Buying a house in Austin--Need help comparing Seattle & Austin neighborhoods (2013, income)

[centralaustinite]

Mellissa,

Have you looked recently? Prices in nearly all central neighborhoods are flat or trending down. You can get a post-2000 construction, in-fill house (with a tiny yard, granted) in 04 (with good energy efficiency, granite counters, stainless, etc) for $399K. Adorable, re-done vintage house a few blocks from me in Travis Heights was on the market for $369K.

You can find great stuff in Allandale for $399K, and even NW Hills, there are multiple, good properties below half a million. It is hard going at $250K in central austin, no question about it, but sub-$400K is different.

[Melissa78703]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

Mellissa,

Have you looked recently? Prices in nearly all central neighborhoods are flat or trending down. You can get a post-2000 construction, in-fill house (with a tiny yard, granted) in 04 (with good energy efficiency, granite counters, stainless, etc) for $399K. Adorable, re-done vintage house a few blocks from me in Travis Heights was on the market for $369K.

You can find great stuff in Allandale for $399K, and even NW Hills, there are multiple, good properties below half a million. It is hard going at $250K in central austin, no question about it, but sub-$400K is different.

Hmm ... I might have to inquire about the pricing in the condos I was interested in. A 2-1 went for $400 two years ago, but if they've come down in price some, it might be doable. I've also heard that there are efficiencies going for as low as $150K downtown, but I don't know how true that is. Could be rumor. Not fond of the idea of living downtown either.

A friend's neighbor just sold her Allandale house for $750K, and believe me, it was nothing special. It was well-maintained (3-1), but it was built in the late 60's, early 70s. The last house to sell in my neighborhood--older place--went for 2.5 million. As long as it has CA/CH. A lot of the older places I looked at required use of swamp coolers and heaters. I looked at one for 1.5 milion that was a total dive; no CA/CH, needed repainting and the foundation needed leveling. That's the problem with the older places--they need a lot of work.

[creepy]

I did not take offense, you made it clear you were comparing Seattle and Austin neighborhoods.

[creepy]

After reading all the comments I have to say thanks transplants for moving here and paying what the Realtor asked! Sarcasm! You drove up our prices for sure! Austin is so popular tho what could you have done? Weird how this happens to popular cities-hard to stop because the newbies don't know they are even causing this. "The houses are so cheap compared to where we are form so we just paid it!"

[TexasHorseLady]

I'm not from Seattle, and only lived there briefly quite a while back (at the time my impression was that Seattle was Austin to the 10th, but Austin has changed a lot in the intervening years and I imagine Seattle has, as well).

That being said, based on your price range and what you're looking for, and your husband's job downtown, I'd recommend looking in some parts of the Crestview area. There's some walkability in some of the area, some funkiness, and there's the Crestview Metroline stop where he can ride the train down to work and back. I have a friend who works at the Austin Nature Center right across the river from downtown who takes it and swears by it. You can still get something in your price range that may not have been turned into HGTV inside (though there's plenty that have if that's your thing), and the neighborhood is definitely not cookie cutter.

[CptnRn]

Up until Creepy dredged it up, the last post in this thread was in 2010.

[TexasHorseLady]

Interesting. Well, someone else from Seattle will do a search and this will pop up and they'll have some updated info! Just like City-Data wants!

[phoenix_down]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

Up until Creepy dredged it up, the last post in this thread was in 2010.

I was just about to reply to centralaustinite's post there is no way you can get $400k 2000+ construction in 78704 until I realized this was from 3 years ago My friend just bought in 78704 for $450k, and considered it a good price relative to what other houses are selling there. Even then it's 1960s construction, so he has had to do a bunch of work on it.

[centralaustinite]

Yes. Those days are gone, gone, gone! There were opportunities for bargains in2009-2011. But no longer.

[787]

I would like to congratulate all the people who reaped the benefits of rising property values. Imagine, you only make 25K a year, and your house went from 75K to 350K because of the transplants. How else on this planet could a person with a 25K salary make over 250K without having to do anything? People in this town need to be thankful, and stop *****ing.