[quote=FlyerInHi]BG, maybe you should drive your old and well maintained Lexus to Houston.
Houston is cheaper than CA because they have plenty is of land and supply. We restrict supply though zoning and that is not a market based way of fulfilling housing needs. The governmen restricts private supply and doesn’t compensate in public housing.
In Houston, inside the loop (yes close to downtown), there are very nice neighboods. And the interpresed condos are luxury condo on “bucolic” tree lined street.
The new gated communities are outside the second loop, far from everything.[/quote]LOL, I haven’t been to Houston (and the lower TX gulf cities and towns) in almost 33 years (when there was only ONE loop around Houston)! I’ve lost quite a few of my peeps to death (>2 dozen) but have a big family on both sides. Nearly all of them are now in the Dallas area, OK and AR. OK has the same well-established, heavily-treed brick neighborhoods as Houston does … yeah, with matching brick mailboxes on the curbs 🙂 A ~2500 sf light cosmetic fixer ranch home (4-7 miles from dtn OKC or Tulsa) would cost me $150-$175K and maybe even less now that Big Oil is finding itself having to lay off workers. I have a bunch of concerns about “retiring” there, most of them not having anything to do with housing … which is a really no-brainer for a longtime homeowner relocating from SD County, CA.
CA doesn’t need to “fulfill housing needs” of newcomers. Not only is our water supply finite, we already have over 39M people (as opposed to TX’s ~27.5M). TX has a larger land mass than CA which is nearly ALL FLAT and nearly ALL buildable (save for its mostly narrow flood plains and small ecological and wetland preserves). Newcomers to CA can buy/rent what’s on offer in their area of choice or decide not to move here. End of story.
