I have the same problem in Austin. Prices are going up faster than I can save, even accounting for the downpayment leverage. There's no way that I can compete with the all-cash offers that are $10k and $20k above asking price that are being made by investors and people from California and overseas. Knowing that it's a bubble, I think I'm going to have to wait until it pops, and just keep renting until then. Because commuting from Buda or Georgetown isn't attractive to me.
Austin's metro economy is currently insufficiently developed (that is, it hasn't found a way yet to geographically lock in any desirable, large-scale economic network effects) to support the kind of globally-unique signature metro economy associated with the metro areas like NYC, London, Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, etc. Those signature economies can support the kinds of incomes it takes to regularly yield six-figure bidding gaps.
