Current Real Estate Trend 2013

I have a link below describing a new trend in residential homes in real estate in the aftermath of the 2008 crises that is called "Multigenerational Homes."

The basic idea is to build a house to accomadate multiple generations of families within the same home, such as a families' parents coming and living with their children, or children returning after college to live with their parents. They use the space more efficiently than before, instead of having huge garages or large rooms, they focus on providing living area for multiple people and some even are semi seperated from each other with their own kitchens etc.

The video link below describes all of this more in detail and shows some examples and designs of the types of homes mentioned above. There is a rather large market for these types of homes, especially during a time of low demand for newly built homes. This allows builders to continue making homes even though they are slightly different than the traditional homes that we have seen in the past, and vastly different from the large and extravagent homes that were being built right before the crises in 2008.

Video Link:
http://realestate.msn.com/video/video.aspx?videoID=51f6683a-4ec1-4d15-8461-7c0487178898&from=msnrealestate_ss



"8 New-home trends for 2012." RealEstate.msn.com. 2012. Web. 28 April 2013. http://realestate.msn.com/8-new-home-trends-for-2012

Investing in Real Estate in Lake Jackson, TX

 

If I were investing in real estate this summer I would do it in the retail sector in my hometown of Lake Jackson Texas. There has been lots of highway and road construction within the city in order to accomodate an increase in traffic due to the expected increase in the amount of jobs and families in the area.

Single family home sales have been cut in half in the recent years since 2008 so the decline in residential building coupled with the increased traffic in the area leads me to believe that the retail sector will trend up. Also the city lacks retail establishments, of course there are current establishments, but I feel that the area is extremely lacking in entertainment locations, retail sales locations, and restaurants.

2005: 47 buildings, average cost: $220,100

2006: 42 buildings, average cost: $275,200

2007: 49 buildings, average cost: $217,300

2008: 28 buildings, average cost: $163,100

2009: 13 buildings, average cost: $161,900

2010: 19 buildings, average cost: $152,500

2011: 11 buildings, average cost: $254,900

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/city/Lake-Jackson-Texas.html#ixzz2Ro1SGAB9

By looking at City-Data.com you can see the decline in home building as well as the lack of restaurants as compared to the average for texas. There is a slightly higher percentage of supercenters such as Walmart located near the center of retail spaces for the city. There is definantly much room for more restaurants and entertainment for the residents of the area due to the lack in general as well as the projected increase in traffic to the area.

Food Environment Statistics:

Number of grocery stores: 29

Brazoria County:	0.99 / 10,000 pop.
State:	1.47 / 10,000 pop.

Number of supercenters and club stores: 6

Here:	0.20 / 10,000 pop.
Texas:	0.14 / 10,000 pop.

Number of convenience stores (no gas): 33

This county:	1.13 / 10,000 pop.
Texas:	1.11 / 10,000 pop.

Number of convenience stores (with gas): 121

Brazoria County:	4.13 / 10,000 pop.
Texas:	3.95 / 10,000 pop.

Number of full-service restaurants: 132

This county:	4.50 / 10,000 pop.
State:	6.13 / 10,000 pop.

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/city/Lake-Jackson-Texas.html#ixzz2Ro2Ak0HZ

Here is some data for the Houston area that should be similar however I assume slightly lower for Lake Jackson since it is roughly an hour south of Houston.

The rent per square foot averages and vacancy rates are as follows:
                                                                           
                                                                              Rent                      Vacancy
Downtown:                                                          $35.41                     5.0%
Neighborhood Service Center:                          $13.45                     11.0%
Community Power Center:                                $15.25                     7.0%
Regional Mall:                                                     $22.62                     7.0%
 There is plenty of room within Lake Jackson to build new retail centers, entertainment venues and restaurants to occupy the population there. This, coupled with the increased infrastructure and traffic in the city is why I believe that the retail sector is the place to invest, also the citizens there mostly believe that there is too little to do for entertainment and recreation.  
"Lake Jackson, Texas." City-data.com. 2012. Web. 28 April 2013. http://www.city-data.com/city/Lake-Jackson-Texas.html

 

"Market Report 2012 Houston." Real Estate Center Texas A&M. 2012. Web. 28 April 2013. http://recenter.tamu.edu/mreports/

One of the Few "Good" Foreclosure Stories

One of the Few "Good" Foreclosure Stories

I found a story out of Holland, Michigan named after the dutch because the settlers in this area were originally dutch. This story starts out just as most foreclosure stories do, with a family losing their home due to the down economy and unemployment.

A divorced mother living with her children named Claudia Zomoria had her house foreclosed on by the bank through a judicial foreclosure due to her unemployment. She had been bouncing around between multiple part-time jobs and could not come up with the money to pay her mortgage so the bank foreclosed on her.

She bounced around with her children to five different places for three years without her home until she heard that the bank had not paid her property taxes for those three years. She then found out that her home that had been foreclosed on was going to be sold to pay for the missed property taxes. She needed to come up with $10,000 to have a chance at making a competitive bid so she used her, her families, and friends money and went to the sale.

At the sale the auctioneer asked if there was anyone bidding on their own hom and Claudia made it known that she was and placed her bid, when the auctioneer asked for more bids the other bidders declined to make a bid and thus she won back her home outright.

It is amazing that she even stood a chance, against all odds, after being foreclosed on and bouncing around for five years she managed to get her own home back thanks to her family, friends, and a few good bidders that realized how important it was to her and her family.




DeMott, Russell. "A Good Foreclosure Story." BankruptcyLawNetwork.com. 2012. Web. 20 March 2013. http://www.bankruptcylawnetwork.com/a-good-foreclosure-story/

Lake Jackson, Texas

Growth patterns & Demographics

The city of Lake Jackson seems to follow an axial growth where the city developed around lakes and rivers as well as highways, it is also located near the Gulf of Mexico so in general the city is based near water.

 

 

 

 

 

Population in 2011: 26,978. Population change since 2000: +2.2%

 

Males: 13,218	(49.0%)
Females: 13,760	(51.0%)

 

Median resident age:	37.1 years
Texas median age:	40.8 years

Zip codes: 77566.

Estimated median household income in 2009: $76,644 (it was $60,901 in 2000)

Lake Jackson:	$76,644
Texas:	$48,259

Estimated per capita income in 2009: $30,692


Estimated median house or condo value in 2009: $140,444 (it was $95,400 in 2000)

Lake Jackson:	$140,444
Texas:	$125,800

Mean prices in 2009: All housing units: $154,173; Detached houses: $156,872; Townhouses or other attached units: $77,901; In 2-unit structures: $38,183; In 3-to-4-unit structures: $43,164; In 5-or-more-unit structures: $32,297; Mobile homes: $64,538

Median gross rent in 2009: $817.
 

 

 

 

White alone - 18,710 (69.7%)
Hispanic - 5,513 (20.5%)
Black alone - 1,312 (4.9%)
Asian alone - 831 (3.1%)
Two or more races - 335 (1.2%)
American Indian alone - 105 (0.4%)
Other race alone - 35 (0.1%)
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone - 8 (0.03%)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Economics 

 Unemployment in August 2012:

Here:	6.4%
Texas:	7.0%

Daytime population change due to commuting: -4,237 (-16.1%)
Workers who live and work in this city: 2,952 (24.5%)

Here is a list of the most common industries in Lake Jackson:

 

Manufacturing (36%)

Construction (17%)

Retail trade (7%)

Professional, scientific, and technical services (7%)

Educational services (5%)

Administrative and support and waste management services (4%)

Public administration (3%)

Here is a list of the most common occupations in Lake jackson:

 

Engineers (12%)

Other production occupations including supervisors (8%)

Other management occupations except farmers and farm managers (6%)

Electrical equipment mechanics and other installation, maintenance, and repair (5%)

Operations specialties managers except financial managers (3%)

Life and physical scientists (3%)

Business operations specialists (3%)

 

The best retail areas in the city are located in or near the Brazos Mall. This is where most stores are located, either around the corner or across the street and this area is basically right in the middle of the city where the most traffic is.


 

Psychographics or “lifestyle characteristics”

If you notice in the Economics section you will see that the most common industry and career is manufacturing and engineering. This is because the City of Lake Jackson is based upon these industries, careers, and the people who occupy those positions. The city was built to provide these people with a community to live in for like-minded families of mid to upper level incomes.

 

Lake Jackson is mostly a small city or suburb where most of the city knows each other and information travels fast if anything exciting or scandalous happens. Most families have ties to Brazoswood Highschool due to their children and this is the focal point of where relationships are born as well as at the major manufacturing sites. The city has the small town, relaxed feeling to it, some areas have large lots of land with houses on them and other areas closer into the city have smaller yards typical of a city.

 

There are not tons of entertainment possibilities in the city for people in their twenties, for example there are only 1-3 respectable bars, 1 movie theatre, 1 civic center, a rec center etc. Most people tend to go to each others' houses and meet up to have fun together for events, or they will go out to eat at restaurants. Many people also like the the area because it is close to the Gulf of Mexico and the San Bernard River which allows for some of the best saltwater fishing you can find. For example, I played baseball, basketball, football, and even paintball throughout my years in the area. I also spent alot of time fishing with a few of my close friends as well as shooting guns as I got older for target practice or shooting skeet in the outskirt areas of town due to being outside city limits.

 

"Lake Jackson, Texas." City-data.com. 2012. Web. 20 February 2013. http://www.city-data.com/city/Lake-Jackson-Texas.html

 

Real Estate Guest Speaker 1/28/13

Mike Gentry – Real Estate Law

Dr. Harrison – medicine/investments, great great grandfather was in the 1^st graduating class of A&M

Developer Perspective of Land

·       The land that we discussed used to be Booneville, near briarcrest drive. The area used to be a cemetery where the freed slaves are buried near hwy 6 and Target in Bryan.

o   For developing this land in current day, they must dig for artifacts since it was a historical area, for example if they dug up some coffins or artifacts then he wouldn’t be able to pursue the project, and it would be shut down. Because then they would have to do a historical inventory which delays the project and could mess up any loans outstanding for the project.

o   There was a pipeline on the property that needed to be moved to the edge of the property. During the move oil was spilled and contaminated the soil, which then had to be removed and replaced before use.

o   There are phases for environmental spills, if an oil leak is found then you can do a voluntary cleanup yourself which is faster, or you can have Exxon do it for you but there is a wait list of 2-3 years.

o   Another topic that was covered is that you usually want to zone the land for commercial property to convince people to buy it, but you must go through a zoning process by applying to the city for zoning which will determine what type of buildings can be built on the land. Developers want to zone the property for uses that your buyers want.

o   TIRZ – tax incremental reinvestment zone, the first expensive part of developing land is bringing in the infrastructure, such as road with water and electricity, this makes the land attractive to buyers with access to the back and front of a lot and highway.

§  First determine the tax value as the base line for value, as property develops and the value goes up, then so does the taxes. The city gets revenue from the property taxes, so now they capture the increase in value in this zone, now they can issue bonds and pay the cost of building the road. Expecting an increase in tax revenue because of more development in that zone to pay for the bond.

§  You also want to keep the property as “Ag Use” because you pay almost nothing in taxes, want to keep it this way until the buyer is ready to develop, then they convert it to commercial and pay “Rollback taxes” which is the last 5 years, this is a large sum but it is way better than paying regular commercial taxes each year.

o   We also discussed that you must plat the land in order to do anything. To sell lots you must file a plat and subdivide the land. This simplifies the description of property but as a part of this process the city governments are planning what they want or being told what they need. Government's can tell you to develop certain portions for certain uses such as a curb cut allowing people on and off the highway. It is almost impossible to sell the land without the curb cut because buyers wont want it. You have to apply with Texdot to get this all approved, they make the land owner make all the changes such as curb cut, giving up land to cthe ity for roads etc. These things are necessary evils that are standard in the process.

o   Big box development - an example that was discussed is the corner of university and hwy 6. Big box is an old standard such as walmarts that are just big box designs, this doesn’t look very pretty. Nowadays cities wants to establish design guidelines as a covenant required for buyers on your plat, all buyers must design their buildings according to these standards. This makes projects more expensive because they must look pretty and unusual rather than a square box.

§  Also, you must make sure that the rainwater doesn’t leave your new developed land any faster than before it was developed, this sometimes requires you to do things such as at Lowes they had to put a big ditch in to hold the water. This is not liked by developers because it costs money and you lose a lot of land that could have been used for making money.

§  The city wants lots of bushes and trees and grass to look good along the street. Property owners must develop a land owners association for the property and must maintain all these aesthetics, paying for water, maintenance of street and greenery.

·         All of this has taken 18 months so far for this project and they are still developing the land to get ready to sell it.

·         I really enjoyed listening to the guest speakers because we got to see a relevant and currently ongoing real estate project that we can relate to and see what we have learned in a real world application.

Restrictions on Real Estate

Private Restrictions on Real Estate

• These restrictions begin with Encumbrances which are restrictions and limitations on the fee simple ownership rights that generally run with the land.
• These are covenants, conditions, and restrictions on the land that limit the way a property owner can use a given property.
• These conditions can be seen in many different ways such as Deed Restrictions, Liens, Easements, Profit a Prende, as well as Adverse Possession .
• Essentially these restrictions can limit the rights that property owners have depending on what the situation is for there are many different types of restrictions.

Here is an example from 2009 of a dispute over the private restrictions on a piece of real estate.

A local developer of Athens County, Brent Hayes, is appealing their decision to place a width restriction on Twp. Road 31A, a right-of-way that leads to his property near Route 56. Hayes proposed reopening the road to access a large parcel of land he purchased beyond the property of Stan and Paige Alost of Ervin Road. According to the Alosts, the former road is their driveway.

On July 7, the commissioners decided to not vacate the Twp. Road 31A right-of-way, denying the request of the Alosts. Twp. Road 31A hasn’t been used since 1972 and cuts through the Alosts’ property. However, in an attempt to please both parties, the commissioners set a right-of-way width restriction of 16 feet to lessen the impact of the road on the Alosts’ property.

The width restriction prevents Hayes from creating any development other than a single home on the 120-acre parcel. Hayes believes the county requires at least a 24-foot wide road for the development of a subdivision. He said infrastructure, such as water and electricity, would not be able to be extended along such a narrow, 16-foot right-of-way.

 

Brumfield, Sara. "Developer: Commissioners' road restrictions too narrow." AthensOhioToday.com. 2009. Web. 31 Jan. 2013. <http://www.athensohiotoday.com/news/developer-commissioners-road-restrictions-too-narrow/article_b74e0dcc-f26f-5ceb-8805-3d89e9063dac.html>

 

This causes many problems for the developer. He wants to develope the land into a subdivision of homes but due to the restrictions set by the county on this deal he feels he will be unable to attain the full value of his land. Since the 16-foot restriction is so small compared to the 24-foot he sees a big problem in terms of utilities as mentioned above. Sometimes there is nothing you can do about restrictions on your land even if it hurts the value but this is where savy developers must find ways around such things or settle with a lower value.

 

Public Restrictions on Real Estate

• These are government created restrictions on real estate that limit ownership.
• This includes things such as Property Taxes, Eminent Domain, and Police Power.
• Police Power enables governments to have the power of regulation to protect the public, this leads us to the Comprehensive General Plan.
• This plan looks 15 to 25 years into the future and contains an analysis of the future as well as plans for transportation, publiic facilities, land use.
• Along with this plan, Police Power, includes the Zoning, Intensitiy of Use, and Building Codes that are set by the government to protect the public health, safety, well-being.
• There can be many issues with these three and can harm or even kill the value of a property or project for example if the land you own is zoned for residential then you cannot use the land for commercial purposes and other issues like this such as not following building codes can halt a project in its tracks.

Here is an example in 2013 of a dispute over a zoning issue which is a public restriction on real estate.

 

The Golf Club of Avon Connecticut  wanted to sell excess acreage to a residential developer. The developer ran into resistance from the Avon Planning & Zoning Commission, which refused to grant the developer a variance from zoning restrictions that limited the land to use as open space. Claiming that the Commission’s actions were “illegal” and “arbitrary”, the developer and the club filed a lawsuit. The lawsuit appears to have captured the attention of the Avon municipal authorities.They managed to reach an agreement in principle, where the Planning & Zoning Commission–assuming the settlement is approved at an upcoming public meeting–will reverse its earlier denial of the rezoning application. To address the loss of the open space, the settlement calls for the developer to pay a monetary fee.

 

Harris, Rob. "Lawsuit By Developer Persuades Town To Grant Zoning Change." Gold Dispute Resolution. 2013. Web. 31 Jan. 2013. <http://www.golfdisputeresolution.com/?p=2730>

 

This example is clearly a zoning issue which falls under public restrictions on real estate. The land was originally zoned for open space therefore the developer was unable to use the land in the way it wanted to so they brought a lawsuit upon the Commission to motivate them to grant the developer a variance from such zones restrictions. Sometimes developers are not successful in getting granted a variance and if that is the case then the project is stopped dead in its tracks, since they cannot use the land for whatever purpose they intended.

Abner Jackson Plantation - Prime Real Estate

We were asked to provide an interesting piece of real estate from my perspective and I chose the Abner Jackson Plantation. I chose this plantation because of the historical significance it has with the area of my hometown. Surprisingly my Dad's house is actually on land that used to be a part of this huge plantation back in the 1850's.
The Abner Jackson Plantation was a large sugar plantation that originally used slaves and then prisoners to provide the labor they needed on the vast plantation in an area called "The Sugar Bowl of Texas." It played a large role in starting the City of Lake Jackson, providing a profitable business in the area to bring people in and essentially start the city and increase the value of the real estate everywhere in the area.

As I mentioned earlier, I actually grew up on a part of the land originally owned by Abner Jackson, although it is not near the plantation house or any other of the buildings, my house is actually along one of the edges of Jackson's original land.
Because of this I feel the Abner Jackson Plantation has a huge significance to the city of Lake Jackson and its inhabitants. Many residents now live all over the area that Abner Jackson once owned, the area is now called Lake Jackson Farms. It is on the edge of city limits and provides larger lots of land and more privacy due to its wooded areas for the people who live in Lake Jackson Farms rather than the smaller, more public areas inside the city. Basically this piece of real estate had an influence into the way I was raised and the values I have today just by living in the area as I'm sure is the case for many other residents of Lake Jackson Farms.






History
Here I have provided the information straight off of the Lake Jackson Farms website that gives a brief history of the plantation:

In 1849-1850, Abner and Margaret Jackson, originally from Virginia, owned the property which included the lake and land extending to the Brazos River. In the early 1850's, the Jacksons built a large colonial style house, storehouse, carriage house, blacksmith shop, cotton gin, and sugar mill along the southeastern shore of the lake as part of what he officially named the Lake Jackson Plantation.(This lake is an oxbow lake formed from a cut-off meander of the Brazos River) Although the entire plantation was very large, this main compound was located within the area known years later as the Lake Jackson Park. (The Dow Park). During the civil war, Abner and Margaret passed away and the property was handed down to his five children, 4 sons and a daughter. Two sons died in the war while one,George, survived and returned to the plantation which had been maintained and enlarged during the war by his brother John. During an argument over property ownership, George shot and killed John. George soon died of TB. The only Jackson member left, the daughter, Arseneth, married a wealthy plantation owner named Groce and moved to Waller County. In 1873, Arseneth and the estate of her brother George, sold the plantation. In the following years, the plantation was divided and maintained by tenant farmers and others for absentee landlords. In Sept. 1900, the main compound was severely damaged by the same hurricane that destroyed Galveston.

On Aug. 23, 1941, Dr. A.P. Buetel purchased a large portion of the plantation including the lake and surrounding land. Dow established a park on the lake in 1942 and later in 1945, the land surrounding the lake was surveyed and and divided into 50 lots. The area was officially designated as Lake Jackson Farms Subdivision. Lots were sold mainly to Dow employees. Clearence and preparation of the lots for homes started in 1947. The first homes were built shortly thereafter.

Later in ,the Lake Jackson Farms property owners (with land fronting on the lake) formed the Lake Jackson Association, incorporated under the laws of the State of Texas as a no capitol stock, non-profit corporation.


"Lake History." Lake Jackson Farms.2009. Web. 21 Jan. 2013.
http://lakejacksonfarms.com/History.aspx