Average home price now $500,000?

Not everyone needs a college education.I think the whole idea of a college education is oversold. The country is screaming for skilled craftsmen ( and women). Just watch This Old House.

Not everyone needs a college education.I think the whole idea of a college education is oversold. The country is screaming for skilled craftsmen ( and women). Just watch This Old House. Originally Posted by stikiwikit

Your first sentence is 100% correct. The second sentence not so much.

A college education opens doors that someone without a college education cannot get through. Prestigious companies come to college campuses to recruit the graduates. Certainly a non-college graduate can submit a resume to a company but that is the more difficult route.

Your education pathway pretty much determines your economic prospects.

A bachelor’s degree holder earns a median of $2.8 million — 75% more than if they had only a high school diploma — although when broken down by gender, women with a BA have median lifetime earnings of $2.4 million, compared to $3.3 million for men.

Those with a master’s degree earn a median of $3.2 million over their lifetimes, while doctoral degree holders earn $4 million and professional degree holders earn $4.7 million.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/13/more...on%20for%20men.

Obviously there are factors other than income to take into account when deciding on a career. Many people without a college degree have made a lot of money.

Your first sentence is 100% correct. The second sentence not so much.

A college education opens doors that someone without a college education cannot get through. Prestigious companies come to college campuses to recruit the graduates. Certainly a non-college graduate can submit a resume to a company but that is the more difficult route.

Your education pathway pretty much determines your economic prospects.

A bachelor’s degree holder earns a median of $2.8 million — 75% more than if they had only a high school diploma — although when broken down by gender, women with a BA have median lifetime earnings of $2.4 million, compared to $3.3 million for men.

Those with a master’s degree earn a median of $3.2 million over their lifetimes, while doctoral degree holders earn $4 million and professional degree holders earn $4.7 million.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/13/more...on%20for%20men.

Obviously there are factors other than income to take into account when deciding on a career. Many people without a college degree have made a lot of
money. Originally Posted by SpeedRacerXXX

Yes. Many people without college degree have made a ton of money, but one would have to be really skilled at the craft. Also to consider. When one is working for corporate world with said college degree you also get free health benefits options and Roth/traditional 401k and companies will even have matching % of putting into your investment account. This is essentially free money one also gets. Someone who doesn’t have a degree or has these opportunities has to work harder or put own research and investment for their future. Like opening their own IRA and pay for the benefits.

On the topic of housing. Someone with college degree has better chances of being able to buy a house (depending on degree also). Whereas a craftsperson (unless real good one) would be renting for life till they can’t afford the rent as is the case of Austin right now. This also applies to some people with degrees but at least they have higher chances.

Many people without a college degree have made a lot of money. Originally Posted by SpeedRacerXXX

Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, ...

According to today's AAS the MEDIAN home price in Austin is just short of 500K.


This is a city for rich people anymore.

According to today's AAS the MEDIAN home price in Austin is just short of 500K.


This is a city for rich people anymore. Originally Posted by stikiwikit

Yes. Apparently home evaluations went up by 40 - 50% this year? Don’t quote me on that but it’s what I was told by a relative recently. That’s pretty high. Then I check Zillow for houses being sold around where I live and only 4 houses. I don’t live in what I consider high ritzy area but damn if a house not properly maintained on the outside is estimated to be $720k! That was outrageous. The photos I saw from the outside of the house, damn needs a lot on the outside. The inside is nice sure. The other houses were selling for $430k +.

Ironically, even at $500K, many of those folks feel it's still a bargain. Some even go ahead and purchase 2 and rent one out. Originally Posted by Why_Yes_I_Do

Absolutely. Dated a civvie who moved recently to the area from the Pacific Northwest. She thought she got a bargain by paying "just" 50K over asking. As long as those people exist, save a major economic downturn that affects everyone across all levels of income/wealth, this upward pressure on prices isn't going away anytime soon.

Right now there is a lack of houses on the market which is driving up the cost dramatically. Usually at this time I see several houses in and around my neighborhood up for sale. Today very few. We are entering the time of the year when people with families start actively looking for homes since they want to move during the summer months.

That, coupled with the Austin area continuing to have a robust job market with many high-paying jobs moving here, is inflating home prices.

On or around March 31, updated home valuations will be sent out by the appraisal districts. Should be interesting to see.

So I came back to this topic to see how it’s going while I got some pink wet stuff, I think I want more so I’m going back to the Amp and independent section I need more

I know many people who have cashed in with life changing money. I haven't yet because Im far from retirement but my house in Bouldin is worth 6 times more than when I bought it 12 years ago. A guy I met last week has a house he paid 100k and now its worth 1.2 million You gotta love that. Taxes suck but I don't have a mortgage so its very manageable. On top of that there is so much money and so many opportunity in this city that to be able to live comfortably and not have to stress out. I guarantee that all the whiny crybabies wouldn't sell their home for less than the max if they had one.

As of February 2022, the median home price in Austin RR MSA was $499,995, the mean price was $606,252.

The inventory of houses, measured in months, was 0.4. A healthy inventory of houses is 6 months!!! Why under supplied. This is for existing homes. New home builders are building as fast as they can, but face labor and supply chain issues.

As of February 2022, the median home price in Austin RR MSA was $499,995, the mean price was $606,252... Originally Posted by daytime

My numbers indicate that is more like tax assessed valuations or previous sales or something. I just did a quick research for someone that wants to buy a home in the area via Zillow.

I tried a search for homes with a cap of $300K in RR, looking at only houses and lots in the criteria. There are exactly four for sale currently, all are vacant lots. Similar for Hutto Texas America, if you ignore manufactured houses that are not on a lot.

So I bumped it to $400K and found exactly 2 homes, plus the above lots. One remodeled house seems priced a bit low in the Chandler Creek area. Guessing they are going the bidding war route. The other was a fixer.

Feels like $400K in RR is the rock bottom end ATM. At that, they are mainly fixers.

My answer back to them is that $450K-500K (~9 houses) is the real bottom price for a house in RR ATM.

On a side note: There may be some potential buying opportunities coming up for some severely damaged homes around the Kensington Place area and others that recently got wiped by the tornadoes. Clearly, those would be some heavy duty fixers though.

My answer back to them is that $450K-500K (~9 houses) is the real bottom price for a house in RR ATM. Originally Posted by Why_Yes_I_Do

In RR and certain ATX suburbs, many houses are getting bid up to over 50-100k over list price - so the 500k floor is probably closer to 600k... If I were going to buy I would rather do a new build.



This is a seller's market and I think renting makes sense for the next year or so to let the market settle down. I could be completely wrong (especially due to inflation). I just don't think it makes sense to compete with wall street and 100 other people for the same shitty house that just doubled in price over the last two years. It seems more sensible to wait for market conditions to improve for buyers before becoming a buyer.



As more single family homes get bought up to be rented out, there will be an oversupply of rentals on the market. The price competition will bring rent prices down but I'm not sure how that will necessarily affect sales prices. Average rent going down tends to make rental properties less attractive from an investment point of view. These are some strange and uncertain times in the economy.

Please take into consideration the following economic factors. These are guideposts and also should not be taken as gospel.

The producers price index, i.e. the costs that producers have to buy goods and turn it into a finished product has risen close to 10% the past year.

The consumer price index has also risen by ~9%.

As they are both markers they don't account for certain things like food or material and labor costs. Like a can corn jumping from 48 cents to 78 cents. So it may be higher than what is officially being reported.

These are uncertain times, and it is important to be prepared as best as you can when another shock hits the system.

True, I did not add in the "bid-up" rate, which varies on exact area and quality of the joint. I was looking to see where the floor is. The bid-up seems to be increasing. But great point on who you are bidding against these days. It's a big bag of big money entities, as well as average Joes.

So.. ya wanna talk about those rental rates? Probably not. A reasonable 3 bd, 2 bath home around 1,300 sq ft? --> $2,100. What if you only want to spend $1,300 p/month? --> 1, maybe 2 bed, 1 bath in an apartment complex.

Ahhh, The ever vaunted new build. Do not be surprised to hear about a ~ 12 month lead time to get one or to maybe get put on a wait list. It will likely have an "escalation clause", which says something along the lines of: if costs go up during construction - so does your contract price. Youch!

Do bear in mind, people here and elsewhere see the area as the next Silicon valley and are flocking here in droves still. From the investment point of view: That was the gist of the question I was talking about in the previous post -- someone hoping they could purchase a small house cheap and quickly.

You are spot on as to not knowing which shoe may drop next to shock the system. My gut says a really, really ugly shock will have to happen for rental rates to decline in the next few years - which would likely equally impact new home prices. Pick your poison, but yeah it's shocking. But wait! There's more... Don't forget mortgage and interest rates are slipping upwards.

Total conundrum. This is why you DO NOT EVER shutdown a humming economy. Shock happens.

In RR and certain ATX suburbs, many houses are getting bid up to over 50-100k over list price - so the 500k floor is probably closer to 600k... If I were going to buy I would rather do a new build.



This is a seller's market and I think renting makes sense for the next year or so to let the market settle down. I could be completely wrong (especially due to inflation). I just don't think it makes sense to compete with wall street and 100 other people for the same shitty house that just doubled in price over the last two years. It seems more sensible to wait for market conditions to improve for buyers before becoming a buyer.



As more single family homes get bought up to be rented out, there will be an oversupply of rentals on the market. The price competition will bring rent prices down but I'm not sure how that will necessarily affect sales prices. Average rent going down tends to make rental properties less attractive from an investment point of view. These are some strange and uncertain times in the economy. Originally Posted by mehsterj