergy has a monopoly here for power with lower prices than in Harris County.

Many time when you look at a home on Houston Real Estate - Houston Homes, Houston Home Value and Houston Relocation there will be a link in the right sidebar to the tax info for that home. You can also look up the address at www.mcad-tx.org for the county appraisal, although I warn you that their website is often very slow or fails to load.