The More Things Change...

via ⁦@edjsandoval⁩ https://t.co/CMB2wl3OUR

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 27, 2021

I haven't read the article (paywall) but when I moved to Austin in 1978 (!), the only people who could afford housing were lawyers in the larger law firms (not THAT large; it was Austin, after all) or doctors, or real estate developers.  And the lucky few with decent jobs who had bought in before the market started rising. Rising because it seemed everyone wanted to live there.

The market collapsed in the late '80's.  My bankruptcy professor, a sitting Bankruptcy judge, regaled us with tales of real estate shenanigans, including the three methods of real estate appraisal:  1) windshield (as seen through); 2) wild-ass; and 3)  hell if I know, but looks good on paper!  Prices, in other words, just went up and up until they broke.

I bought my first house in Austin after living there for 12 years.  I bought it from the bank that had re-taken it in foreclosure from three lawyers who weren't as sharp at real estate investing as they thought they were.  They'd bought it as an investment with a balloon payment, then considered a reasonable way to buy real estate.  You paid small up front, but the "balloon" was a huge payment due on a date certain.  By the time it came due they were underwater (I think they’d planned on selling at that point, and cashing in), and abandoned their investment scheme, poorer and perhaps wiser.  I dunno, I didn't know 'em.  Austin has a LOT of lawyers.

Three years later I sold it for enough money to finance my way through seminary, even after packing up and moving all I had, including wife and one-year old child.

But Austin was a town notoriously stingy on jobs (most of them were government jobs or working for law firms or real estate developers).  Most people worked for restaurants (waiters, IOW) or performed other menial tasks.  The Lovely Wife and I were both gainfully employed, but the Austin market kept us shut out until it collapsed.

All of which is to say I'm looking at this tweet and thinking:  so what's new?  Prices were rising in the '80's because tout le monde wanted to live in Austin.  A local columnist became a local hero by publishing a response to someone who wrote in from another state asking about life in Austin.  The columnist told her to stay away, albeit politely.  That was the spirit in Austin for the 15 years I lived there.

I think that spirit is dead and buried now, 30 years or so later.  So it goes.