Is Houston More Expensive Than Dallas/DFW? (Valley View, Miami: sale, 2013)

[ttoad4000t]

I just moved from Dallas to Houston last week, Houston is without a doubt more expensive now than Dallas, it sucks.

In Dallas you could get a house in Richardson zoned to exemplary schools (75080) for under $160k for a nicely updated house in an area with great amenities close to the city center. You can rent a nice >750sqft 1br apartment in Addison for under $850/mo (had one at post Addison circle) and a lot of areas close to DT (mockingbird, etc) for under $1k a month.

Houston seems to have no middle class near the city in an area with desirable schools. Anything within 20min of DT Houston is incredibly expensive, even with bad schools. You can't find a decent house for <$275-$300k (and those will need upgrades). Even the older small townhouses are north of $150k-$170k. It has risen exponentially in the past year, even couple of months. Those online comparison calculators do not keep up with reality.

Far suburbs are pretty much even (Plano, pearland, Frisco, Katy, etc etc) any potential middle class areas inside the beltway don't have good schools, I don't want to get into an argument about "desirable". Sharpstown is not nice. East of downtown isn't nice, it desperately needs some kind of amenities.. (It seems to have been developing for the past 5-6 years, but I am not seeing much there). Westbury is a cool area but is pretty much past the middle class cost point now. I do wonder if that will continue west into sw fondren.

These are my opinions, but to be desirable an area either needs good schools or interesting amenities (restaurants, bars, museums, etc). If it has neither, why live there. I really miss Dallas, but Houston definitely is pretty neat so far, other than the housing cost.

[SouthernBoy205]

Originally Posted by ttoad4000t

I just moved from Dallas to Houston last week, Houston is without a doubt more expensive now than Dallas, it sucks.

In Dallas you could get a house in Richardson zoned to exemplary schools (75080) for under $160k for a nicely updated house in an area with great amenities close to the city center. You can rent a nice >750sqft 1br apartment in Addison for under $850/mo (had one at post Addison circle) and a lot of areas close to DT (mockingbird, etc) for under $1k a month.

Houston seems to have no middle class near the city in an area with desirable schools. Anything within 20min of DT Houston is incredibly expensive, even with bad schools. You can't find a decent house for <$275-$300k (and those will need upgrades). Even the older small townhouses are north of $150k-$170k. It has risen exponentially in the past year, even couple of months. Those online comparison calculators do not keep up with reality.

Far suburbs are pretty much even (Plano, pearland, Frisco, Katy, etc etc) any potential middle class areas inside the beltway don't have good schools, I don't want to get into an argument about "desirable". Sharpstown is not nice. East of downtown isn't nice, it desperately needs some kind of amenities.. (It seems to have been developing for the past 5-6 years, but I am not seeing much there). Westbury is a cool area but is pretty much past the middle class cost point now. I do wonder if that will continue west into sw fondren.

These are my opinions, but to be desirable an area either needs good schools or interesting amenities (restaurants, bars, museums, etc). If it has neither, why live there. I really miss Dallas, but Houston definitely is pretty neat so far, other than the housing cost.

This doesn't sound legit for some reason.

[Spacecityroller]

Originally Posted by SouthernBoy205

This doesn't sound legit for some reason.

A&M Bulldog have you visited Houston yet? You really need to spend a weekend and see as much as you can.

[things and stuff]

I looked at home prices in Houston and was shocked at how expensive a decent home in a decent neighborhood is.

$250k won't get you anything good inside the loop.

People tell me how cheap homes are in Houston but what they really are talking about are homes 25+ miles away from downtown Houston.

[ttoad4000t]

Originally Posted by SouthernBoy205

This doesn't sound legit for some reason.

Look at my post history, I don't think I posted about living in DT Fort Worth Jan 2012 just to setup this post 19 months later.

I don't understand why people in Houston view this as a good thing or something to brag about, it isn't. If I were starting a family, why would I want to choose Houston over Dallas? Both cities clearly have strong economic and population growth, but in Dallas you have good, affordable (for now) housing in places like Richardson. They even have good public transportation from their suburbs into DT ft Worth and DT Dallas if you want to live in a suburb with good schools a 30-35 min train ride away.

An hour van pool from Katy is great that people are carpooling, but it is not real public transportation. I've been in Houston a week and it is clear why people like it down here, but they have to do something about traffic and a couple other things that are unrelated to this topic.

Now if you can afford a house over $400-500k, both are fine cities. I'm mainly just talking about the people in the <$250ish (realistically more like 300k) range.

[SouthernBoy205]

Originally Posted by Spacecityroller

A&M Bulldog have you visited Houston yet? You really need to spend a weekend and see as much as you can.

I've visited there before.

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

Originally Posted by SouthernBoy205

This doesn't sound legit for some reason.

You're not qualified to determine that.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by things and stuff

I looked at home prices in Houston and was shocked at how expensive a decent home in a decent neighborhood is.

$250k won't get you anything good inside the loop.

People tell me how cheap homes are in Houston but what they really are talking about are homes 25+ miles away from downtown Houston.

Thats not true. There are neighborhoods transitioning from okay to better that you still can get hones below 150k in the loop. That 250k figure is hi.



The way people are paying its like the entire loop is expensive. Reality is the:
north west quadrant is high 250k to 20+ million.
Southwest quadrant is is medium at 100k to the millions.
Northeast quad is medium low at about 40k to 100s of k
Southeast quad is low houses there range from 25k to the 100s of k. There are a few pricey homes in Riverside but those are like 5000+ sq feet


People are looking at the expensive neighborhoods in Houston and shocked that they are expensive.
Washington Terrace, is about a mile or two from downtown and still affordable. There are a number of nice quiet neighbs near braeswood that are still affordable.

You can't gauge houston homes based on the heights and Montrose. That is a 10 sq mile area out of a 600 sq Mile city and 10,000 sq mile metro.

Houston is still very cheap no matter if you compare it to the older cities Boston etc, or with Dallas, AtL etc.

it had its cheap areas, but its core had been becoming more affluent than Dallas and Atl.

[things and stuff]

The non-expensive areas inside the loop, on the east side seem very bad.

Im not telling people home prices in Los Angeles arent expensive just because South Central LA/Compton is affordable.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by things and stuff

The non-expensive areas inside the loop, on the east side seem very bad.

you get what you pay for.
You have to hit areas when they are up and coming.

You don't expect to get a home a mile from downtown, in a major city, completely renoed for dirt cheap and expect the area to be fancy.

Who the heck would sell you their awesome house, close to everything for dirt cheap.

Something has to give.

Think for what you get in those so called not nice areas, is a lot more than what you get in other major Southern cities.

Look up houses within a two mile radius of DT Atl, Miami and dallas. All three will have their nicer areas and the not so nice areas but when you average them out, Houston is still cheaper than ATL, much cheaper than Miami and about even with Dallas.

COST of living calculator s show that a family livibg in Houston on 550 would need to to make 53k, 54k and 59k in Dallas, ATL and Miami respectively.

HOUSING costs are 7, 10 and 34% higher in ATL, Dallas and Miami
http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/