Dallas Housing Market (Houston, Austin, Plano: townhouse, property taxes, living in)

[move4ward]

There is a great article on 10-yr appreciation for North Texas market. These increases are ridiculous. I don't think we will return to these prices. The nieh

Two Dallas neighborhoods lead all of North Texas in 10-year home price appreciation

https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/n...-increase.html

In the last 10 years, home values rose by 175% or more in the 38 North Texas ZIP codes contained in the slide show with this story. Values appreciated by over 200% — meaning they more than tripled — in nine of the ZIP codes.

[mastershake575]

Originally Posted by Wittgenstein's Ghost

Combined population of the top 20 metros is about 125MM people, which is less than 40% of the US population. I hear this sort of thing on this forum a lot, but most people don't live in a top 20 metro area. And I'd argue that we might be seeing a bit of a reversal of the increasing urbanization of the last fifty years due to the availability of remote work.

Too add to this the city originally questioned for the condo is actually the 5th biggest county in the entire United States. Not exacty the boonies......

The obsession with time in house is a weird flex as well. 80% of the time I spend in my house is sleeping which has little difference on mcmansion or condo. as long as my beds in there and it's clean why would I care ? Im literally asleep im not thinking "man I wish this ceiling was taller"

[Sunbather]

Originally Posted by Cicnod

Make no mistake a 2BR in San Diego that isn't in the $2M range is a dump

I guess it depends on what you consider a dump. We have friends who own in San Diego. They spent ~$900,000 on their specific unit last year. The building is very nice. Theirs was (I believe) a 2/2. One of the units at 1050 Island Ave, East Village (nice neighborhood).

That comment aside, a lot of this 'dump' vs mcmansion discussion is highly personal preference.

My wife and I have no want or need to have a large, new home in Collin County. There is nothing for us there. We enjoy an urban lifestyle and being near the things that we do every day/week. We also enjoy older homes. I've done the large suburban home thing and it wasn't for me. Even where we are in East Dallas doesn't feel 'city' enough at times, but we love our home and expect to stay here as long as Dallas makes sense for us. It's a great 1,000 ft2 home that we've refreshed top to bottom where updates were needed. We are minutes away from the music venues, theaters, restaurants, and bars that we frequent weekly. We're within a few miles of most of our friends and family. etc. Before my role changed, I was hybrid working downtown - 15 minutes by train on days I was in the office.

I assume that the people who choose to buy a home in Collin County have their own priority factors that drive them choose to live there. And that some of them may consider a small home in East Dallas to be a 'dump'. To me, there is nothing wrong with either one, just personal preference.

[biafra4life]

Like others have said, it entirely depends on your lifestyle and preferences.
I would push back slightly on the beach angle with regards to California. Anecdotal here but my brother lives in LA about 5 miles from the beach. My sister lives in San Diego again within a bike ride of the beach. Neither one is at the beach very often. Frankly, my brother estimates that on any given day, most people at the beach in Santa Monica are either tourists from out of town, or high school/college aged kids. In other words, people who do not have a regular 9-5 combined with families to take care of. It's certainly nice to have nearby but it wouldnt be a game changer in deciding to live in a dump to be near the beach. Now the weather on the other hand would be a bigger factor especially if comparing L.A to DFW.

The beach would be analogous to people here paying a premium to live in Frisco or Plano because they want to be close to tons of shopping/restaurants/things to do. The deeper question is are you really going to be out shopping/eating at fancy restaurants every day? For most people, especially those with families, probably not. Once you've worked a full day at work, run kids around to whatever they have going on, hitting up the mall every day is probably not on the cards for most people.

[Leonard123]

Originally Posted by Cicnod

Make no mistake a 2BR in San Diego that isn't in the $2M range is a dump



Really? You don't sleep or eat in your home? My guess is you are home from 7PM to 7AM at least?




Yes but those likely moving out of one of those metro areas are likely moving into another one, whereas in rural areas people tend to not move out of the actual area.



Absolutely but for example a non McMansion in the Bay Area that I would consider living in would run at least $3M. In San Diego probably the same. Your last sentence makes no sense. For example Sherman is close enough to Dallas that it provides access to the jobs and infrastructure

You could get a very nice home in Irvine much less than that. I would say low 700s gets into "dump" territory, but I don't think any other city in California would compare. Sherman is not close to Dallas. It's a completely different metro area of its own. Sherman is established enough to have infrastructure though. Problem areas are the far fringes of Collin and Denton Counties like Celina and Argyle where they lack roads and require add-on property taxes just to keep up.

[mastershake575]

Originally Posted by Sunbather

I guess it depends on what you consider a dump. We have friends who own in San Diego. They spent ~$900,000 on their specific unit last year. The building is very nice. Theirs was (I believe) a 2/2. One of the units at 1050 Island Ave, East Village (nice neighborhood).

That comment aside, a lot of this 'dump' vs mcmansion discussion is highly personal preference.

My wife and I have no want or need to have a large, new home in Collin County. There is nothing for us there. We enjoy an urban lifestyle and being near the things that we do every day/week. We also enjoy older homes. I've done the large suburban home thing and it wasn't for me. Even where we are in East Dallas doesn't feel 'city' enough at times, but we love our home and expect to stay here as long as Dallas makes sense for us. It's a great 1,000 ft2 home that we've refreshed top to bottom where updates were needed. We are minutes away from the music venues, theaters, restaurants, and bars that we frequent weekly. We're within a few miles of most of our friends and family. etc. Before my role changed, I was hybrid working downtown - 15 minutes by train on days I was in the office.

I assume that the people who choose to buy a home in Collin County have their own priority factors that drive them choose to live there. And that some of them may consider a small home in East Dallas to be a 'dump'. To me, there is nothing wrong with either one, just personal preference.

Agreed. This was exactly my point when the original post was made. I was basically saying better deal or better bargain is hard to say definitely because saying Northern Collin County is a 100% a better deal is also at the same time ignoring the factors of why those coast cities are so expensive/desirable

[Sunbather]

Originally Posted by mastershake575

Agreed. This was exactly my point when the original post was made. I was basically saying better deal or better bargain is hard to say definitely because saying Northern Collin County is a 100% a better deal is also at the same time ignoring the factors of why those coast cities are so expensive/desirable

Agreed. It's the same as people who comment and say "why would anyone pay $2500-$3000 to live in a 1br in Harlem? My mortgage for my 4 bedroom home [insert suburb of some city] is less than that!". There's usually an intentional lifestyle choice that is not found where that 4 bedroom home is located. The comparison is worthless.

[Cicnod]

Originally Posted by Julio July

I mean, I guess...if you work from home. Or if you only count weekends and days when you are off work. Of if you don't have kids in school who have to be taken to and from school and different activities and events.

No it only matters when you count everything. It's really simple. There are 168 hours in a week. I would bet almost anything that the #1 ranked by hours spent will be one's home, then likely work/school then in their car.

Originally Posted by Leonard123

You could get a very nice home in Irvine much less than that. I would say low 700s gets into "dump" territory, but I don't think any other city in California would compare. Sherman is not close to Dallas. It's a completely different metro area of its own. Sherman is established enough to have infrastructure though. Problem areas are the far fringes of Collin and Denton Counties like Celina and Argyle where they lack roads and require add-on property taxes just to keep up.

There is no house in Irvine for $700,000 that I woudl live in. There is no hue in Irvine under $1.5M that I would live in. Furthermore Irvine is a dump to me overall and I woudl never live in Irvine. Not good enough.

[Cicnod]

Originally Posted by mastershake575

Too add to this the city originally questioned for the condo is actually the 5th biggest county in the entire United States. Not exacty the boonies......

The obsession with time in house is a weird flex as well. 80% of the time I spend in my house is sleeping which has little difference on mcmansion or condo. as long as my beds in there and it's clean why would I care ? Im literally asleep im not thinking "man I wish this ceiling was taller"

If you had a better house that might be different. I have made sure I am able to have all of what I am looking for so that I want to be in my house. Media Rooms/Game Rooms/Offices/Outdoor living spaces etc. However if I had a crappy house I would not want to be at home. The point about time is that most people's time is spent in their home so why wouldn't the nicest house possible matter? If I am going to spend the majority of my time in my house then I would want it to be as nice as possible. This is why rich people buy big nice homes.

[Sunbather]

I think you are conflating what you think 'rich people want', what you want, and what other people want into some singular concept of 'what everyone should want'.

I don't think that you're using bad logic to justify your own life choices by saying you spend a lot of time in your house, so your house should be the nicest it should be. Totally justifiable for you.

But it's not representative of everyone else's priorities by any stretch of the imagination.