bostonbubble.com

Boston ITer · Joined: 11 Jan 2010 Posts: 269

http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf

In the above article, aside of the bubble stories of Vancouver to London, the USA has a lot of affordable markets but away from the formerly marquee cities. Since Dallas was a focal pt, I figured it's probably better to mention Houston, since it's got a larger job market for the various experienced generalists in the metro Boston area.

balor123 · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 1204

If you'd be content in a supporting role, where the primary product is something different than your function, then I think Houston or Dallas would be fine. But if you want to work for a company where you are working on the end product then Austin is a much better choice. Austin, as a liberal city, unfortunately shares liberal city problems and as a result can have a significantly higher cost of living than the rest of Texas. However, as my previous post have shown, it's nowhere near as bad as places like Boston, NY, or San Francisco. Being in TX, it still have growth friendly policies.

I like this report though. In particular, it points out how urban sprawl actually reduces per capita carbon emissions, which is the excuse that snob zoning supports use to support their policies. Also the typical statement about land use restrictions:
"Prescriptive land use regulation policies (principally compact development and urban consolidation) have virtually destroyed housing affordability in many markets."

"which would not only minimize the potential for future busts, but would
also ensure housing affordability for future generations." Now I listened to the state of the union and I'm pretty sure that at this point no one remotely cares about the interests of future generations, except perhaps when it comes to government debt (and then it's all talk) but especially not housing.

Rental Lease · Joined: 28 Jan 2009 Posts: 21

I was actually just reading an article the other day about population shifts and cities with the fastest growing populations. One of the central trends was a consistent migration away from North and East, towards South and West.
While it was no surprise that people are leaving the Midwest in droves, it was a little more surprising to see the number of people leaving New England cities for places like Austin, Denver, Phoenix, etc, in addition to the more traditional destinations such as L.A. and Florida.
All I can say when it comes to real estate investing is "follow the people!"
Happy investing,

_________________
Brian
Editor's Note: please don't use pseudo-signature links (removed).

Boston ITer · Joined: 11 Jan 2010 Posts: 269

balor123 · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 1204

$650k? Are we talking about "Great Boston area" (Worcester, Providence, and NH) or actually Boston? Because in the Boston area (128 belt) a new construction house starts at $800k. That looks like a nicer house so a better comparison might be $1mil - $1.2mil.

Boston ITer · Joined: 11 Jan 2010 Posts: 269

balor123 · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 1204

I suppose that's a fair comparison then, maybe. We can't really tell how nice that house is on the inside but it sounds pretty nice but for a ballpark number I'd agree it's in the right place. That house is 30mi from Houston downtown, which puts you in the 495 belt here, though I don't think houses appreciate in price as quickly getting closer to downtown in Houston as they do here. Schools aren't that great there. Is it a wealthy area? Looks like the house is on a lake!