There are a lot of places in Houston that are extremely affordable to live if your salary is around $80,000.
But, some experts are questioning some information recently updated about salary requirements to live in 52 Houston neighborhoods.
Realtors explained too many variables need to be factored in, like type of home—single family or townhome, new or resale, plus the location within the neighborhood and condition—that aren’t. Also, “best” is subjective and should vary to each buyers individual needs.
The update shows housing in Midtown is affordable because they're older houses and Memorial Park is one of the best school districts in the Houston area.
First Choice Loan Services vice president and certified mortgage planner Chris Nooney said ideally you want a great school district, with affordable property taxes and short commute.
“Knowing what you qualify for and making sure that you keep your total debt, which is the mortgage payment and your current credit card debt, car payments, at or below 45 percent of your total income,” said Nooney. “See how much the actual property taxes are, the homeowners insurance and the homeowners association dues because those become a big factor in affordability for a home.”
He said while Millennials traditionally start out living in the city, when they start having families, they move out to the suburbs.
Stewart Title Chief Economist Ted C. Jones said the average price of a house in the Houston area is around $290,000. Demand is outstripping supply in Houston causing home values to go up.
He said although some houses went down in value because of Hurricane Harvey flooding, many have been successful back on the market. He said we have a dynamic, robust, sound market today and that 101,900 net new jobs have been added in the Houston metropolitan statistical area and building permits were only for 46,728 total new dwelling units.
“We’re actually creating far more than two new jobs per dwelling unit. We think normal is one a quarter to one and a half new jobs” said Jones. “A year ago we survived one of the worst disasters we’ve ever had in Harvey and we just bounced back. Part of our robust economic growth today is a function of what did happen a year ago.”
Jones said historically after a disaster you lose jobs.
There was a reduced inventory for a short period of time with more than 200,000 homes that were flooded.
Last year, the area was down 24 percent in August, year over year, but ended up the year with the highest number of houses sold and expected to do that again this year.