Anyone who pays $500,000 for a home in the Houston area is a damn fool. Texas is a big state, and Houston has very loose zoning restrictions — so the cost of buying land and building a new house is very low compared to any other major metropolitan area. That’s a recipe for disaster if you pay a fortune for a home.
Housing USED to be comparably low in Houston. Not anymore. As for zoning, they have HOAs that protect from a pig farm being next door. Plus, if a piece of land is developed for single family housing the land next door is much more valuable for houses than it is for pig farming.
You have to go farther and farther away from Houston to see a pasture full of cows or a soybean field.