Texas Real Estate - Property In The Big State
By Raynor James, Fri Dec 9th

Everything in Texas is big, including real estate options. Ifyou're considering a move to Texas, here is a primer on thestate.

Dallas

Dallas is a big city with a definite oil influence. There is acertain over the top feeling about Dallas, but people arepleasant and the city has first-rate services. Make no mistake,living in Dallas is living in a big city. It comes with all thenegatives of a big city such as traffic, but all the positivessuch as professional sports teams and so on. If you preferliving in a big city, Dallas may be a good choice as real estateis surprisingly



cheap.

Austin

Austin is the home of the University of Texas and one of myfavorite cities. With a definite college town attitude, one canexperience an odd mix of the Wild West with the liberalattitudes of college students. The town boasts famous musicfestivals and, of course, an avid group of college footballfans. Eternal optimist, they even think they can beat theOklahoma University Sooners in 2005.

Houston

Constantly in a friendly competition with Dallas, Houston is acity that stands on its own merits. Those merits, however, arebased on the boom or bust nature of the oil industry. Whenthings are going well, Houston is abuzz and grows in leaps andbounds. When things are going bad, the economy suffers and so dothe people living there. This boom or bust scenario has led tooverbuilding and the city has an organized feel to it. All andall, not a personal favorite, but to each there own.

San Antonio

San Antonio is the big city with the little town feel. UnlikeHouston, it is not dependent upon the oil business, which hasresulted in some careful urban planning. Now the eighth biggestcity in the United States, San Antonio is an up and coming city.Of the big cities in Texas, I would consider San Antonio thebest overall.

Texas Real Estate

Overall, the good news is Texas real estate is very reasonablypriced. The average home price in Dallas is $260,000, whileAustin comes in around $200,000. A single family home in Houstonwill set you back $150,000 on average, while $220,000 will dothe job in San Antonio.

The bad news with Texas real estate involves appreciation. Texashas the lowest real estate appreciation rate from September 2004to October 2005. With an appreciation rate of a little over 5percent, not everything is big in Texas. Still, this may be anopportunity to get in on the ground floor, particularly for agreat town like Austin.

One would think Texas is a take it or leave it state, but itsimply isn't true. The cities are all unique and a lack of astate income tax makes the low real estate appreciation rateseasier to swallow.

About the author:Raynor James is with http://www.fsboamerica.org - FSBO homes forsale by owner. Visit our "sell my home" page athttp://www.fsboamerica.org/seller.cfm to sell your home yourselfwith a free 1 month listing.

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