^^ Thanks, dstark!
Good luck!!!
You’ll do great, blackeyedsusan!!! Hot market with low inventory! Are you in the university village area?
Fingers crossed! We live in Bellaire – next to West U.
I have a good friend from grad school who used to live in Bellaire!
Doesn’t look good if DS chooses to buy house in Houston…prices going up and up and up!!! He is in the Heights, and that area is seeing a huge building boom of condos and tall skinny row houses…
Well, seems our economy is picking up!
I understand that parts of Houston real estate (especially the west side) are expected to be affected by the downturn in the oil business, but Houston has become much more diversified since the bust of the 80’s, so the majority of Houston’s real estate is still pretty hot.
The market in Northern Nj is so hot, houses are going over asking and within a week. It is a sellers market! I’ve had lots of realtors calling me saying they have buyers interested in my house. I thank them and tell them I have a close friend who is a realtor (the truth). I just hope this market holds up for 2 more years when we plan to sell!
We have SIGNIFICANT equity in our house, partly because DH negotiated an almost unbelievable deal, and also because our desirable neighborhood has almost no inventory. We could sell for a big profit, but unless we want to move away from our current location, that profit wouldn’t translate into anything very meaningful because we’d blow all the profit on the increased price of a similar new house. Wouldn’t make any sense.
That’s the issue with it. Prices going up are great when you plan to sell and move to a low-cost area, but awful if you are staying and have to pay the taxes, or want to move into the same area and buy another expensive house!
@anxiousmom
I read that you are in Austin. I owned a condo in Austin in the 1980s in Hyde Park, near campus. When it came time to sell in the late 1980s, I couldn’t give it away. Had no trouble renting it out, though the troubles related to renting from out-of-town were myriad, even with a property manager. Finally got rid of it in the late 1990s for less than what I paid. By then, I was just happy not to be writing checks for repairs, special assessments, etc. It was not a great complex but the location was good so there was at least a buyer. Out of curiosity, I just checked the appraisal district value. The condo has appreciated 377% since I dumped it in the late 1990s. I’m more surprised the building is still standing. Austin prices are crazy and I’m never in the right place at the right time! 
Ha! Yes, I am not surprised at that appreciation. My strategy is to “buy and hold” - got my house and don’t plan to move unless the rise in taxes forces me out!!!
@anxiousmom
I’m sure you know that you can protest valuations if you feel that your house’s value is uncharacteristic compared with new sales prices. I don’t know how swiftly Travis Co. revises appraisals based on new sales but you could argue that your property is older, not newly-updated, etc. We have a tax service that files yearly protests for us and it takes a cut of the property tax saved. It’s a bit of a scam for those services, but I see it as serving two purposes: keeps our appraised value low and we support a local business, FWIW.
Unfortunately, my house’s value is in keeping with the new sales prices… and two different families have told me that if we ever move, they want to be allowed to make the first offer. We are undervalued by the tax office now…
Don’t talk to me about property taxes…I probably have all of you beat.
Our property tax is high, but I’d rather pay that than fill out a state tax return every year!
lol that’s a first world problem nj2011mom
What’s the deal with online sites like Trulia? I just saw a large home for sale in a very desired neighborhood, over 6,000 sq. feet, asking price $2,495.00. Trulia’s estimate of value for this home is $124,000. WTH?!
@Silpat, The Salem home doesn’t need restoration. The former owner, who died, put $500,000 to a million in it. All of that wallpaper with the scenes on it is Zuber wallpaper. He did have an artist come in and paint some of it rather than try to replace where it had some water spots. It’s just that things are dead in my hometown. If I lived there I’d be spending @1,200 a month to send my kids to private school with no advanced placement courses (but with a great group of above average kids).
Anyway, because of the school situation there is just an outward trickle of the middle class, and so there is no market for homes.