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 quiet last week of
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, 14 have been completed.
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 or so. But every
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% in 2018, and now
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 where the price of
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. By comparison, in 2018
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 hands in River Oaks,
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 publish our findings in
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, though, for 2018 was