Dallas the costliest home market in Texas
Interesting report from the Houston Business Journal:Study - Dallas the costliest home market in Texas
Dallas is the most expensive housing market in Texas, ranking higher than Austin, San Antonio and Houston, according to a new national study by Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corp.
The residential real estate company's Home Price Comparison Index compared the cost in 310 U.S. markets for a 2,200-square-foot, four-bedroom home with two and a half bathrooms, a family room and a two-car garage.
In Dallas, the average home cost was $261,325. It was followed by San Antonio at $219,075 and Austin at $199,381.
The most affordable market in the country and the state was Killeen, where a similar home costs $131,000. Arlington was the second most affordable market in Texas at $139,510, followed by Fort Worth at $148,610 and Houston at $151,600.
Plano was the seventh most expensive market in Texas, with homes costing about $183,750.
The national average home price was $401,767, a 13 percent jump from last year. In more than half the markets studied, the average home price was less than $300,000.
Since Houston and Dallas are similar cities in many ways, I've heard comparisons that say any housing price differences are likely due to zoning in Dallas and no-zoning in Houston. Zoning restricts new supply, especially in desirable areas, driving up prices. I do think that plays a part, but hard to say how much. $110K seems a bit much to blame on zoning. But no matter how you look at it, they're all a bargain compared to the $401K national average for that size house. Texas in general - and Houston in particular - are amazingly affordable, especially for families.
posted by Tory Gattis @ 10:28 PM
8 Comments:
Im very surprised by those statistics. I would have thought Austin would be the most expensive by far and that San Antonio would be the cheapest of the major TX metros (considering it is one of the poorest cities in the state, and one of the poorest metros in the US). Fort Worth and Arlington being so cheap surprise me, as they are generally very wealthy communities.
I wonder how Rita will affect Houston's real estate evaluations relative to Austin, San Antonio, and especially Dallas next year. If global warming and cyclical climate changes are combining to raise the Gulf by only 1 degree leading to all this destruction, I dont know what the next decade will bring.
But somehow, Miami and Tampa are booming even though they are directly in the path of most hurricanes that come our way. Makes you wonder if it is even a factor.
Good points raised by the first comment. I've always was fascinated on why Florida real estate is booming and prices are rising with all the hurricane risks they have.
I am getting ready to relocate to West Houston (Grand Lakes or Seven Meadows) from Washington DC metro area. Rita was scary for me but I don't think it will change my mind about moving. I am not sure however how Rita is going to affect the immediate builder inventory home prices in the Houston area.
Oz
kjb434 -
very true about MUDs... and it raises the point that when looking at the cost of a new home, one should not only look at the first costs (the sales price) but also certsin lifetime costs such as property and MUD taxes to get a more complete picture.
re - Oh, and please don't spew the Global Warming thing as a scientific fact. The evidence is little at best and very flawed
I want to share with you the comments of Robert Socolow, and engineering professor from Princeton. He said, "I've been involved in a number of fields where there's a lay opinion and a scientific opinion. And, in most cases, it's the lay community that is more exercised, more anxious. If you take an extreme example, it would be nuclear power, where most of the people who work in nuclear science are relatively relaxed about very low levels of radiation. But, in the climate case, the experts - the people who work with climate models every day, the people who do ice cores - they are more concerned. They're going out of their way to say, "Wake up! This is not a good thing to be doing.'"
You can certainly and reasonably raise doubt when people (like Barbara Streisand, whose scientific credentials are zilch) suddenly make pronouncements that global warming caused Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I haven't seen any scientists who study climate for a living go on record and say that in absence of global warming, those events would not have happened. But the flip side is that regardless of our own "lay" opinions or political persuasion, the climate scientists are considerably more alarmed about global warming than what your comments suggest.
kjb434,
Obviously your political bias has ruined whatever reading comprehension skills you might have had. I said "If global warming and cyclical climate changes are combining...". In fact, these are the two main theories on why the Gulf is 1 degree warmer and we are getting stronger hurricanes.
I just love how conservatives want to "teach the controversy" for evolution, which is as firm a scientific theory as gravity, but when we don't even exactly know why the Gulf is warming up, the mere mention that it could be a combination of global warming and cyclical climate changes is shut up. Gimme a break, the fact is scientists dont know and arent in agreement about why the Gulf has gone up 1 degree in temp.
But at the very least, until we know what the cause it, it wouldn't hurt to try to cut down pollution would it? I mean, if it is just cyclical, we clean up our smog-ridden city. And if it is global warming, we save ourselves hundreds of millions of dollars and countless lives. Because if only 1 degree difference has caused this hurricane season, I dont want to live in Houston or anywhere on the gulf once it becomes a 2 degree difference.
I just cringe when people claim that it's human's fault. Scientist have shown that the earth has warmed and cooled on it own.
Of course the earth has warmed and cooled on its own in the past. But the debate in the scientific community - at least the mainstream scientific community - is not whether human-induced global warming is now occurring, but rather to what magnitude.
I would suggest you start reading lots of scienfic journals and not just from environmental scientist; but from oceanic experts, geologist, climatologists and other various fields that have insight in the global biosphere
...and those who do so will no doubt be familiar with the work of Richard Alley, a professor of geosciences at Penn State. He chaired a panel that produced a study on globabl warming by the National Academy of Sciences in 2001, and published the book The Two-Mile Time Machine in which he discusses climate history through his study of ice cores (the final chapter of which includes his thoughts about what the current human-induced period of climate change might lead to). He will be speaking at Rice University on Thursday, October 6th in the Grand Hall. Here's the url for more info:
www.rice.edu/pls
Miami is appreciating so rapidly because we are running out of supply. We are coastal to the south and east, densely populated and hemmed in by the Everglades to the west, and are hammered by ever-increasing regulation.
Travis Johnson
UI would love an updated analysis on the Texas market. A almost 3000sqft 3 yr old all brick home with the exception of one tiny spot on the back of the 2nd story, a pool and nice coner lot 15.9 miles from downtown dallas has a CAD at 205k while a similar home in Austin Texas 12.5 miles from downtown without a pool, with way less brick, and without upgraded appliances is listed at 284,900. I am seeing so many nice all brick homes in an affordable price range. For 205k in Austin you would be lucky to have one piece of brick on the home or if it does it is over 30 yrs old and like 1500sqft. The dallas home sold for ~$69.5/sqft while the Austin homes are all well over $100 on avg I am seeing 120 - 130 a sqft. some bigger homes are closer to the 101/sqft but start at over 300k because of the home size. 80/sqft the cheapest I have seen puts you well in the ghetto. Unfortunately Austin does not have an affordable quality housing market. What is affordable is apparent in the homes lack of quality materials. Maybe the economic downturn can have help put the Austin homes at a better level so 2 professional with good jobs don't have to live in the ghetto or max out both incomes to raise their kids in a nice Austin neighborhood with good schools. What I wonder the most is how the others afforded it, what do they make a yr, what do they do, what is their avg age? I would hate to see that everyone has stretched their limits to buy nicely.
If you are planning to reposition to Dallas, you will also feel happy on knowing that the cost of living is 7% below the national average, consequently making this region an affordable place to describe home. In addition to this, recent job growth in Dallas has been also positive and illustrates 2.08% increase with an unemployment rate below the national average. So no speculate that Dallas homeowners are still requesting top dollar for their homes.
Post a Comment
<< Home