Swamplot Archives by Category: Buying and Selling

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Friday, June 26, 2009

Cleaning Up After the Westheimer Park Apartments

June 26, 2009 – 1:25 pm
   

“Austin-based Falcon Southwest expects the demolition to be complete by July on the 185-unit complex at 9235 Westheimer, between Fondren and Gessner. Phil Capron, president of Falcon Southwest, says the property was under contract late last year to an apartment developer who wanted to build a five-story complex on the 4.8-acre site. The developer, whom he won’t name, could not get financing because of market conditions. Falcon Southwest will plant grass on the site before relisting it because “it will show better totally clean,” Capron says. He hopes to sell the tract for $30 to $35 per square foot, which would put the price between $6.3 million and $7.4 million. Falcon Southwest also owns the next door Westheimer Terrace Apartments, which are not for sale now, but Capron says will be at some time in the future.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]

1:25 pm | 5 Comments | Read more about Apartments, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Land for Sale, Neighborhoods: Tanglewilde, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Fighting the New Appraisal Rules

June 24, 2009 – 11:15 am
   

A Swamplot reader draws attention to a “rumored email” purporting to show that the National Association of Realtors is gearing up for a campaign against the Housing Valuation Code of Conduct that went into effect at the beginning of May. The HVCC was meant to safeguard the independence of appraisals — in part by prohibiting loan officers, mortgage brokers, and real estate agents from selecting the appraiser for a particular property. The email, posted on a San Fernando Valley real-estate blog, indicates that the NAR is pushing Congress to impose an 18-month moratorium on the new code. Our reader wonders if recent stories of “unfair appraisals” — such as this one — are the result of a larger “orchestrated campaign” against the new rules. [Effective Demand; Swamplot inbox]

11:15 am | 3 Comments | Read more about Buying and Selling, Financing, Home Prices, Quicklink
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Thursday, June 18, 2009

Idling in Idylwood: Where’s a Friendly Appraiser When You Need One?

June 18, 2009 – 4:14 pm



The Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff says low appraisals are becoming the “newest threat” to Houston’s housing market. Her example? The story of the redone bungalow at 6707 Fairfield St. in Idylwood, where the sellers accepted a full-price offer less than a week after the property was listed.

But the appraisal on the 1,780-square-foot home came in at just $206,000. The buyer couldn’t come up with enough cash to make up the difference and [co-owner Derrick] DeCristofaro wasn’t willing to drop the price, so the deal fell through.

Why can’t the appraiser buy that $242,900 asking price?

Continue Reading This Story >

4:14 pm | 15 Comments | Read more about Buying and Selling, Home Prices, Neighborhoods: Idylwood
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

No Deal for Bridgeland

June 17, 2009 – 4:42 pm
   

Bankrupt General Growth Properties won’t be selling its Grand Parkway-lining sprawlchild to the Caldwell Cos. after all. The $95 million deal to sell Bridgeland’s 11,400 acres is off: “Jim Graham, General Growth’s director of public affairs, released a statement on Wednesday saying all discussions have been terminated with parties interested in purchasing or investing in Bridgeland, but would not disclose any further details concerning the negotiations. Graham says the decision was made ‘very recently.’” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]

4:42 pm | 7 Comments | Read more about Bankruptcies, Buying and Selling, Land Development, Master-Planned Communities, Neighborhoods: Bridgeland, Quicklink, Sprawl
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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Survival of the Fittest

May 26, 2009 – 12:09 pm
   

“The days are long gone when sales were so brisk that everyone from accountants to lawyers snapped up empty lots to build homes in Houston, where loose laws meant at the height of the property boom anyone could be a builder. . . . Mike Salomon, president of Sandcastle Homes, however, says those unprepared for an inherently risky business have been chased out of the industry. ‘We’ve gone from a market that was very forgiving, and you could make mistakes and still be profitable,’ he says. ‘We’re close to what it should be like, where people who don’t know what they are doing are going out of business.’ His profits were down by 30 to 40 per cent in 2008, but volume was up 37 per cent. ‘We have to do more stuff to make the sales, but we have a profitable business that we’re still running.’” [Financial Times, via Swamplot inbox]

12:09 pm | 2 Comments | Read more about Buying and Selling, Homebuilders, Houston Data, Quicklink
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Friday, May 22, 2009

Buying a Bridgeland

May 22, 2009 – 11:46 am
   

The Caldwell Cos., possibly financed by Japan’s Sumitomo Corp., is in the process of buying all 11,400 acres of Bridgeland from bankrupt General Growth Properties for $90 to $95 million. “Caldwell notes the master-planned community will have the fourth-largest lake in Houston upon completion. The firm has spent three years moving more than 2 million [cubic] yards of dirt to create the body of water that’s large enough for boating and skiing, he says. The first part of the lake opened two weeks ago. . . . The master-planned community stretches between Katy-Hockley Road and Fry Road, south of U.S. Highway 290. The Grand Parkway will run right through the property. Construction on the roadway will begin in March 2010 with $180 million of federal stimulus money, according to The Grand Parkway Association.” [Houston Business Journal; previously in Swamplot]

11:46 am | 5 Comments | Read more about Bankruptcies, Buying and Selling, Freeways and Toll Roads, Master-Planned Communities, Neighborhoods: Bridgeland, Quicklink, Sprawl
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Lone Star College System of Real Estate Deals: 70 Percent Off Hewlett-Packard Surplus!

May 20, 2009 – 2:23 pm



The Lone Star College System’s $42.2 million purchase price for that chunk of the former Compaq campus it closed on last month turns out to be $100 million less than the amount it had offered to Hewlett-Packard for the property a year earlier, reports Wall Street Journal reporter Maura Webber Sadovi. A few more tidbits from her report on the second-largest office purchase in the U.S. so far this year (The auction of Boston’s 1.8 million-sq.-ft. Hancock Tower for $660 million in March was the biggest):

The $35-a-square-foot price Lone Star paid was below the $57 average paid for the few suburban Houston office properties sold in the first quarter of 2009 and a deep discount to the $145 per-square-foot suburban average in the year-earlier first quarter, according to Real Capital Analytics, a New York-based real-estate-research firm.

Expect to see administrators of the Lone Star College System (known until recently as the North Harris Montgomery Community College System) lounging around in some of the executive furniture HP threw into the deal at the last minute as well. How did they strike this bargain?

Continue Reading This Story >

2:23 pm | 2 Comments | Read more about Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Neighborhoods: Northwest Houston
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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Another Take on Greenwood King: Feeling for the Edge

May 14, 2009 – 11:48 am

More comments on Greenwood King’s April market report, which focuses on real estate activity in Houston’s higher-end neighborhoods. A second reader focuses on prices, determined to find storm clouds in the report’s silver lining:

While some avg. sales prices are higher, this is most likely due to builders no longer buying lots to build on for b/t 400 and 500k.

Last week you had a poster ask to see the evidence of price declines and an eroding market. Here is further evidence of a declining market. Moreover, the poster requested to see comps that show declines. I think I have proof. Can we get a Realtor to confirm that a prime West U. property–3128 Lafayette–sold for 700,000 over two years ago and now has been recently reduced to 699,000. Welcome back to 2007–[how] much further do we have to go?

One problem with finding these declining comp examples (and I think there are more, and more on the way), is that the Realtors control all of the data and are reluctant to admit that the prime inner loop area that has been so good to them is begining to substantially turn negative.

Photo of 3128 Lafayette St. in West University: HAR

11:48 am | 20 Comments | Read more about Buying and Selling, Forecasts, Homes for Sale, Houston Data, Neighborhoods: West University, Price Trends
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Greenwood King April Report: Getting a Little Crowded at the Top of the Market

May 14, 2009 – 10:31 am

Swamplot readers have a few things to say about Greenwood King’s latest fancy-neighborhood market report, which came out yesterday! Our regular GK watcher notes that the separate breakdowns for new construction and existing home sales introduced in last month’s edition have been abandoned. Still:

The news is relatively bad. Sales volumes are down sharply all over town. 17% more high end listings than last year . . . River Oaks, Tanglewood, Boulevard Oaks, and Memorial Close In are all over 12 months of inventory. . . .

The 17% higher inventory is reflective of a market of motivated sellers. By definition, a high end homeowner should not “have to” sell unless there has been a life change (divorce, death, job interruption). Everyone knows the housing market is weak in 2009, so…. the only class of sellers on the market are those having cash flow problems or those who have to sell due to a life change. There are almost no trade up sellers right now.

Memorial has 19.1 months of inventory

. . . as big $3-5 million white elephants sit there waiting for the landscapers to come and cut the lawn for the week. It takes a good $20,000 a month to live in one of those monsters. I guess the supply of willing millionaires just isn’t going to match the number of mega mansions. It will take some time, but they will soon move onto bank balance sheets and then to the auction block.

Continue Reading This Story >

10:31 am | 2 Comments | Read more about Buying and Selling, Houston Data, Neighborhoods: Boulevard Oaks, Neighborhoods: Memorial, Neighborhoods: River Oaks, Neighborhoods: Tanglewood, Price Trends
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Friday, May 1, 2009

Hewlett Packard Goes to School

May 1, 2009 – 11:33 am
   

The purchase by the Lone Star College System (formerly the North Harris Montgomery Community College System) of the “core” of the former HP, former Compaq Computer campus at 249 and Louetta is now a done deal, chancellor Richard Carpenter reports: “The purchase includes approximately 1.2 million square feet of buildings as well as parking garages and other support infrastructure. This facility will serve multiple purposes for our system as we continue to grow and expand; however the center piece of the campus will be a new University Center to serve north Harris County that is expected to include at least eight university partners. In addition to the University Center, the campus will also house an instructional satellite center, Corporate College conference and training facilities, LSCS office space, as well as room for new program development and expansion.” [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot]

11:33 am | Add a Comment | Read more about Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Neighborhoods: Northwest Houston, Quicklink
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Comment of the Day: Show Me the Deals!

April 29, 2009 – 11:48 pm
   

“I would like to ask you to show us how right you are by pointing me to some properties inside the Loop that could be purchased for 2005 prices. I have buyers. Really ready finance-able buyers. Of course, you had better send me a lot, or my buyers will bid your properties up to a price past 2005 prices in a heartbeat. So, let me at them. I am ready. I search the market constantly, and would love to present these ‘2005′ deals to my buyers, but I am not seeing them. . . .” [Harold Mandell, commenting on Popping That “No Housing Bubble in Houston” Myth]

11:48 pm | 19 Comments | Read more about Buying and Selling, Comments, Houston Data, Price Trends, Quicklink
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Popping That “No Housing Bubble in Houston” Myth

April 29, 2009 – 9:53 am

Enjoy your spring, everyone! Armed with a few pointed charts fueled by the latest data from HAR, Swamplot’s spreadsheet-wielding correspondent writes in again, this time with comments on March’s residential real-estate market report:

The Realtors always speak breathlessly of the “Spring Selling Season” with an almost religious reverence. Well it shows in the data. Home sales are 60-100% higher in the warm weather months. Prices are 10-20% higher, too. . . .

Continue Reading This Story >

9:53 am | 38 Comments | Read more about Buying and Selling, Economic Conditions, Forecasts, Houston Data, Price Trends, Real Estate Marketing
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Friday, April 24, 2009

Redo, Rinse, Repeat: Brun Bungalow, Makeover Magnet

April 24, 2009 – 8:46 pm

Some Houston bungalows have to wait years before they can get into rehab, but this dark number on Brun St. has been the recipient of no fewer than 3 makeovers in the last decade.

Carol Isaak Barden bought the house in 2000 “to keep it away from the wrecking ball” — then spent so much “making it perfect,” she says, that she lost money when she sold it the following year.

The buyer, Mark Horn, thought the house was perfect . . . as a new location for his hair salon. So he made a few renovations of his own:

Continue Reading This Story >

8:46 pm | 5 Comments | Read more about Buying and Selling, Homes for Sale, Neighborhoods: Hillcrest, Parking, Renovations
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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Bloated, Not Quite Finished, and Hanging on the Market: Some Second Thoughts on Those Greenwood King Numbers

April 15, 2009 – 12:51 pm

The Swamplot reader who’s been focusing on Greenwood King Properties’ monthly market reports has spotted some problems in the latest sales data. The latest report, for the first time, provides separate totals for new homes and resales:

If dollars fall by more than units, then price has fallen.

If you add together 2 significant segments and one is lower and one is flat then the total is lower.

The quick math doesn’t work!!!

How can Flat+Down=Flat??

How can -38% dollars and -33% transactions = Flat??? It implies lower prices…

So now I have a report that raises more questions than answers. Total sales prices are flat? Resale prices are flat? ALL of the pain is in new construction?

Price has always followed volume in every market around the country. So are the price drops for resales ahead of us now? The average resale high end home in Houston is now $585,000??? Isn’t that LOT VALUE in most of these neighborhoods? We never got the news on what happened over the past 3 or 4 years on resale only. Were prices actually flat on the way up?

A few more comments on looming problems in the market for high-priced homes:

Continue Reading This Story >

12:51 pm | 7 Comments | Read more about Buying and Selling, Houston Data, New Construction: Residential, Price Trends
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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Comment of the Day: Pressure To Conform

April 14, 2009 – 2:30 pm
   

“The maximum conforming loan at an 80% LTV translates to a selling price of just over $520k. Given the current interest rate premium on jumbo mortgages, new-builds that are just a little over this amount are tending to languish on the market, whereas those in the sub-$500k range seem to still be selling briskly. If I were a developer planning on putting up some $600k+ houses, I might re-think my plans and target buyers who can take advantage of the current low rates for conforming loans.” [Angostura, commenting on Latest Greenwood King Report: On the Double!]

2:30 pm | 1 Comment | Read more about Buying and Selling, Comments, Financing, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing
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