re: Building high density apartment complexes in affluent suburbs

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If interest rates go down, what do you think will happen to real estate prices?

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Keep huffing the hopium that interest rates are going to go down.

Interest rates aren't going down for a long time.

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Keep huffing the hopium that interest rates are going to go down.

Interest rates aren't going down for a long time.

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Doesn't make any difference to me, I'm locked in at 2.75%, but if they do ever go down real estate prices are going to sky rocket.

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It's more about value going lower and being forced to be around people who will make the area worse and contribute nothing but crime.


Fair but where are people supposed to live? The vast majority of the population has been forever priced out of owning a single family home. Where are the people supposed to go?

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My area was more rural than suburb. That's changed now.


Good ol urban sprawl brought on by suburbs and car culture, which I just criticized.

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So everyone should be forced to live around people whose values they don't share? I have no desire to live next to criminals. I'd rather drive 15 minutes to HEB than walk there and get mugged by some low life piece of shite thug.


Your mask is slipping a bit here, friend. You are equating a walkable, multi-use neighborhoods with the very worst elements, which is generally not the case at all.

My neighborhood has become more walkable and has more restaurants and bars that I and my neighbors walk to all the time and there is no fear of crime or being mugged.

Stop watching Fox News and go touch grass.

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I think the fundamental problem is that people can't accept that things aren't equal and they never will be.

Some people work hard and are successful. Some are born into money. Some are born in the hood and make their way out through hard work. Everyone's path is different. We can't magically create an even slate for everyone at birth.


I agree with all of this. At the same time concentrating poverty has not been beneficial either. It's a tough question and i don't have the answers. What I do know is that walkable areas that put people first and have less cars are just nicer and better overall.

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I was lower middle class and worked my way up a notch to middle/upper middle. Will I ever be rich like some of the folks I know who inherited 1,000 acre ranches? No. Deal with it same way people born in the hood have to.


How are you so certain that the hood will rain down on your neighborhood? This is a common OT trope that I am not sure reflects reality as I have not seen the data to support it.

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I agree housing prices are ridiculous. I don't have a problem with them coming down but section 8 ruining neighborhoods is not some new post-COVID housing price boom issue. It's been around for decades and it never works ever.

Concentrating poverty doesn't work I agree but it's a better solution than forcing crime on places without. Give those in poverty benefits where they are and let them get out and move to the nicer areas on their own.

What doesn't make sense is adding high-density to areas not built for it or not wanting it.

I lived in high density walkable areas in Houston for years and liked it. I was also young without a family. Having homeless camps a few blocks away didn't bother me much at 25. But that doesn't work with young kids who need good schools and safe playgrounds, etc.

I sometimes miss walking to a bar/restaurant but not at the expense of my kids' education or quality of life.

I don't watch Fox News and am not what you would call conservative by any stretch.

I don't think the area will all of a sudden turn into Detroit. The decline is slow. It starts with the schools and an uptick in crime.

As I said, my neighborhood will not be impacted directly but will be via the schools. One of the benefits of living here is we don't need private schools to get away from those who don't care. That will start to change.

Regarding car culture and urban sprawl:

1. Some people just don't want to be around a bunch of others that close. That's their prerogative.

2. Some people move out to the burbs because they want to be around people of a similar value mindset.

Touch grass is a pretty funny comment coming from someone who touts living in a walkable city. I live on a hill with hundreds of oaks and abundant wildlife, wildflowers, and natural beauty without having to listen to neighbors crappy music and drama.

Comal and Hays Counties are going to be a giant mess soon. Unfettered growth was allowed with little regard to infrastructure. Sad to see what that area has become these days with all of the developments.

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You’re talking to a group that thinks the American Dream is only a 90% white sprawlburb with no sidewalks that takes 20 minutes to drive anywhere.

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Isn't it?

Add in being close enough to daily needs and the club to drive the golf cart and you nailed the secret code for happiness.

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Isn't it?

Add in being close enough to daily needs and the club to drive the golf cart and you nailed the secret code for happiness.

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I don't like the neighborhoods with houses that look the same right on top each other.

But the rest is fine with me. Especially now that most of us can work from home and don't have to commute to the city.

Big houses, big lots, no crime, good neighborhood amenities? I'm totally fine commuting 20 minutes to go get food that's not Mexican or BBQ.

It's pretty damn nice.

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So I have first-hand experience with all of these and I'll gladly take my 15 minute commute to the grocery store vs. 5 and having to deal with neighbors up my arse, homeless camps nearby, crime, shitty schools, etc.

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Okay that is fair. You should be paying a hell of a lot more in taxes to pay for all the extra roads, utilities, and infrastructure to support your suburbs.

Why should I as an individual who lives in the city center be forced to subsidize your choice to live in the burbs?

The suburbs are not sustainable long-term as the suburbanites do not pay enough taxes to cover the cost of maintaining their infrastructure. There is a large ticking time bomb when all that shiny new infrastructure ages and needs to be replaced and repaired.

LINK - America's Growth Ponzi Scheme

ETA: LINK - Why Houston is Broke? Hint --- too much sprawl

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Funny because my taxes seem to be doing our local schools just fine. We have no issues with funding. Roads are great.

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Today. How old is your infrastructure? The math will eventually catch your suburb as it always does. But you will just leave and move to the shiny new suburb when that time comes.

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If we're the ones spending all the money why is it that Bexar County wants to annex US? Why would they want to take on such a money suck?

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Municipal governments are dumb and run on a cash basis and they just see the money they collect today without thinking about the future liabilities they are signing up for.

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Texas had so much of a surplus that we lowered property taxes this year. That's because of the suburbs not because of 500 section 8 apartments.

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Wut? Suburbs? Suburbs exist because of the large city centers of Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio. The urban areas are the economic engines of the state and always will be.

Without the large city centers and employers your suburbs would not even exist. The urban centers can exist just fine without the suburbs.

ETA: making future generations pay for the shitty decisions of their forefathers it the American way tho. Anything to make next quarter GDP line go up.

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I also take 2 trips a year to national parks to go hiking and get into nature.

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That’s laughable

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you want to live out on the edges, you should have to pay more for that luxury as you are taking more resources from the city center.

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Most suburbs aren’t in the city limits. Fwiw I live in the ghettos of city. I don’t care for urban sprawl either. But most people I know who live in suburbs are out of the city.