Houston Area

Power back on at my place

 

Definitely happening here in Conroe.

Our city engineer just alerted the public that there isn't enough water to satisfy all the new housing developments going up. It takes 4-5 years to build new water plants and only 1 new plant is about to come online. It's like these development happy tards forgot to consult the infrastructure folks to discuss before they sold out to greedy developers...

 

I tell you what's scary...

the amount of apartments that have come up around Baybrook Mall. I reckon 5k units.

there is now a VERY dense population in that very small area surrounding the mall.

I reckon in ~5 years, when most of those apt's go section 8, it will turn into Greenspoint.

it has all the makings of a nice little war zone.
Walmart
HEB
mall
Hospital
boo-koo apartments
MANY fast food restaurants

 

my experience with Montgomery County CAD appraisal protest:

The folks that work there are very nice and well spoken.
very patient - considering everyone there was protesting.
the waiting area for the protestors, including myself was quiet and calm.
I had an appointment - so I only waited for 3 minutes.
I chose to meet with appraiser instead of the Board.
I got the value I wanted - my purchase price.
Luckily I brought my closing docs.
The lady was nice & very straightforward.
she straight up told me you can only go down to purchase price - since I recently purchased it.
they wanted 34% over the price I RECENTLY paid.
and there is no goofed up math on valuations. she showed me.
it's all my/your stupid-ass neighbors paying way too much for property.
they simply take the value of recently sold property.
it was nice to have them confirm this for me.
The entire process took 12 minutes.

this is the final year for huge valuation increases. (circuit breaker max = 10% increase for homestead _ 20% non-homestead)

and she told me the best way to protest next year:

get pictures of repairs needed
get all your quotes for repairs needed.
don't do the work.
bring all that crap in.
but you will only be able to go back down to purchase price.

she did mention overall valuations going down - but that is very rare - as we all know. y'all remember 2008-2009?

 

Good info! I'll let my CPA know to go straight to the appraiser vs the panel.

 

I agree with all the dumbasses paying way too much for homes nearby. The house next door to me is half the size of mine, has had fire damage and was pretty wrecked from the previous homeowner recently sold for 30% more than I paid for mine.

 

this is the way.

because if you disagree with the appraiser (state employee), you can then see the Board.

the Board is final.

 

They just wanted to live next to you. Badly

 

I thought about refraining from posting this...only for a moment tho.

This addresses the greater Houston area - YMMV.

It does not matter what income bracket you or your neighbors are, you will always have a 50/50 chance of living next to or nearby* an asshole. (even if that asshole is you)

It cannot be avoided. Lord knows I tried.

Society these days is so polarized. Social media, etc. has a monstrous affect on programming soft brains.

I do my best to be a civil & polite human....right up until you piss me off. and I won't engage you...I will forget you.

I'm sorta lucky @ Lake Conroe....roughly half the folks in my little gated neighborhood are very decent, hard working, like-minded folks.

the others....are weirdos.

because we take care of our stuff, they probably think we are the weirdos!



*well, maybe some of you big acreage folks are exempt from this statement.

 

They’ll be learning a hard lesson then.

 

All you Richie Rich ppl behind gates are weirdos.

 

I’d settle for a gate on my driveway.

 

One of my coworkers has had his power out since Thursday. He lives over off of 610 and Irvington. That’s crazy.

 

same here

homes around the Galena park area. bltway 8 & I-10 also.

they are using our standalone generators and fuel from warehouse.

We B civilzed.

 

Im i10 and Beltway on west side doing the same. Got a notification this AM that our electrical restoration is still expected for Wednesday.

 

I'm convinced the only way to stay away from weirdos is to get enough acreage that you can't see them.

 

Sounds a lot like where I live. Two absolutely destroyed homes sold for well over 700K. Now somehow MCAD thinks my house is worth 800K because of these idiots.

 

Houses are absolutely insane right now. My daughter and her husband bought a little nothing house in Splendora last year. Probably 1300sqft and the yard is small enough he just uses a weed eater to mow it. 240k. I was afraid to ask what their interest rate is.
It seriously sucks right now for young people trying to start out in life these days.

 

My buddy was trying to buy in our neighborhood and I told him there is no way I would be able to afford to buy in our neighborhood now. We were fortunate, got in back in 2017 with a low interest rate and refinanced during COVID at even a lower one. Our home "value" on all the usual websites is showing about double what we paid for it. Taxes appraisal 2.5x what we paid for it.

Unfortunately insurance and taxes are skyrocketing. It's a tough pill to swallow.

 

and don't forget Electricity.

I'm paying almost triple per KWH than I was in 2015.

I am amazed at how young folks can even get started in this epically crappy economy.

 

I gotta take my mom to carpel tunnel surgery in Pasadena in the morning.
I wonder how long it will take and if there are any good places to walk while I wait.

 

maybe....if you are near beltway 8. if not, stay indoors.

 

Not the best place to try and get some “fresh” air.

 

Bought our house in 2021, and Zillow's valuation has it up almost $50k. Of course, our county appraiser thinks we are Mar-a-Lago and it shows on our property taxes.

State Farm's latest increase on our homeowners insurance has us at almost $3k per year. Auto ins renewal is also up (has been almost every renewal) and puts us at $1500 every 6 mos.

Our combined income is under $200k, but we feel like lower middle class.

 

I will be

 

Bought ours in 2014. Valuation is nearly double. Our last kid graduates high school this weekend so in a few months it’ll just be my wife and I in a home that’s way too big for us. On paper we could sell and make a killing, but we’d just be putting all the profit back into a lesser home.
We’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that we’ll just be leaving behind a house our kids can sell for a substantial amount when we die. Our two oldest chose teaching as a career so they’ll need it.

 

Empty nesters. I'm jealous. I married into 2 kiddos - one just turned 11, and the other is 13. We had an oops kid and he's 5. I'm gonna die in my full nest

Does it make more sense to pay the monthly electric bill/property tax on a bigger home vs buying a "lesser" one? I applaud your kiddos for wanting to be teachers - it's not a popular trend at the moment and definitely more of a calling.

 

We started pretty young. I was 21 when the first was born and 30 when the youngest came along. Luckily we didn’t have any oopsies. Hell, if one of our first two had been a boy we probably wouldn’t even have the youngest one.
So we’ll be empty nesters just shy of 50 years old.
On top of that, my wife has worked for the state since 2000 so she’ll be retiring with a pension in a couple of years. I’ll probably work until I die though.
Our electric bill really isn’t bad. We have gas appliances throughout, LED lighting everywhere and as much energy efficiency as we can manage. When we first moved in, the light bill was actually less than the one at our old house which was half the size. AC runs nonstop in the summer but it doesn’t kill us.
To be fair I actually have no clue what my property taxes are. My wife handles all of that. Taxes are what she does for a living so I’m pretty hands off with it.
Definitely proud of my kids. One is a band director and the other teaches first grade. I’m very proud of them and they’re passionate about it, but teachers aren’t compensated nearly as much as they should be for what they have to deal with. Especially considering that money just doesn’t go very far anymore.