Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Discouraged.

Austin is a great town. There is very little about it I don't like. I was(am) so excited about the possibility of living here & raising my daughter here.

But are you kidding me w/ the housing prices? They are dangerously close to CA levels, seriously! And I'm not seeing how this economy can possibly support the high prices given the property tax situation here. People will literally not be able to afford their taxes if TCAD keeps appraising residential property the way they do, and then not hold commerical property owners to the same level of responsibilty. You cannot expect home owners to foot the entire bill for county infrastructure. People will rise up at some point to change things. Or they will simply leave. In droves. And then you'll have a ghost town, and all the mess that goes with it.

So, I'm discouraged to say the least.

But it's nice to be here just the same. I get to hang out w/ my sister. I get to see my dear friend Ilene. I'm also going to meet up w/ a new friend from twitter (@mikeneumann) at Freddies Cafe on Friday afternoon. They have a great playscape for the kiddos, are dog friendly & have live music outdoors -- so Dex can play in a contained area while the grownups chat & have a margarita or three. LOL.

The weather has also been very pleasant.Even had a thunderstorm or two. Though it's supposed to be miserable hot by the weekend, I'm crossing my fingers that will NOT be the case. Who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky and for once, the weather will be in MY favor (i.e. under 80 degrees) for the duration of our stay.

That's all for now. Need to shower & get our booties in gear for the afternoon. Dinner w/ Sis tonight, Dex will get to play like a maniac w/ her cousin Boogie. I'll get to drink red wine & discuss politics & real estate w/ my sister. Yay!

Cheerios,

Me.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hang in there. I live in SoCal. (By Magic Mountain) The property taxes are high, but somehow we find a way to get by. It is a lovely place to live. I didn't catch what city you were in.

Anonymous said...

I miss you,pretty. Come home already. Oy!

The Absurdist said...

so, how long have you been in Austin? I grew up there. I won't live there again.

the housing market went out of control there about 1998 after everyone from CA moved to Austin for the "tech boom". Everyone exercised their options and bought multi-million dollar homes and drove up the prices of everything else.

And of course, Ann Richards gave tax incentives for businesses to move to Austin, but did no planning for the internal infrastructure for cars and other traveling methods.

My family still all lives there though. I live in Frisco, up here by Dallas.

ms.sinn said...

My guy works in Real Estate as a market analyst...he says to wait another year to buy...prices are dropping.

Cheryl R. said...

See new post -- for those of you who aren't sure where I'm at, or why. LOL.

Ms.Sinn said...

My guy works in Real Estate as a market analyst...he says to wait another year to buy...prices are dropping.

jjodanger said...

I miss you,pretty. Come home already. Oy!

Barbara said...

Hang in there. I live in SoCal. (By Magic Mountain) The property taxes are high, but somehow we find a way to get by. It is a lovely place to live. I didn't catch what city you were in.