[mlrtime]

There is still more affordable housing in TX than anywhere in the US. Texas is building more than any other state (Florida is close).

I just drove by a new development [in TX], with brand new homes that start at 1800/mo for a 3 Bedroom. Financing by the developer.

So if you get out of Dallas or Austin you will find affordable housing.

[pixl97]

Telling the monthly rate in Texas is not a great metric in general... you must always add the property tax costs. What are those, 300k'ish houses? You're probably looking at at least another 500 a month in properly tax pushing it up to $2300, then if they are built like this add another $200 in for summer time cooling.

That is not affordable housing.

[mlrtime]

1800/month including tax. Real estate tax is high in TX, but not income tax. I prefer this taxation which has to come from somewhere. NYC has high income tax and real estate tax, and the grocery options could still be not close at all.

[eropple]

How far do you have to drive to go to a supermarket from that development? To a library? (Silly me, expecting people to go to a library in 2024, right?)

If Dallas or Houston or Austin had decent mass transit out to those areas that'd be one thing, but they wouldn't be very "mass", and therein lies one of the problems. Car culture increases isolation and generally shits up the world ever further; somewhere like a YOLO development in the suburbs to exurbs is deleterious to human flourishing and saying "well just buy something where you need a car for everything", as opposed to like the one-off Home Depot run or something, is just trading problems.

[jf22]

Yes, but the houses farther out are affordable because they lack those amenities.

The same narrative plays out over and over again. "I can't afford a house with an easy drive to a supermarket and library, and I want to be carless."

Well yeah, so does everybody else, which is why that type of housing is expensive.

[eropple]

Yes, of course! And it's reasonable to think that living in both modest precarity and isolation is worse than living in somewhat more severe precarity; "affordable" places to live are inferior goods!

The problem, fundamentally, is that we, collectively and as a country, need to create more good places, rather than to exile people to the bad but affordable ones. We need a concerted effort to have strong towns and to put cars at the edge and not the center of those towns in order to have a healthy community future, and just sneering that you can buy a house in the hinterlands is both non-responsive and cruel to boot.

[jf22]

I agree with you. However, the discussion about housing is normally around how it's worse now than it was in the past, and these types of dynamics have existed for a long time.

[eropple]

It absolutely is worse than it has been in the "good places", though. Because we have more people, but not more good places.

[mlrtime]

Just looked it up because I was curious. Mortgage + Real Estate tax is right at 1800/month. 4 Bed / 2 Bath, new construction. Kroger is 3 miles away with a "cash and go" type place even closer, so about 8 min by car, 20 min by bike.

Point remains, that there is plenty of affordable housing in the US. It's just not where people want to live, thus supply/demand.

No amount of "fuckcars" ideology will matter here, some people actually prefer driving. I know I do, I don't want to be stuck in a subway or bus.

[giantg2]

"How far do you have to drive to go to a supermarket from that development?"

That's the system - resource scarcity and preference. If you live in a densely populated area, prices tend to be higher because real estate is constrained. Zoning won't fix all of that because many people have a preference for SFH, larger sizes, etc. You end up with options and amenities, but it will cost more due to the consolidation. Or you end up with space, needing to drive to amenities, and cheaper prices largely due to less competition.

[mlrtime]

8 minutes by car, 19 minutes by bike for a full size grocery store.

Worse than some places with public transportation, but better than a lot.

[hindsightbias]

Nobody hip wants to live in those places. Wait til their properties double or triple AND the county changes the rate to build those 6A schools.

TX, too conservative for anything like Prop13 and tollways owned by very smart Spaniards.

[red-iron-pine]

if you get out Dallas or Austin... where are the jobs?

the number of people working remotely, even now, is still comparatively small.

doesn't matter if the housing rates are 50% lower if your only options are minimum wage at some chain (dollar general, chik fil a, etc.), or scraping for one of the few non-wagie gigs.

that doesn't fix the problem, that just means you're getting paid less, while house prices may have roughly the same ratio of income-to-cost that you'd find in DFW or ATX.

and in exchange now you need a car, need to drive constantly, and have fewer amenities and choices (maybe save for access to churches or walmarts).

shit, even far flung burbs of Austin like Taylor and Hutto are getting pricy compared to when I was last out there. Hutto Hippo oughta make a reappearance and start eating the carpetbaggers who keep moving in around there.