All Encompassing Mortgage and Real Estate Thread

[Okie State 3,821]

I've got the same doors in my house, and I installed the motherfuckers myself, and they are 1 3/8 Solid Core.

My shitty hollow doors look just like those.

[Hefeweizen 5,328]

Poors please.  Solid wood cut from virgin forests only.

[jimmyjazz 45,976]

That is one ugly house.

[dingleberryswitzer 2,724]

Wait, they make doors that aren’t hollow??!!??  Next thing you’ll tells me I can get floors that are not made from vinyl. 

[Neonmoon 38,129]

I just sold my house in Austin. This market is insane. That is all. 

[TKthunder2 4,992]

3 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

I just sold my house in Austin. This market is insane. That is all. 

Where you moving?

[FORTY NINE TO ZERO 2,652]

23 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

That is one ugly house.

It really is 

[Neonmoon 38,129]

12 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

Where you moving?

To the smokey mountains. I want to join the hill people. (Market isn’t as crazy but not that much better. Houses are still gone within a couple days to a week but thankfully not 100 over shit)

[Armybrat 40,851]

One of my sons home is in the St. Elmo neighborhood which is beginning to be being gentrified. His neighbor’s house was recently demolished, but rather than build two duplexes front & back, the developer is putting up two SFH side by side -giving each house a back yard with some depth. To get as close to the property line as possible (5’), there is no roof overhang.

 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Armybrat

[jimmyjazz 45,976]

Odds are well better than even those houses will be painted bright white, with dark gray a distant second option.

[Johnny Chimpo 478]

Damn. I would not want that shit next door. 

[Hornlover 8,830]

4 hours ago, Johnny Chimpo said:

Damn. I would not want that shit next door. 

Wait, you wouldn't want the new construction next door to your shithole, or you wouldn't want the shithole next door to your brand new home?

[Gil Bang 25,975]

Not exactly Hank Hill-level lawn care on that street.

[MonkeyDoughnut 10,301]

Yeah, would normally say "there goes the neighborhood", but thinking that ship might already have sailed

[gmr548 16,580]

Odds are well better than even those houses will be painted bright white, with dark gray a distant second option.

The giant boxy “modern farmhouse” and its ilk will be this eras carpet over wood floors or wood paneling on walls. Just staggeringly ugly. I do not understand.

[jimmyjazz 45,976]

16 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

The giant boxy “modern farmhouse” and its ilk will be this eras carpet over wood floors or wood paneling on walls. Just staggeringly ugly. I do not understand.

Early on, I saw a few that had nice lines, gables that intersected, etc., but eventually they just became the most basic cartoons of home design.  Wealthy central Austin MILFs are lining up to buy them.  I just shake my head -- in about 5 years, those are going to be less desirable than the surge of "Tuscan" homes we saw for over a decade.

[Okie State 3,821]

Early on, I saw a few that had nice lines, gables that intersected, etc., but eventually they just became the most basic cartoons of home design.  Wealthy central Austin MILFs are lining up to buy them.  I just shake my head -- in about 5 years, those are going to be less desirable than the surge of "Tuscan" homes we saw for over a decade.

It's like everything else. The real deal costs money and requires skilled design and labor so it eventually gets watered down for the masses until it is ruined.

[Neonmoon 38,129]

13 minutes ago, Okie State said:

1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

Early on, I saw a few that had nice lines, gables that intersected, etc., but eventually they just became the most basic cartoons of home design.  Wealthy central Austin MILFs are lining up to buy them.  I just shake my head -- in about 5 years, those are going to be less desirable than the surge of "Tuscan" homes we saw for over a decade.

It's like everything else. The real deal costs money and requires skilled design and labor so it eventually gets watered down for the masses until it is ruined.

[Thiefery 5,012]

On 5/30/2021 at 3:47 PM, Neonmoon said:

I just sold my house in Austin. This market is insane. That is all. 

congrats.. wish my mom hadn't sold her old house off Turtle Creek.. houses are going for 500k now.. crazy

[drt 639]

On 6/1/2021 at 8:33 AM, Armybrat said:

To get as close to the property line as possible (5’), there is no roof overhang.

Roof overhangs 2' or under do not count against setback requirements in CoA.  That's just the aesthetic (and it can have advantages for air sealing, as it makes the roof/wall intersection less complicated to detail)

[Armybrat 40,851]

Oh, ok. It still looks shitty though.

[Pato del Muerto 52,524]

No soffit venting though 

[drt 639]

Yeah, you can do other things if you're going to vent the attic and don't have soffits, but most likely they'll have unvented attics.  Code is moving that way when mechanicals are in the attic, and Austin is a little further along than most jurisdictions in Texas.

[TKthunder2 4,992]

Was reading a Washington Post article from December saying the lowest 30yr fixed rate was 2.67% last year but I swore it got lower than that around August.

[Armybrat 40,851]

On 6/1/2021 at 2:00 PM, Hornlover said:

Wait, you wouldn't want the new construction next door to your shithole, or you wouldn't want the shithole next door to your brand new home?

Son doesn’t want to pay new home property taxes for his old shithole house.

[Armybrat 40,851]

On 6/1/2021 at 7:06 PM, Okie State said:

On 6/1/2021 at 5:28 PM, jimmyjazz said:

Early on, I saw a few that had nice lines, gables that intersected, etc., but eventually they just became the most basic cartoons of home design.  Wealthy central Austin MILFs are lining up to buy them.  I just shake my head -- in about 5 years, those are going to be less desirable than the surge of "Tuscan" homes we saw for over a decade.

It's like everything else. The real deal costs money and requires skilled design and labor so it eventually gets watered down for the masses until it is ruined.

In other words, ugly ass crackerboxes.

The new massive apartment blocks around Austin look uglier than the 1950s Soviet brutalism slapped up in eastern Europe, except are built flimsy as a house of cards.

[Wulaw Horn 19,098]

6 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

Was reading a Washington Post article from December saying the lowest 30yr fixed rate was 2.67% last year but I swore it got lower than that around August.

Could you have gotten 2.5 somewhere if you got people with good pricing to compete hard and paid a little to of points at a couple points in time last year?  sure. But not For any appreciable amount of time. 2.75 was pretty common for much of the year. 2.625 was attainable for a short period of time. 2.5 would have been a huge fluke. 

[tokamak 6,431]

Was reading a Washington Post article from December saying the lowest 30yr fixed rate was 2.67% last year but I swore it got lower than that around August.

Could you have gotten 2.5 somewhere if you got people with good pricing to compete hard and paid a little to of points at a couple points in time last year?  sure. But not For any appreciable amount of time. 2.75 was pretty common for much of the year. 2.625 was attainable for a short period of time. 2.5 would have been a huge fluke. 

http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms
Those are national averages. Looks like the bottom was about 2.65% right around the new year. I personally was able to get 2.5% right at the end of February by paying something like half a point. I think there’s tons of people out there that either don’t know they can shop around, or don’t care to.

[The Dog 44,062]

SIAP

New home building never fully recovered from the 2008 crash, and then COVID hit on top of it.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HOUST

IMHO this is a big contributing factor and is only worse in places like Austin.

 

[UTPhil2006 3,807]

10 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

Was reading a Washington Post article from December saying the lowest 30yr fixed rate was 2.67% last year but I swore it got lower than that around August.

It 100% did.  Hell I could get that right now with barely any origination.

[Wulaw Horn 19,098]

4 hours ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Could you have gotten 2.5 somewhere if you got people with good pricing to compete hard and paid a little to of points at a couple points in time last year?  sure. But not For any appreciable amount of time. 2.75 was pretty common for much of the year. 2.625 was attainable for a short period of time. 2.5 would have been a huge fluke. 

That should be noted I’m talking no points on those deals. There wasn’t a ton of 2.5 no points deals out there last year. Interestingly enough 15 year now might be better than it ever has been. 

[Aqua Buddha 14,598]

2 hours ago, The Dog said:

SIAP

New home building never fully recovered from the 2008 crash, and then COVID hit on top of it.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HOUST

IMHO this is a big contributing factor and is only worse in places like Austin.

 

Also, now you have the millennials coming to market, which you did not have in 2008-2010.

[Aqua Buddha 14,598]

On 6/1/2021 at 5:28 PM, jimmyjazz said:

Early on, I saw a few that had nice lines, gables that intersected, etc., but eventually they just became the most basic cartoons of home design.  Wealthy central Austin MILFs are lining up to buy them.  I just shake my head -- in about 5 years, those are going to be less desirable than the surge of "Tuscan" homes we saw for over a decade.

Not so fast my friends.  That modern farmhouse shit has been going strong for 10 years now.  It's basically half the market with the other half being contemporary/modern.  Follow the trends on HGTV.  That's what the basic white women want and as long as the shows are pushing that, they'll follow.

I don't think anyone ever really liked Tuscan outside of a few markets.

[The Dog 44,062]

Just now, Aqua Buddha said:

Also, now you have the millennials coming to market, which you did not have in 2008-2010.

Yup. They all want to have kids now AND those who weren't originally thinking of buying were stuck in apartments during COVID lockdowns and suddenly want more space in case they are stuck at home again. 

[jimmyjazz 45,976]

3 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

Not so fast my friends.  That modern farmhouse shit has been going strong for 10 years now.

I didn't notice them until about 5 years ago.  Somebody built one near Lamar Middle School (just NW of Koenig & Burnet), and it's a really nice house.  Great front porch, interesting design, and yes, stark white.  Then the floodgates opened, and eventually very few looked anything like a "farmhouse".

I'm sure they started popping up before then, but not in my part of Austin, at least as far as I can recall.

[ZB'Tejas 593]

Is this central Austin market going to slow down in the next few years? I have a realtor friend with some out of state clients looking and potentially willing to pay a crazy amount for my house. I realize I'd have no where to go right now so I could rent for now (would be a pain with 2 small kids) but them have a lot of cash on hand to use when something comes up in the next few years.

Problem is my house is great and with just some reno work I think we would be perfectly happy. But on the flip side having all cash that I can get something that already has the extra space sure sounds tempting. 

[CooterBrown 18,014]

Central Austin isn’t slowing down. If you sell you better be okay with moving out to suburban hell in Williamson or Hays County or be cool with dropping $1.5M to buy your same house back.

[jimmyjazz 45,976]

9 minutes ago, ZB'Tejas said:

Is this central Austin market going to slow down in the next few years? I have a realtor friend with some out of state clients looking and potentially willing to pay a crazy amount for my house. I realize I'd have no where to go right now so I could rent for now (would be a pain with 2 small kids) but them have a lot of cash on hand to use when something comes up in the next few years.

Problem is my house is great and with just some reno work I think we would be perfectly happy. But on the flip side having all cash that I can get something that already has the extra space sure sounds tempting. 

I think the general consensus is that the market will remain hot at least into 2022.  The Fed has said they have no plans to hike interest rates, and at least for now, the housing supply is still incredibly small.  I've seen projections of another 10% appreciation by end of 2021 within Austin proper.  That's hard to to overlook.

[ZB'Tejas 593]

5 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I think the general consensus is that the market will remain hot at least into 2022.  The Fed has said they have no plans to hike interest rates, and at least for now, the housing supply is still incredibly small.  I've seen projections of another 10% appreciation by end of 2021 within Austin proper.  That's hard to to overlook.

So what this person is talking about is around 30% more than I think it's actually worth so not sure I would miss out on really significant growth for the remainder of the year. This would be taking advantage of no inventory. 

 

7 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

Central Austin isn’t slowing down. If you sell you better be okay with moving out to suburban hell in Williamson or Hays County or be cool with dropping $1.5M to buy your same house back.

Not going to do that... If I do entertain this I would rent in central Austin for 1-2 years while I look around and then buy something in a slightly different neighborhood (for a school track).

 

I'm leaning toward no as it would be a lot easier to put 50K in my house to get it where I want versus all the moving around but damn it's hard not to at least listen. 

[Hornlover 8,830]

6 hours ago, Armybrat said:

Son doesn’t want to pay new home property taxes for his old shithole house.

City Council is proposing an increase in the homestead exemption. 

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2021/06/02/austin-city-council-consider-doubling-homestead-exemption-property-taxes/5291501001/

 

[ZB'Tejas 593]

6 minutes ago, Hornlover said:

City Council is proposing an increase in the homestead exemption. 

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2021/06/02/austin-city-council-consider-doubling-homestead-exemption-property-taxes/5291501001/

 

Quote

Two measures would give homeowners modest property tax relief through increased homestead exemption rates. The third measure would effectively set a higher maximum property tax rate, allowing the city more flexibility as it decides what rate to set in August. All three look likely to pass at Thursday’s meeting. 

The new homestead exemption rates would decrease city property taxes for people who own and live in their homes. Council is looking to increase the general exemption rate from the current 10 percent to 20 percent, the maximum allowed under state law. This means that qualifying properties would only be taxed at 80 percent of their appraised value instead of 90 percent. 

Council will also decide this week whether to change homestead exemptions for seniors 65 and over and people with disabilities. The senior and disability exemptions are flat rates, rather than a percentage. The exemption rate would increase from $88,000 to $113,000. These amounts are deducted from a qualifying property’s appraised value, meaning taxes are then levied on the new value.

The general exemption would save the typical homeowner $141.06 next year if the city increases taxes by 3.5 percent, according to Deputy Budget Officer Erik Nelson. Under the same scenario, the savings with the senior and disability exemption would be $150.87.

Council members said that the exemptions would help homeowners handle increased tax burdens as property values in the city skyrocket. “There are many folks that need this type of relief,” Council Member Paige Ellis said.

The city has wanted to change the general homestead exemption rate to 20 percent for several years, but has opted out because doing so, according to the state comptroller, would have decreased the city’s allowed property tax revenue under state law, jeopardizing some city services. But after the comptroller changed its interpretation of state law this year, increases in homestead exemptions do not affect the city’s total allowed property tax revenue.

Though Council members supported the exemptions, some still had concerns. Council Member Greg Casar said he wished that general homestead exemptions could be a set amount – like the senior and disability exemptions – instead of a percentage, so that lower-income homeowners could see more relief. State law requires that general homestead exemptions be calculated as a percentage.

“Folks that are struggling the most that are homeowners get the least relief, most likely because it’s percentage-based rather than flat-rate,” Casar said. 

Lower property taxes for homeowners would also push the tax burden onto commercial properties, particularly large, expensive ones. This prompted some concerns among Council members that the increased taxes on commercial properties could be passed on to tenants through higher rents.

Casar and others argued that targeted relief both for struggling homeowners and renters should remain a Council priority. “I do think that it’s really important, since we all represent both homeowners and renters, for us to find ways to help both,” Casar said.

Amid discussions of tax relief, Council is also considering giving the city the ability to increase property taxes by as much as 8 percent for the next year.

Typically, Texas cities can only increase property taxes by 3.5 percent annually. Any percent increase above that threshold – called the voter approval rate – would trigger a tax rate election. But Gov. Greg Abbott’s Covid-19 disaster declaration allows cities to increase that threshold to 8 percent – the maximum rate before a 2019 state law cut it to 3.5 percent – for the next fiscal year.

Even though the city could increase property taxes by 8 percent, the actual percent increase will likely be less than that. Next year’s tax rate will be adopted this August as part of the city’s annual budget process.

 

[Wiler77 1,566]

59 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

Central Austin isn’t slowing down. If you sell you better be okay with moving out to suburban hell in Williamson or Hays County or be cool with dropping $1.5M to buy your same house back.

I got news for you.  I live in Hays County (Driftwood), and home prices in my neighborhood have gone bat-shit crazy.  I think in the past year alone the market value of my house increased 50%.  Yes, it's still less expensive than a similar property in Austin proper, but things are rising FAST out here.

[Wiler77 1,566]

On 5/31/2021 at 7:52 AM, Neonmoon said:

To the smokey mountains. I want to join the hill people. (Market isn’t as crazy but not that much better. Houses are still gone within a couple days to a week but thankfully not 100 over shit)

Whereabouts?  We were planning to move to Asheville and saw the same as you.  Super hot housing market, with prices not that much better than we find out here in Driftwood.  In fact, in terms of what you get for your money, I'd say we have it better here.  But that was last October.

We bought a lot with the intention of building exactly what we want, and then the potential job fell through.  As I look back on it, right about now is when we'd be selling our current house, and it's appreciated quite a bit since October.  We'd be sitting pretty from a financial standpoint, but may be left holding our dicks while looking for a temporary place to live while waiting on the house to be completed.

[Armybrat 40,851]

1 hour ago, CooterBrown said:

Central Austin isn’t slowing down. If you sell you better be okay with moving out to suburban hell in Williamson or Hays County or be cool with dropping $1.5M to buy your same house back.

We were glad to get out of the urban hell in Travis County to move up to Wilco. 
At least we don’t have a batshit crazy fitlump In office here.

[jimmyjazz 45,976]

2 hours ago, Wiler77 said:

I got news for you.  I live in Hays County (Driftwood), and home prices in my neighborhood have gone bat-shit crazy.  I think in the past year alone the market value of my house increased 50%.  Yes, it's still less expensive than a similar property in Austin proper, but things are rising FAST out here.

Yeah, the price difference is still vast.  I just looked up a new-build cottage in Driftwood that's $549K.  A similar sized house on a similar lot off South Lamar, built in 2005, is $980K.  

What would concern me is how property farther out might fare in a downturn.  But, at least there's less invested.

[Gil Bang 25,975]

On 6/1/2021 at 6:33 AM, Armybrat said:

One of my sons home is in the St. Elmo neighborhood which is beginning to be being gentrified. His neighbor’s house was recently demolished, but rather than build two duplexes front & back, the developer is putting up two SFH side by side -giving each house a back yard with some depth. To get as close to the property line as possible (5’), there is no roof overhang.

 

I once sold a nice home, and the home next door looked like this one.   I knocked on the door, and asked the owner how he'd like it if my gardener took care of his yard for a few weeks, at my expense.     He said sure.  I paid about $150 to have the shithole cleaned up, and another $80 or so to have it maintained until I could find a buyer and get the deal closed.   It was money well-spent, IMHO, because nobody wants to live next to a place that looks like shit. 

I did a similar thing to a different house...small back yard, and the neighbor had one of those old-school satellite TV dishes, the 10 foot diameter deal, and it was rusty as fuck and hadn't been used in forever.  When you looked out the kitchen window of my home for sale, all you could see was that big, rusty, hulking POS.   I knocked on that door, and asked them if they'd like me to get rid of it, and yeah, they were cool with it.  100 bucks later, my house's view was improved greatly.  

Anyway, CSB time over. 

[The Dog 44,062]

1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

What would concern me is how property farther out might fare in a downturn.  But, at least there's less invested.

Hays/Wilco aren't that far out anymore. 

[CooterBrown 18,014]

Hays/Wilco aren't that far out anymore. 

It’s far as fuck. I used to live between Buda and Salt Lick and it was a beating every day. Those 14 miles to work took forever. The last straw was as I was exiting my subdivision one morning, I passed a bicyclist. As I waited to get on Mopac at Slaughter, that same cyclist passed me.

You should always test out a commute before buying a house with the understanding that’s the best it is ever going to be. Traffic will only get worse. If it’s barely tolerable today, you’ll be shooting up your office in 5 years.

[The Dog 44,062]

15 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

It’s far as fuck. I used to live between Buda and Salt Lick and it was a beating every day. Those 14 miles to work took forever. The last straw was as I was exiting my subdivision one morning, I passed a bicyclist. As I waited to get on Mopac at Slaughter, that same cyclist passed me.

You should always test out a commute before buying a house with the understanding that’s the best it is ever going to be. Traffic will only get worse. If it’s barely tolerable today, you’ll be shooting up your office in 5 years.

You're missing the point - this is a big city now. Wilco/Hays are now close relative to other options. They aren't "ideal" by your standards, but they are for those coming here from other major metro areas. Compared to what I had to deal with in Atlanta 14 years ago my commute from Round Rock is still way better. 

[jimmyjazz 45,976]

32 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

It’s far as fuck. I used to live between Buda and Salt Lick and it was a beating every day.

LMAO.  In the early 'aughts we bought a few acres in Ruby Ranch, and I convinced myself I'd be fine with my commute to work -- north Austin, near Braker and Metric.

I am very glad my wife came to her senses and confessed that she didn't think she could live that far out from central Austin.  Lord knows I had no common sense whatsoever.  We sold the lot, and lost $5K (plus fees) on the turn.  Well worth it.