First Quarter, Covid Style

April 17, 2020April 17, 2020Cameron Ansari

Regular readers will be relieved to know that this month’s River Oaks market update will have more pictures and fewer words than usual. And yet, looking at the graphics alone would convey a more dire message than is truly the case. There’s more to the story. Read on. Showing Activity Let’s...

Let’s Talk Inventory

February 13, 2020February 14, 2020Cameron Ansari

If you receive our twice-a-year River Oaks Market Report – the 2020 Outlook edition is set to drop this week – you can skip the next two paragraphs of explanation and get right to the meat of this blog. Otherwise, allow us to explain how we track and categorize real estate...

2019 By The Numbers

February 13, 2020February 13, 2020Cameron Ansari & Teresa Byrne-Dodge

READY, SET, GO!

January 17, 2020January 17, 2020Cameron Ansari

The market in River Oaks took off like a shot, even before the starter’s signal marked the beginning of the new year. The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day was not just busy with the usual logjam of closings ahead of the year end, but showings and negotiations were also...

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....