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The supply of housing isn't a problem in Texas, but "supply and demand" isn't the end of the story. When two Texans want the same house, a bidding war is artifi

The supply of housing isn't a problem in Texas, but "supply and demand" isn't the end of the story. When two Texans want the same house, a bidding war is artificially capped (at, say $300k) because that's all the average Texan can afford. But when a Californian moves in with high net worth and a higher paying job, they can bid much higher, and they don't mind doing so (the mindset I have personally heard from most CA transplants to Dallas is that they don't care if they paid more than the average Texan pays, because at the end of the day they're still paying less than half what they were paying in CA). And then there's the issue of property taxes. A Texan lives in his nice $250k house and pays $X/year in property taxes. Then someone comes in and buys the house next to them for $400k/yr. Suddenly this neighborhood is now appraised at a much higher value than before, and the Texan's property taxes are now twice as high, bordering on the edge of unaffordable. I've personally seen several people be priced out of an area due to this.

ntsplnkv2 6y ago
> And then there's the issue of property taxes. That seems like a Texas problem being blamed on Californians. I'm sure a lot of Texans are very happy that their houses have shot way up in value.
sbeller 6y ago
> I've personally seen several people be priced out of an area due to this. Ask a Californian about prop 13 ;-)
- xxpor 6y ago
  Which is the root cause of the majority of urban/suburban California's issues. Texas won't become California, even if 100% of CA's population moves there, because they don't have the same pants on head dumb proposition system.
  - ericmay 6y ago
    From the outside I like the proposition system, but not prop-13 specifically.
throwaway201103 6y ago
> they don't care if they paid more than the average Texan pays, because at the end of the day they're still paying less than half what they were paying in CA I don't understand not caring about 6 figures of money. Is that really the outlook of the average California tech worker?
- ctheb 6y ago
  The average California tech worker maybe not, but plenty of them are sitting on $500k+ in cash with yearly incomes in that same range. At that point what does $100k mean? $100k makes no difference in the person’s day to day life. If you like the house and you end up in a bidding war, the $100k is more than worth it.
stdgy 6y ago
Feels like the solution here is to pay income taxes instead of property taxes. ;)
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  Yes, all the no income tax states are severely regressive and are bad for people with low incomes and good for people with high incomes, obviously.
avl999 6y ago
Individuals overpaying is not enough to raise average values of houses in a market. In you example the person who owned the 250k house got a nice windfall selling their price above market value but that is not enough to raise the value at large of houses in that market. It would take people systemically overpaying and overpaying in large volume for it to affect housing prices and there's simply no evidence of that.

ntsplnkv2 6y ago

> And then there's the issue of property taxes. That seems like a Texas problem being blamed on Californians. I'm sure a lot of Texans are very happy that their houses have shot way up in value.

sbeller 6y ago

> I've personally seen several people be priced out of an area due to this. Ask a Californian about prop 13 ;-)

xxpor 6y ago
Which is the root cause of the majority of urban/suburban California's issues. Texas won't become California, even if 100% of CA's population moves there, because they don't have the same pants on head dumb proposition system.
- ericmay 6y ago
  From the outside I like the proposition system, but not prop-13 specifically.

throwaway201103 6y ago

> they don't care if they paid more than the average Texan pays, because at the end of the day they're still paying less than half what they were paying in CA I don't understand not caring about 6 figures of money. Is that really the outlook of the average California tech worker?

ctheb 6y ago
The average California tech worker maybe not, but plenty of them are sitting on $500k+ in cash with yearly incomes in that same range. At that point what does $100k mean? $100k makes no difference in the person’s day to day life. If you like the house and you end up in a bidding war, the $100k is more than worth it.

stdgy 6y ago

Feels like the solution here is to pay income taxes instead of property taxes. ;)

lotsofpulp 6y ago
Yes, all the no income tax states are severely regressive and are bad for people with low incomes and good for people with high incomes, obviously.

avl999 6y ago

Individuals overpaying is not enough to raise average values of houses in a market. In you example the person who owned the 250k house got a nice windfall selling their price above market value but that is not enough to raise the value at large of houses in that market. It would take people systemically overpaying and overpaying in large volume for it to affect housing prices and there's simply no evidence of that.