The problem with Texas is that it has seen all the California mistakes (sprawling single-family homes for miles) and decided it would be a good idea to repeat the same mistakes instead of building more dense to keep housing affordable.

I'm watching people brag on Texas unaware Texas's hardcore single family home mentality will cause the same issues we have in California.

Another problem is that all the new apartments are “luxury apartments” and the rents super high. So even the there is lots of new housing, it’s inaccessible to most people.

Building in is probably a better phrase than building up. You don't need to build tall building to increase density. Duplexes and townhouses can also increase density. Changing zoning is a pretty arduous process and will likely face strong NIIMBY action when existing zoning laws drive up property values putting strong incentives to resist change. Houston might be the Texas city that is best prepared for the future since do not having zoning. They do need to find a way to prevent people from building in floodplains though.

Austin has high Downtown employment density and the fastest growing population of the top 100 US metro areas. Had Project Connect not been watered down, its transit system would be second to only Seattle among the non-legacy transit cities.

One big difference is the big cities in Texas have unlimited room to sprawl in all directions. In California the largest cities are stuck between the Pacific and mountains. Housing prices started to soar when the last available farm land was converted to subdivisions.

Problem is, Texas will always be hot and ugly. California has some of the best natural beauty in the world. Snow capped mountains and dramatic coastline will always make California be a desirable (and premium) place to live.

As someone who has grown up in a suburb of Houston, I feel like I should mention that the suburbs are already building more apartments. Like if I go back to my parents’ place where I grew up, there are tons of mid-rise apartment buildings within a couple of miles or less that just were used to be empty fields when I grew up. The neighborhood I had when I was a kid was mostly single family residences and now has tons of apartments and businesses. Although ordinances do have some forms of building restrictions, they’re not nearly as restrictive as typical zoning is.

The realtors' mantra is, "Drive 'til you qualify." Except that no longer works when the additional cost of commuting is not made up for by the lower cost in housing. That's what happened to California, New York City, and Eastern Massachusetts.

Both Dallas and Houston have huge debt problems from their current low density development. Without significant infill (not just downtown) they're going to go bankrupt.

Is it just Texas short on housing? I feel like almost everywhere is short on housing and it’s probably because companies are buying all the single family homes and renting them out

You could replace “California” with BC and “Texas” with Alberta and it’s nearly the exact same thing except in a Canadian context

One big difference with Texas cities is that you can sprawl in all four directions. LA and SF are constrained by the Pacific Ocean and mountains.

The San Antonio Express did a comparison between Texas and California. SE compared everything from sales taxes, property taxes, utilities, etc. It's a myth that Texas is cheap to live in. I live in Texas. The climate is really getting nasty.

Correction: Austin City Council just passed a resolution this month (July 2023) to reduce the lot size that can be built on. The local news (KVUE) did a story on it, just before this video was published on YT. The housing issue is a mess in Metro Austin Area (where I live) and I'm glad steps are being taken to correct some of it. The sprawl cities need to make changes too.. It's already an issue since 2020 housing explosion. Our infrastructure can't keep up.

After coming back home (LA) from Seoul I was so mad that we couldn't have nice, affordable apartment buildings everywhere for families

well, since Houston metro area has over 7.7 million people and housing is still cheap, that poke a hole in the thesis that Austin and San Antonio (both around 2.5 mil) can't grow outward for at least for another 5 million people. I'm not from California. but an immigrant who came as a student from Shanghai, China. I would take Texas housing over high rise concrete jungles like Shanghai or New York any day. Sure, it might be more energy efficient to make people live in high density 30 story apartments, but make no mistake, it sucks.

WHEN THINGS ARE GOOD PEOPLE SHOW UP WHEN PEOPLE SHOW UP EVERYTHING GOES UP

Some major projects in Houston are helping alleviate some of the growing demand. East River is building a walkable community with apartments right outside of Downtown Houston with expansion of possibly adding 3k residence in the 150 acre area alone. Another area that has grown is the Autry Park area which will add another 670 residence in a 14 acre area. Density is happening in areas inside (or right outside) the 610 loop.

All cities should build up. Simply because most cities don’t have much land compared to their suburbs or rural areas. Eventually space will run out

I was born and raised in Texas but left in 1997. There's no way I would move back there. It's hot, crowded, and has sky high property taxes.

If there’s one thing I know about native Texans after living here for 13 years, it’s that they love being compared to California 😂

San Jose, CA was the original heart of Silicon Valley and formerly had a population of 1 million. 94% of its residential land is zoned exclusively for single family homes. With the land use policy as terrible as that, it's obvious why the Bay Area has such a terrible housing crisis that has bred toxic NIMBY-ism. As someone who grew in the SF Bay Area, please don't make the same mistakes we did. This style of development is completely unsustainable.

Terrific video!!!

It really only has to stay affordable relative to places like CA, NYC, etc.

you are missing the part where california charges arms and legs for permits and other government fees, driving up the cost of new builds dramatically. They dont want the housing problem solved, there is too much money in keeping the demand and prices high. a house built new in the mid 80s was 250k, now they sell for 1.3-1.5 million. if you "fixed" the housing issue, those values would drop

Important to clarify that by up you mean more dense, such as quads, duplexes, town homes or row houses those types of options as well as apartments? Personally I am moving onto a farm and do not want cities to keep eating them!

Missing the part with big brother government asking for 14% of your pay right off the top

My wife and I sold our house in Buda just south of Austin. We bought it in March 2017 and sold it in April 2023 at 67% more than what we bought it at. Our mortgage was about to jump $600 just from property tax. We moved to California to be closer to her parents, hopefully beating the rush of Californians moving back. 😂

Your dialogue is quieter than your music. Check your mix and use a compressor.

Thank you for covering Texas.

why Texas will become more expensive than California? one major reason is, California is going to become MUCH CHEAPER as people starts to move out, but if Texas is getting more expensive, people are going to stop moving in, I think there will be a cap of "eh, it's not worth it"

Rent for small high-rise downtown apartments in Dallas is anything but affordable. It's going to be more expensive than a mortgage on a 4 bedroom single family home in the suburbs and a vast majority of people will opt for the extra space. Another issue is that as the suburban sprawl increases employers choose office space further away from downtown (and closer to the CEO's suburban mansion) which pushes the commutable distance out further encouraging more sprawl (Toyota's US headquarters is in a far north suburb that is about 25 miles from downtown).

We don't seem to agree on societal land use , but you got a good channel, and I'm sad you got a low subscriber count, so I subscribed.

Think less "up" and more "in" dense housing can work beautifully with mid rise development. Like 5 stories high at a good density will get the jib done and keep the city at human scale.

As a native Texan, this disgusts me. And I’m one of those Austinites… Don’t vote your bad financial policies in our state. We are stubborn people with no patience regarding business. We are Texans first and Americans 2nd - and we are the only state to have been individual and hold that legal right (technically, it’s weird). Our farmers, military, mexicans (their country first), and the backwoods ppl don’t mess around - seriously. The backwoods folk follow the old ways. I avoid them tbh

I dont know about other cites but in Austin they reduced the buildable lot size to one third of what it was, and are allowing for more duplexes and triplexes to be built. Additionally they removed the requirements for apartments buildings to build out parking so they can build more units with no parking(which I dont fully agree with since it can make street parking a nightmare eventually but it will result in more apartments). Additionally, if you drive around Austin there are so many new construction condos/ 1 or 2 bedroom apartment complexes it is impressive. They even demolished a Goodwill and built a huge apartment building in its place lol. Dont worry the good will relocated to a different plaza.

Texas also has more small to large cities with high property taxes, which is higher than in California. This will either force texas to implement income tax or increase sales tax to keep up with population growth. The infrastructure can't pay for itself.

I don't think suburbs need to be transitioned to full-blown urban areas. The government could just invent a new category called "dual-family homes" and convert a large portion of the suburbs to that. A dual-family home would basically be one unit containing two houses stacked on top of each other. The government could also encourage home developers to focus more on townhomes by providing special incentives.

Dude Dallas is doing everything ass backwards. Redlining is still prominent today. They’re gentrifying Black and Brown neighborhoods without bringing in businesses and amenities. We have probably one shitty grocery store to service tens of thousands of residents. Rents are crazy high and that’s not factoring crime (in nicer areas) and poor management and management changing hands. Everybody has to travel north for everything which causes crazy traffic and pollution

Maybe Houston’s lack of zoning turns a head and the city favors to densify rather than sprawl. The market could buy up open lots and fill in the urban core. (Kind of already happening with the Downtown-Uptown-Med/Greenway corridor.)

I don't know about other cities in Texas but in the DFW area there is still lots of open land that is under a half hour drive without traffic from down town Dallas that can be developed into housing.

America's love for large single-family homes is crazy. Does family of 4 really need 5000 sq ft of space?! Should build more vertical homes, build more parks, conserve natural habitat and build less concrete roads. Houston is a road concrete jungle dependent on cars and long drives for daily needs.

No one is moving to Texas, to live in an apartment. So this issue will never be solved. Texas is destined to become California 2.

The issue is also these market based "solutions" we need sub market housing to be built. All units cannot be market rate and we also need apartments to be for sale not just rentals.

Housing is not difficult You put up 4 walls and wire some stuff. The middlemen bog down something as universal as shelter.

Can you do an update now that Austin has changed it's zoning laws to add more density? I am hopeful this is going to help out a lot.

The problem with building more dense housing is that the REASON people are moving to Texas is BECAUSE of the affordable Single Family Homes. Who will want to move there when the only people who can buy a piece of the American Dream there are the people who already have? That’s what’s causing the interstate migration from California in the first place: the hope of buying a SFH and putting down roots in a community. People can already live studio apartments in other cities. The allure of Texas is the allure of the affordable metro-adjacent suburb. The lack of protection from property tax increases as homes appreciate in the long term in Texas scare me. California has Property 13, which while it does create a pyramid scheme that disincentivizes older people from moving out of SFHs, also protects home owners from having the state auction their homes out from under them. I’ve heard horror stories of that happening to people in states like Texas and Florida.

Nice soundtrack!

Mistakes or not, it mostly depends on which side you’re in, homeowners or renters.

You can fit the city of LA and SF within Houston city limits.

As a Texas native, is it so sad to hear many Texans believe that they think the cost of living is increasing because of moving Californians. No, it is not because of Californians, that is just what happens when you have a growing population, but I will admit that people buying up housing is not helping, but non-natives are not the main reason for these price increases. If Texas really wants to fix its cities and cost of living, Texas would invest in reducing single-family homes and building a transit network that connects Austin, Houston, and San Antonio, and then including Dallas/Fort Worth afterwards.

I cancelled my house contract in DFW, after carefully studying monthly mortgage with all those taxes & fees, & a little bit of observation what's going on around the metro... obviously they are building non stop newly expensive communities and even the lines on DMV taking so long, I canceled the contract. I'm just not sure if its worth it i feel like it will end up where i come from in CA.

Given that Austin and Dallas in 2022 built more houses together than all of California, I doubt we’ll beat California prices for a while. The regulatory environment is much more friendly in Texas compared to California, so prices will move up slower here than they would in Cali because we can expand supply faster.

The flaw in your premise is that Texas cities are not constrained by geographical barriers and jobs aren’t concentrated in downtowns. Jobs are located adjacent to highways and that’s what drives the sprawl. For example Dallas is just a city in a massive metropolitan DFW area but most people don’t work in Dallas. Most jobs are outside of the dallas, in cities such as of Frisco, Addison Plano, Richardson, Irving etc. it’s not necessary to live near downtown dallas, or conmute there for work.

Great video! Explains everything very well!

High demand areas will always have high rent until supply meets demand. But we live in a real estate bubble in the U.S and would rather not build anything while over valuing the prices of current property. That causes rent to increase.

but the problem of city sprawling is the problem most of everywhere in ALL 50 States, more dense housing would mean less parking spaces per person, and would require much better public transportation, I always hope USA can have better public transportation, but I don’t see anywhere would have designs for public transportation, ( except NYC which is already unaffordable )

Lack of zoning will lead to a greater ease for supply to come online and reduce cost… Cali has way to many NIMBY’s… maybe Texas will eventually have the issue but areas like houstin without normal zoning should be able to adapt unless the new transplants change the laws to “fix” it

A huge factor that you missed is there’s no limit to the sprawl that Dallas can build housing. We’re not limited by any geographic factor (mountains etc..) nor political limitations..

Those homeowners and affluent persons that vote are keeping those zoning laws that way so their property values can increase.

Density = misery. People should develop building skills, otherwise there's no plug to stop this game of monopoly.

I’m still waiting for more cities to start pushing developers to build taller narrow lot houses to take up less space rather than continuing allowing for the waste of space on having an entire house worth of empty space between two already extra wide one story houses, that would double neighborhood capacity without even changing zoning lmao

Can't they have more than one business district with high density mixed development?

thank god i left wretched texas, and now live in california.

They won't even fix their electricity grid.

And salaries are pathetic and property taxes and insurance will wipe out any savings.. and you will deal with tornados, hot or cold weather only

They desperately need transit oriented “suburbs” that build around mass transit stations just outside of town

Texas is cheaper than California but also has less protection for its citizens. Example prop 13 in California means if you can afford your house now you should definitely be able to afford it in 20 years. In states like Texas with high property taxes that get reassesed each year you have no idea if you can afford your house in 20 in years because if people flood the state with out of state money you can get taxed out of your house pretty fast.

The minimum lot size is 76x76 in a city? That's completely insane.

As CNBC ranks states for business it ranks TX #6, but in the subcategory of best states for living, it ranks TX #50.

Lots of people moved to Oregon too.

At least Texas has far less mountains in the way and probably doesn’t have too many elites with countless rarely occupied vacation properties (except perhaps Hill Country)… but on the flipside, it appears just about everything in that state west of about US Route 281 is far drier than east of that particular line. Hopefully they do with that knowledge what they will. And hopefully hopefully if/when that increasingly overpopulated desert that is much of the entire Southwest (Arizona, Utah, Nevada, much less a lot of California) finally runs out of water, that the historically cost effective corners of Mid-America don’t become the next boutique city. Beautiful from the surface but pure hell on Earth going any further…

I cant wait to sell my house in Texas in ten years!!

Also building down into the Earth and make tunnels subways and roads go underground, and also connecting some buildings in the high rises

One angle, tho an interesting one. More videos could be made, the backstory, why Austin resisted really any change to its neighborhoods for years. The power of neighborhood associations to thwart development for years. Really beyond that Austin is, geographically, more like a town than a city. Maybe that is part of its charm.

We just sold our home in the Bay area for 1.2, and we can buy two huge houses in Texas cash for that, so we've been thinking of buying two homes and renting one out.

I’ve lived in Texas for twenty years and I think a weakness it has is the lack of vision. Often Texas just copies California. Texas has an identity of its own but that’s more rural / agricultural and it seems to not want go that route.

1:50 California major cities are restrained by natural geology such as mountains around LA or bodies of water and hills around San Fransisco when they started out with low density structures. There has been great opposition from the current residential real estate owners to open the land up to higher density housing. The extreme cost of residential real estate is killing California. Manhattan New York City was always known to be real estate restrained when you could walk across its entire width relatively easily. The only way to build for large companies was going to be massively vertically in Manhattan for more space. There are advantages in business to having quick access in elevator connected floors rather than a spread out campus, but it is generally more expensive to build and maintain. Most Texas cities don't have strong natural barriers to further outward growth such as California has with its large cities. Residential real estate around the major cities of Texas is in high demand causing higher prices, but there is no strong restriction on the availability of future land for real estate development. Real estate around Texas cities is fantastically lower priced compared to popular California cities. Many of the people moving to Texas are moving from those extraordinary expensive California cities and hardly notice ±$50,000 on housing cost where they are use to dealing with prices over $1 million. That makes Californians not averse to spending to what to Texan's would consider greatly excessive amounts for homes. That excess California cash and heavy demand for popular Texas city residential real estate is going to make for some large increases in Texas residential real estate prices. There is no expectation Texas higher priced homes are not selling as quickly as they can be made available. The market is very good for builders where they likely known they are experiencing a boom as people move away from expensive California cities with a bunch of excess cash from their past California residences. Although it should be seen a boom as Californians move to Texas that will tail off there should be prolonged steady growth. There is a huge issue with good public school environments for when people start seeing their kids get into the higher grades. On the whole kids that come from homes with some land appear to have a broader perspective than those that don't and especially if their parents own rather than rent their homes. Cities traditionally had private schools many parents would choose for their kids. Those private school tuitions are heavily paid for with some of the funds that would normally go for educating their kids in the public schools. Typically private school busing is also supported. In the suburbs private schools are not as necessary and lack close by population to make them as viable. This makes the public schools places of higher achievement compared to their higher density alternatives. It maybe young people prefer the gentrified higher density urban environment until they start to realize the public schools are not providing nearly the healthy environment for their kids they experienced when growing up. Private schools are the first alternative, but many of those alternatives age out as their kids get into higher grades. Higher density construction in Texas only makes sense for vertical connectivity for large organizations such as is done with elevator connected many story buildings. There is also the attractiveness of the overall structure that a tall building can offer. The actual need for very close proximity once travel was largely implemented by car has greatly been lost. Without a common grocery cart people find it easier to simply go to one big store such as Walmart or Costco rather than shopping a mall. That is also the case at the other end when supplies need to be carried into the residence. The desire is to minimize the distance between the car and where you are taking supplies. With an attached garage several trips between the kitchen and the car without needing to go outside can be done in a few minutes. With an apartment this is a significant task that frequently involves navigating tight spaces with a rickety vertically oriented cart or hand carrying. It's possible and convenient for the short distance from an attached garage to a kitchen to load up with as many plastic grocery bags as possible where one could likely make the distance even if holding one's breath, while a long distances require smaller much more involved movements and possibly in front of many neighbors. The noisy neighbor is really not that common with individual houses. Building individual family homes out where land is cheap allows monthly mortgage payments at below the cost of tenant apartment rent that are built to more expensive higher density. Higher density residences before private cars were common and refrigeration and food preservatives where not yet invented allowed critical services such as a bakery, butcher and small grocery stores to be within walking distance. Those were also expensive with little selection.

The amount of housing in Texas is literally unlimited. California is much smaller and surrounded by mountains and and ocean. Texas have large amount of lands.

If they are planning to build apartments to rent then people will loose out savings from home appreciation. The goal should be for everyone to have a home that’s paid of before retirement. Majority of monthly expenses goes towards Rent/mortgage, most people can’t afford to rent after they retire. Government shouldn’t allow for contribution of too many buildings that are for rental only.

There has to be sections of a city saved for Working Class families. With working-class prices. You can do whatever you want with the suburbs and rural areas. Since not everyone wants an urban lifestyle. But don't mess with the economic centers. Just like how West Palm Beach got annexed. And now they can't find workers for their Beach Resort.

You are not accounting for the fact that there are so many small cities and towns in Texas that are set to grow and become big. That means the sprawl means a new city center will be made every hour apart, so the commuting thing isn't an issue in Texas. See: dallas ft. Worth.

The expensive parts of CA are the coastal cities that have been built out after 80 years of people moving to there to enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery. TX has an extra Colorado sized flat buildable land areas around all the major cities to expand. Just go to Google maps on satellite view and look at all the development in the buildable areas around LA, San Diego, and San Francisco Bay area compared to the empty land around Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. Of course TX is building more there are 9 million fewer people in a state with a lot more buildable land. The only reason people move to TX is the low cost of housing otherwise there would be 9 million more people in TX than CA! If prices rise to anywhere near CA levels people will stop moving there.

Can't agree with your thesis. NY built up instead of out and still has high housing costs. I think the real issue is a bit more complicated than simply urban sprawl.

Oh boy! Apartments! Where you can rent for life instead of own...the new American dream

this isnt just happening in texas where they keep on building out instead of up. its happening in tampa, orlando, miami (somewhat), pheonix, charlotte, atlanta, and so many others. when will america learn that building a city for the car is not as good as building a city for the person. why do you think the most walkable cities in america and the most walkable neighborhoods in cities are in such high demand?

Nah we have a gazillion homes and apartments going up right now. We will be ok

Buildable land deserves to be built on. Texas has the land and needs to exploit it. Let the urban sprawl continue

The biggest problem in California is the overregulation and overreach in every area of the economy by the government. This includes housing. Even in the most strictest part of Texas, they don’t have the same zoning issues as California. Unless there is a radical shift in politics in Texas, I can’t see a reality where Texas gets close to the cost of living in California.

Ill say the problem isn't the government in California.....its the people. People are greedy. Our problem is NIMBYISM. People get into a house and immediately all they think about is their property value. And in that way of thinking they vote for people who won't force the high density projects through. I see it in the news all the time people at city council meetings absolutely pissed about the potential that their property value could be lowered or go up slower than it otherwise would. So people running the city stop the projects from happening. And like you said supply and demand kicks in. Texas won't see it until theres nothing within 2 hours or do from the city. That's how it happened in California. We kept building houses a bit further away from the major cities. Then suddenly people were ober bidding on anything remotely close. Because its overpay for a house or have a two hour commute each way 5 times a week. Personally ill be renting my whole life before i spend that much of my free time diving to work and back 🤷🏻

The state tax structure is very different. If property taxes remain high, Texas will not become like California. However, if property taxes are lowered and an income tax is implemented to offset any tax loss, then Texas could become more like California.

TX has a 3 year law which is extremely disturbing.

This also isn't unique to texas, and it also can't be solved by building up. What do texas cities, ATL, and Charlotte, NC have in common? They *were affordable and jobs are plentiful. Anywhere that people treat as a mecca is the same. NYC and LA are dense, but it's never going to be affordable.

Tornado alley is moving east and south due to climate change. We'll see how many people want to stay.

you say there is not enough housing yet Texas leads the nation in new construction.

As a Californian I have to disagree. The reason California is so expensive is that the state government has limited severely where new homes can be built. Texas has a lot of cheap land where development can continue for decades.

Yay! Got property in TX and gonna buy more.

Affordability would be not letting the working class fall behind for 35 years because politicians cozy up to to rich and the corporations. Easy to calculate the discrepancy. Now there will be pain and disruption.

Yes