Why is Texas dirt cheap compared to California for real estate?

[bsrsharma]

Here in People’s Republic of Portland, Oregon, homes are small boxes vertically piled up like rabbit hutches on tiny lots. Priced high, almost SD prices. What do people do with all the land? Grow hay & grass seeds. Truly weird land use policies. Many middle class buyers buy across the river in Washington state and commute, choking the bridges. I came here on a job transfer; otherwise not worth moving to. You may not like the rain too.

[Daniel]

Ummm, Portland… Remember another paper, think it was called “Debunking Portland: The City That Doesn’t Work”. No kidding, this was the title. Maybe I read too much…

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

I think “what the market can bear” also has an effect.

I gotta agree with bsrsharma on this one.

It SUPPLY and DEMAND
All these characteristics(weather, job opportunities, recreation, etc) are simply factors which are considered by people that ultimately end up as DEMAND. The zoning, amount of available land, cost of construction labor, etc affect SUPPLY. In the end it’s simply supply vs demand. There are simply more people who are willing to pay more to live in California than Texas when all these factors are rolled together and as a whole people “vote” with their decisions on where to live.

[mixxalot]

Jobs and Real Estate

Considering that there are just as many tech jobs in Austin and Dallas as San Diego the real estate makes sense for Texas considering salaries as same. SO.. if prices drop in San Diego over next 1-2 years then I will buy in San Diego… otherwise Texas looks like the best bet for my dollars.

[rb_engineer]

What do people mean when they call someone a troll? What is the origin of this term? Sorry, I’m ignorant…

[rb_engineer]

OK. Found it on wikipedia…

[temeculaguy]

I think all the people that want to move to Texas should go there and enjoy all of the things that is has to offer. I think all the people that live there and love it should stay there and not investigate property prices in So Cal since they would never wan’t to live here. I think you should take some freinds and relatives with you. I was born here, may parents were born here, I lack the courage to venture out in the world and prefer to stay with what I’ve always known. I also wan’t you off my freeways, out of my parking spots and jacking up my housing costs. I didn’t invite anyone to come here, yet they do. Why do people pay more to live here when everything is better somewhere else you ask? Since you don’t want to accept the logical answer, because it’s better, then maybe it’s because they are ill informed, maybe it’s because I’m here and I read “the secret” and have mastered the laws of attraction so they all wan’t to be near me.

People complain about Starbucks and how little coffee shops or am/pm coffee is better, people like it so they get it and will pay and wai in line for it, just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean they are all crazy, maybe you are. Why does it cost more to vacation in Hawaii than Mexico, they are both fun but Hawaii is better, therefore the invisible hand of economics makes it cost more. If Mexico was better, Hawaii would be cheaper. This isn’t even econ 101, this goes back to trading baseball cards, picking teams on the playground or dividing up the plastic army men, better costs more and goes in the early rounds, sorry. I always thought the bazooka man was overated too, but he always went in the first round, you could bank on it.

[bsrsharma]

all the people that want to move to Texas….

Stop your wagons! I saw the link lindismith posted and found Hamilton County, Indiana, (near Indianapolis) is a nice place. Income is 83K, Houses cost 213K.

{now, that may stop the debate between CA & TX}

Thinking of leaving California? Read this first!

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,877985-1,00.html

That was written 35 years back!

[NotCranky]

BSR one if the neater things I have done was to sail up the river for the rose festival. The navy ship was big enough to necessitate the opening of the bridges. It seemed every one was engineered to operate in a unique way. Very cool. Enjoyed all my visits there and further north. The rain was a bummer for sure but it probably creates clean air? I live in the hills in SD county with views to the ocean, I mean smog.

[NotCranky]

Alex says; “There is no HOLLYWOOD in texas or asians!!!!!!”

Rusticos says, No seas rascista Alejandro!

[davidt1]

I have been considering a move from CA. Houston has entered my mind, but the high property there taxes make me think twice. Some folks will be quick to say, “but we don’t have income tax.” Big deal. Your income might go down, but property taxes don’t go down. You might lose your job one day. You might make less money one day. Whether you make 100K a year or 0K a year, you still have that high property tax to pay.

[bsrsharma]

Rustico, Yes; though people make fun of P.R. of PDX, there is good spirit of community here with things like rose festival. Air is cleaner too. There is good public transport (MAX light rail). But the roads are under maintained for the wet & colder weather here. But the most puzzling aspect is the local governments’ iron hand on land use policy. The tri-county area (Multnomah/Washington/Clackamas) are extremely stingy with building permits and that has caused a lot of ugly “vertical” growth – like 2000sqft homes on 4000sqft lots. Some of the newer developments remind me of Tokyo. This in a place where you drive 20 miles out of town and it is all empty. They don’t even grow anything valuable (like in California). A popular T-shirt sold here has the slogan “Keep Oregon Weird”.

[lindismith]

I have friends who want to move to Portland. Is there a good Piggington-type site for them?

[bsrsharma]

Not really. This place is a year behind San Diego in the cycle. And the real estate market is different in so many ways. The land use policies I mentioned cause market distortions and prevents normal price adjustment.
People spout this weird argument a lot – we are not California! (meaning we don’t have such extremes. Not True. For Oregon market, the bubble is very real)

[cindy]

bsrsharma-
are the prime areas in portland being hit hard as well? we are moving to portland for my husband’s job and have just been trying to get a feel for the market up there. from looking at homes online, seems that there are a lot of vacant listings in the west hills and other nice city of portland areas that have recently been beautifully remodeled. and a lot of the same homes i see for sale are also listed on craigs list for rent, at much less than it would cost to own the same house. we are comfortable sepdning about $700k eventually and it seems like you can get a really great house for that, just minutes from downtown. i realize that that still is a lot of money, but when you get used to ca prices it seems cheap.

[Author]

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