Mr Weeze

$4250 a month for a 4 bed with a pool is what we paid.

Rete

Hell, $125K is a damn good salary for most middle class people who live in the lower Westchester County of New York City for a family of 4.

Of course, if you want the $650,000 house with a pool and 1/2 acre of land, the latest big ticket SUV gas guzzler, 5 star dining on weekends, etc. you might last for all of 3 months on that salary.

Luxury depends on the definition a person puts on it and a comfortable living situation depends on what makes you sigh in contentment.

Pulaski

Either the cost of housing has collapsed in Westchester since I lived there, or you have an unusual definition of "middle class". When I lived there, property taxes in a barely OK looking area on a "fixer upper" three bed house started around $8k/yr; most were $10k+.

If you mean both parents working on $125k salaries, then yes, I agree with you.

Owen778

I agree with most of the Houston residents - $125k should be enough to be comfortable, but depending on what job you do and your level of experience, it could easily be less than the local going rate.

Katy may be an option, but if you're going to be based in the Energy Corridor and won't have kids with you when you move, you might want to consider an apartment or house in or close to CityCentre. This is just east of the Energy Corridor, not downtown, and has quite a few bars and restaurants nearby.

Frazdog

ok it sounds like that salary is not the greatest. when I look on trulia it shows a 4/5 bed room house with a pool for $300K, if not less & that's not a huge price. currently around the £180K. so why are we talking $4000 to rent this sort of place? it says for mortgages we could pay <$2000 for this sort of property. ok before taxes but still? thoughts guys.

Its a job as a Welding Engineer. Can anyone advise on a local salary for that type of job? oil and gas pipelines / fabrications.

its a staff job rather than a contractor. which would obviously pay more.

LJSassy

[QUOTE=Frazdog;11277585]ok it sounds like that salary is not the greatest. when I look on trulia it shows a 4/5 bed room house with a pool for $300K, if not less & that's not a huge price. currently around the £180K. so why are we talking $4000 to rent this sort of place? it says for mortgages we could pay <$2000 for this sort of property. ok before taxes but still? thoughts guys.
.[/QUOTE


In the section of Katy where I live, there are no homes with pool for $300. School zoning makes a big difference in house prices. $400+ would be more realistic for a 4 bed with pool. The market here is crazy, and houses sell fast.

We just bought a house on Saturday, 4 bed with pool. it was listed the day before (Friday), and the owners received multiple above asking price offers the same day. It closed at 3pm on Saturday, 36 hours after initial listing. We paid well over $400, but now have our dream house zoned to fabulous schools my kids already attend. We are very happy to be no longer renting.

Good luck with your move.

Frazdog

http://www.trulia.com/property/30332...-Katy-TX-77494

What about somewhere like this?

Is this in a bad area? I don't need to worry about schools right now as my daughter wont be coming with me and it takes a few years to get another to school age! lol

Its saying $1500 / mo and then I guess taxes on top? so just over $2000 or am I missing a few things. (probably) just trying to make sure I can afford this move!

Pulaski

Property taxes are very high in Texas, 3% of the value per year, IIRC, so $1,000/mth on a $400k house. There is also a matter of supply and demand, and there is always great demand for houses, whether owned or rented, in good school districts, because bad schools in the US can be pretty dire!

ChocolateBabz

When you rent the owner normally pays property tax, home owner association fees and buildings insurance so these costs are factored into the rental price.

Bink

The housing market is strong in Houston. We bought 2.5 years ago for under $300k but couldn't buy our house for that now (and we dropped money to build a pool). It's a sellers market right now.

Rental prices are high in the good school areas as there are a lot of expats here who can afford to pay high rent. I think this is somewhat to blame for the disparity between buying and rental prices, especially in Katy, as it is very convenient to the energy corridor.

You can definitely live well on $125k, it's just about how you spend your money and your expectations.

Weeze

That property is already pretty much sold. It shows as sale pending on HAR.com. Regarding your other questions, no, it's a fine area. Property sells very quickly in Katy, within 24 hours. When they list it for sale they often put up a rental price too, but it's not really for rent. Does that make sense?

Mr Weeze

Start thinking in $ per square foot. Anything under $100/sqft is at the cheap end of the market, and that will be driven by the area. You can also pay in excess of $150/sqft in Katy for some of the higher end neighbourhoods.

So if and when you want a 4 bedroom house, the one you found is about as small as you will find (2,300 sq ft). Start looking at the lot size too - 8,000 sqft means it is essentially all taken up by the pool. Do you want grass? If not then that's not a problem.

You also want to look at the year of construction - the newer it is the more energy efficient it is. A 2002 house may have some things like double glazing (the notes suggest it does) while a house from the 90s probably doesn't. That makes a big difference to A/C use.

Use HAR.com - follow the link below, and you will see there is a tax estimator to the right which gives an estimate of the taxes.

http://search.har.com/engine/25814-B...AR25486329.htm

As this one is Fort Bend county you can then go to www.fbcad.org and see the current appraised value and tax bill:

http://www.fbcad.org/Appraisal/Publi...rID=&NodeID=11

http://www.fbcad.org/Appraisal/Publi...OwnerID=326404

That suggests the appraised value for tax purposes is up to around $240k, which is ends up with taxes of around $6,900 per year (without the homestead exemption) and you can also see how property taxes are climbing right now because appraised values are shooting up:

http://www.fbcad.org/Appraisal/Publi...6404&NodeID=11

You also need to factor in the $1,000/year HOA fees and homeowners (building & contents) insurance of maybe $2,000/year.

So on top of your mortgage you've got around $10,000 of costs a year ($800/month) before you look at water, gas and electricity. I would estimate you'd struggle to be less than $300/month on average for all 3 combined in a 2,300 sqft house.

Are you going to do your own pool maintenance? If not, that would be another $150 a month for a smaller pool. What about cutting the grass once a week in the summer? $80 a month for a small lot.

Cable + high speed internet? $150 a month.

Pest control (cockroach treatments) - $150 a quarter, or you can do it yourself with the chemical bought from Amazon.

Oh, and don't believe the prices on Trulia or Zillow for any estimate of market pricing. Zillow was over 25% low on the estimate when we bought our place. There were 6 offers in over the space of the weekend.

On the good news front, you can offset your mortgage interest and property taxes against your gross federal tax bill. For $125k that equates to a reduction in federal income tax of around $2,750. But that is approximate, and just one part of a very complicated tax system. Note that you may also pay tax on the rental income from your UK properties.