titan said:

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TheMasterplan said:

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I think people would be ok with buying a less than ideal home if it was in good schools with low crime

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Its kind of irritating that people have to factor that. Crime should just be suppressed. Murderers gotten rid of, anything else to chain gangs. Oddly, that might not assure the school is `good' if you have socialist bent teachers but its a start.

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Good point.

It's crazy how much the real estate market in the US is shaped by people spending good money just to avoid those places where crime is high and schools are bad. Is that even a thing in other developed countries?

Either getting big, BFE and expensive. Small, in the city, in a ****ty neighborhood and cheap, or small, in the city and in a good neighborhood, competing against developers for the lot and expensive. 1000-1500 sq ft houses in my neighborhood, vacant lots are going for $500,000, which isn't much cheaper than what the smaller homes are going for. 5 homes within spitting distance of my house have been torn down and are in the process of having 4000 sq ft homes built on them.

Crime and schools were rated 4/10 on that $180,000 home. Texas is better off than a lot of places though.

itsyourboypookie said:

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Also, the issues with homes sitting isn't a stubborn seller. It's a lack of offers. Properties that have marginal anything, won't get any offers and very few showings. Buyers take weeks to decide what to offer, if they will offer, or if they will look at 20 more houses. Buyers are looking at 10-12 houses a day some days.

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Not true. If all of the people who wanted to sell had no choice BUT to sell, prices would drop HARD. That's BECAUSE there are no buyers.

It is and will continue to be a price problem.

TA-OP said:

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Even College Station has higher home prices per square foot in the more desirable school zones.

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Just looked at College Station home listings today and I was pretty surprised at how little you get for the $ now. College Station used to be slightly cheaper than Houston suburbs but the mediocre old houses near the campus are just stupidly overpriced.

I have three kids headed to college in the next few years and I thought about just buying a cheap old house like the Dude Perfect guys rented but those aren't that cheap anymore.

Buck Turgidson said:

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TA-OP said:

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Even College Station has higher home prices per square foot in the more desirable school zones.

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Just looked at College Station home listings today and I was pretty surprised at how little you get for the $ now. College Station used to be slightly cheaper than Houston suburbs but the mediocre old houses near the campus are just stupidly overpriced.

I have three kids headed to college in the next few years and I thought about just buying a cheap old house like the Dude Perfect guys rented but those aren't that cheap anymore.

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A condo is about the only option that's not ridiculous, it seems.

There's plenty of really affordable housing in Houston that's close to employment. It's just that they have high crime and crappy schools.

What's really insane though is that the reason the areas are so crappy is because the residents keep voting for politicians who enact policies which keep those areas crime-ridden with crappy schools.

I also just jumped on HAR and there's actually a lot of homes in Kingwood for under $250K. They're not updated but they're not fixer-uppers either. They're just smaller homes built in the late-70's or early-80's. Don't have all the flash of newer homes but low crime and great schools. Those would be pretty affordable on a household income of $80K, especially with a SAHM so you don't have to pay for daycare.