12 Comment

• commonsense February 9, 2017 at 9:25 am

  If I had my way, not only would we do the virtual gate, we would make the villages large gated communities with electronic gate access and manned entrances. It’s easy to tell people who are just “cursing around” and don’t belong here. If Carlton Woods can gate in 3,000 acres, so can we.
• AShame February 9, 2017 at 9:52 am

  It’s a shame The Houston Texans Grill closed. I like watching games there because instead of having to sit thru blaring commercials, they had a DJ that would play music during commercial breaks.
• Memebag February 9, 2017 at 10:21 am

  Re Houston Apartment Market article:
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  “… Houston’s apartment market is facing a sluggish year as demand struggles to keep up with a growing supply …”
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  That seems like a weird way to look at economics. Demand doesn’t really try to match supply. Supply tries to match demand. Demand is whatever demand is, supply is the variable. Right? At the very least, there aren’t a bunch of people thinking they should rent more apartments because to keep developers from going bust.
• Wolf Brand Chili February 9, 2017 at 11:25 am

  RE: Mayor Says $350M Super Bowl Boost
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  I like the Mayor. I even like the Super Bowl. But, I’m dubious of the $350M boost – unless you say that $345M of that went to the NFL owners.
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  Plus, the tax revenue of that $350M is significantly lower, which means that the City coffers aren’t exactly brimming over with gold to pay for the pension debt waiting in the wings.
• travelguy February 9, 2017 at 12:23 pm

  “There are only 27 ways in and out of the villages,” said Asst. Chief Ray Schultz of the Memorial Villages Police Department. “We import 99% of all our criminals.”
  -Except the white collar kind, Chief, Memorial has plenty of those.
• J February 9, 2017 at 12:50 pm

  Can they “virtually” gate Common inside the Villages?
• awp February 9, 2017 at 12:52 pm

  Memebag,

  As we will see in the next year (and have already seen in the last) price adjusts so that quantity demanded and quantity supplied balance.
• ShadyHeightster February 9, 2017 at 2:10 pm

  Memebag, you’re basically correct. The demand curve can be moved, but it’s harder to move than the supply curve. For instance, demand can be stimulated by extra supply ( think more lanes added to a freeway increasing the number of commuters who will use the freeway instead of alternatives), but it’s really hard to think of a case where demand for living space goes up except in the case of a population boom.
• Angostura February 9, 2017 at 3:43 pm

  @Memebag,

  Both supply shocks and demand shocks can and do occur. In this case, it would be more accurate to say that the demand assumptions underlying a lot of the growing supply failed to materialize (largely due to sluggishness in oil-related employment).

  In the wake of this supply overhang, one would expect the prices of new apartments to fall, usually in the form of temporary incentives, stimulating demand for THOSE apartments, and suppressing demand for older properties. While people generally don’t live in more than one apartment, many folks may opt for 2 BRs instead of 1, or 1BR instead of a studio, or a nicer new building over an older one, or an apartment in a nicer neighborhood. People will, on average, get more apartment for less money. On the margins, the overall effect can stimulate demand for housing: kids move out of their parents’ homes, couples delay cohabitating, and cheaper housing can spur migration. Properties that can’t be profitably rented get demo’d or otherwise taken off the market.

  Ultimately Say’s Law (supply creates its own demand) dictates that the excess supply being will eventually be taken up, albeit maybe not at a price the owner would like.
• Skeptic February 9, 2017 at 5:05 pm

  @travelguy yes, but their crimes are not committed within the confines of the Memorial villages, therefore not the Chief’s concern…
• joel February 9, 2017 at 8:28 pm

  LOLs at memorial villages. Yeah, of course theft happens when you have to call in outside help every day just to change a stupid light bulb. These old folks are probably just getting scammed right in front of their faces, not robbed.
• anon22 February 14, 2017 at 3:44 am

  If they can virtually gate people out, we can virtually gate ’em in. That’s a feature of virtual gating!