the suburban yuppy take over of the hill country (Houston: buying, living in)

[john4355]

Originally Posted by DPJ4088

Dude, I totally hear you on that. That's the main reason I want to get out of Utah, it's all Mormon yuppies living in the same beige and white stucco "faux/nouveau-riche" mansions and driving giant SUVs because they have so many kids (or they're just really insecure). If any of you fly into Salt Lake International, you'll see what I mean. It's just suburbia from east to west, north to south. It's like they can't leave any piece of land undeveloped.

I've always dreamed of having a small "city-slicker" ranch out in the hill country of Texas to call my home. One that's close enough to civilization and the modern world, but also close enough to the small town city feel where everyone knows everyone. A nice little ranch house, a few horses maybe, and a Chevy parked in front. A place where the young ones can actually have a childhood.

How did a conversation on growth in the hill country turn to bashing on mormons?

[love roses]

I can see the comparison, but you'd just be jumping from the frying pan into the fire in a lot of places in the hill country nowadays. McMansions all over the place.

[imaterry78259]

Originally Posted by love roses

I can see the comparison, but you'd just be jumping from the frying pan into the fire in a lot of places in the hill country nowadays. McMansions all over the place.

In San Antonio, the guys in the suits, the movers and shakers live in the Hill country and commute in. It used to be called white flight in the old days but it is about making a secure place to raise a family

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by imaterry78259

In San Antonio, the guys in the suits, the movers and shakers live in the Hill country and commute in. It used to be called white flight in the old days but it is about making a secure place to raise a family

The same can be said for Austin. Living in the Hill Country is "the in thing" for those that have money.

[Stan41]

I have lived in/near the hill country all my life. In fact my Gr. Grandfather had a large herd of sheep in Bandera County when it was free range. So, I guess that makes me a native Texan.
I live in Mills County and development is not bad yet, but it soon will be. We have a good many city people buying 20 acre "ranches" and putting up an entrance that cost more than my house.

They really don't want country living. They are already clamoring for a county wide water system, paid for by all of us of course. I already have my water system. It's a well.
Stan

[DPJ4088]

Originally Posted by john4355

How did a conversation on growth in the hill country turn to bashing on mormons?

I'm not bashing on Mormons from a religious standpoint (I myself am actually a "non-Utah" Mormon, if that makes any sense at all), I'm more or less bashing on them for the lifestyle they promote outside of religion. They seem to all want these huge McMansions, so instead of settling for a decent-sized house in an established, mature community, they push out into the desert.

Every year there's always stories of houses sinking, flooding, or falling because the yuppies are so desperate to not live such an aforementioned home, that they build on top of landfills, in front of mountain drainages, and on hills of pure sand. This winter, one of those new yuppie communities (Daybreak) got about 2 feet of snow in a night and all the residents start complaining like there's no tomorrow. I just said, "Well that's what you get when you pressure home developers to build where nature doesn't want them to." Many of the cities are really tightening the reins on these major home developers because all over the Salt Lake Valley they build unsafe homes, but in all fairness, they're just obeying supply and demand.

I read on MSN Money a few days ago that this is a national trend with the yuppies, and the recent mortgage crisis is the best example. These college graduate, newly-wed couples put together the availability of credit along with the ideology that they can live exactly like their parents, even though their parents already had successful careers. They buy up huge houses and nice cars, and then they find out they can't pay for it all and the whole credit bubble bursts. Mostly all because they can't stand to live like our parents did when they started out by living in an apartment first, then a small house, and so forth. They want the "retirement mansion" that their parents have after a lifetime of work first.

[Chickrae]

Not being famaliar with the area just wondering where is the Hill Country? Is that by Austin??

[Philosophizer]

Bump. I'm in Austin over the summer and I don't even recognize Bee Caves and much of west and south austin. I've only been gone a few years.

[EasilyAmused]

Originally Posted by TexianPatriot

It's so sad watching Austin and San Antonio sprawl extend into my beloved hill country. It seems like every where you look, you've got new single acre estates with half million dollar homes going in. Old ranch land is being converted into shopping centers and other places where hill country yuppies gather in numbers to pretend like they know what real country living is all about. You know the type. There are the people that have never eaten at Coopers, drank a beer at Luckenbach, camped/caught a rainbow trout on the Guadalupe, been to a Burnet vs. Marble Falls HS football game, killed a deer, shot doves over a tank, or have ever been to the towns of Leakey, Junction, Uvalde, Doss, ect.

It's depressing. I feel I am left with no choice but to head further west. I always dreamed about owning a ranch on the banks of the Llano, but at this point, I'm not sure it'll be there for less than $5000 an acre. And I'm not even sure it's the price that is as big a deal breaker as the expansion of suburban yuppies into what used to be real country. So I just might just settle further out towards the Sonora/Ozona area. Crockett county/Northern Val Verde county is looking pretty good at this point. I'm just concerned about how close I'll be to the border at that point. But I guess that's something that goes with getting away from the invasion of the suburbia.

This is why old Texans are heading to the lakes and lands of NE Texas.

[doss1]

The land around NE Texas is way undervalued, imho. Grab some while you can.