There's a reason I live inside the Loop... :-)

I'm barely outside of it and sometimes it seems like exile. :| If I have to live in Houston, I really wish I could afford something safe but funky in Montrose.

My sister and her husband are considering a place downtown. They could both walk to work. I think the loft they were looking at (somewhere behind one of the courthouses) was something like $1700/month. Not all that bad at all, when you consider the HUGE savings in transportation costs *and* that the rent also included electricity.

WTF?!? Only $1700 AND it includes electricity? Considering that electricity at our place runs close to $500 in the summer...that's a steal! I've avoided lofts because I really like having a fenced yard for the dogs but that's an amazingly tempting deal. And the idea of cutting back on gas comsumption is appealing in several ways, not only because it's costing me $30/tank of gas. :\

There's a house I've loved for a long time in our nabe for sale so I looked it up online and just about choked to realize it lists for just shy of $400K. We're not talking McMansions but a plain old 1950's ranch house with about 2500 square feet and no garage.

YEOWCH!

The places there across South Main from Reliant were anywhere from about 80k to 120k about 12 years ago. Now they're closer to 300k. I keep thinking I should check out the houses over behind Meyer Park, but I have a horrible feeling they're going to be outta my league, too.

Behind Meyer Park is my nabe. :) I was totally floored to find out how much they thought someone would pay for that house. They've dropped the asking price by $8K, but that's but a tiny drop in the bucket.

Oh, cool! For some reason I thought of you as being over on the Kroger side of Post Oak. Do you know the Willow Pool? My kid used to swim over there in the summers.

Happily, no. Afternoon traffic exiting the freeway is much nicer going to the Randall's side than it is going to the Kroger side. :)

The Willow Pool is on Cliffwood, no? During the summer I drive past a lot of bathingsuit-lad kids. It's a very popular spot in the nabe. Being the sort who wouldn't be caught dead in public wearing tiny scrap of fabric, I've never visited or joined.

There are some great houses over near the pool and schools -- the $400K house is a few blocks from there. We live in the less expensive part of the nabe but even our house has doubled in 10 years. Un-be-liev-able.

Well, shoot. I was hoping there were still some one-room shacks with outhouses available. ;-);-)

I just need to win the lottery. I see someone got my 68 million, so I'll have to settle for the 7 mil.

Darn.

But it might just be enough to buy a house with after taxes.