Telfair Phase II

[rama]

All the builders are giving substantial incentives and price reductions in Telfair Phase II. 3-4 months ago, same builders did not have time to meet us. now they are giving great discounts. What am I missing in this picture? We are looking to buy a house in Telfair.

[chuckie]

Wow. That is quite a change. Why sort of incentives and discounts are they giving?

All the builders are giving substantial incentives and price reductions in Telfair Phase II. 3-4 months ago, same builders did not have time to meet us. now they are giving great discounts. What am I missing in this picture? We are looking to buy a house in Telfair.

[Houston456]

It appears the initial hype is not anymore. For Phase I, I have been told that there was a night camp-out on the Pre-opening sales starting day infront of Meritage Home since they have $260K houses. During the second phase all of them jacked up the prices by 10-15% eventhough there are clear indications are Houston market is coming down.

Also, all those flippers who bought in Telfair on Phase I, thinking that they can sell to someone else before closing, is having a hard time to sell it and builders are forcing them to close.

(Most) realtors and builder agents try to create the impression that Housing market is safe here. Also, 'you-are-throwing-away-money-if-you-are-renting'. Also, 'you-are-losing-out-on-equity'. 'You-are-losing-huge-tax-benefits'.

All nonsense.

A city-by-city study conducted by fortune mag tells that a $304K house today would be valued $308K AFTER five years.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/price_rent_ratios/

That is 0.2 percent appreciation per year.

What is the MONTHLY expense for MITI(Maintenance,Intrest,Tax and Insurance) to get a 0.2 % ANNUAL EQUITY ? LOL !!

[icon7]

Trying to "Time" the market and "locate" a house is getting to be stressful, but fun. The last 6-8 months has been interesting for my wife and me. We were getting advice to move to West U or Bellaire, so that her commute (and mine) would be 10 minutes at most. I just did not like the idea of spending 15K+ a year to send a kid(s) to private school (when we have them), having only a 2 car garage option, or having a 5500-8000 SF lot where I can reach out the window and lean into the neighbor house.

After seeing the custom homes in Telfair, we decided that we will probably build a custom home...unless, a few home we have seen in Avalon or Sweetwater come down in price. (or a new one hits the market that we like). I think while most of the other sections of Telfair have slowed a bit and there are some great incentives...there really was not a "cookie" cutter home we liked or one that the builder was willing to make slight changes to for our liking.

It looks like almost all the lots in the Custom home section in Telfair are sold out. I really did not think the 1.16M "spec" home would sell so quickly, but I saw a sold sign and a moving truck this past weekend while driving through. Well I guess my next step is to talk to both custom builders to see what they can do for us. Keeping fingers crossed. The lots that are remaining are all between 14,000 sf and 20,000 sf. Nice and big!