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$259,800 Dallas, TX
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Everything you need to know about Dallas real estate
FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPTION:
- Okay, it looks like we are live! K.C., how are you today?
- Good, how you doing?
- I'm doing fantastic. I wanna welcome everybody for joining us today. My name is Scott Fuller, founder of LeavingTheBayArea.com, and you are tuning into our market insider series where, every week, we travel the country visiting some of the more popular places that we are seeing Bay Area residents relocate to. Super-stoked today, we are traveling south, we're going to Dallas, Texas! And my guest today is K.C. Mckeown with eXp Realty. K.C., thanks for joining me today.
- Absolutely, thank you for having me.
- Awesome! So, looking forward to getting some great information. If you haven't joined one of these webinars before, we're gonna cover a lot of content in what I hope to be 45 minutes. It's gonna be everything from housing to employment to recreation, climate, a lot of different things. We're gonna try to get as much info in as possible. We've got a couple of ways you can communicate with us, we'd love to keep this interactive. If you have any questions, there's a Q&A window that you can raise your hand and ask a question. We'll answer those live. There's also a chat feature, where you can chat, and we'll answer those questions live as well. So, feel free to keep the questions coming in. And, K.C., so, again, you are the expert in Dallas. Tell us just a little bit about yourself and how you ended up in Dallas, 'cause we're talking to a lot of people who are maybe considering going to Dallas. You've been there and done that, so I think your info's gonna be really helpful to us.
- Absolutely. Being prior military, I'm actually from Washington State originally, lived in California, the southern part of California down in San Diego for the military, and then grad school is actually what took me to Texas. Not originally Dallas. I've kinda lived a couple areas, for college as well as lived in San Antonio. Eventually wound up in Dallas, kinda where I wanted to be, and I've been here for a decent amount of time now. But definitely not your traditional individual who's, you know, born and raised in Dallas, so. I've seen what it's like to live in other states and other cities, and I can tell you first and foremost, Dallas is where it's at.
- And sometimes it's good to have that background, right? 'Cause, like you said, some people are born and raised somewhere. They love where they're at, but they may not have anything else to compare it to. So, it's like, you coming from the military, having a background of seeing a lot of places, gives you a lot of ways to compare.
- Absolutely, absolutely. No, when I was kind of settling down in terms of where I wanted to end up, I knew it was somewhere in Texas and had my sights on Dallas. Things just didn't work out initially to where I was in Dallas from the get-go, but, you know, I did get here, and, you know, I'm gonna be staying, so.
- Yeah, you're there for good. That's awesome. So, tell me a little bit, so, as far as your business, now, we have, you know, again, we talk to a lot of people in a lot of different areas across the country. I'm sure you work with quite a few people who are relocating out of state into the Dallas area. What percentage of people that either you work with, or you see coming into the area, would you say, or people buying houses, are coming from out of the Dallas area?
- So, actually, relocation's a big part of my business. I do help folks from all over the country. Actually just helped a Marine move from Spain to Texas, so, helping people from even outside the country move to Texas. But I do get a lot of folks that are obviously moving for jobs. You know, probably say about 90% of relocations to our area are job-related. Obviously, there's other circumstances that come into play as well in terms of everything that's offered here. Obviously, cost of living is substantially low here comparatively to, you know, all your other big metroplexes in the country. And a lot of that is, you know, as you're broadcasting here live today, a lot of it is coming from California.
- Yeah, and is that southern and northern California, or are you seeing more people coming from SoCal?
- Yeah, so, one of the ones I'm gonna be speaking about in terms of houses today in a particular location in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that, you know, I see a lot of growth in, that individual was actually moving from, so, I was stationed in Pendleton, which is about 45 minutes north of San Diego, and I was actually helping them move from the Oceanside area, which is, you know, about 45 minutes north of San Diego, to North Fort Worth, so.
- Got it. And so the people that you're... What's that?
- It's probably a mix of, just, I don't, not necessarily a lot of northern California, but definitely southern and central California I get a lot of folks moving.
- And we'll talk a little bit more into detail when we get into, kind of, the industry and the employment. There's a lot of companies who are moving, you know, their employees there. So, some of the areas that we talk about, we represent, it's maybe more of a retirement destination? Sounds like Dallas might be a little bit less of a retirement destination, and maybe a little bit more of people are going there looking for, you know, new job opportunities. Is that fair to say?
- Well, there's gonna be, 'cause I actually have helped a handful of folks that have retired out of the Dallas area, and are still staying in the Dallas area, they're just moving from the area that they're in to a 55 and up community.
- Got it, okay.
- We do have, we do have a handful of those. And, obviously, the size of our metroplex, you're gonna have folks that are retiring in the area, for sure.
- Absolutely. Okay, good. Well, let's dive into this. I think what people are really interested in learning about, myself included, is, if you are cashing out of, you know, California, and let's say, you know, you've built up a certain amount of equity over time, got maybe $500,000 or $600,000 to work with that you're taking with you to Dallas. What is that going to get you? So, give us maybe some examples of, you know, how far is that gonna go? Am I gonna have to get a mortgage? Can I buy some for cash? What are my options?
- So, before I did, before I moved to Texas, I lived, for the majority of the time I lived in Seattle and I lived in southern California. I never really had any visions of owning a home. Obviously, I was in my early to mid-20s and still in college and starting my career. But owning a home was just not something that was ever even considered. Now, moving to Texas, you know, for the most part, outside of, you know, certain areas of the larger metroplexes, and, you know, maybe one particular city, the cost of living here is just, you know, substantially lower for getting. You know, if you're sitting on $500,000 to $600,000 in equity, and you're moving from California, you can, honestly, you can get just about anything and everything you want. You know, I, obviously there's going to be homes that have, you know, a much higher price range than that, but I do know, you know, and you can, you're the expert in San Francisco, you can, you know, tell me what you can get in San Francisco for $500,000 to $600,000 versus here, you know, you're getting...
- No, the answer is nothing.
- Here, you can get, you know, your turnkey, two or three year old home that's 3000 square feet, five bedroom, 4 1/2 bath in one of the nicest school districts in the entire state of Texas.
- Awesome. And I know you're gonna kinda talk about, you know, some of the higher growth areas, more popular communities, let's get into that a little bit about, you know, what people, what's popular there and what can you get for the price.
- Yeah, so the, there's, I mean, it's tough to say in north Texas in terms of, you know, narrowing down just one area that is growing faster than other areas, because, honestly, there's more growth in the Dallas-Fort Worth area as a whole than, you know, probably, it's probably in the top three areas in the country in terms of most growth. So, I'm gonna go ahead and jump over to, share my screen here and jump over to a map, and kinda just run through
- Awesome.
- Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, just to give people that are watching a little bit better of an idea. So, we're looking here at the entire metroplex, here you have Dallas-Fort Worth. A lot of the growth, as you can see here on the map itself, you don't see much up in the Justin/Northlake area. Obviously, you can see it's a little lighter here. However, in the north side of Dallas, it's all dark up until you hit about Prosper. And I'm gonna zoom in here just a little bit. Growth has basically stopped, in terms of north Frisco and Prosper. Anything around this 380 freeway here. The only downside to 380 is it's not an Interstate, it's not, like, a tollway, where you've got Dallas North Tollway here, you've got Interstate 35. All of those are pretty well-developed. 35 is trying to get there. 380 does, has, everything around 380 has built up so fast that it's trying to play catch-up, essentially. So, at this point, growth is really in the north side of Frisco, and anything along this 380 corridor, especially in Prosper. Prosper is growing substantially in terms of growth rate. I mean, they're talking about it's almost double, more than doubled since 2014. So, you know, in the last five years, the city itself has more than doubled. Average price point in this city, Prosper, you're looking, it's gonna be a little bit higher-end, you're gonna be looking at a price point in the low to mid 400s. Frisco, obviously, I'm sure if people are looking in the north side of Texas, they've definitely heard of Frisco. Frisco at one point, if not still, was the fastest-growing city in the entire country. So, you've got Frisco, actually in Frisco, there is a retirement community that I'll be going into a little bit later as well. Then, on the Fort Worth side of things, if you scoot over here to Fort Worth, Fort Worth hasn't grown out as far as north. Obviously, this is 380 right here, this is really country. There's nothing built out here yet, but if you go along 380 and you see the Dallas side of things, it's completely being built out and built that further. My guess over the next 10 to 20 years is your north side of Dallas is going to be just like your north side of Fort Worth in terms of growth. But right now, you're seeing a lot of growth in Roanoke. Roanoke is one of the better areas of north Fort Worth. You hit Southlake, Grapevine, Coppell right here, are gonna be your, probably, these three school districts right here, Grapevine-Conleyville ISD, Southlake ISD, and Coppell ISD are gonna be your top three, probably, of the five school districts in the entire state of Texas. Obviously, cost of living is gonna be quite higher here. What looks great as well, though, Roanoke has a little bit lower price point in terms of, comparatively to Prosper. You're probably looking in the 300s, three to mid-threes in terms of average home value. With that being said, I'm gonna show you a house today that's, you know, much higher than that. But you'll be able to see what your money can get you.
- So, if you're basically a family who's moving there for a job, and you have kids, and you're saying we want something that's gonna be in a good school district, you can get in some of those areas, and you can be able to get sometthing $300,000 to $400,000 in a good school district?
- Yeah, yeah. So, there's, you know, me, I didn't go too much into detail, obviously, being prior military and being in the Marine Corps myself. I actually started teaching in Dallas, that was my first job. So, school districts, I'm very well-rounded in terms of what school districts, you know. Obviously, myself, I had to teach at them as well.
- Right, right.
- I taught at Coppell ISD, which was one of the better districts in the state, and was a great opportunity. I was just given a better opportunity to pursue real estate. But, you know, your top tier school districts, I mean, you can get in for low 300s in terms of a good house.
- That's awesome.
- You know, and get you in a great school district for, you know, even maybe high 200s in the north Fort Worth area. So, you're definitely, you know, a lot of bang for your buck for sure in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
- Awesome.
- And, in terms of, we're gonna jump back here on the maps here, just one other area I wanted to kind of jump on. So, jumping over to the Dallas area. So, in terms of affordability, a lot of people that are coming into town are working downtown. So, initially, we had a lot of growth in McKinney. McKinney's about as far north as growth has happened in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. A lot of people are realizing that McKinney to downtown, with traffic, is over an hour, so they want to get closer to downtown. And within the 635 loop, if you're working downtown, the 635 loop is definitely a normal commute. And by normal commute in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, we're talking 15 to 30 minutes. You know, not...
- [Scott] So is, so just, you know, just to have fun with this, an hour commute, which I assume is rush hour, that's considered a long commute. Is that right?
- [K.C.] Yes, yes, people are moving over an hour commute.
- [Scott] It's all relative, right, K.C.? So, I've got 20 minutes, I've got, okay. That's probably an average commute here, maybe pretty good for an average commute here, so.
- [K.C.] Yeah, yeah, which is why a lot of.
- [Scott] People get in closer.
- [K.C.] Yeah, a lot of the out of state buyers are buying in McKinney, and then they realize that, you know, and you can still get a lot of house in McKinney, but you can probably get a similar, it's just gonna be an older home, you know, near the 635 loop, and you're gonna cut your commute, you know, by 2/3, and you're gonna have a lot more proximity to everything. Not that there's anything wrong with the 380 corridor in McKinney and Frisco up here, 'cause there absolutely is plenty to do up there, but if you're working closer to downtown, a lot of people are trying to be within the 635 loop. Which, you know, you're hitting Farmers Branch, Carrollton, Addison, Richardson area. It's getting less and less affordable, and, you know, when I'm saying affordable in north Texas, it's much different than, you know, California. This 635 loop here, you're getting a lot of people that are coming in here and completely renovating homes and turning them around and selling them for, you know, your threes and fours, which are, you know, what people are wanting to be at just because of the location.
- Yeah. Given some, I know that you have some examples of some properties in a couple of those different areas, like, you know, what can you get for what price and square footage and that sort of thing?
- Well, I kinda explained a little bit in terms of the areas, and I'll jump over to, kind of, pictures, and I'll jump from pictures to the map so people can kind of correlate where the pictures are coming from in relative to the map. So, we're gonna jump over here to the first house that I have that I actually mentioned before. These four pictures are actually out of Roanoke. So, this house, this individual was moving from an area, Oceanside, California, like I was mentioning before, a little bit north of San Diego. They were coming from an older home, had a significant amount of equity, but they weren't in the area, I think they sold their house for probably 700, and they were looking to move to the area for work. But where they were at, just, you know, rough school district, it was close to the ocean, which was nice, but definitely was nowhere near the stature of this home. So, this house, the front here, got your open living space, came with a game room. Total stats on this, you're talking 3000 square feet, a four bedroom, 3 1/2. Did have a three-car garage, as you can see here. HOA is pretty standard in a lot of the communities here in the suburbs, but you're talking a very reasonable HOA of, you know, about $600 a year. So, still very reasonable. On top of the four bedrooms, you actually have, like I said, a whole game room and an office. So, technically, you know, whatever way you wanna look at it, it could be up to six bedrooms.
- [Scott] It's a lot of rooms, some very usable space.
- Absolutely. So, this, you know, I'm gonna jump back over to the map here and show you, I know I mentioned where Roanoke was, but to give you an idea. So, this house over in Roanoke was in probably one of the nicer communities in Roanoke, and it was under $500,000. They purchased it for 495. So they were still able--
- Okay, so 495, okay. That looks like a newer home, right? Really good condition,
- Yeah, three years old.
- [Scott] looks newer, yeah.
- So, it's three years old, they were able to move to a three year old home from, I think their house in California was built in the '80s, and it was, you know, not necessarily in the best condition, but they had plenty of equity to purchase this house here. I think they bought it, I believe they used a majority of their equity and then were able to still, you know, pocket, you know, six figures from the purchase of their, I mean from the sale of their house in California. So, you know, in terms of position with cost of living and what they're able to move in here, it's been, you know, a blessing for them. So, and then jump back over to the next set of pictures here. And this next house is actually in Frisco. I was the listed agent on this house. An individual was actually moving out of the retirement facility to an assisted living facility. I helped the son sell his father's house. This is gonna be a, you know, significant amount less, in terms of price point, but you're still getting in a very private, gated community up in Frisco. The name of this is actually Frisco Lakes by Del Webb. So these two pictures--
- So that's the 55-plus Del Webb community in Frisco.
- Yeah, yeah. So, this was a 55 and up community. In terms of the community itself, most of the houses, including this one, in retirement communities are two bedrooms. So you have two bedrooms and an office, typically. And this is running you a little over 300. So, you know, not nearly as much as the house that we just saw in Roanoke. You are, you're not, and obviously in this picture, you're not backing up to the golf course, but this is a private golf course community with a clubhouse, restaurant and bar, pro shop. You've got a clubhouse that's over 28,000 square feet. So there's a lot there to do. And location-wise, I'll show you on the map where that is, as well as where another community is. So, over up in the Frisco Lakes area, you're gonna be, you're really gonna be in almost Little Elm, but you're gonna be over, essentially, this side of Frisco's where Frisco Lakes is gonna be. And, again, it's a 55 and up community. Great place to be in terms of location. A lot of people do retire there, but still have family and friends in the area that they want to stay close to. Frisco's very central for a lot of families in the suburbs, so being able to retire in the Frisco area is convenient for a lot of retirees. And they're still building new construction in the area, so you do have the option to go that route as well.
- I was gonna ask you about that. So, Frisco's obviously, we hear that, you know, that name quite a bit, and how many units, do you know how many units there are in that particular, Del Webb?
- Not off the top of my head. You're probably talking high hundreds. You know, it'd be pushing it to say thousands, but a pretty good-sized community of, you know, probably 600 homes. And they're still building, so it's tough to say, you know, when they're building out.
- You can buy resale in there, you can probably buy new construction. And then what's the general price range if somebody's looking at it saying, 'cause obviously Del Webb is one of the more popular, you know, communities in most cities. What type of price ranges are we looking at from, like, maybe the condo and town home up to, you know, the higher end, single families?
- Yeah, so this was actually, this home that he, or that I sold was one of the earlier homes in the community, and initially they built some really, really high-end, luxury, just the, you know, everything about the house was higher-end. So it'd probably, you're ranging probably, on houses similar to this, you know, mid 300s. But you also, they're also building some pretty basic, you know, homes for people to retire in. You know, people don't necessarily need, if they're in a golf course community, they don't necessarily need, you know. Most of these houses are being bought cash. You know, so, there are some homes definitely in the 200s as well, and there's, I'd probably start mid to high 200s, and range all the way up to, you know, your fours and fives.
- Yeah, so there's really something for every budget, and a lot of people, you know, especially retirees, they're coming in saying, "We don't want something "that's 2500 square feet. "We want less!" Right, to take care of and to maintain, and so, you know.
- This one was roughly 1900 square feet. So it's a two bedroom, two bath, with an office. So, it's still a good size for a retired couple to move in, and it's not, it's not 3000 square feet like the house in Roanoke that I was just going over.
- Show us the other properties. I think you have a couple other properties?
- Yeah, yeah, so we'll jump back over here. All right, so, scrolling down here a little bit more. I did want to say, these, actually, these are renderings that just came out this week of PGA Golf. So, PGA Golf has actually bought over 2000 acres in the north side of Frisco that cusps that 380 corridor that I was speaking of. Over the next 10 to 20 years, this is essentially what they're hoping to get in terms of a whole new community. Obviously, this is just all land right now. They're talking over 2000 acres, and it's gonna be multi-use, commercial, residential. This is gonna be--
- Plenty of golf courses, I would assume.
- Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, it's gonna have an enormous amount of golf courses, for sure, with PGA Golf's, and to give you another idea of where we're looking at. So, again, it's over here. This whole area, you can see that roads are being built out right here. There's a little bit of empty space here that doesn't really have much right before you hit 380. You can see that smaller roads here are already built out. This entire area there's nothing, just land. It's about 2000 acres, and that's where PGA Golf's gonna have its headquarters, as well as mini-championships, too. So, to come in the next, you know, decade or two. So, did want to share that. But, jump on that.
- That sounds like a pretty awesome project. I mean, that's a lot of scale for golf, for sure.
- [K.C.] It's gonna be the long haul, for sure. And then I do have a couple more pictures down here. This is what a lot of downtown is doing. So, downtown, as you can see, this house right here on the right hand side, is probably built in the '20s, early 1900s, probably '20s, 1920, 1930. And individuals are basically buying land, tearing down these old houses, and building these new, modern town homes. This one in particular has four town homes. You do have your entry garage below. And this gives you an idea of what you're looking at. It's, you know, about 2000 square feet, two bedroom, two bath, or two bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, and this is running you about 500 or 525.
- [Scott] Did you say this is closer? So, this example here, and just the differences between those two builds are absolutely amazing.
- Yeah.
- So, it makes sense, and I think we see that a lot of cities, including, you know, in the Bay Area, because the land is so valuable now, especially close to the city centers, that you're going to build up, and you're gonna make, you know, get as many units out of it as possible. That's incredible. How far away is this from, like, downtown Dallas?
- So, this is on the east side of Dallas. It's a pretty popular area called Lower Greenville. It's pretty popular for folks in the, you know, in their late 20s to late 30s. Definitely still plenty of people that live downtown, obviously for proximity, location, everything's great. There's so much to do. But you do have a little bit younger population in terms of, you know, downtown. This is on the east side of downtown, so you can still, like I said, in Lower Greenville, where it's still very affordable. If we're gonna jump back onto the map here, and talk just a little bit about the downtown areas. So, where I'm talking about, actually, I'll show. So, Lower Greenville is actually this little area on the east side of Dallas. Once you head west of 75, you're gonna hit Highland Park, University Park, and Preston Hollow up here. This is gonna be, you know, a substantially different price point. Some of these areas, you know, you may not be able to buy a house for under a million. So, that's your much higher price point in terms of your Dallas-Fort Worth area. And to jump back, to give you an idea, some people, you know, they don't, you know, they hate the look of what's going on downtown, they hate the idea that these old, you know, charming houses are being bought, you know, these. 'Cause, on that picture is actually gonna have, you know, if you, in theory, that small plot of land could have, you know, four couples with, you know, eight people with kids. So, you could have on that small plot of land, you could have, you know, eight adults with kids running around, and it's gonna highly populate the downtown area. But there are still, still homes that are built. For instance, this one. This one is built, this was an actually 1930s build, but just kept up really, really well, and that's been...
- [Scott] I was gonna say, that's a really good-looking home.
- [K.C.] Yeah, it's same area, you know, charm. It still has all the charm of your early 1900s home, and been, obviously, renovated and kept up very, very well. So, there still is plenty of homes that are similar to this, where, you know, you're just getting people coming in and refreshing them rather than tearing them down and building up. You know this one, the last one we looked at up here. Oh, went a little too far. Obviously, your backyard is, essentially, nonexistent. In a home like this, your standard, traditional single-family home, you're still gonna get your yard near downtown, so.
- So, K.C., a question for you, 'cause they always say everything is bigger in Texas, right? And what I've noticed in driving, the few times that I've driven through Dallas, is some of these homes are unbelievably huge. And so we talk about in the Bay Area how you have these mansions. The Bay Area does not have the type of homes that Dallas has. Well, my question for you is, are these, when they're building new construction, are they kind of, you know, building them in, filling in lots, you know, zero lot lines, or are they still, are they building still large, extravagant homes, you know, semi-custom or custom homes? What's the trends that you're seeing right now?
- So, you're, it's gonna be community by the community. You're gonna have a lot of communities that are with these big builders that they're building, or they're buying these large plots of land and throwing as many homes onto a small parcel lot as possible. But with that comes affordability, too. I had someone near the 380 corridor that was able to buy a brand-new 2018 home last year for low 200s, a brand-new home. And still a decent-size backyard, where, you know, you can have your pets, your dogs running around in the backyard. Still a very livable house for, I think he bought it for 238 for a brand-new home. On the flip side of things, you, you know, if you're wanting to build or if you're wanting to find a custom home, you know, with acreage, I did help another individual who was able to buy a brand-new home on two acres of land for mid-300s. Granted, that was a little bit further out in the country. If you wanted something like that, you know, closer to, it's all relative. If you want it closer to the city, and you want acreage, or if you want a decent amount of land, it's gonna cost you, but.
- You're gonna pay, yeah, absolutely. So, tell us a little bit about, kind of, what's going on, 'cause I want to get through the home stuff, but we've got a lot more stuff to cover, want to make sure we get through everything. Tell us about what the home price trends are as far as what's the average days on market. I know that's gonna differ, you know, in areas and communities, but what are you seeing as the average days on market for a home that's priced correctly?
- So, obviously it's relative to the area. In terms of closer to Fort Worth, or closer to, like, closer to downtown Fort Worth or closer to downtown Dallas, if it's priced well, it will go fast. Most homes around here, if they're priced well, they'll go fast. Average days on market, you're looking about 30, 35 to 40 right now. We are seeing a little bit of a slowdown, especially in the higher-priced homes, but still, we're, I mean, we're seeing so much growth here. It seems like every single week, another, another large corporate business is moving their headquarters here.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- You know, we're just, the growth here is substantial. And it's just everything combined. I mean, you don't have any state income tax, you don't have, property taxes are a little high here, but when you're comparing it to the house values, you're getting a lot of house here for your money, and the jobs are still paying, paying well here too.
- So, what's that threshold? You said when you get into the higher price range. 'Cause, obviously, in every area you're gonna say, you know, for example, up to $400,000 there could be multiple offers, you know, the time on market could be two to three weeks, and then above that, it might be, you know, longer. What is that threshold price right there?
- Yeah, so, anything under 200 will, it'll go the first weekend. Multiple offers, you know, I had one house that sold for slightly over 200, we had 11 offers in the first three days. Once you get into your mid to high 200s, early 300s, you know, if it's priced well, it should still sell relatively quickly as well, substantially lower than your 35 days on market on average. When you start to see a little bit of a slowdown is your mid threes to starting fours. Is when you stuff, you know. And I'm showing an active buyer right now near, kind of, the downtown area, Lower Greenville area, that I was speaking of earlier. You know, I'm showing him homes in the, you know, low to mid 400s, and, you know, trying to get him to understand that just 'cause it's been on the market for three weeks doesn't mean it's not priced well. It's just, you're gonna have a much smaller buyer quote in your 400s, you know, than you're gonna have in your entry-level 200s, 'cause there's a lot more buyers, you know, trying to bid on a house in that price range than in the 400s.
- So, you touched on something that I know a lot of people ask about, and obviously this is the big pull for, not only companies, but also individuals looking at Texas, is the tax situation. So, obviously, the state income tax rate in Texas is zero. But we all know that not everything comes for free, right? It's, so they make up for that in the property taxes. Tell us a little bit about what the, you know, obviously there's a variance in property taxes, but those are typically higher than what we would see in the Bay Area. What do those property taxes typically look like across the board?
- So, it is going to vary. It's all gonna be, it's all gonna be based off the assessed value of the house. So, depending on the area of the house, for instance, one of my properties just doubled in value on the assessed value, so my taxes are going up, you know, close to 250, about $250.
- Property which was reassessed recently?
- Yeah, it was reassessed this past year, and the area, again, has another huge, large commercial, multi-billion dollar complex that's basically got the okay, and is starting to be re-built. And the city's taken that into consideration, so my tax-assessed value almost doubled, so my taxes are going up about $250 on that property. But, on average, it's gonna be based off the assessed value.
- Give me a percentage. What type of percentage are we talking about?
- 2.3 to 2.8, usually.
- Okay.
- And it would be off the assessed value, obviously, of the house.
- And to give people in California a comparison, I should say at least the Bay Area, we're running around 1 1/4 percent, maybe up to, you know, 1 1/2 percent. There could be some assessments or Mello-Roos, or different, you know, things like that. But, on the flip side, California's known, we have the highest state income tax rate in the country, which goes between 7 1/4 percent and 12.3% at the highest rate. You know, so, again, if you're looking at your overall financial picture and your total tax picture, it's a big difference. You know, you kinda make up for a little bit on, you know, on the property taxes side, but certainly, you know, with no state income tax, there's, you know, that could be an advantage. Real quick, I want to, we had a question about the weather, which I promise we will get to that, we'll talk about the weather. How about, what's your sales tax there?
- Sales tax, 6 1/4. Yeah, I believe it's 6 1/4 on sales tax here.
- Okay, and I think we're a couple percent higher. We're more around 8 1/4 percent here. And then what are you paying for a gallon of gas? Since, you know, Texas has a whole bunch of oil, right?
- It's actually...
- Is it cheaper?
- No, I think we're actually at, with the state and local tax, I think we're around eight as well. So, combined, I think we're close to about the same.
- Oh, no, a gallon of gas. What are you paying
- Unleaded?
- a gallon of gas?
- Unleaded or, unleaded?
- Premium, premium! What's your top rate?
- $2.89, less than $3.
- Less than $3. I think, the last time I filled up, I was at maybe $4.10, and of course you can get it for cheaper or more. But then again, July 1st, I think it's going up another five cents. But let's keep this positive and keep a on everything.
- I know, I know on, I mean, less than a year ago, we were, I was pushing for that dollar sign. You know, we were, we were trying to get as close to that dollar-something as possible. So, I mean, where we're at right now is definitely not the lowest it's been in the last year or two. We've seen much cheaper gas than where we're at now, but in retrospect it's still, it's still not bad.
- Let's talk, let's back up real quick, because we had another question about retirement communities. You mentioned another one, Robson Ranch. Can you give us, just real quickly, kind of where that's located and what that price range is, and what you get for the, you know, for the money?
- Yeah, so we're gonna jump over to the maps here again. And I'll just type it in here to give people an idea of location. So, if you zoom in as far as I have, you can see that this community is large.
- [Scott] Is that all golf course?
- [K.C.] Yes, this is a golf course as well. It's got a clubhouse. The only downside, and you'll see once I zoom out further than this, this is very, and this is growing still, they've gotten new construction, I mean, they're gonna be growing here and they've been growing here for quite some time, but the only downside to this, and I won't even necessarily call it a downside, it's just really preference, the Frisco/Del Webb community, like I said, is pretty close to a lot that's going on in Frisco, but if you zoom out.
- [Scott] Oh, you're kinda remote.
- [K.C.] So, it's, you know, again, if we zoom back in, this is Robson Ranch. You're right off 35. But there's, again, as I spoke earlier today, there's not a lot that's in this corridor here. Right now, the growth is probably at Roanoke. So, this is Robson Ranch right here.
- [Scott] So, how far is that gonna be some more in the populated areas?
- [K.C.] How far is it from them?
- [Scott] Yeah, like how far of a drive? If you wanted to get to, you know...
- [K.C.] I mean, you're still close to Denton, and you're still close to, once you hit Roanoke and Trophy Club here, and going down 114, you're gonna have plenty of commercial. And, you know, once you go further south into Fort Worth, anything off of this 35 here, eventually is gonna, I mean, everything off 35 is commercial. So, you're still within 20 minutes' drive of what you need to get to, but it is, you know, not around the corner from everything, if that makes sense.
- [Scott] What price ranges are you looking at in that Robson Ranch?
- So, Robson Ranch actually has a much wider range in terms of prices. So, your starter home in Robson Ranch is probably mid to high 200s. But you have your luxury homes that are, you know, upwards of close to a million. So you do have...
- Okay, so you've got a pretty good range of place, whatever your tastes are and your budget is, right?
- And the benefit of being out a little bit further with more land that the Del Webb community in Frisco doesn't have is, if you were to approach them and say, "Hey, this is what I'm wanting to build. "I do want to be in this community." You know, that's something that you can definitely do out in Robson Ranch as well.
- You can do a custom?
- Yeah, so you have a little bit more flexibility out there.
- Awesome. Tying into that, and this is a big question that we get, especially a lot of people who are retiring, or near retirement, talk to us a little bit about the proximity of hospitals, health care service providers, and just general health care.
- Yeah, so, you know, and that's one of the large employers in the area, as well, is just health care. You're gonna be, again, Frisco's really close to just about everything. Robson Ranch, you're gonna be a little bit further out. But in terms of location, you've got, you've got hospitals that are all over that are scattered all over Dallas and Fort Worth. And, probably any given location, you're 20 to 25 minutes tops from, you know, a major hospital, which is nice with the area.
- So, 20 to 25 minutes, and I think that's one of the biggest questions is how far am I gonna be if something comes up and I need services, right. So, 20, 25 minutes.
- I mean, if we go, if you go out to the country, I mean, that's a different story. But, I mean, you've got Baylor, you've got UT Southwestern, you've got Parkland. You know, you have a large amount of large hospitals that are all available for folks that, you know, need the quick commute.
- So let's get into industry and employment a little bit. Because right now is, what you mentioned before, we're seeing a lot of, there are a lot of companies moving in. In fact, I was just reading this this morning, "Cushman & Wakefield, the personal broker, "analyzed 35 top metro areas between 2009 and 2018 "with the jobs that they added, "and Dallas was number one. "Between 2009 and 2018, they added 750,000 jobs, "for a growth rate of over 25%. "And they've also, since 2010, Dallas has added "more than 130 new headquarters." That's unreal!
- Yeah, and it all comes down to, you know, the cost of land here. You know, you can get, you know, I can't compare other parts of California, but you do have a lot of corporate, you know, headquarters that are moving to Calif, not California, to Texas because of the cost of land is just, you know, so cheap. And, you know, you can, no, I don't know what the average median income for an individual in San Francisco, but you can, you know, you can take a pay cut by moving to the Dallas-Fort Worth area and still live a much better life in terms of lifestyle because of the cost of living and the just overall ability, with all the corporate jobs that they have here, you know, that there's just so much being brought here. You know, there's a lot of other reasons too. I can explain why I'm here.
- Well, yeah, and I agree. I mean, the affordability is obviously huge for a lot of people who are looking for, you know, for a job opportunity somewhere else. It's, Texas, I believe overall, is a pretty friendly state from a business perspective. And to some of these, I mean, Uber's considering Dallas right now for one of their new locations. That would create several thousand jobs. Charles Schwab, they've got a new corporate campus, 6000 employees. McKesson obviously moved there from San Francisco. And then Core-Mark, which maybe people haven't heard of, they distribute fresh and frozen foods for convenience stores, moved from San Francisco. So, there's a lot of, obviously a lot of benefit to these companies. 'Cause that does, you know, that costs a lot of money, right? To move operations like that. To completely move your headquarters.
- Yeah, and it's, you know, I don't run a massive corporate business, but it's all about overhead. You know, cost of maintaining their business where they are. You know, when it comes down to numbers, you know, what's gonna make more sense? You know, the overhead and cost of being in the Bay Area or the overhead and cost of being in north Texas? And, you know, a lot of people are weighing, you know, those two options, or, you know, not necessarily, we have people that are corporate, you know, PGA Golf is moving from Florida to the north Texas area. You know, so it's not necessarily just, you know, California, but all parts of the country, you know, corporate jobs are being moved here and headquarters being moved here. I mean, you have, you know, in terms of large corporate businesses in the area, I mean, American Airlines' headquarters is here. Allstate, I believe it was Allstate, moved their headquarters here. I mean, you've got Bank of America, TI, Texas Instruments, AT&T, Lockheed Martin, there's a bunch of different, you know, employers here that, you know, are just providing so much opportunity for people to live here and yet still, you know. I don't know the average rent in the Bay Area, but, I mean, you can rent a three bedroom, two bath house for $1500 a month.
- Yeah, so, let's, K.C., let's jump over to a question we had earlier, talk about the weather, seasons, climate, and then what people always want to know about is how bad is the humidity in Dallas compared to other major cities in Texas.
- Yeah, so I, you know, being from the Northwest and living in California, I'd never really experienced humidity. It was not something I looked forward to. I did have a grandparent that highly suggested I, you know, think twice, because of the humidity and all the other bugs and you know what, and I got scared, and they tried to scare me or tried to influence me.
- Didn't want you to go, clearly.
- Yeah, but he did have, you know, a decent amount of living in Texas, you know, versus I had visited once. You know, I lived near Houston, about 45, about 45 minutes away from the north side of Houston, and then I lived in San Antonio, and then I also now live in Dallas. So, to compare the three, Dallas is obviously the least humid. It's gonna have, still, a good amount of rain. And what's different here from people, maybe if you've only lived on the west coast, which is, you know, what I had done, it's, like, hot rain. You know, in Seattle it's very, it's cold and it rains, and it's miserable. Here, it rains, and it's weird, 'cause for me, when I moved here, it would be 85, 90 degrees and rain, which I had never experienced before. So, it does rain, you'll get your, you know, stormy season, which we're about to end here. You know, for probably April, May, June timeframe, it's, you know, periodically pretty heavy rain. But it's, you know, it'll rain for three days, and it'll downpour for an hour, a couple hours, and it's done. But overall in terms of weather, you know, obviously I'm a little biased, and I'm gonna say that Dallas is better than the Houston or San Antonio area, but...
- Here's the thing, you're not the first person to tell me that. I've always been told, even by people who, you know, are in that area, they'll say the closer you are to the Gulf the worse it is, Houston being definitely the most humid.
- Yeah, Houston, it wasn't, you know, someone that had not been used to humidity, and I flew to Orlando a couple weeks back, too, that was not enjoyable. I, you know, got outside and it was tough to breathe, breathe for me. So, humidity is definitely not something I enjoy, but I do enjoy living in Dallas. There are gonna be some days, especially, you know, after it storms, that it's more humid than not. But then there's other days where, you know, you don't get much humidity at all, and it's in the 90s and it's nice to just go out on the lake and go boating, or, you know, go outside and enjoy, you know, your summer. But the nice thing is the weather stays relatively warm for a majority of the year. You do get your seasons, though. You still get your winter. You know, we get, you know, maybe, maybe hitting low 30s. So, otherwise it's, you know, most of the time it's in the 40s or 50s in the middle of the winter. You do see maybe a little bit of snow. This past year we didn't see any, you know, in the north Texas area. But weather, for the most part, is pretty nice down here.
- If you wanted to find some snow, how far are you gonna drive? Let's say, if you're, you know, a skier.
- Probably the best way is to jump on an airplane and just go up to Colorado real quick.
- It's gonna be a little bit of a trek.
- Yeah! In terms of driving, probably the panhandle is gonna be your closest area of Texas, I guess, that's gonna be more snowy. But, like I said, you'll get a little bit here, but if you do get a little bit here, everything shuts down, so.
- Yeah, yeah.
- But it's definitely not a commodity at all for snow to come down.
- Awesome. Sounds pretty moderate, and that's what I've heard before. You know, as far as Dallas is concerned, so, you know, you get the best of both worlds, a little bit of seasons, but not too extreme on each side of it.
- Yeah, in Houston, Houston and San Antonio, I felt like I got less of a winter. Here, you definitely, the winters are a little colder, but even by saying colder, you know, I grew up in an area that did get a bit of snow, and, you know, we've got sometimes in the negative. You know, in the north I'm sure they get really, really cold winters. Chicago was miserable this past winter. But, you know, our cold here is, you know, maybe hitting freezing.
- Yeah. Well, K.C., this is great. You've been, this has been some awesome information. Obviously, we've covered a whole lot in a short period of time, so if anybody has any specific questions, reach out to us, info@LeavingTheBayArea.com, and then we're happy to direct you over to K.C. and, you know, get some questions answered directly. If somebody wanted to come out, either have a conversation on the phone or maybe come out and just pay a visit with you to look around, 'cause that's always the best way to do your, you know, your research if you're serious about an area. Sounds like you're game for that?
- Absolutely, absolutely.
- Okay, fantastic. All right, K.C., hey, thanks again. Really appreciate your time. Thanks everybody for being on the webinar today. We'll see you on the next episode, and take care.
- Thank you for having me.
- You're welcome, okay, bye.
Cost of Living Comparisons
Dallas, TX VS San Francisco, CA
62.9% less
Cost to Rent
2.6% less
Utilities
17% less
Food & Groceries
1.6% less
Health Costs
21.5 less
Transportation
11.3% less
Auto Insurance (Annually)
17% less
Auto Sale Tax
27% less
Auto Registration (Annually)
2.9% less
Sales Tax
100% less
State Income Tax
31.9% less
Child Care
Commute Comparison
| Dallas, TX | San Francisco, CA | |
Average Commute Time |
25.6 mins | 45 mins |
Comparison of gas prices |
$2.42 | $4.49 |
Live Traffic Comparison
Dallas, TX
San Francisco, CA
Climate
Dallas
San Francisco
93
Average Summer High68
73
Average Summer Low55
57
Average Winter High58
37
Average Winter Low47
234
Sunny Days Per Year259
39
Rain (inches per year)25
1
Snow (inches per year)0
Current Temperature in Dallas, TX
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