Housing prices in Houston?

My husband was checking out some housing prices in the Houston suburbs on realtor.com - homes just northeast of the city. The prices were shockingly low. For the kind of homes priced in the 200K to 300K range, we would have to pay over 500K in the Denver metro area.
The homes I mean are brick, 4 bdrm homes built in the late 90s on acreage. Considering how modest our home is, they look like McMansions to me.

Was it the Katrina scare that made a bubble pop?

I knew that DU was the place to ask for a straight answer. Thx.

But if it's been built after 1950 or so, who knows what the QUALITY will be like. John Coby will be along in a minute to tell you about the fact that the homebuilders basically run this state like a bunch of mafioso thugs and do all kinds of cornercutting BS. Including hiring our friends from across the border under the table, speaking of current events.

be careful on the value. When we first moved down here, my daughter's boyfriend who was in construction followed us down and worked in construction here for a year. That was just at the end of the big oil boom in the mid '80s. He was shocked at what he called "throw 'em up and see if they stay" houses and he worked for what we heard, at the time, was one of the more respected companies. (no John, not Perry, there are more like him)

We use to love to tour high end model homes back then. We were looking at one that was $450K (20 yrs ago) and noticed the bannister had very noticeable seams and some windows weren't square, little gaps here and there. And this was the model!!

Of course, like I said, the houses were going up fast and furious. Maybe things got better when it slowed down, but at least on the west side, the building is going crazy again.

We bought a 3200sf one-story rambling brick, circa 1960. It's solid, except we always talk about replacing all the windows. I guess because they wouldn't have done diddly in the 20 below temps we knew up north, but heck down here, with all the shade trees, they work fine, just look dated.

We didn't even consider a new house back in 1984, mainly because of the damn commute into the city. So we bought in town, where all the houses were older. Nowadays, there are plenty of new houses being built in town, because developers are going in and tearing down houses like mine. Not in my neighborhood, yet. The houses here are all well kept up, so a bit too expensive to buy to tear down.
Last I heard, a year or so back, they were running about $100sf. and most of them are 2400 to 4000sf.

One word of warning, if you know people relocating to Texas........what you save on house payments, you will make up for in property tax!!!!

We aren't thinking of moving. But we go over to the realtor site to see what's going on around the country. Last night he checked out the Houston area and we were very surprised.

Our taxes up here are reasonable. And I think the bubble is near to bursting if it hasn't already. Two neighbors on our block have had their homes up for sale for months. One has already reduced his price twice. Latest is 238k for a 3 bdrm 2 bath modest home. He hasn't gotten a single offer.

Hubby's research last week revealed that Colorado rates very high if not #1 in foreclosures. We've seen this before since we've lived here for 30 years. The boom and the bust.

since then. It's cheaper to build here: no basements, single pane windows, virtually no UNION labor. You can buy a starter mansion for 300K. Construction quality is on par w/ the rest of the country--depends on the builder, really.

We sold a 1965 1600 sf tri-level in Chicago suburbs for 132K in '89, moved here & bought a (subrurbs of Houston) 1985 2 story, 2525 sf., HUGE in ground pool, triple-lot-sized backyard that backs up to 50 acres of pecan & live oaks(complete w/ spanish moss) and a bayou, which the owner deeded to our city as a "passive use" park (!!!) for -- wait for it-- 130K.

WE LOVE IT. It gets hot but that's what the pool's for.

That's quite a change from Chicago's climate, too.

When we first moved here, I use to lust after the trees on the boulevards, dripping Spanish Moss. So, we went to the nursery for mulch or something and I said to the guy, "Do you have any Spanish Moss?" So, he brings me the box of powder and starts telling me how to mix and spray it on the moss, to kill it. I said, "No I want to buy some to hang on the trees." He said, "Lady, you don't want to bring that stuff into you neighborhood!" Well, yes I did want to, but I didn't. My husband still teases me about it.

I guess I'm too easy....I like moss, the water hyacinths that are against the law (but we have blooming in our pond) and the tiger lilies that grow in ditches. No wonder I can't get cultivated stuff to grow.

and it'll grow there. It's actually good for the tree and I've done it--works great!