Buying a House in Lubbock? Good Luck With That

I'm trying to buy a house in Lubbock. The operative word here is "trying," because that's exactly what the whole process has become. Trying...very, very trying.

If you currently own a home in the city, you know how expensive property taxes are becoming, and that the values of property assessments are going up. This, coupled with the fact that there's not a lot of available inventory in the Hub City, creates a lot of stress for someone relocating to the South Plains.

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Now, I hear what you're saying: 'But there are SO MANY new houses being built in Lubbock! They are popping up everywhere!'

That may be true, but remember that buying a new construction house is at minimum a 6 to 9-month process. Most people don't have that long to be able to rent or delay a move while they wait for their dream home to be built. So they gotta go somewhere. And that's one reason why so many existing homes get gobbled up so quickly around here.

In the past couple weekends, I've been to no less than 15 open houses and was amazing at how busy they were. Then I would check online to send the information about these houses to my wife, and a good number of them were suddenly "pending." Obviously, I hadn't moved fast enough and found myself on the outside looking in at a home that would have been ideal.

I spend weekends watching the new home informercial shows on TV, such as Welcome Home West Texas or Lubbock Home Showcase, just to get ideas. But I know that there's a solid chance that if we chose any of those homes, it could be well after Christmas before we move in. Also, scouting for "spec" houses that builders put up here in Lubbock in hopes of a sale is becoming frustrating because, again, as soon as they're ready, they get sold.

It's a seller's market here on the South Plains, and you have to move fast because our affordability and quality of life is getting noticed as Lubbock becomes a destination.