Property Values Crazy.

Ran into one of neighbors this morning that is selling his house, it is 2,930 sq foot house with 4 bed, 3 bath a pool and lots of updates.
Previously he shared with me that they would probably list it for $695,000, but said a realtor told him at least $715,000.

So this morning I ask him how is the house selling going? He grins and says we have it under contract and guess how much?

I pop off and say $715,000, his grin gets bigger as he shakes his head side to side and say nope, I say $745,000 and again Nope with an even bigger grin
Me okay how much? He said they listed it for $739,900 had more than 30 showings in less than a month and had two people offer $775,000 with both parties knowing they will have to come to the table with more $$$ if the appraisal does not get there. They accepted the one with the most favorable closing conditions.

Maybe it's time to sell our house and take the money and run, question is where to?

And that's the problem...nowhere to go! I would sell in a minute if I could find a decent priced lakefront house.

Sell one over inflated house to buy another, no thanks. Apartments have gotten sky high too with avg. nice DFW one bedroom in $1750-2000 range. Bubble has to pop, question is when??

Stub, where is the house located?

Very good friends of ours made an offer on a house listed at $1.4....they offered $1.475. Got outbid. It's not just the cheap houses going for over asking price.

I also made an offer on an investment property a couple months ago...it had 53 offers in two days.

We are in far N. Dallas right by Hillcrest & Campbell Rd.

Sell high, but then be stuck looking for something else priced high. Factor in all the fees, doesn't make any financial sense unless you are downsizing or moving to a cheaper area. We were about to buy a lake house right after the Covid lockdown in May 2020. That's when prices started getting out of hand and I refused to get into bidding wars. Probably should have just bought then since prices have escalated significantly from those levels 2 years ago.

What really sucks about these housing values is the property taxes. There needs to be some sort of serious tax reform given these values.

I like it here and it's paid for.

Lack of inventory is what's driving prices up. All those CA folks moving here with cash in their pockets.

People in California are selling their Fox and Jacobs boxes for $700,000 and can afford to buy here for more than makes sense.

This is the thing many people don't understand....they wanna wait until prices "come down". Well, they are going up 15-20% per year, and it's not slowing down at all. The same house that cost $400k two years ago is now $550k. Two more years and it'll be $700k. If someone wants to move they better do it now because they aren't getting any cheaper any time soon, and probably not in the next 15 years in Texas.

^ This 100%

It's not just Texas. Seven years ago when I moved here, I bought my house in what I called a nice 200K subdivision. Last Friday, my neighbor listed his house for 425K. The first showing the buyers asked how much to immediately take the house off the market. My neighbor said 480k. One hour later the house was off the market. Glad my property taxes get frozen at $750 this year because I'm turning 65.

no where to run . he will likely use his "profits" to move into a lesser home than he had because of inflation. If there was anywhere to run , they would not all be coming here................

Go East young man. I’m really liking Wood county. Low taxes too, but there is a commute unless you are ready to retire. They sell Chevys here in Mineola, although I can’t imagine why. Lol

Location, location, location.

Not anymore Ox, pretty much everywhere now.

It is a huge dilemma. We sold one of our rent houses last year when the tenants moved out. Rent hadn't gone up substantially but we sold the house for twice what we paid for it 8 years prior. The home we live in I bought for 270k in 2010 and I am pretty sure it would go for over a million today. When we bought it there were 6 acres now it sits on nearly 30, we added a pool, outdoor kitchen, a couple nice shops, a pond, etc. The opportunity to grab such a profit is sure tempting but really what would we do then pay inflated prices to get something similar?

California, take the money and run there.

Just let this craziness continue until this fall when we can put ours on the market!!

Actually they had already purchased and moved into a larger house about 1/4 mile west of here before they even listed their house for sale..

This is exactly what folks were saying about 2007 or so. It can't keep going up like this, its unstainable. Especially with interest rates rising, there has to be a correction.

We stole the house we are currently in when we closed just before Christmas. A house just a few miles down the road just sold for $50k more than we paid and it's half the square footage, half the acreage, 20 years older and we have a pool and a shop. Might be time to sell already.

Just got a request to quote out a 1,100 SF home originally built in the fifties and nicely redone all on less than 1/4 acre in a "turning around" area of town - $550,000.

We are right in the thick of the hunt sold our place and was out Feb. 9th. Looking for house, shop on 5+ acers and not finding it.
Sucks right now but when something shows up we'll be ready to strike.
Have been looking north Texas east to Emory west to Decatur and southern Oklahoma. Not much to choose from.

I presented an offer not long ago for a client on a place near Cumby. A home needing remodeling on 96 acres of undeveloped land. It was listed for $500,999. My client offered 575k. It had nine offers with the highest being $602,000. Truly mind boggling.

If anybody wants to build I recently listed this beautiful place.

https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...way-Hwy-W_Brashear_TX_75420_M91514-90477

We bought our property about 6 yrs ago. The property down the road from us just went up for sale for double what we paid and has had multiple offers. Similar sized properties, but our house is bigger, newer, and we have a spring fed creek. If I thought I could move a little farther out of SA and find a deal I would sell in a heartbeat. Just can't find property available anywhere within decent commuting distance that isn't at the same inflated price.

I've heard of people selling and buying an RV to wait for the bubble to pop. Pocket a nice down payment on a new place and get an RV to boot. Problem with that is that you can't even find an RV spot anywhere near San Antonio...and apartments are crazy expensive and hard to find. I could do an apartment or RV for a year or so...but I'm afraid this is going to be a while longer than that.

Think it's bad now ??? All of the West is running out of water --------- the REAL tsunami hasn't started yet ----- My guess is 2-3 yrs from now it will be 100X worse.

I’m not far out from doing it myself

I’ll buy back in Oklahoma

If you are currently living in a house, living in an RV for a year sounds horrible and "waiting for the bubble to pop" could very well never happen and you're stuck living in an RV permanently.

I had a younger coworker looking at houses with his wife in 2017. He said they were going to sit on the sidelines and rent an apartment and wait for the market to cool off....they are still living in an apartment and could have had hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity had they bought 5 years ago.

Tell you what’s nuts. I bought 133 acres of rural POS land South of Bowie 35 to 40 years ago. All trees, hills and rocks. Couple of stocked tanks. Absolutely unproductive. I paid $415 per acre for “recreational” property. Added a White trash trailer house. A big deal in that area is a good water well. Local realtor told me that it is probably worth North of $7,500 per acre and increasing monthly. I get a lot of mail from realtors about it and a couple of calls per month.

All the lookers are from California.

Not for sale.

yeup , they done ran their utopia into the ground and will do the same here.

Lakefront properties down are selling for stupid money. It is not uncommon to see homes selling for double or triple what they were 2-4 years ago.

The timing for us was intentional - we bought here on the lake when we saw California coming to Texas in waves with pockets full of equity cash. I was 64, and wanted to get here on the lake fast to lock the taxes on a cheaper home before the boom. I am in the cheap seats and I could not afford to buy my house again today - only been here 4 years.

The Californian that bought 15 acres acres next door to me not long ago built a big roping arena as soon as they got here. They have a big roping once a month. Supposedly makes $20k per roping.

I couldn't even come close to affording to buy my place again. Think I'll be riding it out and watching the chaos happen around me. I feel really bad for a lot of folks I know that were saving to buy their dream property who have been priced out of the market.

If you do not like growth, you have to move someplace where others don't want to be.

Yea, I wish I had the sense to buy my dream lake house before now. I just did a quick search and believe it's a losing cause. Some dreams just aren't meant to come true I guess.

Problem here in the Hill Country, Austin folks buying in, nowhere to go, prices getting higher each day seems.....

I’ve got the perfect ranch!!!! Even has sandy beaches’ish and cool breezes year round

agree - we have witnessed this type of boom and bust in real estate before - in 1988 there were around 100 builders in Georgetown - then the savings and loan/bad loans drama came and a year later there were a handful of builders - the rest all went belly up - never say never

It's a cycle and always has been. The difference is that the more radical cycle has arrived in Texas. My wife is a native Texan, but I was raised in CA. Each of the three homes that we owned before moving to Texas in 2008, doubled in 5-7 years. The folks moving here from CA see "doubling every 10 years or less" as normal so they are willing to pay stupid money. This obviously creates its own bubble, which will continue to grow for a while longer.

There will be a correction because there always is. The only question is how much and when?

Marc

theres a cycle and there is also 30 year old documents stating "the plan" , of course they are "conspiracy theory" ..... push folks into a centralized local known as smart cities. Crash the economy and switch it all over to a cashless society, just to start.

OK Tin, you're officially scaring me now. I can see this chit really happening NOW.

The median price for a home in CA is almost $800k and almost $400 psf. In Texas it is at under $400k and under $200 psf. I'd say we have at least another 50% appreciation to go over the next 5-10 years.

There will be a correction at some point, but just like in 2008-9 it won't hit Texas near as bad as the coasts, IMO.

Yes there will be a correction at some point, nothing like the financial crisis of 2008 due to stricter banking/ lending laws from the aftermath of that crisis.
There were a lot of other long standing root factors that allowed this debacle to occur, see link below.

I was in the mortgage business back then and there were all different kinds of bad loans available then to almost everyone.
Initially interest rates were low, there was a housing boom going on and lenders were lending money to every Tom, Dick & Harry that could fog a mirror.
Chit started hitting the fan, interest rates rising, housing market going cold values of homes declining.

Subprime loans:
A big portion of subprime loans were ARMS or Adjustable Rate Mortgages that offered a lower interest rate & payment for the first two, three or five years and adjusted up or down every 6 months after that depending on where the LIBOR was at.
Problem was when most of these loans were made the interest rates were fairly low and the interest rates started climbing and kept climbing dramatically increasing their mortgage payment.

Balloon loans where the payment was fixed at a lower rate usually for 5- 10 years then you had to pay off the balance or refi it.

NINA -No Income, No Asset loans where you did not have to prove income or assets to qualify.

Interest only loans allowed people to qualify for loan based off the interest only portion of the payment. They did not have pay interest of principal in their payment for the first 3-6 months and then it would adjust up with the principal included

Negative Amortization loans they were not even paying the full amount of the interest only portion. This is the same as an interest only except when the adjustment period started they added the additional interest that was not paid back into the payment, I refused to do these loans.

Also Appraisers were fudging the real values of the homes, inspectors were letting stuff slide, there was a whole lot of Jicky stuff going on to make sure a loan got done.

https://www.fool.com/investing/gene...s-that-caused-or-contributed-to-the.aspx


1. Mark-to-market accounting. In the early 1990s, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Accounting Standards Board started requiring public companies to value their assets at market value as opposed to historical cost -- a practice that had been discredited and abandoned during the Great Depression. This pushed virtually every bank in the country into insolvency from an accounting standpoint when the credit markets seized in 2008 and 2009, thereby making it impossible to value assets.

2. Ratings agencies. The financial crisis couldn't have happened if the three ratings agencies -- Standard & Poor's, Fitch, and Moody's -- hadn't classified subprime securities as investment grade. Part of this was incompetence. Part of it stemmed from a conflict of interest, as the ratings agencies were paid by issuers to rate the securities.

3. Infighting among financial regulators. Since its inception in 1934, the FDIC has been the most robust bank regulator in the country -- the others have, at one time or another, included the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, and an assortment of state regulatory agencies. But thanks to infighting among regulators, the FDIC was effectively excluded from examining savings and investment banks within the OTS's and SEC's primary jurisdiction between 1993 and 2004. Not coincidentally, those were the firms that ended up wreaking the most havoc.

4. Securitization of loans. Banks traditionally retained most of the loans that they originated. Doing so gave lenders incentive, albeit imperfectly, to underwrite loans that had only a small chance of defaulting. That approach went by the wayside, however, with the introduction and proliferation of securitization. Because the originating bank doesn't hold securitized loans, there is less incentive to closely monitor the quality of underwriting standards.

5. Credit default swaps. These are fancy financial instruments JPMorgan Chase developed in the 1990s that allowed banks and other institutional investors to insure against loan defaults. This situation led many people in the financial industry to proclaim an end to credit risk. The problem, of course, is that credit risk was just replaced by counterparty risk, as companies such as American International Group accumulated far more liability than they could ever hope to cover.

6. Economic ideology. As the 1970s and '80s progressed, a growing cohort of economists began proselytizing about the omniscience of unrestrained free markets. This talk fueled the deregulatory fervor coursing through the economy at the time, and it led to the belief that, among other things, there should be no regulatory body overseeing credit default swaps.

7. Greed. The desire to get rich isn't a bad thing from an economic standpoint. I'd even go so far as to say that it's necessary to fuel economic growth. But greed becomes bad when it's taken to the extreme. And that's what happened in the lead-up to the crisis. Homeowners wanted to get rich quick by flipping real estate. Mortgage originators went to great lengths, legal and otherwise, to maximize loan volumes. Home appraisers did the same. Bankers were paid absurd amounts of money to securitize toxic subprime mortgages. Rating agencies raked in profits by classifying otherwise toxic securities as investment-grade. Regulators were focused on getting a bigger paycheck in the private sector. And politicians sought to gain popularity by forcing banks to lend money to their un-creditworthy constituents.

8. Fraud. While very few financiers have been prosecuted for their role in the financial crisis, don't interpret that to mean that they didn't commit fraud. Indeed, the evidence is overwhelming that firms up and down Wall Street knowingly securitized and sold toxic mortgage-backed securities to institutional investors, including insurance companies, pension funds, university endowments, and sovereign wealth funds, among others.

9. Short-term investment horizons. In the lead-up to the crisis, analysts and investors castigated well-run firms such as JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo for not following their peers' lead into the riskiest types of subprime mortgages, securities, and derivatives. Meanwhile, the firms that succumbed to the siren song of a quick profit -- Citigroup, for instance -- were the first to fail when the house of cards came tumbling down.

10. Politics. Since the 1980s, bankers and politicians have formed an uneasy alliance. By conditioning the approval of bank mergers on the Community Reinvestment Act, politicians from both sides of the aisle have effectively blackmailed banks into providing loans to un-creditworthy borrowers. While banks and institutional investors absorbed the risks, politicians trumpeted their role in expanding the American dream of homeownership.

11. Off-balance-sheet risk. Why did investors allow financial firms to assume so much risk? The answer is that no one knew what they were up to because most of the risky assets weren't reflected on their balance sheets. They had been securitized and sold off to institutional investors, albeit with residual liability stemming from warranties that accompanied the sales, or were corralled in so-called special-purposes entities, which are independent trusts that the banks established and administered. Suffice it to say that all of the residual liability flooded back onto the banks' balance sheets only after the you-know-what hit the fan.

12. Bad economic assumptions. As moronic as it seems in hindsight, it was generally assumed before the crisis that home prices would never decline simultaneously on a nationwide basis. This belief led underwriters of and investors in mortgage-backed securities to believe that geographically diversified pools of mortgages were essentially risk-free when they obviously were not.

13. High oil prices. Beginning with the twin oil embargoes of the 1970s, oil-producing countries began accumulating massive reserves of so-called petrodollars which were then recycled back into the U.S. financial system. This situation pressured banks and other types of financial firms to put the money to work in increasingly marginal ways, such as subprime mortgages.

14. A broken international monetary system. One of the most underappreciated causes of the financial crisis was the trade imbalance between the developing and developed worlds. By keeping their currencies artificially depressed versus the U.S. dollar -- which is done by buying dollars with newly printed native currencies -- export-oriented nations such as China accumulated massive reserves of dollars. Like the petrodollars of the 1980s and '90s, these funds were then recycled back into the U.S. financial system. To put this money to use, financial firms had little choice but to lower underwriting standards and thereby grow the pool of potential borrowers.

15. The rescue of Bear Stearns. In March 2008, the Federal Reserve saved Bear Stearns with a last-minute $30 billion loan supplied through JPMorgan Chase. As opposed to failing, the nation's fifth-largest investment bank at the time ended up being sold for $10 a share. The problem with the rescue, however, was that it reduced the incentive on Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld to find a private-sector solution to its even bigger, and eventually fatal, problems. In hindsight, it seems relatively clear that the Fed should have either let Bear Stearns fail or, much more preferably, bailed both of them out.

16. Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy. Allowing Lehman Brothers to fail was a mistake of epic proportions. History clearly demonstrates that the downfall of a major money-center bank -- be it a commercial or investment bank -- almost always triggers wide-scale financial panics. In 1873, it was Jay Cooke & Company. In 1884, it was Grant & Ward. In 1907, it was the Knickerbocker Trust Company. I could go on and on with examples. The point being, despite the admittedly unsavory thought of bailing out someone as aggressively offensive as Dick Fuld, it would have been a small price to pay to avoid the subsequent economic carnage.

17. The "Greenspan put." For two decades following the stock market crash of 1987, the Federal Reserve, guided by then-Chairman Alan Greenspan, lowered interest rates after every major financial shock, a trend that became known as the Greenspan put. It was this strategy, intended to stop financial shocks from transforming into economic downturns, that led the central bank to drop the Fed funds rate after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. And it was this drop that provided the oxygen, if you will, to inflate the housing bubble.

18. Monetary policy from 2004 to 2006. Just as low interest rates led to the housing bubble, the Fed's policy of raising rates from 2004 to 2006 eventually caused it to burst.

19. Basel II bank capital rules. Any time an economy experiences a severe financial shock, one of the biggest problems is that undercapitalized banks will be rendered insolvent. That's true in part because of the absurd application of mark-to-market accounting during periods of acute stress in the credit markets, and in part because banks are highly leveraged, meaning that they hold only a small slice of capital relative to their assets. The so-called Basel II capital rules, which took effect in 2004, accentuated this reality. The rules allowed banks to substitute subordinated debt and convertible preferred stock in the place of tangible common equity. The net result was that tangible common equity at certain major U.S. banks declined to less than 4% on the eve of the crisis.

20. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Much has been written about the role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played in the lead-up to the financial crisis, so I won't dwell on it here. In short, the problem was that these two quasi-public corporations became so focused on growth at all costs that they abandoned any semblance of prudent risk management. Doing so allowed mortgage-brokers-cum-criminal enterprises such as Countrywide Financial and Ameriquest Mortgage to stuff the government-sponsored entities to the gills with shoddily originated subprime mortgages.

21. The failure of IndyMac Bank. The $32 billion IndyMac Bank was the first major depository institution -- it was technically a thrift as opposed to a commercial bank -- to fail during the crisis when the Office of Thrift Supervision seized it on July 11, 2008. In a situation like this, the FDIC traditionally insures all depositors and creditors against losses, irrespective of the insurance limit. But in IndyMac's case, it didn't. The FDIC chose instead to only guarantee deposits up to $100,000. Doing so sent a shockwave of fear throughout the financial markets and played a leading role two months later in the debilitating run on Washington Mutual.

22. The failure of Washington Mutual. By the time Washington Mutual failed in September 2008, the FDIC had recognized its mistake in dealing with IndyMac Bank. But this time around, while the FDIC covered all deposits irrespective of the insurance limit, it allowed $20 billion of WaMu's bonds to default. After that, banks found it difficult, and in many cases impossible, to raise capital from anyone other than the U.S. government.

23. Pro-cyclical regulation of loan loss reserves. The more one learns about the causes of the financial crisis, the more one appreciates how incompetent the Securities and Exchange Commission is when it comes to regulating financial institutions. In 1999, the SEC brought an enforcement action against SunTrust Banks, charging it with manipulating its earnings by creating excessive loan loss reserves. At the time, default rates were extremely low, leading the SEC to conclude that SunTrust shouldn't be reserving for future losses. Banks took note and no longer set aside reserves until specific future losses are likely and can be reasonably estimated -- by which point, of course, the proverbial cat is already out of the bag.

24. Shadow banking. While hundreds of traditional banks failed in the wake of the financial crisis, they share little responsibility for what actually happened. That's because shadow banks -- i.e., investment banks and thrifts that didn't fall under the primary regulatory purview of the Federal Reserve, FDIC, or, to a lesser extent, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency -- caused most of the damage. Here's Richard Kovacevich, the former chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo, addressing this point in a speech at the end of last year:

If you don't remember anything else I say today, please remember this: Only about 20 financial institutions perpetrated this crisis. About half were investment banks, and the other half were savings and loans. Only one, Citicorp, was a commercial bank, but [it] was operating more like an investment bank. These 20 failed in every respect, from business practices to ethics. Greed and malfeasance were their modus operandi. There was no excuse for their behavior, and they should be punished thoroughly, perhaps even criminally.

25. Ignorance of history. When it comes to the financial system, it can't be said often enough that history repeats itself time and time again. The financial crisis of 2008-09 may seem unique, but it was only the latest in a series of eerily similar crises that have struck the U.S. economy since the country was founded more than 200 years ago. In short, crises like these don't have to be inevitable. But they will continue to be so if every other generation's leading financiers don't spend some time in the library learning about the mistakes of their predecessors. As former FDIC Chairman Irving Sprague put it, "Unburdened with the experience of the past, each generation of bankers believes it knows best, and each new generation produces some who have to learn the hard way."

If we hit $400 a sq ft in my hood ft I’m selling everything and moving to WY. No way I’m paying property tax in that. W/ that said there is one across the street In another division listed at $800sqft. Its pretty fancy though

I don't see how some pay property tax now. Thousands of dollars in tax for a tiny sliver of "land" you can't do anything with. Ag exempt is the only way to live IMO.

No school district is worth it either, kids turn out just fine without paying exorbitant property taxes just to live in a "nice area" as they call it.

My house and property has almost double in value over the past two years and im out in the middle of nowhere Clyde, TX.

I bought 16 acres and 2700 sq ft house for $380k in January of 2020.

If I put it on the market today if list it for $650k-700k

It's unreal. The problem is then what do I do?

I disagree with school district but agree the taxation values have gotten ridiculous

Those kinds of properties are popping up all around Stephenville / Erath County. Every rural piece of property that sells is bought from someone from California, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana or some other state out west. New horse barns and arenas are first thing to go up with a house or barn dominium to follow. I have seen several that the owners didn`t even move into for a couple of years.

People have jobs and work, some make tons of money, we live in the USA if you work hard you will be rewarded

For me I don't want to live out in the country, I love Frisco it so modern and so many things to do and so many great places to eat. Almost everyone I know who moves out in the country has to pay more for everything and cry about not being able to get services

Where are they gettting anywhere close to $400 per sq ft in DFW area? Highland Park?

Move Abroad, is the first option

Hire a live in maid to cook, clean and do all the grocery shopping and relax. Easily you can hire a live in for $200 per month and give them a room to live in.

You will have to get a long way from Campbell and Hillcrest.

Probably pretty far out in the country, and you may have to build it yourself.

Yes Highland Park/ University Park $500 per Sq, I bet Preston Hollow is minimum $400 per sq. Heck a lot of the real old small homes in Oak Cliff that are not in but close to Kessler park are going for $300. per sq

A friend of mine in the mortgage business said rates on a 30 fix have gone up from 3% to 4% in the last month or so.

Re-read what I wrote. My neighborhood is close to 300 last few houses though.

But Westlake, Southlake, Colleyville all have neighborhoods at or above 400.

Probably a few neighborhoods in Keller hitting it also

Then there are people that don't want to be around people. Don't want to go "do" and don't want to go out to eat.

The only "utility" I have is Co-Op electric. On my own water system, satellite internet. Fire and Law Enforcement would he 20 minutes at best. No trash pick up, no sewer. But, 70 acres, house 250 YARDS from the road, 40'x60' shop, and do anything I want is far more important to me than city living.

Putting me on a lot in the city, with neighbors 20 feet away might as well be a prison sentence.

I loath to be back off the pavement. It will come I just have to be patient

If you actually like to hunt and fish there's alot to do out here. I guess I don't know what "services" I'm missing.

It’s tempting. We’ve only been in this house for 1.5 years so I’m waiting til that 2 year mark to make any decision. But market right now I could probably make 100-125k. I’m finding land at decent prices again so I’m real tempted to sell to buy the land and build.

I can be fishing or hunting in STX for same amount of time it takes you to just get to the Airport. I don’t love living in town but each option has its advantages.

My daughter and I can fish daily here, we drive mule around and hit different ponds all summer

I also have 170+“ public land deer with in 15 minutes of my house.

I don't go to the airport for anything, it's not worth it to me. I see no disadvantages to a traffic free life. When we get in the sxs to go fishing we aren't waving at random people in the neighborhood. We value privacy. I could go on, to each his own.

This thread is about property values, I still see no reason to pay exorbitant taxes to live in an "area". Carry on

Yep people like different things. For me, you couldn't pay me to live in a big city.

My wants and needs have shifted over the years.

Isn't it great that we all get to choose where and how we want to live!?

I bought my 62 acres with a little 1100 sqft farm house n Rains county about 12 years ago for 180k. Pretty sure I could get 400k for it now. Its paid off. Would be worth a lot more if it wasn't just a 80 year old 2/2 frame house. I've moved to another city and am about to start renting it out in the next few months. I've gone back and forth on selling. Some big bucks onmy land though, I hunt there. But the main thing is my dad owns the 110 acrw farm bordering mine. If he didn't id probably sell. My new house was 300k and in a small country subdivision. If I sold my farm and paid off this loan I'd keep the 650 a month going to interest. Renting out my old place im guessing I can get 900/ month. I'll pay taxes and home insurance though so it will equal the 650 interest payment and ill still own my land and the appreciation it will see in the future. I get 100% property tax exemption on my primary home. Ita crazy times and makes it hard to decide what to do.

I am the opposite, putting out in the sticks I would bored out of my mind, I would probably become a meth head or a drunk

I like all the modern convivence life has to offer

I bought a 3 acre waterfront lot on Lake Fork about 20 years ago, I was gonna build a house on it and live there, I started thinking what it would be like to live you there and sold it after a few years, looking back now it was a wise choice

Nah, you should've kept it, imagine what it would be worth right now, lol.

Services like: City Water, City Sewer, High Speed internet, If you live out in the sticks eveything is a pain if you need something, I got to go to town to buy groceries, or I need a new fridge but Best Buy won't deliver to me out in BumPhuk. Or I need to go to the doctor so lets drive to the city. Fire Department or Police, If I leave my house and think I may have not locked my door, I can call Frisco Police and they will send someone over to check on my house for me, that is what I call outstanding customer service.

I don't hunt anymore, but in Frisco you only need 10 acres to hunt with a shotgun inside city limits, fishing we have some of the best lakes in USA to Bass Fish near me, Grapevine, Lewisville, Robert are all close plus I can fish power plants in the winter.

Living in the city offers nice restaurants, lots of entertainments, I think Frisco has 5 professional sports team that play here. Best part for me is I can be at DFW airport within 25 minutes from my house off the Tollway in Frisco, and then onto any place in the world I would like to fly.

I can remember being a young kid we would go to Six Flags everyday in the summer and we would watch these kids come in from places Wolfe City, Cumby Celeste and they would have the country hick look on their face and "Gosh Darn" look at all these bright lights and people look on their faces.

I would of been bored out of my mind living on Lake Fork. I left Irving and moved to Frisco in 2009 when Obama was giving first time home buyers 8K to buy a house and Frisco was almost giving away house at the time due to the Real Estate market crashing.

Me moving to Frisco looking back was the best move I could of made, I am happy with decision, I had narrowed down to living in Southlake, Flower Mound and Frisco.

As a parent of 3 kids currently in an exemplary school district, I strongly disagree with the notion that all school districts are the same and kids turn out just fine. My boys are getting learning opportunities that I never got while growing up. Now, I completely agree on the property taxes. I'm not even going to state what we just paid in property taxes in January because it makes my blood boil. What's even worse is that the vast majority of the property taxes allocated for our school district are allocated out of the district into poorer districts. So parents and the community have to resort to private fundraising to close the gap.

3 State Parks and 300 miles of Brazos River here in Palo Pinto County. That's my kind of entertainment, not sports teams and malls.

I don't consider living next to a Tollway a perk.

Amazon Prime delivers EVERYWHERE lol

Plenty of kid's graduate from small rural schools every year and go on to be very successful in life. It's been that way for a long time.

This is about them growing in the sticks with nothing to do, It's fine if your are a grown adult or someone old who wants to move out in the sticks and live, but these kids grow up not getting to enjoy the finer things life has to offer them. No skateboard parks, no playing in sports leagues like football, soccer, etc. They get stuck growing up in the sticks. Maybe if they are lucky they will take a school trip to Dallas to get to go to Six Flags once a year.

If I want to fishing at Squaw Creek, I hook my boat to the truck and book about 1 hour to fish there and when I am done I return to civilization.

North Dallas Tollway/Sam Rayburn offer nice clean higways and they keep them spotless from trash, you break down they assist you, if it snow or ice they will have a sand truck on every overpass in my area, outstanding services. Plus If I want to go anywhere I can get there fast due to the tollways. Tollways promote growth and living along tollways make you house value sky rocket.

Amazon hasn't been around very long, but I am sure that helps people living out in the sticks. But for me I can go shopping at so many different grocery stores in my area, and have 7/11's and QT convinces stores opened 24/7 all over the area ready to serve me food or alcohol or gas

Most of the "hick kids" as you call them have a dirt bike/4 wheeler/sxs/horses and plenty of room to ride on everyday and aren't worried about roller coasters at amusement parks.

Some people just don't agree on what the "finer things in life" are.

So, to sum up;

To each, his own.

No social interaction with other living in the country, many city kids have motorbikes now of days everything seems to be electric

"BORED!!!"

No such thing with big acreage.

I am in my 9th year on this place. I have worked, almos every day I was off duty. Probably 210 days a year. There is ALWAYS something to do. I could keep myself and two other people busy, 5 days a week, for several years to come.

^^Fact!

Daughter spent 0 to 12 years old on two acres, just outside Melissa. 20 minutes from anything.

She's been in the new house for 15 months, and will turn 14 years old, this year. She says living here is fantastic! And has zero desire to go back to Melissa. She makes straight A's and is very good at softball. She has more open ground to hit balls, throw and catch, than the size of the softball fields she plays on. She can shoot on an 800 yard rifle range, coyote hunt, drive the Mule to the pond and catch fish, and enjoy the mesquite cooked steaks I cooked last night without some nosey neighbor dialing 9-1-1 for a "smoke investigation".

I grew up on a decent size spread I see value in both models. Neither is as bad as the other projects.

That is great if you like it. Seriously it is but that sounds absolutely horrible to me. I like being in the middle of no where and having to plan out how I do things.

I forgot what this thread was intended to be about. But for anyone on the fence about city vs country living, it’s really shown pros and cons of both sides. Good thread in that regard and it’s staying pretty civil. Carry on.

I went from a big property to a "nice neighborhood" when my parents divorced at 10 years old. I lived there until I was 13 and was then legally able to tell the judge I wanted to go live with my Dad. It was the worst 3 years of my life. I hated every minute of it. To a kid that was used to coming home everyday from school and grabbing a fishing pole and .22 it was hell. No trapping, fishing, hunting, shooting cans, riding around the pasture everyday. Just video games and bicycles. Glad your daughter is enjoying it.

I loved growing up in the country. My friends and I would ride bikes to each other or to a meeting spot and play. I loved our trips to the city (would always spend a couple weeks with relatives in Dallas) also and to south Louisiana to spend a few weeks a year with my Pawpaw, Aunts and Uncles and Cousins. I loved it all. My friends that grew up in the city did have more activities at school but I was doing so many activities at my small school and at home that I wouldn't have been able to take on more. The city amenities are nice but I have water, sewer, great internet, etc. where I am now on 30 acres. Did I miss some things? probably so but my city friends and relatives say the same. Do I miss anything from the city now? Yes, sometimes but my city friends and relatives say the same.

I will add that since my wife's health issues started 2 1/2 years ago the Dr's in the city (UT Southwestern) are way better and I'll gladly make the 2 1/2 drive there 2-4 times a month.

To the OP...property values have gotten crazy along with taxes. I am amazed at what my friends and family in the cities are paying for property taxes each year plus the city utilities. One of my friends just told me a few weeks ago his property tax and utilities alone were going to be a little over $1100 a month. The value of their property has risen greatly. It's all whatever makes you happy! I think I would truly be happy anywhere my family is (city or country).

^^ x2.
I'm in the middle of nowhere on 40 acres, but feel like I have 800 - empty fields all around me. Though I do have fiber internet!

My kiddo came come on a 4-day weekend - nothing like going in the back yard and plinking off a few dozen AR15 rounds, in pajamas, with nobody around to give you hell.

Places around me are fetching 'silly money' right now - but selling and moving 'another hour out' would be Oklahoma for me, but maybe could get a nice big place there for the 7-digits places around here are now fetching!

It's nuts out there. There is literally 1.7 acres of dirt by my lease selling for $70k. And the listing agent is lying their arse off. There is a hunting camp directly next to it and a working farm across the road 20 feet away. https://www.landsoftexas.com/property/1.79-acres-in-Montague-County-Texas/12960236/


My lot is worth 2x what I paid for my house 15 years ago. I'll stay put and remodel.

Just another reason not to move out in the sticks, now you have to work 2 jobs to get by, no thanks. I worked hard in my younger days so I wouldn't have to hump it 24/7. I can hire a landscape company to mow, weedeat, edge and blow grass clipping for $25 per week during mowing season

Plus if I wanted to sell my property right now, I could list it at market price and have 30 offers same day and the top ones would need to come in about $150K over full asking price if they want to be in the running.

Me too, I grew up in Irving back when you got the best of both worlds, I could drive up Belt Line road and hunt dove and quail all the way betwwen 114 and 635, one day I was dove hunting at 114/Beltline I was like age 15 and secret service came up to me and asked me what we were doing, it is me and my nephew we said dove hunting, apparently Carter was going to be in the area that day and I was told not to hunt that day.

When I moved to Frisco in 2009 late in the year where Costco now sits there were 2 guy dove hunting next to the North Dallas Tollway, which was pretty cool. I live right next to a 5500 acre ranch called Brinkman and it sure makes the neighborhood nice and quiet.

For now, understand Brinkman ranch has either been sold for development or annexed for it in coming years. That was just put out there 1-2 weeks ago RedRanger.

No reports of it being sold or annexed, they did sell about 600 acres a couple of years ago

https://communityimpact.com/dallas-...-ranch-to-be-developed-into-subdivision/

You're right, 637 sold in 2020 as part of $1B home development, any fears more could sell and develop?

I don't have to work two jobs to get by. The land and the shop are paid off. Improving the place is a labor of love. And I I listed mine right now, I would probably put $1.5 M profit in the bank. So there's that...

Everyday I am concerned they will sell out and develop the land. They are just now putting in utilities and streets off Coit, which will bring more traffic and traffic lights. So far I live closer to Preston so I am good for now.

But when and if they do actually sell that land I will have about 2 to 3 years before it gets developed and then I will have to make a choice. It has been a pleasure living next to it, it makes my area so quiet and keeps traffic down.

Don't sound fun to me, You have to work a job and then come home and work all day keeping up the land by you accounts "There is ALWAYS something to do. I could keep myself and two other people busy, 5 days a week, for several years to come"

Screw that, I want to relax and enjoy life and travel when I am older, not having to work all the time.

"Quiet" is definitely subjective...

RR your house in the Philippines that will be completed in July, do you plan on selling your Frisco house and taking up residence there (Philippines) or is that going to be a second home for winter or?

There will come a day when I am done with construction, done with land over haul, done with fence, done with brush clearing. It will just be a little bit of maintenance by then.


I am willing to do what others are not willing to do. So that I can have what they cannot have.

With funerals up 40%, the market will probably be dropping for both rural and urban real estate over the next few years. However, I am sure the millions of the new illegal residents will bring in the assets to keep the market going up or the government gives these new illegals $450,000 each to keep the market strong.

Talked to a Texarkana teacher this last week and he stated 5% of the enrollment was illegal aliens.

Stub it would be hard to not test the market with that kind of markup. Even with the inflated value of homes $700k plus still buys you a lot of options.

My kids (son and daughter in law) are in real estate down in Austin and they listed her moms house in a gated community. When neighbors around there got wind of what it sold for and how much over ask they got two more immediate listings with others trying to cash in. All of them sold the first weekend for way more than ask.

Philippines would be part time for now, I still want to travel other parts of the world. But with the housing market being so crazy High, I am tempted to sell out and move, but I really enjoy living in Frisco and I enjoy my house. I have a walking trail outside my door, 2 nice ponds and huge community pool if I wanted to swim.

For me I see living out in the country isolated as a death sentence, I would be bored to death. Just not my thing, it cool to hang out for a day, but get me back to civilization

Give me a house on the lake with a fishable dock and I'm set for life. Never be bored.

To each their own. I want no part of living inside a city limit.

Whole lot of guys I work with do the same thing. We babysit adults, so we want the hell away from them when we are off duty.

It's nice to be able to grow your own stuff also. We look forward to a big garden every year, get fresh eggs and raise our own beef. I never want to depend on someone else for everything. Plus with the way inflation is right now you save a ton on groceries.

Producers vs Consumers

It’s getting so crowded. 4 years and both kids will be out of high school. That’s when we will sell and hopefully find a nice 20-40 acres to settle down on.

I enjoy living in the city most of the time, traffic being the single biggest downside for me. It suits our lifestyle with 4 young kids and my career. I also enjoy having property 1.5 hrs away to get away when I want. I can certainly see pros and cons to both. If I had my wish I'd live in the same place but on 3-5 acres instead of one. That is possible, but I'd probably have to drive another 15-20 minutes on my commute and I don't want to do that.

Everyone has different preferences and there's no right or wrong when it comes to these sorts of things.

I had not lived in a city since 1986 till last year in May when I sold my land where I lived in South Texas. I sold at the right time but I also sold at the wrong time. I had a place under contract that was raw land. I could not find a place to rent within 30 miles that was not stupid high. Nothing was available in the country either. I tried by in my area as close as I could but as fast as something hit the market it sold or was under contract. Same with trying to build me a house....electricity was 5 months out, water wells were 10-16 months out, septic was 8-10 months out, builders weren't even returning calls.....I ended up having to buy a house 55 miles from my new place and that was in town. I hated it for 9 months till I decided to go back to work managing a ranch. That allowed me to move and now sell that house...I live in the country and away from any towns. Now I can take my time and get a house built on my new place. I lived less than 2 miles from it now. Perfection.

As I read a lot of the postings, let me inject a bit,

We sold the Lewisville house years ago, moved to the country,,,, Fantastic, however: YOU WILL AGE, and then it becomes a real chore to travel to the larger Cities for proper medical care. Not to say, rural maintenance is tough when your over 85.

I planted a peach, a pear, and a plum tree Feb. 1

Garden is going to get started this year.

There's some truth in that. I had a buddy who owned several hundred acres of mostly wooded land a little over an hour away from where I lived. He moved a house onto the property and gave me a key. I'd call and make sure his family wouldn't be out before I went, but otherwise he said act like I owned it. I mended fences, did what I could to improve the roads, and spent more time mowing on his tractor than he did. I hunted feral hogs a lot. Still, sometimes I'd sit on the porch and wonder what I'd do if lived there. I concluded that I'd eventually get bored.


This is definitely the truth.

I know others will see it differently, but I don't think country living would suit me in the long run.

And that’s why they have chocolate ice cream and vanilla.

Such a great quote that applies to so many things in life.

Have lived in the country off and on most of my life. We perfer country living over city life just having open space and no neighbor's on top of us means a lot. Lived in Frisco from 99-2014 till my boys finished school. Got back to the country quick as we could. Yes we all age and have to consider medical services and where they are, I'll be 66 in May and think I have 10+ years of country living left in me.

I am 75. I have as many years of Country living as I do of years left to live. If I had to move to the city you might as well just shoot me. I already told my kids. I will not go to a nursing home. I will end my life here at the place if it comes to that.

I bought my lake lot in 1998, I make a good income , but I would not be able to afford one today.

MO

Why dis this turn into a country living vs city limit thread? Live wherever the hell makes tou happy and be happy others can do the same. Because MERICA!

LETS GET BACK TO THE TOPIC.

The other people that jumped up and sold their house, where the heck did they go?

Situation here is my wife loves her job that is located real close to us and is making good money. If we sold our house we would have to find another house to rent or buy that is close too.

If I had that crystal ball that prophesied that the economy was going to collapse in 9 months and the housing market was going to tank, then yes I would sell this one, bank the profits rent a house for a year then explore my options on what to buy at that time.

Unfortunately I do not have that Crystal ball or I would be somewhere close to my ocean side home in Cabo San Lucas on my 48' fishing boat with lines out with drinks in hand

3 Peach trees(two are about ready to be replaced), two softshell pecan, 70 yards of blackberries, 20 yards of raspberries, and decent garden here, but adding another 500-600 sq ft to it.

I no longer feed out beef for personal use, easier to just buy prime cuts and sub venison in for burger.

My daughter and her husband just bought a house on 1 acre in Forney. He was looking for a place with a shop. This one did not have one so he offered $19k under list and got it.

what was listing price?

I often go to Lands of America and look at most of the large land listings of 1,000 acres and up in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado and Arkansas.
Properties that I thought were nice and had been listed for quite some time have been selling quick lately with very few new listings.

Obviously the land grab is and has been smoking hot here in the Southwest.

Not sure how this got into a rural vs urban debate but I'm thankful everyday that I'm raising my children in a place that hasn't gone completely crazy.

A place that by in large still has conservative values a place they can grow up in a similar environment that I did.

I guess you guys get used to it but I can't imagine living in the city, I can hardly stand just driving through.

There are still very conservative urban burbs.

Yeah, I may get pushed out of the neighborhood if this kinda crazy keeps up:

Neighbors on next street over - Tiny house, a shop, and 69 acres - only two and a half: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/340-Lakeview-Dr-Valley-View-TX-76272/304046224_zpid

Funny thing is, only a 'lakeview' if you have a drone...

That ponds got hell of a duck blind written all over it.

I cant say I blame them, very nice place

Ive heard same about other small towns on the east side of DFW. Cali transplants dont like that area I guess.

$379K

Nothing in Fate going for less then list. My daughter offered $390 on a house in my neighborhood listed at $385. They would have offered more but they did not like the flooring. My SIL told me it sold for well over $400k.

thanks reason i asked is i have 1 acre with 30 x 60 shop that is half a one br living space behind my house its nice i think, cant really get any good comps because of the neighborhood dosent have a lot of turnover, we have been considering selling

The house I referenced in my first post that went for over $1.475 and listed for $1.4 was in Heath.

Supposedly Forney is growing super fast, a little further out than Heath, but I like that area.

seen a lot of chicago the last time I drove through the area a few months back

There is a deal Pending on it, probably a developer is buying it? For $2.5 Mil. that is not bad for a great looking house and 69 acres ($36,,231 per acre) for wooded land right next to the lake.

Interesting old sub division just north with al of the small homes and trailers!

$36K per acre is actually really high relative to the area and to history.

It is called inflation. What was your take home 20 years ago?

FWIW, Home prices climb to the highest levels in 34 years, 18.8% YOY as of Dec 31, 2021..

Poll after poll after poll has shown that inflation is the #1 priority for Americans right now. If everyone's take home matched the trajectory of the prices we are seeing it would not be that big of a deal. Not sure why that's so hard to understand.

Exactly right.
Sell and do what? Anything you buy or build will cost you and arm and a leg to.

Hell, it is everywhere now in TX. There are some new subdivisions in far east Bexar County off IH10 that are going to be absolute ghettos within 10 years or less. These are very, very crappy built homes without a piece of masonry on them and are built literally 6' apart. They are small homes and being marketed as 'starter homes' and selling like hotcakes at $200/sf. Yup....a quarter million for a 1,200 sf house where when you fart your neighbor both hears and smells it.

This is straight up crazy what is happening right now and there is absolutely no way in hell it can sustain itself. The market is going to crash and crash hard and there will be thousands and thousands of foreclosures as well as many people who will still be making large house mortgage payments on a home they are literally 'upside down' on for a long, long time.

That is amazing, we had neighbors from California. Never really talked to them much. They bought a house on one acre across the street 3 years ago for $411,000. 5 bedrooms 4 baths, pool, 2 brick out buildings, one with a small beauty shop for the previous wife family own use. really well put together house. They never advertised here, no signs nothing, they just sold for $715,000. I'm pretty sure they only advertised in California. I live in Belton Tx out in the county.

When the housing market crashes it will be hard and on it's face. The stars are aligning for this to happen.

1. Inflation out of control over 7%
2. Interest rates on the rise 4%+
3. No inventory 1.5 million homes not on the market causing out of control pricing. This is due to COVID and people not moving and working from home.
4. Feds not proping up the housing industry as of early 2022
5. Bear stock market on the horizon
6. Banks will be foreclosing on home loans and calling in notes. Which they could not due because of COVID during this time (2 years).

What did I leave out?

According to every inflation calculator my home should only be worth half of what I’ve been offered…

So it’s way more then inflation.

land and property still cheap in west texas

sell your house and move to Leuders

John Williams Shadowstats gets quoted a lot by various financial writers. He quotes CPI the way it should be, by what we actually "consume." By his calculations CPI is a little over 15%.

Here is a quote from his 2/20 update: "Bureau of Labor Statistics Reveals It Cannot Measure the CPI Properly, At Present. FOMC Has Trouble Forecasting Inflation One Quarter Ahead,
Let Alone Two Years Ahead.

Despite Talk of “Tightening” in 2022 or 2023,
FOMC Is “Easing” Anew in Its Latest Actions"

http://www.shadowstats.com/

Yes, it would be absolutely terrible to have to live on the Clear fork of the Brazos River. (Leuders)

Shackleford County only produced like 3 dozen bucks over 180" this year.

I don't really think that's an import or deciding factor for buying real estate right now.

Yea Leuders looks like a real up and coming area, No Thanks I just googled earth the place looks like a ghost town.

Any of them killed on ranchettes?

Some don't look at buildings, they look at country. They also don't feel the need to be in a "up and coming area". It's the opposite.

That was actually one of the better looking pictures of Lueders, Google it and look at the pictures, downtown looks like a ghost town and should be demolished. Pretty sad looking place

"Pretty sad looking place". I think the same exact thing every 15 minutes in the morning when the traffic guy comes on the news and starts showing the TXDOT camera's.

Amen to this!

I couldn't agree more

I honestly don't believe people living in the metromess actually enjoy it. I just can't fathom it. Maybe they need to tell themselves that because it's the only option, glass half full attitude which I appreciate, I guess.

To each their own but I would never be happy living in the city.

why waste your time arguing with them ?

Plano looked pretty sad 30-40 yrs ago; i hunted doves and quails on the spot where
all the sheeps are flocking to

because that's all they know

the smart ones cash in and park their trucks in paradise away from the mess

They all come out here on the weekends. That should tell you all you need to know.

If the real estate market crashes, what happens to building material prices for new construction. I cashed in on the boom and sold the house and now in a rental, well actually a free home. We plan to build but can’t fathom in today’s market and price. So, here we sit with money in bank and a very impatient wife wanting to build.

There's no escaping it - they're bringing 'the city' to the middle of the country - https://www.rockhillinvestments.com/projects/tioga-581
3000 homes plopped right in the middle of fields....

Sure beats having a house built outside of the USA and having to build 8 foot concrete walls around it to feel safe there.

Are there a lot of high paying jobs in the "country"?

I think a lot of people, including myself, enjoy living in DFW for a lot of reasons. The only thing I don't like about it is traffic.

Oldoak, I'll believe it when I see it. There's a ton of property between 380 and Tioga that is superior in location to this tract. I live just west of Tioga and the infrastructure is nowhere near ready to handle that large an influx of people. 377 is getting to be a mess now. Can't imagine what an additional 5,000 bodies would do.

City living or country living.

Each choice comes with a compromise.

One man's paradise is another man's prison.

Be thankful you still have a choice.

I did this back in 2017....but Wise County may not have been far enough away. Good thing is I am not in a subdivision and the people that live near us are good folk.

Yup
Completely agree!

Hell, my wife and I have both talked about it and if we had to we'd live in a run down trailer if need be in order to stay out of the city and on our own little piece of Heaven! It is a no brainer for us.

Well said, Sir.

I guess you never travel around do you? Last I checked Bush had a wall around his house in Dallas, pretty common to build a wall around a house if you have some land and the means to do it. I know many celebrities who have put walls up around their houses.

Walls provide privacy as well as security. You ever go to Dubai? Mega rich neighborhood and the have walls around their houses?

Walls are more common than you think

Walks are to keep bad people out.

There isn't many high paying jobs in the country, thats one bad deal about it.

Exactly. And thanks to covid that $3,000 an acre pasture two years ago is now $10,000 an acre where I hunt so they get bought up and broken into ranchettes. I don't think you want everyone buying up dirt and putting a trailer or barndo on. Our landowners and family all work in DFW or for a company based there! They just have jobs that they only have to go o a few days a week or never. And inherited the land. Lots of very poor folks who can't buy food as well.

Why would it be there only choice? I could go buy a lakehouse on Cedar Creek or Lake Bonham and spend the weekends there, but I decided I wouldn't use it, I truly enjoy living in Frisco.

Manicured lawns, nice houses, everything is brand new, huges roads, fast speed limits, city is clean as whistle, all kinds of sports to attend if that's your thing, plenty of nice places to eat and shop. Police is outstanding and they are focused on customer service, I understand the Fire Department is top of line and has all the latest and greatest toys, and the city council and leaders of Frisco really have proven to be very smart in the way Frisco is headed.

I wonder what % of landowners in Texas (let's say 50+ acres) actually live on their land? I bet a pretty decent % live in a bigger town.

I grew up in the country and loved it, but I completely agree about Frisco. I still can't believe how easy and convenient everything is.

This thread devolved quickly. I'll never understand why folks feel like everyone else has to like the same thing they do.

So what ya'll are saying is those that live in the country AND have a high paying job are borderline genius or just real lucky lol

Frisco definitely has a lot to do, see and eat at but it has some of the worst rush hour traffic in all of North Texas. The North Tollway between 3:30 and 6:00PM most weekdays is like a parking lot. 121 going East or West between 4:00 - 6:00PM on weekdays isn't good either. To not state that blatant fact is being very disingenuous.

This city boy appreciates elements of both city life and the tranquility and pace of country living too. I don't personally rate one over the other, just different than each other and appreciate both for their respective pros and cons.

I said the only choice because I know many are stuck due to their jobs.

You don't think nice lawns and houses can be found outside of the big Metropolitan areas?

I'll take the top restaurants within 30 minutes of me against any in the state.

I can still go catch a game every now and then if I wanted but proximity to them is not nearly enough to make put up with all the other BS.

I live on 16 acres with pond, nice home, 1600 sq/ft shop with a 1 acre pond. I can have kids to school in 5 minutes. I can travel the 15 miles to my job in 20 minutes. The stars are bright and I get to watch every sunset off my front porch fall over my pond as deer eat at the feeder and ducks light on the water.

I paid $380k in 2020 for a 2700 square foot house less than 10 years old on 16 acres...so yeah keep your fancy restaurants and sports teams.

I just can't personally see how someone could enjoy it but like I said to each his own.

The main reason though is I could never raise my kids there. We get lots of young men coming out of areas in and around DFW on the fire department and you can tell a difference. I would home school before I even let my kids attend even the Abilene schools. Im not talking about the typical things every kid will be exposed to even in a small school, the things going on at even Abilene Jr, Highs is enough to make anyone puke.

I have done my time in the big city and can’t wait to get back to small town living.

something like that

they already made their money in the city and got out ASAP (genius and lucky)

or they have jobs that do 100% remote, so they cash in their metro house
and move to a slice of country , living good and healthy ( genius, lucky and healthier )

Interesting this thread is still going.
If anyone thinks this discussion will convince RedRanger and FiremanJG to change places then they are silly.
However, for anyone on the fence about country living vs city living then this thread has value.
Too bad its not a stand alone thread titled "country living vs city living?"

wait till they push EVERYONE into the smart cities.

Yes, Sir.

Country or City,..blessed to have a roof over my head.

I’ve spent some time working in the Lueders area. It’s quiet, not much traffic. Just make sure you pack a lunch.

It’s not my only option , I own a few acres and could move back out there anytime I wanted, I choose to live in town. Pluses and minuses to both lifestyles.

I’m a big believer in education, at this point in my kids lives, I find it’s best for my kids in town


Biggest down side to city is that my taxes are twice what my farm taxes are. I could never own what I have now with out the city though, so it’s an easy trade off if I look at it from a generational and financial security stand point

I get both

I grew up in the country, live there now...12 miles one way to the school...12 miles to a store...35 miles to a decent restaurant

Its all I know, that's normal to me

Lived in the City twice as an adult, hated it, never felt comfortable, hate not being able to take a leak off the porch, shoot a deer or pig off the porch, make a fire when I want

Wife loved City life, kids loved City life, they love neighbors/door dash, I don't

Theres something that creeps me out about people driving by real close, ill never like it but I see how some do

If I see headlights late at night, something is wrong...but I get it

I had a friend that lived in Lueders, he could walk to the river and fish all day. I spent many an hour sitting on the river bank fishing at Lueders.

Sounds like my kind of place. Not too far from my lease south of Moran...might have to take a drive someday.

That is a nice picture of Leuders, I think it has been photoshopped.

They quarried the heck out of the old Fraser ranch.

Yes, I agree the ones on google maps look horrible, but for some reason you can't copy the pics. But I didn't know USA had places that bad, it makes a Lueder main street look like some 4th world country. Why don't they condemn them and remove the buildings?

Yes, Sir! Interesting that some folks have a need to justify their opinion by attacking/insulting/belittling the preferences of others.

Marc

I get it. If you've never owned actual land all you look at is buildings.

Many ways for the land to make money, just depends on where you are.

I didn't, and won't quit the FD until I'm retirement eligible. But it is looking like the land will produce enough income to allow me to you retire young, but also maintain a self employed status, all from income off the land.

It is called inflation. Look it up.

Aerial view of Frisco. Wow what a paradise. I bet these even have a killer view of the Tollway.

I am grateful that we have a nice modest home in a great neighborhood, awesome schools and wonderful neighbors for over 25 years, a small creek behind our house that gives us a lot of privacy.


Perfect scenario for me; Have a comfortable home with a big lot on the outskirts of the city that is within 2 hour drive of my dream place in the country with the ability to stay at either place as long as I want whenever I want!

I had land in Aubrey, I let the horse people buy it and now most of it is cut in in 5 acres lots, due to all the sand, It used to be Peanut Capital of Texas, after the peanuts got harvested the mallards would come in huge flocks and eat the left overs on the ground.

Now of days Aubrey looks nothing like it did back in 70's and early 80's.

See how beautiful and manicured landscaped, Just shows how Frisco has some of the toughest building codes in Texas, they have designed the city to be a thing of beauty.

Subdivisions

HOA's,..cookie cutter homes...."I will comply". Just not for me.

I live in the City, but a true custom home, no HOA's or cookie cutter homes. If I want a new shed in back or a flag in my front yard I can do it. Again I am happy to have a roof over my head with some freedom.

If you really want to see what Frisco looks like go to like 13:30 mark on the video, I got the best of both worlds, subdivision on the Right side, Ranch land on the left side, Pretty neat place to live, this is my daily drive. Frisco really keeps the area looking good, noticed all the landscaped medians, dedicated right turn lanes so traffic flows fast

Watching that video, I gave up waiting to turn left on yellow when the traffic would clear......waiting....waiting.......nope.

I'm sitting on the coach drinking coffee, watching the news on TV and deer at the feeder 250 yards away. If a pig shows up I can get up walk outside and shoot. Here in a few I'll go check the traps I set yesterday. All without having to go anywhere. Can't do that in Frisco.

You can keep your manicured lawns and turning lanes.

Just like a Wall you don't understand, If you notice most all subdivision have a wall around them to provide for privacy.

Don't worry I was like you at one time about HOA, I was misinformed, in reality HOA keep up property value and keep the trash out, I saw my old neighborhood in Irving go to crap over 20 years. HOA for me is where people live who like to keep their houses and property looking good, and don't mind keeping their property in top shape

You can put sheds up, I used to fly the Texas and US Flag from my porch, now I used the rotary club program and they place 2 flags in my yard like 7 times per year.

It's nice to see everyone's yard always mowed and landscaped, and the houses upkept and looking new.

Sure you can, You can hunt on land over 10 acres with a shotgun inside Frisco City limits. I think you need 50 acres for rifle.

I have deer across the street from me. I have a couple ponds in my subdivison I keep them baited out with corn and maintain about 30 mallards and 6 geese I feed.

I see plenty of wildlife where I live, it's pretty cool.

I'm sure it's a real wildlife oasis...

Deer, tons of rabbits, bobcats, coyotes, ducks and geese and hawks. Yep many up here

RedRanger, I do have to give Frisco a lot of credit around how they align all their high schools to remain at the 5A level and not at the highest enrollment level of 6A. Allows them to compete athletically at 5A, presumably allowing more participant participation than a 6A school too. If their school gets too big, they just build another high school in 1-2 years. Pretty genius approach really. Are they up to 15-16 5A high schools now?

sounds like big bidness

The power house schools are the ones that don’t break up Junior/Senior class but break up 9&10

I lived in Frisco, we moved there before it blew up. We moved two years ago (likely not far enough away, but that was to make the wife happy since friends/family are close by) and I'm so glad we did. The place is a mess with traffic, crowded with liberals, and it is amazing how 10 miles away makes a difference

Extreme traffic would be my main reason for avoiding Frisco, no two ways around it.

I don't know about the sport side, I was always told they had so many schools because they wanted to keep class size low and offering a good education would be a plus on having people move to Frisco. I think they are up to 16 which is insane for a city with only 200K population

Yea, they have went into full retard mode in building schools up here, thankfully property taxes are not too insane, they are high but could be alot worse.

For me I don't experience traffic up here, usually easy to get around. And all streets are 3 or 4 lane with high speed limits, my house is off Eldorado and Preston. Preston Speed limit is 55, El Dorado is 45 and and Coit next to me is 50, I can zip around here.

The Dallas North or South Tollways are really the biggest issue honestly, US121 though busy generally moves OK.

Oh yeah man....just gorgeous!

Just looks to me like cookie cutter track homes on 1/8 acre lots.

Nice grass though!


To be perfectly honest though I'm glad so many love to live this way. Hope it stays that way a lot longer.

US 121 I only get on it to go to DFW airport and wouldn't schedule a flight during rush hour, I know they just added a lane on both sides.

North Dallas I only see if backed up going south from El Dorado in the morning, usually going North it flows good even at the end of the day, and summer time seems to be least amount of traffic.

For me if I am coming back to Frisco during the day I am usually taking 75 North and exit Stacy Rd and take it all the way until it turns into Main Street in Frisco at Custer, then take a right on coit and left on El Dorado and I am home, street speed limit is 55 to 50 all the say in Frisco, so thankfully I don't mess with much traffic.

Kinda surprised to see there's not more pools.

I guess your not very good at math, 1/8 of acre is about 5400 sq ft, I would say average house in North Frisco is 4000 to 4500 sq ft, so I would bump up the land quit a bit, we don't have huge yards for sure in general. Great thing about that is I can get my yard, mowed, weed eated, grass clipping blown for $25 per month.

Probably due to the fact most neighborhoods have pools for their residents, one near me has a lazy river which would be cool

When the wife and I were looking to purchase a house back in 1996 we both worked just north of the N Dallas Tollway & 635 (LBJ Fwy.).
We set are search parameters wide from Grapevine to the newer Garland area off 190 and from 635 to McKinney.

A bunch of our friends lived in Frisco and you could buy nice new house fairly cheap. Played a lot of golf at the Plantation Golf course starting in 1994 or1995 and several years after.
Neither my wife nor I could stand the drive on the N Dallas Tollway heading to Plano & Frisco back then so we decided to buy closer to work.

If you did not have to drive far for work, I think McKinney on the west side of HWY 75 would be a nice place to live

Just like a lot of things in life, it is what you allow it and make it out to be. You learn the easier way to do things!

Wouldn't work for us...we swim naked in ours!

You are not good at many things. People in 4500 square foot homes don’t have above ground pools.

Just give up already

Wildlife comment is funny.

I hit a turkey in Colleyville and almost hit one in grapevine. I almost hit a buck this year on 114 at the 121/635 split, car behind him didn’t miss though. I’ve hunted 170 plus deer off and on 15 min from my house for past 10 years… for feee. I have 5 lakes with in 20 minutes. 10 ponds with in 5 mins drive.

I have a bobcats, Yotes, and even Geese and ducks visit pretty regularly. I don’t live on an 1/8 of an acre in fact smallest lot in my neighborhood is 1/2 acre

Both sides are cherry picking points.

No way I’d live in the country on a few acres as it defeats purpose IMO.

Traffic what traffic? I work from home and have groceries delivered with touch of key on phone.

Only amenity I lack with in 10 miles is a pipe and steel yard…but if I lived in Lueders looks like I’d have to drive 25 plus miles to albany anyway. Well looks like closet hardware store with lumber is 25 miles also.


Like I said both sides are cherry picking points. Neither is as bad as others make it to be.

That aerial view isn't Frisco.

Your math sucks. How many floors do those 4500 sq ft houses have?

Agree that is not Frisco, the picture does not even look real to begin with
If it is real, Walmart made a killing with the sale of all of those little above ground pools!

Frisco is mostly rear entrance housing off an alley, I know lived there for 14 years.

Oh, on the contrary. Numbers are exactly my thing and play a big part in how I make my living actually.

My comment was based on the picture provided which I think was posted by you, right?
If you think these are 4k-5k sf homes, I've got some land that is a hell of a deal to show you.

https://www.brentgermanyteam.com/search/results/?searchtype=2&searchid=70785&awt=bing&awid=Frisco&msclkid=c93c5ccabe9811a055d63edd75b87c29&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Frisco&utm_term=%2BFrisco%20%2Bhouses&utm_content=Houses#lprice_900000/

A quick search on the houses listed at the website link above says you are the one who struggles with numbers.....or maybe exagerations?

1st 50 homes listed on this website:

6 are between 1k - 2k sf
18 are between 2k - 3k sf
16 are between 3k - 4k sf
9 are between 4k - 5k sf
and a grand total of 1 is 5k sf at 5290

So, though I have no doubt there are some SUBDIVISIONS with average home sizes of 4k-5k sf, this website tells me MOST are not and I'd bet my last dollar the picture you posted is homes NOWHERE near that size and the lots are indeed around 1/8 of an acre on those. It doesn't take a genius to see that especially when the concrete driveways are about 20' wide and not much longer than the parked cars in them and the above ground pools barely fit in the back yards.

I haven't mowed a yard for $25 in close to 15 yrs

First pic came from Google images, here is Google Maps. Make you feel better? If anything the first one was being generous as far as yards are concerned. Looks like every neighborhood in that town you could hear someone fart 3 houses down.

I don't know how they stay in business, 3 guys mow my yard. I quit mowing my yard a few years ago, Wish I would of hired a company years earlier.

Im with TLew .... sold my house in Frisco back in March of last year. Bought it for 330K.... lived there 8 years. Made the decision to take advantage of housing market so bought 1.55 acres in Weston and starting building a new home on a creek. Listed my old house for 542K and thought "ok we will see" and in 72 hours we had an offer for 654K ..... crazy money ! Moved to an apartment and waiting for house to be built which is the crappy part, but sitting on cash aint all that bad either.

Its doable but sacrifices are an almost must. We locked in our interest rate last year and our new home price of 990K and as crazy as it sounds, by the time we move into new home we are looking at instant equity. It will be our forever home so hopefully it was a good decision but feels good so far.

I moved there when Preston was still a two lane road. That was the first and last house I will ever own that has a rear entry garage.

I am big fan of alley and rear entrances, makes the neighborhood look clean

I used to cut thru that neighborhood about 10 years ago going to Goody Goody Liquors store, it is close to Little Elm, When 423 was being worked on forever.

Incorrect, I didn't post the pictures

Incorrect again about your research:

If you read my post I said average home in "North Frisco". I live here I watch what they build everyday and I know house sizes in my area.

I bet that house would go for another 100k right now, pretty easily

Sorry, thought you posted the pic.

But, I'll stand by what I said when I first commented in that the houses in that picture are damn sure cookie cutter track homes on 1/8 acre lots.
I have no idea what side of Frisco is the nicest but will take your word for that and just know that every town of any size always has some areas just like that including most of them down here.
Either way, it is still living in houses on 'lots' and not acreage and again I'm glad you and so many others enjoy that. Please stick with it for us others who'd rather live in a beat up 50 year old trailer on a decent sized piece of our own land. My nearest neighbor is about 300 yards or a little better and THAT IS TOO DAMN CLOSE for us!

In high school we lived in what was then way out in the country on 10 acres in Fischer. 30 min to San Marcos, 20 min to Blanco, 20 min to Wimberley but there wasn't anything there at the time.....to be honest, it sucked.

Too small to hunt, it was private but not really isolated, could shoot but that got old after awhile....only good thing about it was there was a few rivers close by and the lake wasn't far but that aspect isn't much different than where I am now in a neighborhood.


All the hassle of living out in the sticks but none of the benefits.

I was recommending Leuders as an Exit strategy

why are we stuck on Frisco ?

I hunted in Haskell not far from Leuders

My ex CEO sold his company to EMC, made off with millions
and made his billionaire investor a fraction richer

Sold his house in Prosper, bought several tracts of land
based on my recommendation of the area ( I let him hunt
on my land and he was hooked )

He was a city boy, but appreciated what the country has to offer

you'd be surprised how much money some of these poor farmers
actually have ... they d put the $50K millionaires wanna be in Frisco to shame

Cause RedRanger thinks <.25 acre lots that are well manicured and allow him "rear entry" are much better than country locations like Leuders where people are more steers than q---s. End of the day, it's really the demographic IMO, he appreciates the asian massage parlors and nail salons, and that's ok. Baskin robbins

Any part seem pretty nice to me from my observation , I just wanted to move toward the north and when I moved there wasn't much retail, now it has finally gotten here. And I wanted to be one the West side of Tollway and Preston.

300 yards from a neighbor seems pretty close to me if your on some land,

Nah, what I was looking for when I moved was: Cul de Sac, 3 car garage, and walking trail. What I got was house on 1/2 cul de sac, a walking trail I can almost spit on, and a rear entry 3 car garage. The way Frisco is I never need to leave the city, everything I need is here.

Our Palo Pinto County game warden transferred out there a couple years ago and loves it. Good country out there, tons of wildlife.

Yelp. Unfortunately rural life is pretty much an inheritance life for any sizable acreage, which is very large contrast to urban side. Many on urban side can build a sizable nest egg and end up with best of both worlds.

Nobody is guaranteed to make it to retirement, I'm trying to enjoy life now. To me the best of both worlds is making good money while enjoying the outdoors every single day.

Acreage amount is dependent on location. 300 is plenty enough for me here in the Cross Timbers. I would want alot more if out in West Texas.

Correct:

No argument here on this (bolded above). But, we elected to build up front on our land and our home is only a little over 100 yards off the road. Luckily there is not anyone yet directly across the road from us. lol
To the sides it is 1/4 mile on one side and probably a mile on the other to the nearest house. Behind us is at least 1/2 mile or maybe a bit more. That to is changing with the new smaller 'ranchettes' that have been sold to one side and behind us in the last year.

Smart man!

OMG, that is awful.

But what does that really mean? By a % that’s vastly untrue. Rural generational wealth means inheritance or mineral boom.

I could of retired in my 30’s but that would of been selfish of me IMO.

Plus I like diversity in my approach to recreation.

I large part of my life was growing up on a large spread, I’ve been stitched up more by a vet then actual MD. I see both sides. That example of Frisco isn’t the norm for urban life in my opinion also. If you can afford 300 acres you wouldn’t most likely be in a spec. neighborhood IMO.

It means I'm not trying to get to a certain age to enjoy life. Sure statistics say you will make it but who cares at that point anyway? I don't want to be a old geezer and trying to finally get to do what I love. Like plant food plots, trap pigs, shoot rifles, etc.

No need to retire when you enjoy what you do. Not sure why you think everyone rural has to have inheritance to be wealthy. Believe it or not folks open businesses out here and some do really well.

Some want a million dollar home, some want a million dollar view. The thought of looking out the window and seeing another house or a privacy fence is horrifying. Like I said before, some value privacy more than other's.

Everyone has a different ideology of wealthy. Mine is drastically different then yours. You make it sound like I’m clueless to rural living.

You make it sound as if everyone outside the Metro is poor. Wealthy to me is a multimillionaire, what's yours? Billions lol

Really though wealth is everyday quality of life. That's why I'm where I'm at.

We can probably agree to disagree 100x over on this one. The ones accustomed and used to rural living are going to espouse most of the pros and less of the cons and vice versa for those of us urbanites, espousing the pros vs cons. Two different walks of life, pros and cons to both in my opinion...Can't we all just get along and maybe meet up at a park or something. Lol

My wealth thoughts aren’t relative to this thread, it’s not a one upper contest.

There is a reason the average ranch/farm in Texas shrinks every year(I found 411 acres which is down 12 acres over past 10 years). If you want to argue the prosperity of the two, explain that statistic. I’m not saying rural is poor, my generational family which is rural isn’t poor. I’m saying statically more money per individual is made in an urban settings. Excluding oil and gas royalties of course.

Wealth is everyday quality of life for every individual, that idea of quality is different per individual. I haven’t degraded rural or urban any where in this thread, that’s you. I see both sides, both have pluses and minuses. Sticking up for one isn’t degrading the other.

These Facebook market place ads for 'land' crack me up. I couldn't be a realtor.

A person doesn't need money to feel wealthy. Happiness is all the wealth a person needs.

I’m debt free and financially secure. It feels pretty good. In fairly good health for 79 yoa.

It wasn’t all that easy to get here. I went through a divorce about 30+ years and came out pretty financially damaged. Actually broke, in debt and paying child support. It took 3 or 4 years to really get my head straight, sober up, goals re established, etc. I re married. We both had houses but neither were right for us. We bought one for us and rented out the others. Renters have paid for them. Our home was paid off early. Realtors call every day asking if we want to sell the rentals, our home or land. Prices are nuts in Hurst and Mansfield.

The big deal is my rural, rocky, good for nothing, junk 133 acres 5 miles South of Bowie. A realtor I know told me that it would probably go for 7 figures. If I don’t sell today, it will go for more tomorrow. California has damn sure come to Texas. But, that’s my sanity place. And I need it a whole lot more than I need cash and a big tax bill.

245k an acre. I’m in the wrong business

Betcha it's more like $300k an acre if they had it there since usually for homesites they charge more per acre the bigger the lot

Mornin...

Gotta go zero a couple of rifles.

Country living sucks, city not for me.
Yep step out the back door and shoot, hunt, fish, check your cows, ride the SXS, smoke some meat or just sit and listen to the piece and quite.

Maybe it comes with the minerals.

Nice to just walk out your door and blast away. Sure beats having to drive somewhere else or going to a public range where you risk sitting next to some dork in tactical gear

Personally, I am very happy that red ranger and others on here love the city life. Keeps them from screwing up the country life with their city ways.

city folks with city ways do interfere with country life
when they start moving in

somehow they feel the need to create POA, HOA
dictate how lawns should be manicured
charge you a fee for telling you how to maintain your house/lawn

in a way they're destructive and non sustainable
watering lawns that no cows can eat ,,,, just to impress the realtors

Love me some cows

Working all night checking & pulling calves on first calf heifers for a month straight, breaking ice every morning during winter, 3am calls from sheriff about fence down and cows in the road, eating trailer plug wire off every trailer and your truck mirror, sending 3k a month in medicine trying to fix the trading calves your order buyer stuck you with as replacement heifer, having to fence off pounds during drought to keep cows from getting stuck in muck, listening to bawling calves and momma’s all night as you are weanings. I really miss the tranquility

Not all living in the city are "city folk".

lmao

Well BOBO, I guess you could do like the city folk do with their little lawns.....hire someone to take care of em so all you have to do is sit and watch em eat & chit!

Sort of what I do now

All I do now is count yearlings on my winter wheat when the come in and before they ship. No way I’ll ever do cow calf again out side of a tax right off.

There is validity in both approaches neither is better then the other, hopefully everyone can find balance and some kind of tranquillity. We all work to hard not too.

I make hay for those cows to eat. I have no cattle. Hay bales don't die, or get out.

I get to work on equipment though...

You need to up your game and buy a JD swather. Then call me when you need to change out teeth so I can video. Tractor life is way better then cow life though!!

Yep

And how is that?

What about golfers developing good elk/deer habitat? The whole idea of a house on the course is so folks can look at you. Screw that egomania.


And on that note:



Easily in the top 10 trumpet players (presently) in the world. There's no accounting for taste.

(At least I learned that Charlie wrote this piece from this. He was obviously "a force of nature". )

Well, I grew up outside of Clyde, near Abilene, and moved to Houston for work in my 30's. Does that make me a city boy? Everybody I know here says I have a strong counrty accent and I am proud of it. Trust me, I don't really want to be here but I am here and I am making the best of it. I never even met a democrat until I moved here and they are worse than people say. So yeah, I stand by my statement.

Was told a long time ago, if you want to make any money never buy anything that is eating while your sleeping. We don't do calf/calves too much rise for little property we do feeder steers. Get them in the spring gone in the fall works for us.

Well this sucks. My lease might be a subdivision in the future. I live in the city for a reason and drive 2 hours to the country to hunt but they are building houses anywhere now.

http://bowienewsonline.com/2022/02/subdivision-lots-sales-booming-in-montague/

'Sorry to hear. I learned about urban sprawl when I was 12, 1972. I shot my first buck on my grandfather's place on Vance Jackson Rd. in San Antonio, 'bout 50 acres. The next year he sold, except for his house, and Mission Trace Condominiums went in.

People still like makin' babies. They grow up and want a house.

I shot mine where Wurzbach Parkway goes by the old Longhorn Cement. My parents had 35 acres there in 1963 sold 10 acres and bought 430 acres in Bandera. We lived at the corner of IH 35 and Weidner Rd. until I was 16. They paid around $87 an acre here. Now the place next to me is selling for $14,000 an acre. Every year you think it can't get higher it does. If you can afford land somewhere buy it. You are not going to loose on it.

Location, location.

I don't think location matters any more. Look what land in west Texas is selling for now.

You are trying way too hard, now you are coming off as jelly

I am more of "Suburban" area type of guy

I like the best of both worlds, but I enjoy nightlife, good restaurants, close grocery stores, nearby airport, mall nearby, doctor/dentist close to my house, not into living out in the sticks.....

Thank goodness. The sticks thank you for staying on the pavement.

A Guido and his mall will not he parted......

I am not of Italian decent, I am more Texan than you are, my family had land in Aubrey back when Texas was a Republic

I will be headed there today for lunch and drinks at StoneBriar Mall In Frisco to upper level in Nordstrom to eat lunch there and have few drinks. They have some outstanding signature drinks from the bar and then onto a little lunch, Very good and reasonable priced the restaurant is called Bazille. Give it a try if you in the Frisco area one weekend. Let the wife shop, and you can have few drinks.

https://n.nordstrommedia.com/id/33b14400-12e8-4619-bbcf-e64a2e28ff0d.pdf

From this day's New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung - "For a fifth consecutive ear, Comal County property values will increase by double digits - and this year's are projected to be the highest ever. The Comal Appraisal District . . . .believes values will rise between 30% and 50%, based on assessments as of Jan. 1, 2022."

We bought 20 yeas ago. Across the cove was 16 acres that was undeveloped, it sold about 3 years ago and was busted up into about 1.5 acre lots. The LOT directly across from us sold for $225000. House not finished but with boat house and retaining wall I suspect well over a MILLION, already spent. Sure am glad my taxes are frozen!!!!

Hurry and get to 65!

Never before thought about thinking that.

Comal Appraisal District Chief has also been placed on leave pending some kind of investigation.
That came out in the Herald a couple days ago.
Article wasn’t real specific on what the deal was though.

Slightly less than 3 more years for me. I fight them every year to keep it down as much as I can.

Taxes and insurance increases are going to significantly affect monthly payments as escrows go up. Rate increases along with the increased escrows are going to make home buying much more difficult for younger folks. Factor in that starter homes are close to $300K and that prices a lot of people out of the market. Glad my taxes are frozen as well. I cringe when I think about the insurance increase I'm sure is coming.

Some buddies of mine own a 3.7 acre a mini-storage complex on Loop 337. Valuation went up from 2.8 to 8 million - not a misprint.

Crazy 1st world problem.

I just got back from a trip to visit relatives. First stop was southern Arkansas, at Felsenthal. The talk was all about people moving in there, buying places or building new ones. Prices were rising fast. Next stop was Natchez, and the conversation was the same. My brother told me, a year or so ago, that you couldn’t give away a house in Natchez. This week he said there was nothing at all available for sale. Lots of folks from Washington and California that were looking for a conservative state. A BiL said the same thing of San Antonio, TX. And a granddaughter is trying to buy a home in DFW and keeps getting outbid.

Are we gonna have another housing bubble?

Some of our good friends are moving to Houston from NRH, TX and agreed to sell us their house. Dream house for the wife and I, .52 acres, 3800 sqft 4 beds 3 baths plus garage apartment and additional bath, 3 car garage, long driveway that will fit RV, heavily wooded lot with oaks, huge deck, nice patio and pergola next to pool. Were able to buy it off market.

Just got my house under contract this weekend in Hurst. 4 bed 2 bath, 2061 sq ft, detached garage, new windows, new floors, new paint, new fence all in the last 5 years. Listed for $370k under contract for $410k with a free leaseback for a month and buyer paying title policy and appraisal waiver. Option period has already passed and they didnt ask for anything.

This market is wild and very grateful to our friends for giving us this opportunity.

Our house was on the market for 48hours and we had multiple offers.

Former insurance company attempted to raise mine $2300 this year.

Grandson and his bride came by last night. They are in an apartment in Grapevine at $1,400 per month and kinda struggle to make it. They have been told that the rent will go to $1,900 per month when their lease expires in a couple of months. I have a 3-1.5-1 house in Hurst that has a renter that I will get out in time for them to move in without losing their deposit. This ought to let them get a saving/investment plan in place.

Your a good dad.

Ultra Crazy

Can't make this stuff up. Hundred year old plus unredone 400 SF "house" on a postage stamp lot.

Honestly, what more does a man need?

There are some "bargains" like that to be had in Menard...for the bold and the beautiful.

My daughter and her husband live in a duplex in Tyler and have been saving to purchase a starter house. They just got a notice that their rent is going up $300 a month at the end of their lease. The starter home market is stupid crazy on places that I wouldn't want to visit, much less live in.

I’ve been renting out a couple of houses that the wife and I owned when we married 20+ years ago. They’re both paid off. The theory that I’ve heard is that I ought to rent them for 1% of the value per month. The problem I’ve found is that the “average” renter can’t afford that.

We own one in Mansfield that is now worth about $350 to 400 thousand. Nice place in a nice area. Dang few renters could pay 1% of that per month. I’m getting $1,300 per month for it from a renter that has been there for 3 years.

Another , a 3-1.5-1, is worth about $200,000+. I’m getting 1,300 per month. A year ago, I tried to rent it for $1,600 per month. I couldn’t get get it so dropped the price to get someone in it. Every month they are empty I lose $.
This is the one I’ll move my grandson into.

Apartments are going out of sight. I couldn’t afford to not be a homeowner.

One thing I notice is pecan trees. This equals high water.

Just got the appraisal on my rental house in Euless. Tiny 2 bedroom home. Jumped from $155K to $215K. $39% increase in one year. You bet I'm going to protest this one.

My property value jumped $170K this year

I purchased my home in 2009, and now the appraised price is more than doubled what I paid for it.

I dispute my property taxes every year https://www.txptr.com/

Mine went up 170K too. Did the online protest with the pictures of the phone co-op's switch building on my property, like I do every year. They'll offer a compromise, I'm sure.

'Gotta feed and house all the mojados they're dumping in San Antonio you know.

That’s nothing compared to a few of the old shacks in Fredericksburg

My Daughter bought a house off Bandera Rd. close to Leon Valley a little over ten years ago. She also just got a new valuation. She paid around $120k for it now they say it is worth over $300K

Bunch of cry babies on this thread.

We got the 2022 valve and it only gone up $7k. Whoopie… Then I saw the tax for it, $8200. Excitement was short lived.

I stop protesting a long time ago. It’s a complete waste of time. The house could be run down with meth heads cooking and the city will still raises the value.

Eugene

I was bracing for a bigger hit, but ours "only" went up by $51k. That's only a fraction of what the 2021 increase was. I had an attorney protest on my behalf 3 years in a row. Last year, she was very upfront and told me it was highly unlikely that she could do anything based on comps of recently sold houses. Only way to lower it would be pictures showing my house in poor condition, which it's not.

13 acres to the East of me is going for $198k, land to the west is 14 acres for $178,080. I got 20 acres for $40k 13 years ago. These lands are just that, land. My place has a well and electricity. I may be selling out when the Californians start moving in.

What happened to them only being able to increase it 10% a year?

That's on homesteaded properties.

The market value of your home can increase by more than 10%, but the taxable value is capped at 10%. I had this happen in 2021.

Except non-homestead properties like rent houses. They get the hike and increased tax immediately. Then have to pass it to the renter to stay afloat.

Gotcha

Thats still 'cheap'! Pasture-land around Gunter is now going for $100,000 an acre! $3mil for a 30-acre field!
Happening everywhere north of DFW all the way to the OK border! Crazy!

Sad my uncle bought 30 acres there for about $100k around 1997. It was a dump though on 289/Preston. I used to go and fish sometimes. He didn't manage his life well and had to sell it. Never saw anything close to what it is now.

Hire a company like TXPTR.com, they will get it lowered. When you don't protest every year you are compounding the rising valuations and your taxes. I use them every year and they save me thousands every single year. Plus, if they don't lower it the next year is free.

Same conversation this time every year. No one want's to pay taxes but yet everyone wants to sell their property for as much as they can get for it.

I don't mind paying reasonable taxes but what infuriates me is how local and state officials spend our tax dollars. No transparency and they eff'n lie through their teeth to try and justify their position.

Wow...just wow. I got on the county's website and they raised our property value by 90% this year. Not looking to get into "humble brags" here, but for context this isn't a 100k house either

Ahh that makes sense.

Thanks. I’ll look into that. My area is tear down area and houses being build are $900k-million plus. It’s very hard to argue value when you got fancy pants around you.

Eugene

Ok, so question for the group -- do you protest your value even if it hits the cap whether the value gets reduced or not?

Always.

Son's on B's valued our newly built house with waterfront home comps on Lake LBJ. Were a block or 2 off Lake. Highway freaking robbers. Protest didn't help a bit.

You can but in my case never has reduced my taxes in 15 years since lot/land prices where I am keep going up. My next door neighbor just sold to a builder who is about to bulldoze it. They paid more than my appraised value and I have a 3k sq ft updated home.

I’ve reduced mine 2 out of last 4 years. Most the protest companies work off % of reduction. So what do you have to loose.

What do I have to gain is the separate question? They raised my value by 90% but cap the assessed rise at 10% under HS. So if the protest company reduces it to a 40% increase, I still pay the 10% cap. That's what I'm trying to figure out

ETA: I got a refi recently so I have an appraisal that shows the midway point between last year's assessed value and this year's assessed value. Should I just use that as justification?

100%. Every year.

Because when you go to sell your house the next owner will see that they are gonna have double the tax bill, and it could affect the sale price or how much they are willing to pay.

Yes, use the appraisal, that is an easy reduction.

Protest every year. Easy in Tarrant County to do online. Don't even have to submit a thing, just make an offer that's not crazy and they will counter. Easier for them if you don't have to come in. My daughter works for Tarrant Appraisal District. (TAD).

I've yet to protest (moved to this house 4 years ago)...I've got not a single leg to stand on...they are still 50-75k short of market value (comps and what others around me are getting/listing). They'll reduce it but not 90% so it's just a big waste of time to attempt a protest because it doesn't effect at all what I would pay.

Some will protest and get a reduction but it doesn't get into the 10% so they really aren't doing a thing but making themselves feel better....my time is more valuable than a feel good.

Is this a reduction in appraised value or in actual taxes paid?

That's what I would do when I was still living in the city before I retired. Worked every year.

Is this where I mention my property taxes went up to $750 a year (was $720)? Appraisal was $242k which is fine with me. Houses are going for $325 in my subdivision.

Just received our 2022 notice. Market value rose $41,402. Up 72% since 2017. Bunch of crooks!

Sell it

Youngsters, just think the year you turn 65 you will not have to worry about your taxes going up any more unless you add square feet to the structures. Appraisal will go up but you will not pay any additional taxes once it is locked.

They can do a lot of damage to me in the next 3 years!

Yes they can and the 40 year mortgage that's about to be the norm will inflate it by another 40 percent

I have 30 years until retirement and I'm not worried about property taxes one bit. Ag exempt and our place pays for itself. I might not be the brightest crayon in the box but I'm smart enough to know that paying 10k for .21 acres you can't use is dumb.

Is $325 much of house, or a big house?

Frisco has went full retard on property value

Many people live where they live to be close to the money

You're "using it" if you are living in a home on it!

DocHorton; what does that company charge to do your protest?

It depends on property value, but I think the range is $199-$749 or something like that. I know a $250k rental is $249. Best part is, if they don't save you money it's free.

You can input your address and it will tell you the fee:

https://txptr.goodswp.com/

School taxes, are not included.

Thanks Doc. I have 2 rentals and a home. All in the DFW metroplex. I may need help this year.

On my 133 acres South of Bowie, I have a wildlife exemption that makes it possible to own the place without running cattle.

Did you purchase the house recently?

Very beginning of 2020. They gave me a jump last year to match sales price, but this year almost doubled the value. I've already filled out a protest form and will be dropping it off with the appraisal done in January of this year for the refi

They will probably match the refi appraisal then. I did a refi in Dec and my appraisal is $250k more than city appraisal. I have no leg to stand on to protest. Every property is different though. New houses in my hood are $1.2+. 10 years ago a lot or smaller house was $250k.

I am so glad Texas has the State Lottery to help make school taxes cheaper.

RR, I’ve wondered about that but having once, a long time ago, been in politics, I’m skeptical.

It was easy in Rockwall County before they changed it to the 3 jerks. One year I walked out and slammed the door when they told the appraiser to review the appraisal on my neighbors house because it was under valued. When i just met with the appraiser I always got a counter offer.

Yep that BS still irritates me!

What county/city are you located in? Just curious about likelihood of them taking the refi appraisal in my case without a struggle or if I should do more leg work

Mine was tounge and check, The Lottery was a con game to make more money for Texas, not the taxpayer, we all got bent over on the lottery promise.

Yep, Me too.

I'll be glad when people are willing to pay their fair share.

troll!

If your so concerned then how about you just pay extra every month,

Another azz whooping is us knuckleheads living in Dallas County having to pay the Parkland hospital tax for all of the uninsured folks across the DFW area and beyond

It's painful to look at the itemization on the tax statement for Parkland, a hospital that nobody in my family has ever stepped foot in. Same goes for Dallas County Community Colleges, but at least some of those students are doing something to better themselves.

TLew, I am in Dallas county. An appraisal for a refi or purchase takes similar house sales in past few months to get to their number. If your loan apparaisal is less than the district price it should be good evidence since you can show them comps and condition of your house.

I did the online protest couple years ago and they took $1,000 off the appraised value as a joke apparently. My house is confusing though. Built in 1947 but completely gutted and remodeled and added on so I have been flying under the radar until now.

You are the epitome of a Boomer.

Ill bet you still think the 1911 is the best pistol ever made. Between income and property taxes i know I am paying more than 35% of what I make. That is more than a fair share. That is robbery.

Mine is 2100 sq. 3/2/2. Large lot because we are on septic system. Built in 2006.

The listing - PERFECT WALKABILITY LOCATION to all of Downtown...restaurants, grocery, Brauntex Theatre, churches, schools, shops, pubs and bars...an easy walk! Urban living at its best! This 1925 charmer with an extra deep lot has never been updated...add on a master suite, redo the kitchen, add garage, and best of all LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. Original hardwood flooring (possibly hardwood under linoleum in kitchen). Original cast iron free standing tub. . . . . This block has recently had some beautiful remodels as you'll note when you drive Magazine Street. Downtown NB continues to be one of the most desirable locations for quality of life.

Particulars - 97 years old. Good looking little place with desirable curb appeal. Two BR one bath and less than 1,200 SF. No garage. You could move in right away, but note the words in the listing ". . .has never been updated . . "

Went on the market for $385,000. The very next morning, the owners refused a a $395,000 cash offer with a 24 hour time limit. Accepted a contract for $425,000 that week. Closing set for next week. Contracted purchasers now presented with a written offer to sell the same day for $455,000.

The last few years Rockwall County has played the game of increasing the lot value. It makes it harder to protest. 2 out of last 3 years I have protested based on neighbors values. First year they said the comparable house was valued too low. Last year my neighbors lot while 1.6 acres versus my 1.1 was valued lower. They said the neighbor protested the year before and was frozen for 2 years. I responded with if their value is fair then mine is too high comparatively. There is no reasoning with the 3 jerks on the appraisal board in Rockwall County.

My one and only in-person protest some years ago in Tarrant County really soured me. I had photos and such of quite a few things, but one "lady" was a real bitch the entire time. She wouldn't even look at the pics. All she kept saying was "but you have a pool". Over and over! It's a small 16k gallon that costs more to maintain than the damn thing is worth. She actually wanted to raise my rate! It got a little heated with our back and forth. The other folks were very nice and the older gentleman finally knocked off $10k. Now I just do it online. Not worth going to jail over!

Oklahoma. But you missed low prices 2 years ago

"Pay your fair share"

Consider the source!

My buddy owns a couple acres and a house that is 1800 sq ft older home in Rockwall county ,Royse City his appraisal was $175,000 last year got his new appraisal today it is at $514,000.

WOW!

No telling what the HudMcMansion is worth....
Just hung up with a friend thats just started looking in Sequin for house. I assume its crazy high there like everything else close to 35 from SA to Georgetown...?

And if you were comparing your value to a similar house that had a pool while you did not they would say a pool does not add much value. I have been down that road.

I just found last years email where I protested their $41k increase. They accepted my online offer and only raised it $20k. Guess I'll shoot for $20k again this year since they're proposing $43k.

We got ours yesterday, Tarrant County, for home and 2 rent houses. Not near as bad as I expected. I don’t think it’s worth protesting.

Now waiting on Montague County for 133 acres there.
With the whole world relocating to Texas, all wanting their own ranch, property values there are getting ridiculous.

we just got our appraisal and our ag exempt land went up over 10k per acre in evaluation from last year

Buddy's operation completed a new build fire station 19 months ago for 5.2 million. Just bid the exact same plan and turned it in yesterday - 10.1 million.

You should have beat the chit out of her. No excuse for treating taxpayers that way.

i'm locked

Just increased a home's rebuild cost from $850,000 to $1,400,000 and it is deserving of such.

This is cray cray - having an extremely difficult time attempting to stay abreast of this.

How much is the premium on something like that? I'm probably underinsured.

And now property taxes are going to be killing everyone. Mine valuation went up 44% from last year!!

Sell it

It’s out of control.