California-style real estate appreciation in brush country

[REWahoo]

Where is that area that they advertise on TV they say Texas hill country homes ( shells ) and 2 acres of land 120 K ....or am I dreaming ...........

Maybe you are. I've never seen anything like that advertised.

 

[RobLJ]

Reno growth

We bought in Reno (moved from Houston) 3 years ago, and--if you can believe the RE sites, our house has gone up almost 45% in value in 3 years.

Reno is becoming a manufacturing mecca, in addition to the shipping/wearhouse and tourism/casinos. And a lot of retired Californians apparently are moving here as well (not as many Texans).

Stay Away!

 

[Big_Hitter]

We bought in Reno (moved from Houston) 3 years ago, and--if you can believe the RE sites, our house has gone up almost 45% in value in 3 years.

Reno is becoming a manufacturing mecca, in addition to the shipping/wearhouse and tourism/casinos. And a lot of retired Californians apparently are moving here as well (not as many Texans).

Stay Away!

heard that about reno - tesla has a plant there now?

 

[Teacher Terry]

Rob, I moved here 20 years ago and it is so different. Apple has a data center here too. Yes Tesla is here too. Californians have been moving in the whole time I lived here.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Rob, there is housing shortage with only 1 month worth of houses on the market. They quit building during the recession. We live in a 1950 ranch in the old northwest an dour house is worth 340k at 1400 sq ft. Only makes sense to sell if you are leaving town.

 

[NW-Bound]

... I am hearing that Medina lake is getting low again...although not as bad as it was a few years ago, when it was less than "5% full". I always thought the way they reported it was odd...I wouldn't say "5% full", I would say "EMPTY". ...

5% full? 95% empty? Which sounds worse?

I dunno. Equally bad to me.

 

[Avalon]

What's unusual (to me) about how the area has developed is the fact the property right around the lake has seen only a small fraction of the development the surrounding acreage (those former ranches) has seen. Much of the property right around the lake is junky. I think that's due to a couple of reasons.

Since the lake's purpose is for irrigation, the lake level fluctuates dramatically. There is no minimum level below which they stop using the lake water for crops. This devalues lakefront property as the shoreline can, in some shallow areas, vary from 100 feet from your lakeside house to several hundred yards away during the year.

The lake was created prior to WWI and the original developers sold hundreds of unrestricted small lots on and around the lake. Roads and other infrastructure was never put in place to support developing these small lots, so much of what has been built is old, small and of questionable quality.

Thanks. Much of that is history I never knew.
I've only been near the lake a couple of times. We would load up and go help out at a place just south of what I think is called English Crossing now. In those days things were named by landmarks and such. English Crossing was Gabriels bridge back then. Gabriel owned the place south of Red Bluff and would look after our cattle (when we couldn't cross due to flooding) in pens just south of that crossing.

I see from google maps that a few names stayed the same. Wonder Hole was always called that and I think named by my grandfather. It was a unique place. When everything else dried up, it always had clear cool (and very deep) water. We never swam in it believe it or not. Supposedly three sisters drowned there in the 30s or 40s when a whirlpool pulled them under. Probably a wives tale, but kept us kids out of it.

Above wonder hole on the east side Pipe Creek was Indian flats. A football sized flat with a dozen or so old Indian mounds. Lots of arrow heads and flint workings were dug up over the years. I see there are houses built on that location now.

Much of what we did as kids was treat livestock due to the screwworm epidemic. Before A&M got that under control, we had to bring everything in for inspection and treatment often. Treatment at that time consisted of spray cans of a purple "medicine' that killed the pockets of worms. We learned the value of good horses and especially the value of a pair of good herding border collies. We had cattle and goats on the Red Bluff place, and cattle on the home place which was on an unnamed road then, but I believe called Rohrbuch Rd now. The old brick building on 16 across from our cattle guard was Lewis's Store back than.

Lots of memories of the Medina river on the home place, but enough rambling for now.......

 

[brucethebroker]

I'm curious if the price appreciation will make it's way to South Padre Island. I've owned a condo there for about 7 years and prices don't seem like they've changed at all.

I have noticed that in many markets, outside of the big, coastal cities, condos seem to lag when housing prices jump up. We watch the gulf coastal area of FL pretty close. The single fam. home prices have jumped back to near peak 2006 levels, but the condos are still lagging.

 

[brucethebroker]

Many areas of the USA still have not gotten back to pre-market crash levels of building of new homes. That has caused a real shortage-8 to 10 years of little construction.

Many younger buyers do not want a mid-century, or older home, and cannot find a newer one, since so few exist. That is what is happening in the Midwest, anyway. When you add the panic of rising mortgage rates.....(yeah, I know, anything under 9% is a gift, right??)

 

[brucethebroker]

Only makes sense to sell if you are leaving town.

Or sell, rent a place for a couple of years, and hope to buy back when the market cools down, or crashes.

 

[REWahoo]

Avalon, enjoyed hearing about the history of the Red Bluff area.

 

[ncbill]

I have noticed that in many markets, outside of the big, coastal cities, condos seem to lag when housing prices jump up. We watch the gulf coastal area of FL pretty close. The single fam. home prices have jumped back to near peak 2006 levels, but the condos are still lagging.

+1

Got my town-home's tax value lowered by ~15% in last year's re-valuation based on comps.

 

[braumeister]

I have noticed that in many markets, outside of the big, coastal cities, condos seem to lag when housing prices jump up.

I've noticed the same thing.
Fortunately, we are extremely happy with our condo, as are all the other owners (just 17 units, and the majority of owners have been here for nearly 20 years). As one of my neighbors puts it, "the only way I'm leaving here is with a toe tag attached."

 

[Avalon]

Avalon, enjoyed hearing about the history of the Red Bluff area.

No problem.
Something else that may interest you (and I believe you may have been in a position to already know this) is that Vietnamese pilots were being trained at the AFBs in San Antonia. If my memory is correct I was around them in the early to mid 60s.
The ranchers who were vets hosted these young guys for some R&R fairly regularly. Usually several of them for a day or so to get away and relax. We'd take them fishing or swimming on the Medina, feed them and just generally let them have fun.
Their English was pretty rough, but they tried to pick up what they could. My grandmother always referred to my grandfather as "dad". Before long, these guys were calling my grandad 'daddy'. I could tell he wasn't real fond of that. I have old photos of some of those guys. Always wondered what their future was like.

Two other things that come to mind. The training flights out of the SA AFBs would rattle windows and dishes regularly. Low fast passes over the hill country were common.
And SA was a long way off back then. Quit a drive. Helotes at the time consisted of a stone post office and feed store.

 

[Katsmeow]

We just bought a house in the DFW area (for those of you in the area -- it is in Colleyville) and the market is insane. I found this out when we started thinking about moving there and I researched it. At the time, I thought that only the DFW market was insane (and Austin was a bit overheated) but with ReWahoo's report and my experience just selling in Montgomery County (Tx) I think maybe the Texas market in general may be getting hot.

We owned a house in an acreage subdivision in Montgomery County (a few miles south of Lake Conroe). That subdivision had seemingly cooled off a bit in the last half of last year. I was expecting it to take 2 to 6 month to sell my house. All houses in the subdivision were on an acre lot. It was a nice gated subdivision. But, what I didn't like about it was how far it took to drive anywhere. 20 minutes to the grocery store, that kind of thing. Most restaurants at least half an hour away. I just felt like I was constantly driving. The point being that for a lot of people they might balk at the location in terms of closeness to amentities.

I did have an advantage in that our house was a one story smaller house (about 3k square feet) in a subdivision with a lot of huge houses. So I felt it would sell faster than the behemoths. But I still thought it would take awhile. We started doing work to get ready to sell. I actually thought the price that the agent had suggested was a little on the high side but decided OK. While we were still repainting the house, we were asked to show it to a couple who had just sold their house. They came in and made an immediate full price offer and we closed 2 weeks later. I did notice that other similar houses in the subdivision were selling very quickly. The market just seemed much hotter than it had been last year.

Of course, it was nothing compared to the market in NE Tarrant County which is insane. We ended up spending about $55 a square foot to buy a house that is 20 years older than the house we sold. It is a nice house (although not as nice as what we had) and does have a pool/spa and has had a lot of updates. But -- it is a house that is a little over 30 years old.

We bought the house before it was officially on MLS and even then had to beat out two other offers. And, we had to pay well above listing price and it didn't appraise for the selling price. But, that was what was necessary to buy an updated house in a good location.

And, that was the thing. The location is wonderful. I've gone from driving 20 minutes to a grocery store to having 3 within 5 minutes away. We used to routinely drive 30 minutes to go out to eat. With this house, there are so many places close by that driving 15 minutes will seem like a trek...

 

[meierlde]

Just for grins I looked at the median home value for Needles and Blythe Ca and they are not out of line with the rest of the country, but then you no longer have the climate advantage of the coast and there are not a lot of jobs and most pay poorly. No particular scenery either. Interesting that Yreka does show a 15% increase yoy in median house price. but is only at 172k right now. But then the median income in Yreka is about 28k so few folks there can afford homes anyway.

 

[REWahoo]

Something else that may interest you (and I believe you may have been in a position to already know this) is that Vietnamese pilots were being trained at the AFBs in San Antonia. If my memory is correct I was around them in the early to mid 60s. ...Their English was pretty rough...

Had to laugh. We had one Vietnamese in our class when I went through flight training in the early 70's (at an AFB outside Texas) and his lack of English language proficiency made his radio conversations with air traffic controllers very interesting.

Always wondered what happened to him...

The training flights out of the SA AFBs would rattle windows and dishes regularly. Low fast passes over the hill country were common.

No more low passes but the airspace above the lake area is still used as an Air Force training area for aerobatics. The T-6 II turboprop trainers make a far different sound than the T-37s we flew. When they are flying you'd think a WWII dogfight is going on above my house.

 

[REWahoo]

We ended up spending about $55 a square foot to buy a house...

Did you mean $155 ?

 

[Katsmeow]

Did you mean $155 ?

No I mistyped that. We spent $55 more a square foot to buy a house 20 years older on a .3 acre lot than what we sold our house for in Montgomery County that was 1 acre.

 

[Huston55]

Had to laugh. We had one Vietnamese in our class when I went through flight training in the early 70's (at an AFB outside Texas) and his lack of English language proficiency made his radio conversations with air traffic controllers very interesting.

Always wondered what happened to him...



No more low passes but the airspace above the lake area is still used as an Air Force training area for aerobatics. The T-6 II turboprop trainers make a far different sound than the T-37s we flew. When they are flying you'd think a WWII dogfight is going on above my house.

Good ole “Tweets.”

 

[NW-Bound]

You don't have a California-style RE market until a median household making $100K/year could not afford an apartment with a median rent of $4400/month. And that was in 2016, according to the PBS piece below.

In the same video, they described a programmer working at Google who decided to live in a box van to save money. He made $175K.

 

[FI_RElater]

indeed - bend is awesome

You must not have seen the local bumper sticker: “Bend Sucks, Don’t Move Here”

we’re retired north of there , having unobstructed views from Bachelor to past Jefferson- - fortunately we bought a few years ago as you can’t find that with acreage at any decent price now. the locals can’t really afford to buy and there’s nothing to rent (less than 1% availability for rental) and the appreciation in the last couple of years is at least 40%

(and recently some Cali companies have started trying to relocate out here... cheaper than there and more appealing to their target workers... lots of fun things to do (if you have the coin))

 

[Dawg52]

I'm getting Mississippi style appreciation where I live. Nada....nothing. Maybe that's because I live in Mississippi. I did get a bargain on my house when I bought it 3 years ago. Plan to stay here long term so doesn't really matter if it goes up. Property values at my condo in Orange Beach have gone up nicely tho.

 

[REWahoo]

Good ole “Tweets.”

AKA the 6,000 lb dog whistle...

 

[Teacher Terry]

An article in today’s paper said you need more than 80k income/year here to be able to buy a home when the average family makes 46k/year. Very sad.