Austin is horrible! To many weird looking people. All the traffic on 35 is just crazy. I was just there this past weekend and had a great time. If I could move my business I would choose Austin in a second.
yes, it is a great place! Fastviper...next time give us viper folks a shout and we can take you out to dinner or something and make a event of it.
It looks like I'll be booking a flight to Austin to look at homes in the next couple of weeks! My gut feeling tells me that a $500K home there will be 1.2M in 6-10 years. Change may be good! For my job, I would need to visit Houston & the DFW area during the month. It would be cool to meet a couple of new friends in each of these cities to stay with the nights prior to customer calls. Since I sold my house in '00 in the Bay Area and moved 2.5 hours away, I stay at my best friends house in San Jose a couple nights a week. It's been a ritual! I stop for a bottle of vodka and a tripple chicken rice bowl and hang with my buddy and his wife watching the Military Channel before sacking out!
I'd offer for you to stay in my freaking sweet condo, but all the furniture is yet to arrive. I'll meet up with you and go to lunch and talk glue if ya like ;-).
Correct, Austin or any college campus; in other words, pretty much any place that reality is kept at bay
Piece of cake! I hit San Jose twice a week and stay with my friends. It's like a holiday four times a month!
Are your property taxes locked in on the purchase price like California? I'm paying 1.2% on $175K and my home is worth $750K. Prop 13 here locks you in the a set price for taxes until the house deed changes title.
So if I buy a home for $500K now and it goes to $1.0M in 5-8 years (If there is a boom), you gotta pay 2.7% on the $1.0M? Are assessment values based on comps or another formula?
Yes, that's exactly what you would owe taxes on, the 1.0M. Assessments are based on comparable sales in the area, adjusted for factors such as size and amenities. That's one reason I'm glad we haven't had a huge boom, too many people would be forced out of their homes by the change in taxes.
No, and with the school financing fight going on, there's no incentive on the part of the gov't to lock it.
If it keeps the Yankees\Californians out I have no issue with it Really, what one is used to is "normal", ya know? Here there's no state income tax. It really surprises me when I remember that other states do that. I cannot conceive of paying millions for a shack in CA on an interest-only mortgage, seems like lunacy to me, but people there don't have any problem with it. Here taxes rachet up over the years, that's just 'normal'. They do freeze when you hit 65 but only for that owner.
Remember no state income tax, gov makes most of their money from property and sales taxes. Maybe one reason real estate has remained reasonable? Good arguments for renting vs. owning. I would rather not pay 8% state income tax, I like it the way it is.
There is a little city within south Austin called Sunset Valley and they don't have any property tax. It's a very small "city" and they make tons of money from their shopping centers. Just watch out for the cops! BTW, Sunset Valley has some very nice homes. Just no view, water, golf course or any of those things.
