I love the word “regional” to describe a city, region, or state. I especially love it when it refers to finance, specifically real estate. Most of our local real estate markets, with the exception of Charlotte, Texas are in the top ten for growth in the United States.
While it may seem that all our real estate markets are growing so fast, in fact it’s not that simple. Some markets are growing faster than others. The Houston market is one of the fastest growing markets in the country because of the energy boom in the oil and gas industry here. The good news is that Houston is the second best real estate market for housing prices and jobs. The bad news is that the boom has not led to as many new housing units being built.
This is somewhat surprising since the Houston area has always been a great place for housing construction. The oil and gas boom has driven new housing construction to the area. But since oil prices have been falling, new housing units have been slower to come in than in other parts of the country. In fact, since the boom began in 2010, the number of new housing units in the Houston area has fallen by nearly a quarter.
In Houston, the recent decline in new housing construction has been attributed to several factors. The first being the downturn in oil prices. The second and most important factor is the federal stimulus package that federal regulators put into effect in January 2010. The third and final factor is the drop in state and local tax revenues. Since this package was passed, the Houston area has seen a drop in taxes of over $30 billion.
These last two factors have combined to put the Houston area out of the national discussion for the best place to buy a home. A lot of people probably think that because Houston is such a “bubble” city, there is an abundance of properties for sale. But the truth is the Houston market has been in a slump for the past few years. In fact, at the end of last year, only one in two new homes in Houston were in the $1 million dollar range.
In recent years, national trends have been pointing to the “new money” buyers as the reason for the continued decline. But in the Houston area the market has taken a hit because of the high cost of renting. People are looking at moving from the city, to the suburbs, to the western suburbs, or even to the outlying areas of the city.
The problem is that many area real estate agents have a bad reputation among the new money crowd for being in it for a little too long. Many just don’t want to deal with people whose idea of a good time is a long car ride. If you’re looking for a new home in the Houston area, you need to be careful. Look at the number of houses that are priced for under $1 million.
As it turns out, there are many neighborhoods in Houston and in other parts of Texas that are overpriced for new listings. A new Houston house for a million dollars is not rare in Texas, but usually means that the property is a bit too far from the city center (or a few miles away). Many Houstonians don’t want to move further from the center. If you live in the Houston area, you’re in good company.
The big drawback to this is the fact that it’s just giving you the opportunity to go deeper than you can. It’s like the “good old days” and they don’t care much about what you can’t do, but they don’t care that much who you can help them through it. When they think they’re in danger, they’re right, and you can do anything you can to help them.
I’ve been to a few places where I can see the difference between cities and towns. Houston is an excellent example of a city with a lot of great things to do there, but the difference is that you can only ever get to see Houston. You can only get to get to Houston if you go through a city and a town.
This game has a lot of great mechanics and is really cool to play. It has some of the things you’re looking for so I think it really gets you in the game’s heart.
