Will Sugar Land home values increase with little to no new construction supply? (Houston: sales, real estate)

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by timtemtym

People have always paid a premium on the SW side to be in the city of Sugar Land vs the large unincorporated area known as Richmond. I remember when Greatwood was going in and people I worked with who built there took extra pain to remind us that it was someday Sugar Land and NOT richmond.

I think Texas will eventually release some of the big city powers over ETJs and a lot of the unincorporated areas around Houston that are held hostage by Houston will incorporate. But cities in Texas have no real reason to annex neighborhoods since residents suck up services. They go after annexing commercial areas which pay into the tax base. You'll eventually have cities that are just shopping centers with no residents.

Richmond cannot annex because of its particular charter, except by request of a property owner.

Your nihilism is showing. Like saying the USA is too big to govern, time to break it up into smaller countries.

But why incorporate? Texans don't like more government.

15 years ago, county officials were begging Houston to annex Cinco Ranch because it was exhausting county resources. Now that they are flip-flopping, what is now their motivation?

Originally Posted by SugLandDAd

A lot will depend on the quality of schools........The prices are driven by desirability, and desirability is largely driven by the quality of schools. FBISD, which encompasses most of Sugar Land, is in a great state of flux.....and areas may improve relative to each other. There is a great deal of homebuilding along what will be the path of the Grand Parkway, south and west of Sugar Land.....this is Lamar ISD, which has improved over the years, and that will hold prices down.......if the school district manages growth and the schools continue to improve.

School quality will not matter anymore if educational equity gets carried out. That would be a big blow to sprawl as grade-school education quality is a big differentiator and a competitive advantage against the inner-city. The "schools" question is an absurdity in the other developed nations like neighboring Canada and Europe.

[SugLandDAd]

But in the real world, where we all live today, school quality is a major driving force behind home values.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

School quality will not matter anymore if educational equity gets carried out. That would be a big blow to sprawl as grade-school education quality is a big differentiator and a competitive advantage against the inner-city. The "schools" question is an absurdity in the other developed nations like neighboring Canada and Europe.

Originally Posted by SugLandDAd

But in the real world, where we all live today, school quality is a major driving force behind home values.

And in that "real world" the lack of a willingness or ability to properly fund schools, and the constant migration outward means more sprawl, more highway expansions, longer commutes and ultimately more cost of living in such a way that the COL advantages of being in Texas are canceled out.

But hey, take out a 30-year mortgage on that house when the schools may very well have gone down the tubes in 15.

[Htown2013]

Originally Posted by AliefNorth

Prices are appreciating in suburbs like Sugar Land and Katy, if you compare house values to the earlier part of this decade you will understand. The land might seem worthless because it’s not close to anything but when people hear about the reputation of the school districts they become blind and this is what brings up prices

The prices in Katy and Sugar Land and many areas of Houston really took off between 2012 and 2014. I don't think Sugar Land prices really did much of anything since 2015.

I choose Sugar Land for many reasons in addition to the schools. It seemed like a vibrant diverse community with residents that value education and hard work. Sugar Land is an incorporated city proper with zoning and city services. I think much of Houston and its unincorporated ETJ can be aesthetically displeasing, much more so than many American cities with similar demographics and amenities. At the time I bought in SL, my commute was 15 minutes.

Sugar Land has two things against it.
1) Many of the high income demographics in Sugar Land are extremely cheap given their high income and rarely spend money vs. residents with similar incomes in nearly every other part of the metro.
2) Commute to downtown is terrible and is getting worse. There is no reasonable alternative to driving unless you can carpool with someone. There should really be a Fort Bend Express direct from SL to Downtown with decent parking. They should also increase the 59 HOV to 2 lanes and open up to HOT at all times (even with very high fee) so those who truly need to get there fast and can pay for it from time to time can do so (catch flight, medical issue, make a big meeting after having to drop off kid at school). IH10 has these options.

I don't see the SL schools going downhill anytime soon, especially the First Colony and Telfair areas. Many of the parents are humorously fanatical about their children's education.

[Ghost Town]

Originally Posted by jfre81

Nobody actually gives a good damn that it's Sugar Land or Katy for the sake of it being Sugar Land or Katy. It's all about the schools.

Not only.
Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, NALCO, Sabic and dozens of less famous o&g/tech companies are located in Sugar Land. Lots of medical jobs as well. A lot of things are going on in Sugar Land. For some people there are better employment opportunities compared to inside of loop Houston.

[Burnley]

If you compare Sugar Land and Katy at a geographical standpoint Katy has the advantage with more land to build. There just isn’t enough vacant land left to develop in Sugar Land, most of the area is already established. You would have to move father southwest into Richmond and Rosenberg for more undeveloped land.

[NTexas2010]

Originally Posted by Htown2013

Many of the parents are humorously fanatical about their children's education.

This one made me lulz. Spot on.

[jd433]

We are likely heading for a recession. The Houston area is grappling with a problematic future and an Image problem. We are not attracting enough talent and are struggling to get traction in the tech industry. You have bigger problems than just new housing availability.

[Bornhouston]

Originally Posted by jd433

We are likely heading for a recession. The Houston area is grappling with a problematic future and an Image problem. We are not attracting enough talent and are struggling to get traction in the tech industry. You have bigger problems than just new housing availability.

This post seems very dramatic. . .

What is Houston's problematic future?

Houston has the same image it has always had and it has never stopped growth before.

We are not attracting enough talent for what?

Is the tech industry the only industry that matters?

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by Bornhouston

This post seems very dramatic. . .

What is Houston's problematic future?

Houston has the same image it has always had and it has never stopped growth before.

We are not attracting enough talent for what?

Is the tech industry the only industry that matters?

In the past, the oil and gas industry always managed to expand, despite the occasional (severe) downturns. However, from all appearances, while a major downturn doesn't appear imminent, there doesn't seem to be any prospect for expansion in oil and gas. And outside Health Care, Houston hasn't developed any other substantial industries to give dynamism to our economy and fill our office towers. People are focused on tech because it's been such a major drive of white-collar employment growth in Austin and elsewhere, but it's not the only industry Houston could tap into. DFW has been getting fantastic growth across a range of primary industries, for example.

So, if the oil and gas industry has a stagnant jobs and growth outlook for the foreseeable future, where will Houston's economic dynamism come from - what kinds of PRIMARY industries will bring economic health and growth here? Only biomedical research and development seems like something that we're potentially well set for, and that's historically been a big struggle. Maybe the Spaceport can bring new things, but our aerospace industry overall has been stagnant for the last 20 years. Talent to develop new business concepts and industries to our region doesn't seem to be migrating here the same way it does to DFW and Austin.

So, there's very much an existential question about Houston's future economic role in the national and global economy right now.