These two pictures, take a moment to reflect on the stark differences between the two. The one above is East Texas, the piney woods, where I am "from". That is home to me. Below is where I live. The dusty plains. Plain is right.
We moved here one year ago. There is something I am STILL having trouble understanding, and that is the price of real estate here. Seriously, it is asinine! I can live in the Piney Woods for half of what it would cost for the same caliber place here. Well, land/house wize. Land here will NEVER be the caliber of East Texas land. Yet, it is so much higher to have the barren land.
I continue to be astonished at the price of Real Estate here in the West Texas area. It is RIDICULOUS, especially if you want to rent or lease. First of all, you are lucky to find anything to rent/lease, and when you do, it has an enormous price tag. Take for example this house here. It is a townhome with only 2 bedroom and 2 bath. It is old. It is not in the nicest part of town, but it is in an "okay" area. The elementary and junior high schools are not desirable, but the high school is (if you want your children in public school). They want $1,900/month for this place. They will get it too. My guess is it will be leased before the day is out.
I continue to be astonished at the price of Real Estate here in the West Texas area. It is RIDICULOUS, especially if you want to rent or lease. First of all, you are lucky to find anything to rent/lease, and when you do, it has an enormous price tag. Take for example this house here. It is a townhome with only 2 bedroom and 2 bath. It is old. It is not in the nicest part of town, but it is in an "okay" area. The elementary and junior high schools are not desirable, but the high school is (if you want your children in public school). They want $1,900/month for this place. They will get it too. My guess is it will be leased before the day is out.
We live in a condo here. It is brand new and we are loving it. We miss living in the country, but this will have to do for now. We would love to buy, but the housing market is just not high in the rental department, it is high in the selling department too. It amazes me that here you pay aprox $115/sq ft (more in the nicer neighborhoods) and back "home", you could buy out in the country for $75ish a sq ft, and have land to boot!
Besides the fact that the landscape here is UGLY (see above reference picture), there is no water for recreation and it is so hot in the summer it is miserable. It is "spring" now and yet we have already seen 100 degrees. It has not rained in many months. The ordinarily drab and dry landscape is even more so without the rain. And please don't tell me about the "dry" heat. Hot is hot. I would take the humidity with beauty over the scorching flat-lands anyday!
All of this being said, I am happy enough here. For the most part the people are great. I long to go back to east Texas, with the trees and water. A place where real estate is reasonable, and most of all...a place that holds the majority of those I love.
I was raised in West Texas (Abilene), so I know what you are talking about! Part of the reason we're in TN is because of land prices and real estate taxes - TX is getting very expensive. Those high prices in the dry, dusty plains of the state is hard to explain or understand. And it's very dry in our ovens, but we don't choose to sleep there, now do we? Hot is HOT! In the meantime, the sunrises and sunsets can be spectacular (as far as the eye can see with all that FLATness), and when you get out far enough, the stars are amazing at night. That doesn't make West Texas pretty, but maybe a couple of things to enjoy when you can ;)
ReplyDeleteEast Texas misses you too!!!
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