I agree that some of the responses have been a little harsh, but if you had taken the time to read our content here you would realize that if we think a house like your’s would be overpriced here then there’s no question as to what we think about that price in your town.
Here’s a serious question that I often ask of appraisers all across the nation:
What percentage of price appreciation would you attribute to imported equity (from Calif, New York, Florida or wherever) and how much is attributable to local employment enabling local move-ups? ‘Cause the word I get from appraisers in various areas is that equity flight from the metro areas is fueling most of the increases in the more outlying areas.
Without imported money initiating the increases and competing with local money, many of these other areas would have never started into this current upswing. That’s a generalization and I really don’t know how applicable it is to Amarillo, but you might give that some serious thought. It stands to reason that as our pricing declines, so will our exported equity. To that extent it will have some effects on other areas of the nation and some of them will follow us into decline. Regardless of where the money is coming from your stability will ultimately be tied to your local wages – how are local wages doing anyway? Are they also increasing at 14% a year?
BTW, my ex-wife moved to Amarillo back in some years ago with a job change, and bought a little ranchette outside of town for $125,000. When she moved 3 years later she couldn’t sell the place for what she had bought it for even though they had made a number of improvements. It took them almost 2 years to sell at a break-even. Now I realize her place was nothing like this house and that neighborhood was nothing like this neighborhood, but I would also point out that $125,000 is not $650,000. If the lower price ranges got squashed that badly last time around, what makes you think this much higher price range is so stable?
As for quality of life, it all depends on a person’s priorities. If I didn’t have family here, if I didn’t surf (a lot), if my business wasn’t here and if I didn’t hate the desert then I’d probably think Amarillo is a wonderful place to live. Alas, I don’t have the priorities that would allow me to enjoy life in Texas.
