Was playing out at my poor man's CC in a tournament yesterday morning and was amazed by all the $1.5-2.5M homes having gone up in the past 4-6 weeks. Got me wondering and thinking to myself and even asking my playing mates, "What are these folks doing to drop multiple millions on housing and even on ranches". My buddy's response was that many are Old HP $$$$ that send their kids to Ursuline, Jesuit or Hockaday wanting to reside closer to those schools. Another theory was also CA $$$ is the cause. As a person living a middle to upper middle class lifestyle, makes me feel that I got into the wrong line of education and business, lol.....

Power people in Fortune 500 companies and legacy money!

I have a buddy, just built a 30 million dollar house, right next to Dirk. I was thinking the same, I know what he does and what Dirk does. What do all these neighbors do ?

He had a catered “come and go” for neighbors. I was surprised that about 70 percent were doctors. Next door neighbor is plastic surgeon, couple other type of surgeons mixed in. A couple were just old money, running businesses their families started.

I feel like I’m living well but have no concept of a million dollar home much less multi million.

All these companies moving here have very wealthy bigwigs moving right along with them.

Idk but all the big money people I personally know live in 2000 square foot homes on anywhere from a section to about 1000 acres. For some reason none of them live in homes like that

All business owners

Because land is worth more in the long run?

Idk I think it’s more of a country people/city people thing

These are all country people I know

None of those you would never know it by how they live or dress

Seems city folk like you to know it more than the ones from the country do

Hell the wealthiest of those looks poor as hell if you saw him at Wal Mart lol

Yeah I didn't know, that's why I put a question mark there.

I have been livimg in the country for quite a long time. I find there are two types of people that move to the country. Some people live outside of the cities because they want to. They enjoy being by themselves, are sociable, but tend to live their lives fairly private. Then the other type live in the country because they have to. They can't function socially and don't play well with others. They tend to be druggies and don't make good neighbors. The good thing about the bad neighbors is they don't seem to last long. Trouble follows them and they move frequently.

I don't want to live in the country. I have land in the country so I have a place to get away from the rat race on occasion. Putting in a covered RV pad and fenced grass area for the dogs this spring.

Great one upper potential here

Because those house were at one time $5-600 thousand

Not all of them living in town are "Doing it" I ran a Handyman business as a side gig for 15 years in Frisco, Plano, McKinney, Allen, etc.
I'd go into 4-5K sq. Ft. homes and people were living on card tables, beds sitting on the ground with minimal furniture.
Things looked good from the outside, but not so good inside.

You are in a good place. Real success is knowing when you have enough.

I believe the OP was at a country club golf course. That’s the natural environment for million dollar homes.

That is an old part of Farmers Branch with a lot 1,800'- 2,500' homes built in the late 60's or early 70's around Brookhaven Country Club's golf course.
Even the small old house with small lots outside of the golf course area to the south and west are bringing stupid money, good for the old folks that are selling!

I would bet back in the 60’s and 70’s people who didn’t live there were thinking about how those folks did it. I understand it’s not Colonial but it’s still a golf course.

Correct, correct, just wondering how so many are building new $1.5-5M homes well into 40s-60s and at same time buying $2-5M ranches, that kind of coin puts them in top 1-2% of USA and it's not 1-3, it's lots of them. Are they cashing all out and highly leveraged or just growing it in backyard on their $$$$ tree?

There are a lot of 2 income families now with some making combined high 6 and low 7 figure incomes. 50 years ago mom stayed home.

I'm guessing they are on their 3rd or 4th house, they keep paying it off, and then upgrade. Meanwhile their income keeps growing.....

Well there you go, millionaire salay folks buying multi-million dollar toys, that must be it! The top 1/2-1% upper crust of society, lol....

So true on MANY levels.

lol. The handyman nailed iit.

I think that helps.

many folks have made good coin in the stock market abd DFW land rush

Most of those preexisting houses (ie not new) were half price or less 5 years ago. There will be a property tax reckoning soon for this point alone

Great point! Look at the Bitcoin rush! Admins are now multi-millionaires!

There is a third type. Not me as i fit the first category you described and added to that i have never in my 60 years lived in town and could not abide the stink and racket. The 3rd type though is near and dear to my heart as it where i come from. This type is actual down to earth salt of the earth farmers. I come from a family of farm people that are not private and are very plugged in and active in their community and many of my relatives are this. My parents who are in their 90s still live this way. They don't farm anymore per say but they are very social, plugged in and connected to their rural community and they know everyone and everyone knows them. They still live on their own in a little bungalow on the 3 section farm where my dad settled in 1955. He still puts around the farm doing whatever he wants - blowing snow or moving bales around and the family respects that as he has earned it (but the corporation that he founded and that he still owns actually owns the farm and has hired hands that do all the real farming on the original farm plus various other places he acquired over the years). He is also a classic rags to riches man as we came from nothing straight off the boat from Holland after WW2 and went from hand to mouth with no running water in my childhood to basically affluent by the time i hit my 20s. No idea what my old man is worth and don't care as i have charted my own course but i know he loves driving his Cadillac around the fields to give guests tours. He is 93 and just passed his mandatory road test that is required for someone his age in our part of the world. My mom just passed hers as well and she is 90. It's great for them but not sure i would get in a vehicle if either one of them is driving - just saying.

Love it.

Same here in Houston, there 1-2 million dollars houses everywhere. How is there enough people with the required salaries to own all of these homes?

300+ annually and a paid off house could get you into a 1-2 million dollar house pretty easily.

That’s a great question. Had a neighbor who sold his place, doesn’t make a lot of money (public info, govt employee) but he’s about to mortgage a 800-900k property. He doesn’t come from money, he’s borrowed money in the past from other neighbors and he didn’t make a bucket of money on the sale of his previous property. I think it’s a mixture of folks like previously mentioned and others that are making poor financial decisions and banks allow it.

My best friend lives in the Bluffview area of Dallas with his girl, their house is $10m. The art in the house is probably over double that. Her parents live on around 18 acres on Strait and their house is over $35m. They are oil and gas money.




$30m home he is doing something big to make it in the top 10 most expensive homes in DFW, hell Dirks house is only around $9m....

My AC guy told me this exact same thing. One in particular that I always remember was a huge multi million dollar home in HP/UP. He said the outside was beautiful, inside had nearly zero furniture. His firm required the partners to host at their homes every so often, So this guy would pay to rent and stage his home. All a facade.

After you have the basics in life, plus more, what else do you need?
A good home, food, decent clothes and a vehicle, decent healthcare, some savings for the future.
I grew up in affluent North Dallas. Got a good education, learned how to work and have lifelong friends. Have a great family, love my kids and wife.
But I’ve seen wealth cripple a lot of people, some lost their lives.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve done very well but our priorities were never the accumulation of more and more.
Money is just money and things, just things.

Count your blessings.

Less than 1% of Americans have their home paid off, regardless of what it costs.

I used to be a real estate agent and the amount of people who would stretch their budgets to the absolute limit was astounding. Not because they had to, I could get that, but because they wanted to. "I'm a North side kind of girl," etc. Paying double or triple the prices of nicer older homes just to be in a vinyl sided box on the "rich side of town." I never understood it.

I know oilfield and federal guys that can't even be at home, because the only way they can make it is by working holidays/nights/overtime. Making 200k doesn't help when you spend 250k.

^^Yep, 'house of cards. The ones that are the loudest about how much money they have are lying through their teeth.

Correct, Ese oversimplifies the scenario some, quite a bit. Debt servicing on a $2M+ home at 300K salary is extremely leveraged and I did also indicate simultaneous purchasing of multimillion dollar ranches too.

You misunderstood, the guy said 1-2 million..... I said 300+ annually. A paid off house that someone bought in their 30s for 350k could very easily be worth 600+ 20 years later. Put 600k on 1m house, and finance 400k on 300k annually is easy. The reason i said 300+ annually is you'll need more like 400k for 1.5m, and 500k for the 2 mil house

Been in over 10 thousands or more homes in the area

Never seen that before......

RedRanger, what is their secret sauce, again I'm talking new builds at today's pricing, $2-5M new builds, additionally buying $2-5M+ ranches too. Is this mostly just top 1-2% wealth I'm seeing, the upper crust or something other than that?

People work and make bank is what is going on, and probably double incomes as well.

Cheap houses in our area are a thing of the past, Texas was known for forever where you could get a great deal on a house.

Pre pandemic small homes were was going for $200K, Now of days it is $500K for a Single Story 1800 Sq ft home in my area.

I am amazed at how high house have climbed since the Recession of 2008.

$6 million for this one, It is pretty amazing

https://www.redfin.com/TX/Frisco/13...EthYjUaIqI6qiuu5MGezQBN8uTxoC798QAvD_BwE

I'm not disagreeing with S.A. at all, he is correct when it comes to people rolling equity into bigger properties. I was only quoting him to point out how few of these scenarios are actually doing that, at least down here in Laredo.

We have the highest amount of accounts in collections in the state, but you wouldn't think it when you see all the baby mamma beamers and benzs scooting around, raptors, trxs, etc. The people down here are terrible with money. 100k/yr is life changing for a lot of folks I grew up with, but you have guys that can't even make it with that. It's almost always due to overleveraging on loans.

I'm not rich by any means, but I owe very little, so my modest income goes a long way for my lifestyle.

Is Regency still the Big Baller hood like it used to be? Closer to the loop?

Regency is still up there for sure, but there are some newer spots that are asking 500k for a 20k square foot lot, which is insane to me.

The top 1% income has jumped up to $788k with top 5% 290k

1.5 mill w/ 20% down is 9k a month
1 mil w/ 20% down is 6k a month

300k x28% is basically 7k amount based on 28/36 rule… so over a million in mortgage ability

North of the loop?

Yes sir, there are a few gated communities scattered in there.

As Marty Robbins sang, I was from The Streets of Laredo.

Lot of .10 cent millionaires around me, they do not worry about what it costs, just want to know how much the payment is. Most of them could not survive a month without a paycheck, one ol boy makes 300k a year and told me he was in debt for over a million dollars. He had to finance the tires on his Escalade.

We will be moving in around two years, to the coast, valley, or Laredo area..... so I've been looking.

No shizzle Ese, have lived in all 3 if you ever want my perspective on them...

There's a couple of those on here.

I've lived in Corpus and Laredo, S.A. when I was very young. You couldn't pay me to go anywhere that big these days.

Laredo is expensive for what we are, and the highest taxes with the most worthless local government you've ever seen. Takes 3 of them just to work up an appetite. I'd be looking down towards Edinburg where you can still get nice plots of land with homes for a respectable price. I'm moving out towards Cuero in the next couple of years, if I can, love small town Texas.

We won't have a choice, but if I could choose, it would be 30-50 acres and a house in the Victoria area, or on a channel with a boat lift somewhere in the C.C., Rockport area. My son was looking in the Ed area and he was amazed at what he could afford down there. The valley would be my third choice, and Laredo would be my last. Time will tell.

I don’t know what to tell you. I have an Aunt and Uncle that have lived in Allen for decades. Used to call it McKinney when I was a kid but I guess it’s Allen now. They had to apply for some type of special homestead deal or they would have been forced out of their home over the cost of taxes. I believe they have neighbors with homes in the million dollar range with no property, just a typical 1/4 acre lot.

I remember jumping on the trampoline and eating peaches fresh off the tree in their back yard when i was a kid, and I could see forever and there were no homes in view behind them. Now it is the complete opposite.

if you were lucky to invest in tech stocks from the 90s 2000s, amazon, meta etc ....

you can buy multi mil house with change left to last til death

Exactly. We went on a fishing trip turned short boat tour due to weather at Hilton Head years ago. The houses were a real eye opener as to the wealth in this country. 'Guide said most of them were 2nd homes. I seriously doubt there were many mortgages.

I think all of the above is true. That said, I don't think we should shortchange the folks that are not "old money", didn't make it on stocks and bitcoin, aren't overleveraged, but actually worked their rear ends off along the way to earn it. Folks may not agree with how they are spending it, but that falls in the NUNYA category

Lots of people have found out ways to make lots of money.

Instead of wondering “how are they doing it”, ask yourself “ how can I do this”?

Ese, born and lived in Laredo, lived in S.A., Harlingen, and C.C. Played Victoria in HS sports. Don't think you'll find as much as at S.A. but some nice about ea. of them. Good folks, eats and hunting in Laredo, good eats, folks, business ops. in The Valley, good seafood and slower pace of lifestyle in C.C. Victoria reminds me of C.C. minus the beach/Bayfront and more African Americans since a lot of share cropping was there in 1800s into 1900s. In 80s into mid 90s, Victoria had really good HS football and baseball, still decent. Rockport is like C.C. but smaller scale and more seafaring type community.

Laredo is actually the city with the highest rate of success for new businesses in the entire state according to studies done by the A&M Real Estate Research Center. Corpus has gotten... dirty? I don't know how to put it. The city is just visibly dirty whenever I go out there to visit my mother.

You tell Mr. Butts I said to send you to Cuero so you can enjoy some peace and quiet.

Agreed. Live in Corpus from 70-83, it was always kinda dingy and still is. Heavy port industry combined with heavy, stagnant dews many mornings just leaves grime a lot of places. And while it's a coastal city, it doesn't get all that much rainfall to wash things off routinely. Lots of mold/mildew as well.

I used to work a bit in corpus.

It’s just a grimey place. Cant think of many redeeming qualities about the town myself.

You can dump trash into the bay and no one will notice?

I noted seafood and slower pace, about all I could come up with and I lived there 15+ years growing up, lol.....

Agreed

"Hang out with four drug addicts, you will become the fifth. Hang out with four millionaires, you will become the fifth."

i'll take the fifth.

Some made it outside of their career. A few rental properties and 2-3 really good stock plays can put you way ahead of the day job that people know you for. A career with a great company keeps you relevant, insured, engaged with peers.........so even if you don't need it, you're still a working man.

Lol, I'm thinking Rockport, or Mustang island/Padre island, I think we'll skip over AP, Ingleside, and CC

You still won’t catch a keeper red - unless I come down. If to be, she’d better be wearing a short golf skirt.