Housing market booming in Houston on South Main? (Katy, Atlanta: real estate, apartment)

[ganadocoog]

I’m currently selling my house on South Main right outside 610 Loop. I gotta be honest from what I can tell there is no “boom” in my area. I’ve had 25 showings in ~3 weeks but only 1 offer that was borderline lowball. Two real estate agents told me that I needed to list 20K less than I bought it at (and it appraised at) 3 years ago because “that is the market here”. Also the tax assessed value has gone down 20K in last 3 years which is nice when paying taxes but not for confidence in growing valuation. House is less than 15 years old and is move in ready. From what I can tell the boom is mostly in the burbs and possibly select areas of Houston. The only thing I can think of is that when UT bought the land here to build an undergrad campus 5-6 years ago it may have temporarily supercharged and overshot reasonable growth targets on South Main and the last 3 years has been the “correction”. Any concurrence with my experience? PS, my boss (Katy) and brother (Porter) both sold their houses in the last 3-4 months and both had 5+ offers the first weekend. I’m just not seeing it in my area.

[TX3G4R]

Unfortunately this is a problem I see in Houston all the time if you didn’t buy in a specific area where people want to live. Is it possibly a townhome with 2-4 stories? Those tend to fluctuate the most and I’ve noticed go down in value over time depending on the area. This is why I never advise people to buy townhomes because you don’t own much land and the improvement value over time just goes down in value as the house ages.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by ganadocoog

I’m currently selling my house on South Main right outside 610 Loop. I gotta be honest from what I can tell there is no “boom” in my area. I’ve had 25 showings in ~3 weeks but only 1 offer that was borderline lowball. Two real estate agents told me that I needed to list 20K less than I bought it at (and it appraised at) 3 years ago because “that is the market here”. Also the tax assessed value has gone down 20K in last 3 years which is nice when paying taxes but not for confidence in growing valuation. House is less than 15 years old and is move in ready. From what I can tell the boom is mostly in the burbs and possibly select areas of Houston. The only thing I can think of is that when UT bought the land here to build an undergrad campus 5-6 years ago it may have temporarily supercharged and overshot reasonable growth targets on South Main and the last 3 years has been the “correction”. Any concurrence with my experience? PS, my boss (Katy) and brother (Porter) both sold their houses in the last 3-4 months and both had 5+ offers the first weekend. I’m just not seeing it in my area.

Pretty sure I watched your subdivision get built across the road. That was about 2007-08. Not sure it was ever "booming."

It's not walkable, the transit accessibility is poor for being that close to a number of METRO hubs, there's nothing interesting around there, and then they're zoned to schools with a bunch of poor kids which drives away the suburban buyers who are otherwise OK with everything being built for cars and long drives.

[hbcu]

Originally Posted by jfre81

Pretty sure I watched your subdivision get built across the road. That was about 2007-08. Not sure it was ever "booming."

It's not walkable, the transit accessibility is poor for being that close to a number of METRO hubs, there's nothing interesting around there, and then they're zoned to schools with a bunch of poor kids which drives away the suburban buyers who are otherwise OK with everything being built for cars and long drives.

It's HISD - you can go anywhere. There's really no high school within walking distance and definitely no middle school so that's not an issue.

But if its those three story homes, don't see them moving fast anyway - especially if a family is involved.

[travelguy_73]

My two cents: buying a zero lot line home (whether attached or detached) in an area that lacks amenities, good schools, or high land values, is just asking to take a valuation hit. People in Houston (specifically) will tolerate living in this style of home to get into an area they can't otherwise afford. Or people who MUST have new construction. This doesn't apply to the area you are, unfortunately, so it just isn't going to be seen as desirable. Even proximity to Med Center, Galleria, Downtown, etc., isn't going to help if there are more desirable places for people to look.

I have a former coworker who bought one of these homes at the 610/288 interchange. I had to bite my tongue hard every time she talked about appreciation. Yeah, not going to happen.

[LUANZHOU]

Since you have an active listing I can't give any advice as I'm a Realtor
but I have seen the market being quite crazy recently myself

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by travelguy_73

My two cents: buying a zero lot line home (whether attached or detached) in an area that lacks amenities, good schools, or high land values, is just asking to take a valuation hit. People in Houston (specifically) will tolerate living in this style of home to get into an area they can't otherwise afford. Or people who MUST have new construction. This doesn't apply to the area you are, unfortunately, so it just isn't going to be seen as desirable. Even proximity to Med Center, Galleria, Downtown, etc., isn't going to help if there are more desirable places for people to look.

I have a former coworker who bought one of these homes at the 610/288 interchange. I had to bite my tongue hard every time she talked about appreciation. Yeah, not going to happen.

I live in a zero lot line neighborhood in northwest Houston and these houses have been appreciating like crazy over the past 5 years. Even with a blast that damaged just about every home in the neighborhood houses are nearing 100% appreciation over that period. The appreciation appears to be going more parabolic as time goes by. We're in Cy-Fair schools which are good but I don't think they're considered special. We are in what is considered a good location between I-10 and 290 near the Beltway which is very convenient to the Energy Corridor

In this market where we have a housing shortage and the location which seems very convenient to the Med Center, I can't help to think the OP should give it more time and sooner or later the market will start paying attention to their area. Especially since it appears these are lower end homes that are less than 200k which are in very short supply right now.

[Redlionjr]

Originally Posted by TX3G4R

Unfortunately this is a problem I see in Houston all the time if you didn’t buy in a specific area where people want to live. Is it possibly a townhome with 2-4 stories? Those tend to fluctuate the most and I’ve noticed go down in value over time depending on the area. This is why I never advise people to buy townhomes because you don’t own much land and the improvement value over time just goes down in value as the house ages.

Is the specific to Houston? Seems like the complete opposite with townhomes in the Atlanta market. At least the last time I checked. I do notice the quality of townhomes in Houston generally is not the best either.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by thegreatpeepee

Super frustrating as a first-time buyer to be losing money this way, as everyone says real estate always goes up and there's so much in the press about Houston suburbs booming.

The pandemic is creating demand for SFH.

I'm going to bet that the epidemiology later will show that even dense SFH in inner-cities (i.e. small lots and townhomes) can spread virus even outside due to the impossibility of being able to keep 2 m (6 ft).

But the SFH shortage is mostly driven by apartment/condo dwellers with money (saved or expensed) who fear catching/caught the virus in cramped quarters (with shared ventilation, hallways/lobbies, and other common areas). Nothing is shared in a SFH property!

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

The pandemic is creating demand for SFH.

I'm going to bet that the epidemiology later will show that even dense SFH in inner-cities (i.e. small lots and townhomes) can spread virus even outside due to the impossibility of being able to keep 2 m (6 ft).

But the SFH shortage is mostly driven by apartment/condo dwellers with money (saved or expensed) who fear catching/caught the virus in cramped quarters (with shared ventilation, hallways/lobbies, and other common areas). Nothing is shared in a SFH property!

Umm, no. Lots of transmission happened in homes of all sizes. Watching TV together, sharing meal times, etc.

People want space not to prevent transmission, but to deal with (1) working from home, (2) schooling from home, (3) dealing with pandemic-purchased-pets, (4) just to avoid feeling so cooped up while spending so much time in the home.