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> A quick price scan through realtor.com for Austin TX listings, shows that you can buy housing in Austin for $500k-$700k that would cost more like $3m-$5m in S
by jiveturkey 8y ago
> A quick price scan through realtor.com for Austin TX listings, shows that you can buy housing in Austin for $500k-$700k that would cost more like $3m-$5m in SF.
That's worthless info without also understanding operating cost (taxes) and earning power.
According to https://smartasset.com/taxes/texas-property-tax-calculator https://smartasset.com/taxes/texas-property-tax-calculator it's roughly 2% in travis county, vs 1% in CA.
Earning power appears to be about half in Austin compared to SFBA.
So you can afford 1/4 the house, in terms of dollars. $3mm -> $750k. To the extent that your operating cost includes mortgage service, the Austin number would go up. Let's just call it 2x, so $1.5mm. Not bad.
WAIT! We are neglecting income tax. 0% vs 13.1%. But because TX doesn't have the stupid prop 13, let's just call this a wash. per TFA: "The median home price in Austin jumped 40 percent over the last five years".