The Briefing Room
State Chapters => Texas => Topic started by: M1078 on June 09, 2016, 12:04:28 pm
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Dallas residents Pat and Cindy Fox wanted a rural retreat with easy urban access. They chose to build in Dripping Springs, a small Texas town that calls itself “the Wedding Capital of Texas.” Here they paid $1 million for 100 acres of land and built a $3 million, modern country home on it.
“You can hear the wind and the birds, and see the stars, but in 30 minutes you can have dinner” in Austin, said Mr. Fox, a 58-year-old a real-estate investor who commutes from Dallas and plans to retire on the property.
The Foxes, who built their home in 2010, are among the Texas Hill Country’s latest wave of settlers, affluent buyers from large metro areas seeking getaways in the countryside. Located in central Texas near Austin and San Antonio, the Hill Country covers about 17 counties across 11 million acres of terrain noted for gnarly live oaks, spring-fed streams and rocky hills.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-texas-hill-country-a-land-rush-for-the-rich-1465396904
The subtitle for this article is "A new wave of settlers has arrived in remote central Texas: affluent buyers seeking luxury getaways on hundreds of acres."
I certainly don't consider Dripping Springs "remote." It's city from the western edge of town until you in to Austin proper. I suppose for WSJ types Central Park is "remote" once you get where the actual grass is.
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Yeah, for a bunch of damn Yankees Dallas probably seems like Montana.
I like the Hill Country, She Who Must Be Obeyed and I are considering moving down around Glen Rose somewhere. I gotta get away from the crush of the Metromess before I die, even if it means moving to Arkansas.
That's a joke, y'all.
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I was going to say, Dripping Springs is practically Austin. I read the rest of the article and saw they included homes in Vanderpool and Uvalde. I live in Medina in Bandera County, true Hill Country.
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Radio ads for this are running up here in Portlandia. They are pushing lots for $59K, not bad if the land is worth developing.
We just got our latest love note from the county assessor, and our lot went from $70K to $94K in one shot. They booted the house up as well, in total the value went up just over 13%. The hell of it is that we could sell it for the tax value plus $50K in less than 30 days...
:beer:
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I grew up in Dripping Springs. It was as close to paradise as you could get back then. I very seldom go visit anymore. I just can't stand seeing the 'burbs and MacMansions built over the beautiful limestone canyons and rolling pastures.
But, the Comanche probably felt the same way not so very long ago.
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I was going to say, Dripping Springs is practically Austin. I read the rest of the article and saw they included homes in Vanderpool and Uvalde. I live in Medina in Bandera County, true Hill Country.
When we moved to Spring Branch 13 years ago we were in the country. Then Bulverde built a Home Depot and HEB Plus, then they built a McDonalds at the edge of our subdivision, then another McDonalds in Bulverde proper, then WalMart opened this spring and brought a Whataburger, Popeyes, and half a dozen other fast food joints with it. The north edge of San Antonio has moved about 5 miles in that time frame too. It might be time to move back to Idaho.
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When we moved to Spring Branch 13 years ago we were in the country. Then Bulverde built a Home Depot and HEB Plus, then they built a McDonalds at the edge of our subdivision, then another McDonalds in Bulverde proper, then WalMart opened this spring and brought a Whataburger, Popeyes, and half a dozen other fast food joints with it. The north edge of San Antonio has moved about 5 miles in that time frame too. It might be time to move back to Idaho.
I hear you, but they've got snow, lots of it, in Idaho. I don't even own a pair of longjohns anymore. Or, those gator things.
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I hear you, but they've got snow, lots of it, in Idaho. I don't even own a pair of longjohns anymore. Or, those gator things.
Yeh but I got a big truck that can go through all that snow now :)
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When we moved to Spring Branch 13 years ago we were in the country. Then Bulverde built a Home Depot and HEB Plus, then they built a McDonalds at the edge of our subdivision, then another McDonalds in Bulverde proper, then WalMart opened this spring and brought a Whataburger, Popeyes, and half a dozen other fast food joints with it. The north edge of San Antonio has moved about 5 miles in that time frame too. It might be time to move back to Idaho.
Whe I went to high school on the north side of SATX, 1604 was still a 2-lane FM road. I've considered moving back since retirement, but the price of housing and sA city and Bexar county property taxes have gone crazy.
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Whe I went to high school on the north side of SATX, 1604 was still a 2-lane FM road. I've considered moving back since retirement, but the price of housing and sA city and Bexar county property taxes have gone crazy.
Comal County is reasonable and a close drive.
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Comal County is reasonable and a close drive.
Oh I know. Just haven't found what I'm looking for yet. Will spend more time looking when I get down there in Nov for 4 months.
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Oh I know. Just haven't found what I'm looking for yet. Will spend more time looking when I get down there in Nov for 4 months.
If you need a mortgage lender my wife specializes in VA and TXVet loans.
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When we moved to Spring Branch 13 years ago we were in the country. Then Bulverde built a Home Depot and HEB Plus, then they built a McDonalds at the edge of our subdivision, then another McDonalds in Bulverde proper, then WalMart opened this spring and brought a Whataburger, Popeyes, and half a dozen other fast food joints with it. The north edge of San Antonio has moved about 5 miles in that time frame too. It might be time to move back to Idaho.
I do not want to leave Texas but I have thought about Idaho. My husband is a San Antonio native and hates cold weather. I was born and raised in Chicago and really dislike the cold, too. What part of Idaho did you live in?
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If you need a mortgage lender my wife specializes in VA and TXVet loans.
Thanks. I've had pretty good luck with USAA getting the lowest rates available. I have considered going to the gulf coast area of Florida or Alabama as property taxes are lower. Alabama is supposed to be the best for retirees.
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I do not want to leave Texas but I have thought about Idaho. My husband is a San Antonio native and hates cold weather. I was born and raised in Chicago and really dislike the cold, too. What part of Idaho did you live in?
I lived in Central and North Idaho. Central, around Idaho County, is very rural and mountainous. It does get cold and a fair amount of snow. I spoke with my father today and he said it was 38 last night. A little farther north, Nez Perce County, is Lewiston. It's on the Snake River where the Snake separates ID and WA. Lewiston is at 500' above sea level and is fairly mild during the winter but can get up in the low 100s during the summer. If they get any snow it's very minimal. Then you get in to North Idaho - Moscow, Couer d'Alene, Sandpoint - more mountainous with harsher winters - especially Sandpoint. Sandpoint big draw is a nice lake for summer activities and a good size ski resort for the winter.
I would avoid Southern Idaho as it's mostly high mountain desert - think High Plains Drifter - and there's not much to stop the wind from blowing the cold in to your house or every cavity of your body. Southern ID is also where the larger cities are so you have to deal with those kind of people :)
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Thanks. I've had pretty good luck with USAA getting the lowest rates available. I have considered going to the gulf coast area of Florida or Alabama as property taxes are lower. Alabama is supposed to be the best for retirees.
The lowest rate isn't always the best deal. Lots of USAA stuff here since it's their headquarters and I hear horror stories all the time of them telling folks they're approved to buy and then when it comes time to close they say "oops, we made a mistake. Sorry you don't qualify." And I'm talking the week they're supposed to close on the house.
You probably don't have any issues like that but they tend to let other things in the process slip through the cracks so take longer to get it done. Obviously I have some biases but still see these things happening.
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The lowest rate isn't always the best deal. Lots of USAA stuff here since it's their headquarters and I hear horror stories all the time of them telling folks they're approved to buy and then when it comes time to close they say "oops, we made a mistake. Sorry you don't qualify." And I'm talking the week they're supposed to close on the house.
You probably don't have any issues like that but they tend to let other things in the process slip through the cracks so take longer to get it done. Obviously I have some biases but still see these things happening.
Maybe being retired field grade gives me a little assurance.
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Comal County is reasonable and a close drive.
Schlitterbahn baby! My favorite place to go........
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Dallas residents Pat and Cindy Fox wanted a rural retreat with easy urban access. They chose to build in Dripping Springs, a small Texas town that calls itself “the Wedding Capital of Texas.” Here they paid $1 million for 100 acres of land and built a $3 million, modern country home on it.
“You can hear the wind and the birds, and see the stars, but in 30 minutes you can have dinner” in Austin, said Mr. Fox, a 58-year-old a real-estate investor who commutes from Dallas and plans to retire on the property.
The Foxes, who built their home in 2010, are among the Texas Hill Country’s latest wave of settlers, affluent buyers from large metro areas seeking getaways in the countryside. Located in central Texas near Austin and San Antonio, the Hill Country covers about 17 counties across 11 million acres of terrain noted for gnarly live oaks, spring-fed streams and rocky hills.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-texas-hill-country-a-land-rush-for-the-rich-1465396904
The subtitle for this article is "A new wave of settlers has arrived in remote central Texas: affluent buyers seeking luxury getaways on hundreds of acres."
I certainly don't consider Dripping Springs "remote." It's city from the western edge of town until you in to Austin proper. I suppose for WSJ types Central Park is "remote" once you get where the actual grass is.
I tried to "like" that area. I took a 28 state tour of the USA last summer, after "eject, eject, eject'ing" from Kalifornia, after living 55 of my 60 years in that wretched, freedom hating state. I avoided the Northeast like a heart attack, and most of the mid-west, because why give up California only to land in Cleveland, Detroit, or anywhere in Massachusetts and Maryland? I liked east Texas, wanted to like Waco (blechhh... to slumy), went to Austin only because my married daughter sharing the trip wanted to see it, and then checked out the famous Texas parking lot...er.. Hill Country. Roads were worse than Caly. Prices, nearly as bad. Ended up returning to Idaho, where we started our trip (well, I didn't count Oregon or Washington state; just more "East Bloc" commie countries to avoid).
What killed it for me in Texas was the 3.2% and higher property tax rates on $400K, 1600 sq foot single family homes. The taxes alone would have been higher than a California mortgage, and there's no chance of ever retiring a property tax "mortgage". I don't hate Texas, but I won't live there under local tax tyranny.
Happy in North Idaho. Wish I'd moved here 30 years ago, because the same thing is happening here as in Texas. California's are moving here by the droves - there really is no other reason for the growth here. There's no real economic boom, e.g. new core businesses, etc., just more Caly money fleeing Kalifornia, and landing in one of the most beautify places on earty. I've been trying to finish a home, and I can't hire a sub-contractor. Even when they commit, a week later, they push the schedule out another 30 days. It's understandable, if you're a sub-c, and the GC's who have kept you in business for 15+ years are begging for your help. They'd rather piss off the homeowner acting as his own GC, than the half dozen GC's he depends on for a livelihood year in and year out.
I'm thrilled that folks are doing well up here, but it sucks when you're trying to build a house. I'm taking on more and more of the project on personally, which wasn't the original plan, and talking to sub-contractors I know from out of state. I need to get this thing built and then move further North, or maybe to Montana. Too many California's here for my tastes.
Anyhow, wish ya all luck in Texas. My suggestion: Build barricades and keep the Californian and Colorado liberals out. Plus, the Northeastern progressives; just shoot them at the gates. Don't bother reasoning with them at all. Florida? Better screen 'em for zombie disease.
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I hear you, but they've got snow, lots of it, in Idaho. I don't even own a pair of longjohns anymore. Or, those gator things.
As a lifetime California (with 4 season experience via MA and PA), I love the weather here in the mild-climated .... um.... nevermind.
Idaho is in the ice age, snow 12 months a year. Better stay away. The women are ugly. The men..um.. none too bright, either. Jobs? No one has one?
Man, you sure are lucky you left here while the gettin' was good. Idaho is every bit as bad as you remember, actually, 10x worse. :nometalk:
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If I were going to "land rush" anywhere it would be the less populated like Baylor County and the surrounding counties
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Man, you sure are lucky you left here while the gettin' was good. Idaho is every bit as bad as you remember, actually, 10x worse. :nometalk:
I didn't leave because I wanted to but due to work. After 13 years in TX it feels comfortable but still not like home. I'll be back one day - probably Grangeville cause the liberals are rare. The town only keeps a couple just to know who not to let in.
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As a lifetime California (with 4 season experience via MA and PA), I love the weather here in the mild-climated .... um.... nevermind.
Idaho is in the ice age, snow 12 months a year. Better stay away. The women are ugly. The men..um.. none too bright, either. Jobs? No one has one?
Man, you sure are lucky you left here while the gettin' was good. Idaho is every bit as bad as you remember, actually, 10x worse. :nometalk:
88finger point
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...because the same thing is happening here as in Texas. California's are moving here by the droves - there really is no other reason for the growth here. There's no real economic boom, e.g. new core businesses, etc., just more Caly money fleeing Kalifornia, and landing in one of the most beautify places on earty. I've been trying to finish a home, and I can't hire a sub-contractor. Even when they commit, a week later, they push the schedule out another 30 days. It's understandable, if you're a sub-c, and the GC's who have kept you in business for 15+ years are begging for your help. They'd rather piss off the homeowner acting as his own GC, than the half dozen GC's he depends on for a livelihood year in and year out.
...
Anyhow, wish ya all luck in Texas. My suggestion: Build barricades and keep the Californian and Colorado liberals out. Plus, the Northeastern progressives; just shoot them at the gates. Don't bother reasoning with them at all. Florida? Better screen 'em for zombie disease.
That's what happened to Colorado too. Used to be the only liberal bastion was Boulder. But then the flock of wild geese migrated from Granolaland and have taken over that state.
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Kalfornians love to bring their "culture" and high prices with them wherever they go. Saw it when I lived in Austin.
@M1078 thanks for the info on Idaho.
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Yeah, for a bunch of damn Yankees Dallas probably seems like Montana.
I like the Hill Country, She Who Must Be Obeyed and I are considering moving down around Glen Rose somewhere. I gotta get away from the crush of the Metromess before I die, even if it means moving to Arkansas.
That's a joke, y'all.
Grew up in Austin in and did a lot in the Hill Country. Nice to visit, but I would not live there. I retired in East Texas, where one does not get that urban flair the day-trippers bring from Austin and DFW. It stays pretty rural and the pies made locally are in all the small towns and delicious.
Water is the main issue. It is increasingly a scarcer resource in the state, and the Hill Country(and most of the rest of Texas) just doesn't have much. Exceptions are the Gulf Coast and East/North Texas, which gets a lot more rain and has many lakes and reservoirs.
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Grew up in Austin in and did a lot in the Hill Country. Nice to visit, but I would not live there. I retired in East Texas, where one does not get that urban flair the day-trippers bring from Austin and DFW. It stays pretty rural and the pies made locally are in all the small towns and delicious.
Water is the main issue. It is increasingly a scarcer resource in the state, and the Hill Country(and most of the rest of Texas) just doesn't have much. Exceptions are the Gulf Coast and East/North Texas, which gets a lot more rain and has many lakes and reservoirs.
LOVED east Texas, when we went through to Waco and Austin last year. It's probably where I'd live in Texas. Dallas is plains hot, Houston and San Antonio are humid-hot, and Austin is aspiring to be Berkeley.
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That's what happened to Colorado too. Used to be the only liberal bastion was Boulder. But then the flock of wild geese migrated from Granolaland and have taken over that state.
My (very smart) cousin bailed out of California for a suburb just outside of Denver about 2005, ahead of the crash. He was in Real Estate then, and is now also. He's sold something in the neighborhood of 80 homes in two years. He said he wouldn't even consider acting as a buyer's agent, at this point, because he knows buyers today are going to be underwater within a few years, i.e. the market is unrealistically hot in Denver. He said that there's been a huge deluge of California Bay Area high tech residents flocking to Denver, if they can get their company's to transfer them there, due to one, single element. Pot. He said it's destroying Colorado.
But hey, he's making a bundle in the mean while. Can't blame folks for doing business while the cycle is hot. However, it's one reason I've been intentionally out of work and looking hard for property in Idaho. EVERYTHING is overpriced. By over priced, I mean that prices, both land and resources, as well as labor, is as high or higher than California pricing, and yet, people bring in their suitcases and throw the cash on the counter. It can't continue, and I don't want to be underwater the day of the cash. Trying to guarantee I stay cash positive, which means buying distressed property. Unfortunately, locals (mostly contractors, but even a hair dresser I met the other day), have already been doing that for years, and there isn't a stick of property available at reasonable price. If I have to pay $180 to $280 a sq foot for a house, I might as well head back to California. You would simply not BELIEVE the price of a 1940's run down 1400 sq foot price in Coeur d'Alene. You'd have to pay $170K to $220K for the shell, and then put in $150K into it to bring it back up to code and modern living, and the maximum monthly rental return would be something like $1300 to $1500 a month. It just doesn't pencil out. Yet, they're doing those deals every day of the week.
Well, I was looking for a new home when I hit this area, and I'm willing to take another trip and look again if I have to. Montana, Wyoming, even Oklahoma isn't a bad place, really. There's lots of "flyover" country out there that's beautiful ---- providing the progressives keep on flying by it and leaving us to hell alone.
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Montana, Wyoming, even Oklahoma isn't a bad place, really. There's lots of "flyover" country out there that's beautiful ---- providing the progressives keep on flying by it and leaving us to hell alone.
It's hard to find a good "ranch" in Wyoming or Montana too, but for just the opposite reasons. They aren't selling to move somewhere else. Smart them. If it wasn't for the winters, I'd move back to Wyoming too.
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Dallas is plains hot, Houston and San Antonio are humid-hot, and Austin is aspiring to be Berkeley.
All true, although there are a lot of you old military guys settled in San Antonio, which I consider the best of the big cities of Texas.