The Market Sleeps Through October

November 15, 2019November 17, 2019Cameron Ansari

The week after Labor Day is the traditional start of the Houston real estate market’s second wind, especially in River Oaks. All was going to plan until Tropical Storm Imelda hit the city in the third week of September. Then the market curled up and went into a deep sleep. A...

New Construction in River Oaks

October 17, 2019October 18, 2019Cameron Ansari

As of the third week of October, there are currently 42 properties in River Oaks owned by speculative builders. Of these, 18 are being actively marketed on the multiple listing system (MLS), including one in a pending contract awaiting completion. What do we know about them? Of the 42 spec properties,...

Reading the Tea Leaves

August 13, 2019August 13, 2019Cameron Ansari

Drawing broad conclusions from market anomalies in River Oaks real estate is usually a mistake. There simply aren’t enough data points to extrapolate likely future outcomes. In other words, it’s a thin market, so don’t try to be too clever by predicting what’s going to happen in the next six months...

At the Half-Way Mark: River Oaks Demographics Update

July 29, 2019March 17, 2022Cameron Ansari & Teresa Byrne-Dodge

As we wrap up the mid-year print edition of the River Oaks Market Report, here is a teaser of the demographics in the River Oaks real estate market since January 1. Origin of Buyers The trend of fewer buyers coming from River Oaks itself continues. It fell from 38% in 2017 to 26%...

Big, Bigger, Biggest

June 25, 2019June 25, 2019Cameron Ansari

While we have seen a robust number of house sales in the first half of 2019 on small and moderate-sized lots, the most striking feature of the current River Oaks real estate market has been the large number of sales of properties on half an acre or more.* In a neighborhood...

10 Things to Say About the River Oaks Real Estate Market So Far in 2019

May 20, 2019May 20, 2019Cameron Ansari

House viewing activity got off to a quick start in January 2019. The previous two years were very slow to start by comparison. One has to ask if the sudden increase of inventory was a factor this year. Consequently, new contracts surged in March and April, and May looks promising, too....

And They’re Off … Sort Of

March 12, 2019March 18, 2019Cameron Ansari

Just two months ago, we were trying to catch our breath after the wild record-breaking River Oaks real estate ride of 2018. As we wrote in the River Oaks Market Report ~ 2019 Outlook, 2018 was memorable for the sheer volume of transactions: “more than $300 million of real estate traded...

2018 River Oaks Buyers & Sellers

February 14, 2019February 14, 2019Cameron Ansari

Demographics are a fascinating study, and we always find it satisfying to crunch the data we collect on River Oaks homebuyers and sellers. Some of the results, shown in the pie graphs below, help us to chart the changes in the neighborhood. We run through this exercise every six months and...

2019 Outlook: The Overall Market

January 23, 2019January 23, 2019Cameron Ansari

The Big Picture It was a well-shuffled deck in 2018 River Oaks real estate, layered with the usual life-events of birth, divorce and death, but also including bankruptcies, foreclosures, financial windfalls and some malfeasance. It’s what makes River Oaks the most interesting place to work in Houston real estate. Most remarkable,...