Why is it so expensive to buy rural?? (San Antonio, Austin: real estate, construction loan)

[katiev111]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that is quite a bit more expensive to buy rural. My husband and I would like to purchase our first home in a year-ish, and we would love to purchase a house on a few acres, so we can garden, etc...as we both grew up in rural areas and love the country life. But I have noticed, you can get a starter home for under 200k in the suburbs, but an old sub-par house that is 1100 square feet is 350k for 1.5 acres (yes I've seen this quite often)!! and this is in the northeastern outskirts of the city. Not the west. Is land not cheap like it used to be??/ I'm just wondering if anyone can give me any insight to why there seems to be such a huge price jump. Thanks!

[TexasHorseLady]

If you are on the city outskirts and the city is growing, that might be the issue. I've seen land prices increase as a city grows closer to the country and developers buy up the land (usually much larger pieces) to build on eventually. Also, 1.5 acres is a TINY parcel in terms of rural acreage and property is a lot like swimming suits - think how much a bikini costs per square inch versus a one piece.

On the other hand, if you get a few acres that already have their agricultural valuation, and you keep that up, your property taxes will be a lot lower.

What kind of house are you looking for in the country and where exactly? I'm presuming this is around Austin and I'm familiar with that market and might be able to tell you more about why based on that.

[katiev111]

Just looking for a 1500-2000 square foot home, on 3 ish acres. We have been looking in Williamson county (near Taylor) , and also out in bastrop county (near the city of Bastrop) , and sort of in hays county. Really any of those areas! Husband would commute to austin for work, but that's not the biggest deal ever. You could be right, those are all growing areas.

[katiev111]

I wonder if it would be worth our while to buy a parcel of land with cash and then later on get a construction loan

[10scoachrick]

Yep, the cowboy B-I-L keeps trying to get us up toward Lampasas/Lometa and the growth-happy bug has infested that area as well...and for the most part, they aren't really building anything new on spec. It's up to "us" to buy and build, not my idea of a good time.(Not to mention that area is a solid hour plus away from north north Austin, never mind going downtown!).

[ashbeeigh]

My parents have been on the hunt for the "perfect" house below about 250k, 1 acre or more between Schwartz and south Austin for the past 12 years. They've looked as far west as wimberly and as Far East as Lockhart. They haven't found "the one" yet and I'm afraid they've lost any chance with an increase in prices in the San Antonio -Austin area. It's a bummer for sure. Not sure I can offer any advice, but some sympathy for sure.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by katiev111

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that is quite a bit more expensive to buy rural. My husband and I would like to purchase our first home in a year-ish, and we would love to purchase a house on a few acres, so we can garden, etc...as we both grew up in rural areas and love the country life. But I have noticed, you can get a starter home for under 200k in the suburbs, but an old sub-par house that is 1100 square feet is 350k for 1.5 acres (yes I've seen this quite often)!! and this is in the northeastern outskirts of the city. Not the west. Is land not cheap like it used to be??/ I'm just wondering if anyone can give me any insight to why there seems to be such a huge price jump. Thanks!

rural is cheap, what you are looking at is most likely not rural. With rural you are talking 5+acres, not 1.5.

Keep in mind construction costs at minimum are going to be about 100/sq ft. So your 2000 sq ft home needs to be 200,000. If the price is 250K, then the acreage is only 50k.

In the city there are tract home builders that get economy of scale and they can drop the price to maybe $70/sq ft.

Austin homesearch lets you search the entire area on a map. The user interface sucks. You have to select "refine search" and also find "more options"

This will let you select on price, acres, type of home and square footage. Im seeing houses in the elgin, cedar creek, and bertram/leander area.

[riaelise]

The days of ideally located cheap land are over. Any place that has amenities and near a major city is going to be more expensive. There are people with big budgets who also desire to move farther out. There are some properties available, but expect them to be old and maybe not to your liking. East and west doesn't make a difference.

A starter tract home on a postage stamp sized lot isn't really a comparison. And even those are more than $200k these days in most suburbs.

[DCtoTejas]

Central Texas is highly desirable, land is expensive here. I've done my own fruitless search for that "unicorn" rural or semi-rural property - somewhat close to Austin, decent size, decent price. It doesn't really exist, you'll have to compromise on either, price, distance or size / condition. Anything I've gone to see in the affordable range has a ton of cleanup needed or some other undesirable factors, like being right next to a fairly big road, and it is still priced relatively high per acre.

I decided to just stay in the city until the time comes that I leave the area altogether but I might start looking again if there is a decent real estate crash.

[Lafemmenikita1]

Originally Posted by DCtoTejas

Central Texas is highly desirable, land is expensive here. I've done my own fruitless search for that "unicorn" rural or semi-rural property - somewhat close to Austin, decent size, decent price. It doesn't really exist, you'll have to compromise on either, price, distance or size / condition. Anything I've gone to see in the affordable range has a ton of cleanup needed or some other undesirable factors, like being right next to a fairly big road, and it is still priced relatively high per acre.

I decided to just stay in the city until the time comes that I leave the area altogether but I might start looking again if there is a decent real estate crash.

DITTO!
I'd rather have my short commute to work than buy some place not that great.
We're moving in to a large 3 bed 2 bath duplex next month and may never buy here.
Oh well! A lot can change in a year or two.