Will Sugar Land home values increase with little to no new construction supply?

[DabOnEm]

Originally Posted by WRM20

Very few of them want to incorporate. They like not paying city property taxes, even though their MUD taxes are often higher than city taxes would be.

See how does this make sense? Why would they not want to incorporate if their taxes would be lower as a city. And actually many of them DO want to incorporate but can't because the MUD officials and CoH made sweet deals. Houston is very reluctant to give up any land because it continues to annex the commercial strips for extra tax income. Those tax dollars that should be flowing into the immediate local area instead spread around Houston's giant land mass. The result of this is bare bones residential areas that are not attractive for most companies.

More planning in the unincorporated suburbs would have definitely helped with attracting those non O&G companies who wanted the suburban campus. Speaking of some recent relocations into the state like Toyota, McKesson, Hulu, etc. The only area in Houston I can see do this now is The Woodlands and maybe Sugar Land, but land is running out in both places. Houston could still be where the companies looking for the more urban environment go. This is what city leaders need to do now. Really build up the urban area because that's the advantage Houston can have. People continue to migrate back to the cores of most cities in America now, and if the transit and walk ability increase, it'll become attractive for corporate relocation.

With the layout of Houston, the city would not have been negatively effected by incorporated suburbs. It'd be the opposite. Houston is the true center of its metro with the vast majority of entertainment, jobs, and education all in the core. Can't compare that to your earlier example of Dallas because it's near another large city in FW and the entertainment/jobs are more spread out. You can compare it more to Atlanta, which greatly benefits for being at the center of a metro area with 6 million people. The City of Atlanta is extremely prosperous, especially with the growth in urban areas over the last 20 years.

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

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.

Yeah I agree with this. Houston could have had a stronger tech industry if it was able to keep Compaq after the merger (or say HP moving it's HQ down here). It could have had an easier time attracting non O&G talent by having another large public research university in the area. If a couple of elected officials didn't ban transit funding, you'd see more creative people in Houston as it would have been able to offer the urban lifestyle earlier on before the really big tech boom.

Seriously Houston has missed the last 3 tech booms and has almost nothing to show for it. Meanwhile, Austin and Dallas has reaped the benefits. Uber is going to have 3,000 jobs in Downtown Dallas at its tech hub over the next few years. It should have followed DFW's lead after the 80s bust and diversified but there were too many Oilgarchs in Houston that did not want to let this happen, and Houston was pretty rough around the edges then. Even back then DFW was pretty well put together which made it an attractive low cost metro for HQ relocations earlier on.

I will say that one reason why Houston isn't seeing much corporate relocation is because Gov. Abbot grew up in the DFW area and has been helping his hometown out. Houston has not had that benefit at all. But having said that, Houston has been missing quite a few trains here. Not only are Austin, DFW, and even San Antonio gobbling up literally all of the non-O&G relocations to this state, there are now other cities like Nashville (Amazon, Nissan), Kansas City (US Dept of Agriculture, etc.), Charlotte (Honeywell), etc., that have grown in prominence the last 10-15 years. These other cities are new competition for Houston which did not exist before. Houston runs the risk of being a stagnant area which economy moves solely based on its large population size rather than diversity in its industries.

[Redlionjr]

Originally Posted by DabOnEm

See how does this make sense? Why would they not want to incorporate if their taxes would be lower as a city. And actually many of them DO want to incorporate but can't because the MUD officials and CoH made sweet deals. Houston is very reluctant to give up any land because it continues to annex the commercial strips for extra tax income. Those tax dollars that should be flowing into the immediate local area instead spread around Houston's giant land mass. The result of this is bare bones residential areas that are not attractive for most companies.

More planning in the unincorporated suburbs would have definitely helped with attracting those non O&G companies who wanted the suburban campus. Speaking of some recent relocations into the state like Toyota, McKesson, Hulu, etc. The only area in Houston I can see do this now is The Woodlands and maybe Sugar Land, but land is running out in both places. Houston could still be where the companies looking for the more urban environment go. This is what city leaders need to do now. Really build up the urban area because that's the advantage Houston can have. People continue to migrate back to the cores of most cities in America now, and if the transit and walk ability increase, it'll become attractive for corporate relocation.

With the layout of Houston, the city would not have been negatively effected by incorporated suburbs. It'd be the opposite. Houston is the true center of its metro with the vast majority of entertainment, jobs, and education all in the core. Can't compare that to your earlier example of Dallas because it's near another large city in FW and the entertainment/jobs are more spread out. You can compare it more to Atlanta, which greatly benefits for being at the center of a metro area with 6 million people. The City of Atlanta is extremely prosperous, especially with the growth in urban areas over the last 20 years.


Yeah I agree with this. Houston could have had a stronger tech industry if it was able to keep Compaq after the merger (or say HP moving it's HQ down here). It could have had an easier time attracting non O&G talent by having another large public research university in the area. If a couple of elected officials didn't ban transit funding, you'd see more creative people in Houston as it would have been able to offer the urban lifestyle earlier on before the really big tech boom.

Seriously Houston has missed the last 3 tech booms and has almost nothing to show for it. Meanwhile, Austin and Dallas has reaped the benefits. Uber is going to have 3,000 jobs in Downtown Dallas at its tech hub over the next few years. It should have followed DFW's lead after the 80s bust and diversified but there were too many Oilgarchs in Houston that did not want to let this happen, and Houston was pretty rough around the edges then. Even back then DFW was pretty well put together which made it an attractive low cost metro for HQ relocations earlier on.

I will say that one reason why Houston isn't seeing much corporate relocation is because Gov. Abbot grew up in the DFW area and has been helping his hometown out. Houston has not had that benefit at all. But having said that, Houston has been missing quite a few trains here. Not only are Austin, DFW, and even San Antonio gobbling up literally all of the non-O&G relocations to this state, there are now other cities like Nashville (Amazon, Nissan), Kansas City (US Dept of Agriculture, etc.), Charlotte (Honeywell), etc., that have grown in prominence the last 10-15 years. These other cities are new competition for Houston which did not exist before. Houston runs the risk of being a stagnant area which economy moves solely based on its large population size rather than diversity in its industries.

Exactly, Houston is playing catch up not realizing they have no more to offer tech companies than what they could get from Dallas or Austin. Being too dependent on O&G industries has kind of bit Houston in the ass. They’ll recover because they have enough industries to still remain competent but with O&G still remaining King in Houston’s economy it’ll continue to turn off other creative industries. Sad it took Amazon not choosing Houston as even a top 20 destination for the city to realize their shortcomings. Too busy gloating about the fact we’re 2nd in Fortune 500 companies to really push the city forward.

[Bornhouston]

Gosh tech is really the be all end all huh

[DabOnEm]

Originally Posted by Bornhouston

Gosh tech is really the be all end all huh

Well it's definitely the industry that's leading us into the future and there's so much innovation with it everyday. From social media, rideshares, phone software, apps, to the blockchain technologies they all run on, etc. Houston is on the outside waiting to get inside the room, while much smaller metros like Austin, Denver, and Raleigh already have seats at the table. Let alone peer metros like DFW, Atlanta, and Boston. There's not going to be room for everyone. What's to stop some of these namebrand energy companies from having their tech and digital innovation divisions in one of these other cities? Quite a few already do and that shouldn't be the case.

[Bornhouston]

I guess Houston is doomed.