“What I see on my bike rides,” writes 2-wheeled real-estate observer Lou Minatti, “is that construction has ground to a halt in Katy.” A few more louminating observations on the cycles of West Houston real estate:
The main upscale neighborhoods in the Houston metro area lie between downtown Houston and Katy, in the corridor south of I-10 and north of Westheimer/FM1093. Houston residents know what I am talking about. That narrow 30 mile x 8 mile corridor contains the trendy new “lofts” near downtown, expensive new condo towers in the Galleria area, River Oaks, Memorial, the Villages and Cinco Ranch. . . .
Me? I live north of I-10, the crappy side. It was a nice quiet place when we moved out here in 1995. It’s still an OK place, no real problems. But property values have been flat since 2000. The houses on this side of the freeway are between $100k-$150k. Here’s the thing: Long-time readers here have seen my videos and have seen the inventory and foreclosures from my bike tours. The new houses in these videos [both featured in this Swamplot post from last fall] have all been sold, and this is AFTER the shady lending was stopped. I did a video update three weeks ago [above] and didn’t post it on YouTube because there’s almost nothing on the market! In my subdivision of 900 houses there are two houses for sale and one foreclosure. That’s it.
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So… cheap houses north of I-10 move quickly, nicer houses in the I-10/Westheimer corridor are moving slowly. Did we get the subprime crap out of our system two years ago when I was seeing the problem, or is this the calm before storm? I don’t know. I do know that the last time “boom town” was used to describe my neck of the woods it became “bust town” soon thereafter.
- Boomtown Katy [Lou Minatti]
- January 2009 Real Estate [YouTube]
- Royce, Centex, and Roadkill: Touring New Construction in Katy [Swamplot]
The subprime crap is going no-where.
It will only intensify. As long as Fannie, Freddie, and BHO are running things, they will ensure that people who can’t afford homes can still by them.
I don’t point me out for being a partisan hack. Bush pushed this too even though many in his party were against it.
“That narrow 30 mile x 8 mile corridor contains the trendy new “lofts†near downtown, expensive new condo towers in the Galleria area, River Oaks, Memorial, the Villages and Cinco Ranch….”
One of these things is not like the others. I’ll give you a hint: It rhymes with Dinco Panch.
I completely agree with you biggerintx. “The main upscale neighborhoods in Houston” actually lie in Houston. Katy doesn’t count.
The term “Katy” is relative. Katy in many minds is about Fry Road and west which is out of the city of Houston. Fry Road south of I-10 has many homes in excess of $1 million. If Westheimer is still the south boundary, past the Grand Parkway there are more million dollar homes in that direction.
Oh, and this area on Fry Road is usually lumped into Cinco Ranch even though it is much older.
“The term “Katy†is relative. Katy in many minds is about Fry Road and west which is out of the city of Houston. Fry Road south of I-10 has many homes in excess of $1 million. If Westheimer is still the south boundary, past the Grand Parkway there are more million dollar homes in that direction.”
Yep. My comments about that 10 mile x 30 mile corridor stand. That corridor is where the expensive housing has always been, it has just grown west over the past 100 years.
Hey biggerintexas, what makes you so sure that the close-in real estate that’s zoomed up in price over the past 10 years isn’t displaying bubble symptoms? I see lots of tacky McMansions and custom monstrosities occupying tiny lots that once had nice family houses built in the 1950s. And let me ask, what do you think is a riskier bet: A Cinco Ranch house or a new condo in the Galleria area or an expensive new “loft” next door to Ft. Apache? Me personally, I’d take the house. The Galleria area and just about every new tower inside the Loop reminds me of a mini-Dubai, a bunch of tacky crap built for no reason other than speculation.