Texas Watchdog has released an interactive map that links to the financial disclosure statements of Houston’s city council members, including Mayor White. Each disclosure, which covers calendar year 2008, includes an accounting of real estate holdings by officials and their spouses — along with the usual stocks and bonds and mutual funds and business interests stuff.
Unfortunately, the map itself appears to note only the council members’ primary residences — not any strip centers, spec McMansions, apartment complexes, land grants, or tool sheds that might be lurking in their portfolios. For those goodies (if any), you’ll need to poke through the linked personal financial statements.
The statements, which state law requires council members to complete, are broken into 2 segments; real estate holdings are listed at the end of the first. Of course, for the more sophisticated investors in the City Council crowd, the more interesting properties are likely to be held under the name of some sort of business entity — like, say M/A Khan Holdings LP. You’ll find that sort of info in part 2.
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Read more about: City Council, Online Resources, Property Taxes, Real Estate Investing
A few of Andrew Burleson’s conclusions from a comparison of property taxes in Houston, Chicago, L.A., and New York: “When a person buys a $200,000 home in Houston they’re actually making payments worth $273,000 including taxes. When a person in Los Angeles buys a house for $200,000 they’re making payments worth $235,000. It costs the person in LA the equivalent of $37,000 less to obtain the same loan. . . . The greatest irony here is how this plays out at the high end of the market. Because our taxes are so high, the cost to own valuable property becomes significantly higher here. . . . What you can see in the chart is how the actual cost to own a property is much higher than the real value of the property, and how this gap becomes larger as a property increases in value. For instance, if you have enough cash flow to make payments worth $200,000, you can only actually afford about a $150,000 home in Houston. As you look up the scale the difference becomes more ridiculous. $750,000 worth of cash flow actually gets you $550,000 worth of property in Houston - that’s $200,000 in value lost to property taxes. Therefore, if you’re rich, and you’re planning on buying a mansion, you’re better off living in Los Angeles or New York.” [NeoHouston]
Read more about: Home Prices, Property Taxes
Work on public improvements connected to the 4-million-sq.-ft. Regent Square project in North Montrose will begin by October, and work on the actual development will begin by a year later, according to an agreement approved by city council yesterday. GID Urban Development Group, the project’s developers, will be reimbursed for $10 million of its work on public streets and sidewalks through the Memorial Heights TIRZ. What’s next? “[Mayor] White said he generally has shied away from such public-private development efforts, but would continue to review opportunities on a case-by-case basis for distressed properties, such as Sharpstown Mall, and for other major projects already in the works that have been delayed or canceled amid the national economic crisis. . . . The mayor made note of a number of properties to which he hopes to attract developers, including in the Leland Woods TIRZ near Homestead Road and East Little York, the Near Northside TIRZ immediately north of downtown Houston, and in the Fifth Ward TIRZ. Other potential incentive packages may not be administered through a TIRZ, he added.” [Houston Chronicle; previously in Swamplot]
Read more about: 77019, City Council, Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Property Taxes, Proposed Developments, Regent Square, TIRZs
What’s inside that special $10 million life-support package for the Regent Square development City Council is considering?
The reimbursements proposed for Regent Square would be administered through the expansion of the Memorial Heights Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone. Under a TIRZ, property tax revenues generated within the boundaries are frozen at a specified level. As development occurs and property values rise, tax revenue above that level, known as the increment, is funneled back into the zone to pay for infrastructure and capital improvements to help attract further development.
Under the plan before council today, part of the increment will be given back to the specific developer rather than the redevelopment authority that operates the TIRZ.
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Read more about: 77019, City Council, Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Property Taxes, Proposed Developments, Regent Square, TIRZs
March 26, 2009 – 12:39 pm
Manson Floyd has a few things to say about that trailer park on 9th St., just west of Studewood in the Heights:
That park belongs to my Mother. She is 80 and on a respirator and has diabetes and the park is more an act of charity than an act of business. The renters do not pay on time, the City taxes the park more than the adjacent homes and yet she keeps it open. The Park represents what is very right and what is wrong with this country. . . .
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Read more about: 77007, Houston Heights, Property Taxes, Redevelopment, Trailer Parks
One of the last two trailer parks left in the Heights may not last much longer. Marian Floyd, owner of the Floyd Trailer Park — camped on a double-wide lot a couple properties west of Studewood on 9th St. since 1972 — has been having a tough time keeping up with rising property taxes. “Floyd said she needs to make a living, and she’s not willing to kick out her residents. She knows they don’t have much money, so she’s kept rent low over the years. But as property values — and the taxes she has to pay — have soared, Floyd has struggled to make ends meet. Between 2004 and 2008, the value of the park’s land soared from about $155,000 to $362,600, according to county records. . . . When Floyd threatened to close the park last month, the residents offered to pay more rent. Gloria Aguilar who lives in a nearby trailer with her husband and three children said she’d pay $300 per month instead of $200. Carlos Salgado, who lives with three friends, offered $300 instead of $225. Gutierrez, too, said she’d pay more. The landlord relented. But the trailer park’s residents worry for the future.” [Houston Chronicle]
Read more about: 77007, Houston Heights, Price Trends, Property Taxes, Trailer Parks
45 percent of the 860,000 single-family-home appraisals completed by HCAD so far this year show a lower market value than last year; 39 percent are the same, and 16 percent have gone up. “‘Appraisal value is down about 2.5 percent (overall),’ said Assistant Chief Appraiser Gus Griscom of the completed figures. . . . Homes valued at $500,000 or more received the highest percentage of actual value increases. Homes valued at $250,000 or less were given the highest percentage of value reductions. Overall, of the statements currently being mailed, homes valued at more than $500,000 saw their market values increase on the average anywhere from 5.17 percent at the lower end to 5.81 percent for homes valued at $1 million or more. The above-$500,000 valuation group accounts for a little more than 3 percent of the appraisals being mailed.” [River Oaks Examiner]
Read more about: HCAD, Houston Data, Price Trends, Property Taxes
Bring up the number of foreclosures and the amount of time properties have been sitting on the market in your neighborhood when you protest your property taxes, and the Harris County Appraisal District will take that evidence into account. But the Fort Bend County Appraisal District won’t. [Houston Press]
Read more about: Foreclosures, Fort Bend County, Property Taxes, Taxes
Comment of the Day: Mining the Tax Records
“Here’s my method to determine medium-term appreciation rates: 1. Look up a given house in HCAD.org. Make note of the current year’s appraised value. 2. Click the View link for the Harris County Tax Records. 3. Click the “View 15 year tax/value history” link on the following page. 4. On the graph on the following page, hover your mouse over the year farthest back (e.g. 1993). 5. Find the percentage difference between the appraised value from the current year and the appraised value from the year farthest back, and there’s your medium-term appreciation rate. It’s a quick and dirty method, but it really opened my eyes to the areas that are the best investments from a financial standpoint.” [Alan, commenting on Baby Needs a New Pair of Schools]