What's the average in Carriage hills?

I just looked at the CAD for Carriage Hills..... most of those are in the $250 range.
That's close to Leander.
I guess my older neighborhood is just hot right now. There is nothing near me less than $300k.

TamuKid said:

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As a 29 year old first time home buying prospect with a growing family... Austin is pretty tough.

To get a decent home (not a starter) in a good school distrct, you're looking at paying 400k+... and that's in Round Rock/Pflugerville area.
It's ridiculous. Almost impossible.

Really stinks. Feels like I'll be renting forever.

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Feel the same way.

BenFiasco14 said:

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TamuKid said:

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As a 29 year old first time home buying prospect with a growing family... Austin is pretty tough.

To get a decent home (not a starter) in a good school distrct, you're looking at paying 400k+... and that's in Round Rock/Pflugerville area.
It's ridiculous. Almost impossible.

Really stinks. Feels like I'll be renting forever.

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Feel the same way.

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Bought in Cedar Park about a year ago, fair number of homes in the high 200s/low 300s, great schools, not too far from town on the weekends, and only a 20 minute commute into North Austin for me.

fig96 said:

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BenFiasco14 said:

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TamuKid said:

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As a 29 year old first time home buying prospect with a growing family... Austin is pretty tough.

To get a decent home (not a starter) in a good school distrct, you're looking at paying 400k+... and that's in Round Rock/Pflugerville area.
It's ridiculous. Almost impossible.

Really stinks. Feels like I'll be renting forever.

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Feel the same way.

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Bought in Cedar Park about a year ago, fair number of homes in the high 200s/low 300s, great schools, not too far from town on the weekends, and only a 20 minute commute into North Austin for me.

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Once I land a permanent position that's where I'm going to look. That or Leander. Liberty Hill seems a tad too far

We moved about 6 months ago to Liberty Hill from North Austin. Our house is basically at 183 and 29, so the toll road is right there. At first we felt like the commute to work (near the Domain) would take forever but now its really not that bad if you're taking the tolls. If not, the afternoon rush is the worst. The morning commute im usually on the road by 5:50 and it takes under 30 to get to the domain area.

If you work around 183/Mopac it isn't an issue. But both my wife and I work close to downtown. The other thing that can't be argued, location location location. Houses may have increased in value in northwest hills and further west up 183, but nothing compares to Allandale, Rosedale, Terrytown, Clarksville, Bouldin Creek, Travis Heights, Barton Hills, etc....

austinaggie2003 said:

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I highly recommend finding neighborhoods that are in the early stages of gentrification while your kids are young. Add value to the property and keep your kids in the school system while gentrification occurs. Be active in the neighborhood associations and school system. You'll improve the community, schools and be rewarded with faster property appreciation and a more well-rounded cultural experience.

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Don't have kids yet... not even married yet, but hopefully somewhat soon. Haven't even been able to successfully land a permanent position to safely begin my career yet, either. I figure by the time I'm ready to buy I'll be effectively closed out of pretty much anywhere reasonably close to commuting.

I bought a home right next to Cedar Park high school and made a 28-30 minute drive each way daily to save $50,000 versus further down 183 or in one of the 'dales'. That commute increase to 45 minutes to an hour depending on the time (sometimes more with rain).

My advice to you would be to save save save, rent, and buy something that is in central Austin. I regret not having bought closer to town, and I easily could have afforded the difference in price.

BenFiasco14 said:

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fig96 said:

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BenFiasco14 said:

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TamuKid said:

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As a 29 year old first time home buying prospect with a growing family... Austin is pretty tough.

To get a decent home (not a starter) in a good school distrct, you're looking at paying 400k+... and that's in Round Rock/Pflugerville area.
It's ridiculous. Almost impossible.

Really stinks. Feels like I'll be renting forever.

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Feel the same way.

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Bought in Cedar Park about a year ago, fair number of homes in the high 200s/low 300s, great schools, not too far from town on the weekends, and only a 20 minute commute into North Austin for me.

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Once I land a permanent position that's where I'm going to look. That or Leander. Liberty Hill seems a tad too far

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We looked briefly in Leander but it seemed just horribly suburby to me and didn't see a ton of advantages to it. Not that CP isn't, but it's at least got some interesting things going on and is closer to town.

Leander and Cedar Park are pretty much the same suburb.

evan_aggie said:

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I bought my first house in 08 much like you. But problem is that it was in Cedar Park, so from 2008 to 2015, it grew 50%, not 100% or 150% like those closer to town.

I'll never buy far from town again. The drive Became too long and once we have kids I'd prefer to spend as much time at home as possible.

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Similar story for me. Bought in western round rock in 2009 for 220k. It's worth 350k now but I'm completely priced out of central Austin. At the time I worked north but now I work more central and would like to move to north Austin.

I'm noticing a lot of austinites that make good money and can live anywhere with an internet connection. It's a desirable city and has attracted this upper income demographic.

The city has to keep going east, think like east of airport on MLK. That area is close in and affordable just not the nicest spot and if diversity ain't your thing you don't want to be there. I agree there are lot of work from home types in central Austin as well. Our home is 850 square feet but I wouldn't trade it for 4500 square feet in Round Rock or Cedar Park. Even our has appreciated almost 100k in the last 3 years.

We live in Barton Creek. Bought our house for ~$820k about 4.5 years ago. Currently valued at about $1.2 million. Its my wife's dream house. I hope we can sell it before Austin runs out of Californians. But my wife loves it so we probably won't sell in time.

We previously owned a house in Lost Creek. It was a mold house. We bought it in the early 2000's because we managed to get a loan on it when others couldn't. Got a great buy, because it was on the market for over a year. Very very unusual for Lost Creek.

We are DINKs & could pay for the mortgage with one income, so we were able to travel, save, & remodel with the other. We sold because we were thinking about buying a different house & went to an open house in our neighborhood. Talked to the realtor. Lots of what ifs and idle speculation. He called a week later & said that he wanted to show our house. It was dirty. We were surprised but said ok & went to a movie. By the time we were out of the movie we had an offer. We were stunned & didn't immediately respond. So they upped the offer. And we said yes. Took the equity and bought in Barton Creek.

Many more Dinks on this board than I expected, I feel like we need a club

Which neighborhood?

Stonewall Ranch

Quote:

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Our home is 850 square feet but I wouldn't trade it for 4500 square feet in Round Rock or Cedar Park.

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I've always said... if we're ever gonna consider moving to Cedar Park or Round Rock, then we might as well just move back to a North Dallas suburb.

Nice. We live kindof close to there over in Gabriel's overlook

MouthBQ98 said:

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250K in Paige got me 2000 square feet and 10 acres. I can shoot my rifles off my back porch and nobody cares because my closest neighbor's home is 400 yards away.

I work in Austin so if there's anything I want to do in the city, I just go after work

I did commute about 25,000 Miles a year though. Still worth it.

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Which route do you take in every day and how long does it take usually?

My commute today where I rent is about 8 minutes to work for both my wife and I. She works downtown and I work off of Mopac just south of the River. Our commutes home are actually about the same. I drove 35-40 minutes to work from Cedar Park in the AM and 45-55 min on average in the evening. Hard to believe I was spending 8 hours each week commuting.

I've been in Austin 25 years and lived in 4 different homes all over. 1st house a 2 BDR rental in Hyde Park. Great! No kids, close to downtown, bike to grocery store and dinner. Taxi to 6th St (back when it was a bit nicer in mid- '90s) and later 4th St. Hit golf balls at dusk at Hancock. Good times!

One thing I would recommend....if I'm single or a DINK, don't live in suburbs. They're great for people like me now with kids and are sort of setup for such. My next door neighbors, nice folks, are DINKS in their mid- late 30's and I've never quite understood why they wouldn't rather live in town, closer to "the action". They're outgoing-types. That's what we did, and are happy we got all that out of our system and had the opportunity to do so. We barely even go to dinner anymore and that's fine with us.

BenFiasco14 said:

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austinaggie2003 said:

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I highly recommend finding neighborhoods that are in the early stages of gentrification while your kids are young. Add value to the property and keep your kids in the school system while gentrification occurs. Be active in the neighborhood associations and school system. You'll improve the community, schools and be rewarded with faster property appreciation and a more well-rounded cultural experience.

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Don't have kids yet... not even married yet, but hopefully somewhat soon. Haven't even been able to successfully land a permanent position to safely begin my career yet, either. I figure by the time I'm ready to buy I'll be effectively closed out of pretty much anywhere reasonably close to commuting.

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Hang in there, man. I do feel for those who haven't been able to "ride the wave". I'm in a house now that we could afford given our incomes, but I sure wouldn't want to be paying its current market value right now.

It doesn't seem "fair", but Austin is textbook supply-and-demand. We've been able to step up as the market has allowed. Our 1st home was bought in 1992 in Brykerwoods (2 Br, 1 bath--smaller square footage than the apartment we moved out of) for $85K. Sold it four years later for $150K and rolled that into a home in Steiner in 1996 bought for $270K. Sold that for $385K in 2000, and bought new construction in Westlake for $470K. Now our property taxes are considerably more than our mortgage P&I, and our TCAD valuation is still about $150K below market (but climbing every year).

Once the kids are gone in three years, we may want to downsize, but we know that we'll only be able to buy less square footage for the same price as what we have now.

I'm a dink in the burbs. There are lots of us for various reasons. Price, lifestyle, work in the burbs, planning on a family later and want certain sqft or schools.

Sorry, you bought in Westlake for under $500k but are worried what you can get for the same money when you leave?

I'd have to think that you're looking at a whole lot of increased value that should let you comfortably buy pretty much anywhere in Austin, or am I misunderstanding something?

No. They are saying the prices have climbed considerably.

evan_aggie said:

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No. They are saying the prices have climbed considerably.

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Right, I get that, but you're going to have a whole lot of value there to be able to afford a really nice house pretty much anywhere in Austin with that money (except maybe in Westlake).

No, what I'm saying is that I'll want less house when the kids leave, but it appears that it will cost the same amount of money, basically, to try to do that and remain in Austin. We have reasons for staying in the area (aging in-laws, church, etc.).

As I move toward retirement and move toward having a lower income, I want to bring my property taxes lower, but still live in the central city/near neighborhoods. I'm not sure that will be possible, because housing valuations appear to be the same or even higher than my current house even though they have much less square footage. In other words, though I may want to downsize, or move out of Eanes, I probably won't be able to realize any savings by doing so.

Depends. If they want to buy in the exact same neighborhood in west lake and downsize...maybe.

However, if they want to live closer to town they will probably be swapping a house that 1/2 to 2/3 the size and same price.

House just went on the market on Oxford Ave for $819,000 1450 sq feet as an example.

Gotcha. I would think, based on what I know of Westlake property, that you could still be somewhere else in Austin in a really nice place for the money you'd get out of that. Maybe that isn't the case.