There's an area next to Rice Military, I think Crestwood. I lived in a dirt-cheap-for-the-area apartment next to the neighborhood. Every new built back then, two years ago, was $500k+ with some running $800k+. At those prices, they are going to be sitting on the market for a few years.
Housing is a lagging indicator. First oil prices drop. Then companies stop hiring. Then companies start firing. <----here is where we are. Lag where house prices are still OK and builders are still building. Then housing starts slow down. Then housing prices starts falling. Then builders stop building. *Somewhere in here is where oil prices start going back up. Home prices slow decline. Home prices bottom out. Oil companies start projects back up. Oil companies start hiring. People start moving back. Houses start selling. Home prices starting going back up. Builders start building again. It's the Houston circle of life. Each one of those things takes 3 to 9 months at least.
There are new schools but this is north of i10 so it doesn't stack up with what people get on the south of i10. The area is going through gentrification. Luckily, my uncle lives in Piney Point so we're just gonna use his address when my 3 year old is ready for Kindergarten.
Home prices in Austin seem to be either holding steady, or still rising. I think I read somewhere recently that it's the fastest growing "large" city in the country. We've seen booms and busts here since 1980, so another bust wouldn't shock me. Our place in Southwest Austin is paid for, thank goodness, and we have no plans to move. I'm considering buying a rental property if prices take a significant dip, but no sign of that yet. Houston, sadly (because of the huge dip in oil prices), is still closely tied to the oil and gas industry and will remain so for the foreseeable future, in my humble opinion. It's just part of the cycle of life in H-Town, to paraphrase Supermac 34. Prices will go up and go up one hell of a lot, but it could take a long while, or take a war. Iran's oil and gas going back on the global market is going to keep prices depressed, even if SA cuts back production, in my opinion. Still, a Saudi production cutback would be a big deal. No sign of that anytime soon.
Houston has little going for it. A hideous city due to no zonal planning. Terrible traffic almost everywhere. Terrible public transport. The main industry (oil) is collapsing. Low paying jobs. Mediocre sports teams (Rockets + Texans) and so on. And now a collapsing housing market as well.
Good, now tell that to everyone else so they'll stop moving here, making the job market ultra competitive and inflating housing prices.
I wish I made as much as I would in Houston. In reality, if I moved to Houston, my family income, between my wife and myself, would probably increase between 15-40k. Housing prices are better there, than where I am (great lakes region...near wife's family), and there's lower property taxes, to boot.
We invested more in refining than any other big city and that downstream demand doesn't diminish, and now all the liquids from Eagleford are being piped into the ship channel for trade elsewhere. Also the supermajors have all diversified over the last twenty-five years into gas trading and deregulated power marketing. Separately all the pipeline majors have created some nationwide behemoths that despite building new assets in Marcellus and Bakken all seem to based out of Houston. I guess growing up in Baytown and only having been in the city for college, I never appreciated the zoning issue. Those process operator jobs, if you can get one, are probably the best compensation for non-college grads and minorities anywhere.
We all know the growth is slowing down and will get worse. That's obvious. But it will pick back up within a few years once oil rebounds, and Houston will continue to be a career move destination just like it has been up until the last year (and even during the recession to some extent). Good jobs, cost of living, affordable housing (for now), low taxes, warm weather...all make for a good city to live in.
