Saturday, March 10, 2007

No Mueller for me (or you or you or you!)

So the dream of Mueller is over. When the floorplans came out Monday, we found one we really liked, but there were no prices. Then we found the prices and thought we could afford it, even if they were a lot more than we were paying now. Then we went to the Mueller center yesterday and it was beautiful and we fell even more in love with the homes and they told us that the builder that was in our price range had increased his starting price by $60k because of demand. So no more yard home. Then this morning that same builder increased his starting price for his row houses by $40k. So we will not be living in Mueller. We unfortunately already sent our mortgage app and 50 bucks off, Tim called and asked if we could cancel it, which seems fair since there was some bait and switch going on. I doubt they will, but if they don't, I'm putting a stop payment on the check. Should be an interesting community. The builder was required by the city to put in affordable housing for those making less than 80% of the median income in Austin, and they can't raise the prices on those. Then the builders are allowed to raise the prices on the other homes to whatever they want based on demand. So you will have the poor and the rich living side-by-side. I'm sure the rich will be REAL happy with that situation.

It's also pretty funny that the yard houses for the poor START at MORE than what we paid for our current house 6 years ago! The row houses for the poor are in the range that most houses in our neighborhood cost then too. Ha!

4 comments:

yer mama said...

Well, that sucks. But it's not too surprising. Maybe y'all can find an existing home that you can make fabulous.

Kate said...

That BLOWS. I still think maybe you can buy some crappy house and knock it down and do a cool modern pre-fab. Okay, so maybe that's my dream.

I still don't understand where all of these people are who can afford houses at these ridiculous prices. And even all the folks from crazy places like CA--how did they afford their house out there? Not everyone can be millionaires.

Mindy said...

The good thing about new mega-developments is that they tend to drive down the prices of older homes in the area. So even if you can't be Mueller, you can be Mueller Adjacent.

Cheris said...

I'm right there with you. Here's my rant, if you feel like stewing a little more:
http://cheris.lifford.org/2007/03/14/mueller-schmueller/