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  #1  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2013, 10:12 PM
jngreenlee jngreenlee is offline
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Austin Real Estate Opinions

Wanted to poll the smart people here on a dilemma my wife and I are fortunate enough to have (no, you're not taking sides, we really don't know what we think!)

Feel free to ignore, I know it's slightly off topic.

--------------------
We're about ready to stop renting and start owning. We're in our thirties, and have both owned, leased and been landlords in other cities before.

Option A - Expensive house in the Bouldin neighborhood, something like a new 4BR. Obviously a high future growth area, close to DT but enough room for a family. Fun money might be limited for the first year to pull this off.

Option B - Modest home in Austin, plus an affordable condo in Portland or Denver area for summer living, and funds leftover to make the trip back and forth each year. Obviously, the Austin house is smaller and more likely to be somewhere boring like NW Austin, or in a cool neighborhood but old and ugly.

Option A might actually offer the best 'investment return', but no escaping the summers! Option B might make up for that if the condo is near a college campus and can be rented out to respectable grad students during the school year.

Any opinions?
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  #2  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2013, 11:49 PM
Komeht Komeht is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jngreenlee View Post
Wanted to poll the smart people here on a dilemma my wife and I are fortunate enough to have (no, you're not taking sides, we really don't know what we think!)

Feel free to ignore, I know it's slightly off topic.

--------------------
We're about ready to stop renting and start owning. We're in our thirties, and have both owned, leased and been landlords in other cities before.

Option A - Expensive house in the Bouldin neighborhood, something like a new 4BR. Obviously a high future growth area, close to DT but enough room for a family. Fun money might be limited for the first year to pull this off.

Option B - Modest home in Austin, plus an affordable condo in Portland or Denver area for summer living, and funds leftover to make the trip back and forth each year. Obviously, the Austin house is smaller and more likely to be somewhere boring like NW Austin, or in a cool neighborhood but old and ugly.

Option A might actually offer the best 'investment return', but no escaping the summers! Option B might make up for that if the condo is near a college campus and can be rented out to respectable grad students during the school year.

Any opinions?
I have to admit this is a TOUGH choice - even for the extreme urbanist in me.

I have always been a bit jealous of the people who can escape to cooler climes in the dog days and thought that the perfect way to enjoy Austin was to get away for 6 weeks in the summer.

OTOH, living year round in decent place in a close in central neighborhood is fantastic.

If it were me, I would lean towards the central location. You'll be spending the bulk of your time here and you might as well make the most of it. The central neighborhoods are pricey but won't likely lose value.

I totally get the appeal of escaping for a bit every year. What if you did a close in condo in Austin as well? Yards are overrated IMHO - especially when you have town lake as your playground.
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  #3  
Old Posted Mar 9, 2013, 9:41 PM
MichaelB MichaelB is offline
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: North edge of Downtown
Posts: 3,208
Quote:
Originally Posted by jngreenlee View Post
Wanted to poll the smart people here on a dilemma my wife and I are fortunate enough to have (no, you're not taking sides, we really don't know what we think!)

Feel free to ignore, I know it's slightly off topic.

--------------------
We're about ready to stop renting and start owning. We're in our thirties, and have both owned, leased and been landlords in other cities before.

Option A - Expensive house in the Bouldin neighborhood, something like a new 4BR. Obviously a high future growth area, close to DT but enough room for a family. Fun money might be limited for the first year to pull this off.

Option B - Modest home in Austin, plus an affordable condo in Portland or Denver area for summer living, and funds leftover to make the trip back and forth each year. Obviously, the Austin house is smaller and more likely to be somewhere boring like NW Austin, or in a cool neighborhood but old and ugly.

Option A might actually offer the best 'investment return', but no escaping the summers! Option B might make up for that if the condo is near a college campus and can be rented out to respectable grad students during the school year.

Any opinions?
A for sure. Your day to day existance is worth more than an "escape".
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  #4  
Old Posted Mar 10, 2013, 4:41 AM
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TXAlex TXAlex is offline
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Well if you wait a couple of days you will not have any of those choices any longer. Trust me.
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  #5  
Old Posted Mar 10, 2013, 7:35 AM
wwmiv wwmiv is offline
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Location: Austin -> San Antonio -> Columbia -> San Antonio -> Chicago -> Austin -> Denver
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This is not the kind of thread that does very well on SSP. It's more of a Skyscraper City type thread.
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  #6  
Old Posted Mar 10, 2013, 1:00 PM
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The ATX The ATX is offline
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Originally Posted by wwmiv View Post
This is not the kind of thread that does very well on SSP. It's more of a Skyscraper City type thread.
...or City-Data, unfortunately.
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