- Construction of $80M Nau Center for Texas Heritage Cultural Center Downtown Put on Hold [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Medistar Corp. Planning New Office Space on 23 Acres Across Almeda from Texas Medical Center [HBJ]
- New AmREIT Owner Reconsidering Previously Announced $1B Redevelopment Plan for Uptown Park [HBJ]
- Detering Co. Has Sold All of Its Washington Ave. Property to 3 Buyers, Relocated to North Houston [Houston Chronicle]
- JLL Reports 2.5M SF New Sublease Space Has Hit Houston Office Market Just This Year, Half in West Houston [Realty News Report]
- Chevron Says It’s Still Planning To Build 50-Story Downtown Tower, Could Start Construction As Soon As Next Year [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- The Woodlands Recorded $168M in Commercial and Residential Land Sales in 2014 [Realty News Report]
- The Annual Income Needed To Afford a Median-Priced Home in Houston is $49,983.37, According to Mortgage Tracking Site [Culturemap]
- Late-Night Third Ward Spot Maxwell Street Grill on Almeda Has Closed [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot]
- Metro Breaks Ground on $25M East End Overpass, Expects To Complete It in 18 Months or Less [Houston Chronicle]
- Officials Considering Adding Stops, Extending Hours of Woodlands Express Coach Bus Service To Fight Continuing Decline in Ridership [Houston Chronicle]
- Texas Land Commissioner Launches Search for New Company to Run the Alamo After Ending State Contract with Daughters of the Republic of Texas [San Antonio Express-News]
Photo of Discovery Green: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Re Alamo: They should sell it to the United Nations.
So not now for Nau, that’s probably a good thing. Not there for Nau, is even better. That piece of property is NOW red-hot/high demand and now probably highly sought after for something much more monumental and fabulous! It’s literally surrounded by the Marriott Marquis, the GRB/Disco Green, a new luxury residential (The Catalyst), the upcoming Le Meridien luxury hotel/Houston First Corporate Offices, and Minute Maid Park. I’m sure the back story is that someone has ponied-up much more money for the prized lot to something extraordinary and really great. The new place for the Nau should be on the undeveloped/unused portion of Bayou Place across from Tranquility Park, and the Wortham and Hobby Centers. Simply demolish the undeveloped/unused portion of Bayou Place and put the Nau there. Now there.
Looks like Culturemap is regurgitating the same bogus housing affordability scatology that the Houston Chronicle seems to be so fond of. It would be nice if local reporters did some fact-checking on real affordability metrics rather than trying to make Houston look better than it is. Is Houston more affordable than San Francisco or New York? What doesn’t look cheap compared to those markets.
Add in your typical property taxes, hazard insurance and HOA fees, and those ridiculous “affordability” stats regurgitated by local press can be off by 20-40%, when you apply real numbers to Houston.
http://aaronlayman.com/housing-affordability-katy-tx-west-houston/
Since this happened during framing and is corrected it would not have to be disclosed down the line. If I KNEW this happened, I wouldn’t buy this townhome not because there’s any real danger or actual deficiency but more because it would bother me for years in the back of my mind.
Dang, mixed up posts, hoisted by my own tabs.
Aaron, I’m pretty sure they do that because it’s known values. For instance, your article references a $600 HOA fee. Personally, I don’t have a HOA fee, and many friends I have that do have HOA fees pay far less (nearly 6x) than you reference, but I don’t doubt that they might get as high as $600 a year for the privilege of living in a gated community where you need approval to plant a tree, or paint your house, and god forbid you forget to mow your lawn. Anyway, HOA isn’t my point, my point is, the way your article reads, or the way you write here suggests that these other places don’t pay insurance, don’t pay HOA, don’t pay taxes. Surprise, they do.
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That $742,000 home has a 1.x% tax on it, which makes their monthly tax price higher than ours, I’m sure insurance on a $750,000 home is higher than on a $200,000 home. I’ve never done the comparison. As prices go up, so do all the costs associated with buying a home.
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Yes, it is VERY important for a person buying a home to go in with a clear understanding of all of the new bills they’ll have to pay, and someone who makes $50,000 can’t easily afford a $200,000 home, which was the point you were making in your article, but the point of those other articles, and my point is, Houston is more affordable than these other places.