Real estate prices seem to keep climbing especially in the surrounding areas of the major metros.  How much longer can this keep going? I could sell now at a substantial gain since I purchased the house almost 10 years ago.  However, due to other factors I am targeting about 4 years from now.  A lot can happen in 4 years though. I would hate to see those gains evaporate in some kind of downturn.

Well,

Stock market is at an All Time High...  (people with money in the market feel rich (on paper at least))

Interest Rates are at all time Lows...  (people feel they can get more for the dollar)

If the Market goes Down, and if / when Interest Rates go back up to more "normal" patterns, I think the steam will come out of the market with the investors and flippers pretty quick...

Will The Market Stay "High" & Rates "Low" for 4 more years????



The thing that drives Real Estate (in my opinion) is Availability of Land (less available with high demand usually means highest prices) and Economy (Up = more buyers & Down = more sellers)

When people from california stop moving to texas it will start to even out.

another factor is that there are more people looking to buy than homes available.


supply and demand.

Market is crazy right now. My new house was on the market for one day when we put our offer in.  Had a cash buyer on the old house two days after listing and closed two weeks later.

This had a huge influence in Austin when the Market Crashed.

We had LOTS of investors buying new built properties because the prices were escalating while the homes were under construction.  $2,000 earnest money to build a new home that appreciated $20,000 while being built over 6 months meant that some investors 'assigned' the contracts to other investors to actual close on that home before the homes were even completed...

California Mad Money had then & in my opinion still has a bad effect in Central Texas ...

I always loved how affordable it was to live here....great place for young people starting out.

In 2008 I bought my first home, a 2500 sq ft suburban house that was brand new and paid 152k.  Mortgage was under 800/mo (I did my property taxes separate, no escrow) and was only that high because of the housing bubble nation wide that had interest rates sky high.

1500-1800 sq ft stuff was 100-115k.  No reason to ever rent an apartment.

I guess if you are using real estate as an investment, good for you.  Maybe liberals will stop moving here too.

Sadly, now I live in the biggest bubble in Texas......the house I bought here in Midland for 340k would be 160k in Houston.  More expensive than the house I had in Bakersfield, CA and not even close to as nice.

I would think the same will happen in North Dallas/Richardson/Allen/Frisco/Plano with Toyota and other companies coming to Plano.

As of Sunday, it's been two years since I bought my house.

In that time, the tax assessment jumped from $182k to $227k, and I hear on the news every morning about prices going up. There's houses being built on both sides of my church (in what used to be farm land), and apartment complexes being built on both sides of the subdivision I live in.

I can only speak for the Austin area, but we're in a HUGE bubble.

I just moved up my plans an bought a house because of all the new companies coming in. My office alone is about to add 700 people to it.

Maybe a slight bubble, but local and U.S. economy is doing great so not so much.

Foreigners bought up BILLIONS of dollars worth of property in Texas last year. That probably has a little to do with it.

I wish I knew as I'm considering a house purchase over the next year or two.  I had a beer with two real estate guys a couple of weeks ago, both with decades of experience and knowledge in the local market.  One said the market in DFW is going to continue going up & up and the other said we were in a bubble that is about to burst.  

I will say that in certain areas around where I live, a clean 1800-2800 sq ft home is not only selling in a couple days but multiple above-list offers are being made.  I know a person that bid about 20K over asking on a place in Plano and felt they were lucky to get it.  I thought they were crazy.  People are also paying cash, no loans.

I'm not really sure when to make my move but I'm more inclined to hold off for a while.  If the market skyrockets, so be it.  Maybe I'll sell my place, hike up my belt & pants to chest level, buy a rocking chair & Cadillac, start eating dinner at 4 PM and move to Florida.

Heard that many Toyota Cali people are not happy with TX. Don't like the weather, no mountains or nice beaches, politics, culture, etc. But they're stuck for at least the next 2 years or have to give back the money given when they moved. Over 70% moved to TX, extremely high, Toyota expected only 40% would do it.
Don't know if any of that is true but sound plausible. My guess many wouldn't even wait that long, constant whining/grumbling from kids and spouse would wear them down.

Looks like my house will sell and I'm looking at the DFW and surrounding region.  Will I be able to escape the Kali influx and resulting price rapeage?  I'm looking at a 60-70 mile radius.

Most of the stupidity, in regards to pricing, is around the Plano/Frisco/The Colony area; specifically those areas right along 121. There are other areas in town that have some high priced houses but they aren't seeing the economy growth like the north is. I'm about a month out from closing on our new build up in Hackberry (between Frisco & Little Elm) and I thought we got a decent deal. The same house 5 miles south is probably 75-100k more. Conversely the same house is probably 50k cheaper on the far west or northwest side of Fort Worth. However, I'm not going to drive an hour and a half everyday in traffic. Housing in all of DFW is still slightly higher than the same house in Houston.

Good deal.  I'm hoping for something a little farther out and didn't know how widespread the price bump would be.

Heaven forbid that we would have some cash left over after the move.  The wife is looking on line and prices don't seem to be too bad.

Where will you be working?
Job location will make a huge difference in traffic and travel time.

No work.  I'm a retired bum.  My job these days is mowing lots and lots of grass and fixing junk.

Getting to the point of trading acres for access to doctors and fun stuff like that.  Only commute will be to Dallas to see family.

Kind of interested in 1 to 2 acres and new or newer home in/near small community.