Let’s talk about the Houston housing market

I’m currently trying to buy a house and have been pre approved for a 450k loan at 6.5 rate. As I’m still young I would ideally want to live within the loop or just outside.

Looking at prices through HAR I’m seeing a lot of homes are on market longer than average and prices are somewhat being reduced (no where near the pre pandemic levels). There’s a few things that irk me though when house hunting.

The new construction have no soul. All the houses look the same, some developer buys a small piece of land and plays the “how many houses can I fit in here and charge 500k for” game. These new farm style houses are also just so ugly to look at from the outside. The townhomes/houses I like are just way out of budget.

Now moving onto location. Pretty early on I gave up hope of living around Allen parkway, Montrose or heights. Which is to be expected. But why are houses deep into the 3rd ward going for like 450-500k. I drove by a few the other day and everyone is in such a sketchy area. At this point I’m just trying to predict what area will grow and maybe I can get in early on.

So with all that said. Would you wait for housing prices to drop or interest rates to fall? What location do you think will become the next place people congregate too?