Susan Hilton College Station Real Estate
Realtor & Vice President of Sales of Bryan College Station Real Estate
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Promising Prospects for the Market of Home Real Estate in College Station, Tx
May 22nd, 2012 Categories: Market Trends
For the past few months the nation has been hearing how the market is stabilizing. In fact, articles on evidence for the steadiness of the economy have become almost redundant. We get it. Unemployment rates are lower than they’ve been in years; businesses are once again growing and being created; the stock market (despite its occasional, but predictable vacillations) is growing slowly and steadily; and jobs are being created. Hurray, the economy has been saved. Life in the Brazos Valley can go back to what it once was. But there remains one minor question to be answered: when are we going to start seeing that reality reflect in the real estate industry?
The reality is that the unexpected plunge of real estate in Florida around 2009 sparked a nationwide real estate crisis. This, in turn, was one of the major flames to ignite our nation’s most recent recession. So it would appear only appropriate that the real estate industry suffer long after the recovery of every other aspect of our nation’s economy. The cause of our recession’s drought would inherently outlast the seemingly stable, progressing aspects of our pre-recession economy. Therefore, despite the various other regions of America’s economy now flourishing and returning to full vigilance, the market for selling and buying homes is supposed to linger in the arid economic desert until all signs of a healthy economy have been brought to light.
Which brings us to our next question: how much longer until the real estate market stabilizes as well? The answer, to the great enthrallment of homeowners still squatting in a vacant market, is not much longer. In fact, we might not have to wait at all. The economy is healthy, banks are recovering, jobs have been made, and homes are once more looking to be purchased.
Actually, little statistical evidence shows that the housing market is back on track. But for those hoping to get a head start, that doesn’t quite matter. Instead, the significant change has been the mood of potential buyers and sellers. That’s right: the attitude toward the housing market is changing, which is all the foreshadowing necessary to predict an upswing in the market for real estate. Think for a moment: with the economy stabilizing and the nations markets growing once more, people are anticipating that the housing market is going to bounce back as well. And rightly so. It’s a fact that it will only be a matter of time before the real estate industry recovers, and for potential home buyers looking to get the best deal on a selling home, now is the last chance to buy cheap.
But this isn’t just the biased perspective of a real estate blogger throwing out ideas. The Vice President and Chief Economist of Fannie Mae, Doug Duncan, claims that “conditions are coming together to encourage people to want to buy homes.” Duncan’s speculation comes from his understanding that “Americans’ rental price expectations for the next year continue to rise, reaching their record high level.” From these projections, Duncan predicts that some of America’s home renters might find home ownership as a more compelling option due to the rising rent prices.
Fannie Mae conducts a real estate survey every month, and the vibe emanating from the respondents are suggesting some interesting things. To start, the percent of respondents who think that it is a good time to buy has reach a high of 73%. To accompany this compelling statistic, the number of respondents who claimed it is a good time to sell also rose. This coupling suggests the market is ready to expand, as buyers and sellers come closer to reaching an agreement on the negotiated and offered prices. With more people looking to sell and more looking to buy, the market automatically grows. From there it’s only a matter of processing statistics to show that home sales are finally recovering.
Perhaps the dramatic increase of respondents looking to buy is an effect of projected rising home sales. In fact, regarding respondents’ expectations of home price increases over the next twelve months, the highest amount of respondents from this entire year claimed home prices would climb. Also, coinciding with Vice President Doug Duncan’s understanding, almost 50% of respondents are anticipating rental prices to go up.
For further encouragement regarding the real estate market, 66% of the respondents of Fannie Mae’s survey claimed that, if they were to move within the next year, they would buy a home. This is a strikingly encouraging prospect (assuming the opinions of Fannie Mae’s respondents are reflective of the overall population), and owners with homes on the market can certainly look forward to a steadily growing pool of potential home buyers.
All in all, Fannie Mae’s survey shows us not that the market for home real estate is already recovering, but rather that the opinions and attitudes of the public are gradually shifting in the favor of the real estate market. Rising renting costs are causing people to shift their interest back to home ownership. Low prices for homes, likely only to rise over the next years, are also encouraging prospects for potential home buyers. And the overall stabilization of the economy is assuring potential home owners that the value of their purchase will not plummet the moment after they purchase their new home. So while the statistics are showing very little in the means of a growing market for the real estate industry, it is clear that America is ready to trust home ownership once more. And because of this, the market for real estate will begin steadily restoring itself.
PS – Susan Hilton is Bryan College Station, Texas’ real estate specialist in foreclosure sales and real estate agent career building so if you need help – CALL! 979-219-3970
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Meeting Energy Demands During a Texas Summer in College Station
May 21st, 2012 Categories: Living Here, News
Texas summers are hot. And, for those of us willing to face the statistics, it only looks like they’re getting hotter. But that’s fine, so long as we have a roof over our heads with well ventilated air-conditioning, and a car with enough antifreeze to get us to and from work without having to succumb to the overbearing outside heat. Right?
Meeting the energy demands of the State of Texas hasn’t been any real issue for many years. But after the overpowering heat of last year’s summer, and the extended heat waves that threatened to bring an entire energy industry crashing down, people are beginning to wonder. For the first time in a long time, people are beginning to have real concerns as to whether the state of Texas is ready to meet their energy needs. And whether you live in Dallas, San Antonio, or Bryan-College Station, if the state isn’t ready to meet our demands for energy consumption, you are going to feel it.
So why the sudden overwhelming demand? Texas has managed to meet energy needs for decades, so why is the state in a sudden crunch? Some might say the effects of global warming are causing our homes to struggle resisting the climbing heat; and last year’s record breaking weather could hardly be offered as a rebuttal. But there are numerous other factors, the most prominent of which is the climbing growth of Texas’ population and economy.
In the last decade alone, Texas’ population has grown by over 4.2 million residents. Texas House Speaker, Joe Straus himself, claims that Texas has “by far the largest electric usage of any state—roughly equivalent to Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Mississippi combined.” That is a lot of electricity. It helps that Texas is also one of the largest states in the Nation, and quite consistently the hottest. But there is no getting around the fact that Texas’ economy is growing rapidly, and this economic prosperity is driving up electric demands at a rate that would put many other nations across the globe in a back-breaking position.
So, as a Bryan or College Station home owner, the next obvious question is: will Texas manage to meet the energy requirements for the Summer of 2012, and the several, if not innumerable summers following? The answer is yes. Texas will meet the energy demands of the state. Why? Because it has to.
To offer a (perhaps) more credible answer to the above question, Governor Rick Perry confidently proclaims that “based on current weather expectations, Texas has the capacity to meet consumer needs over the 2012 summer months.” Even Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, referring to the record hot summer of 2011, claims that “since then, the Legislature has worked closely with state agencies and generators across Texas to ensure we are prepared for 2012.”
All this political talk vaguely ensures that everything will be okay and whatnot. But the real question is how are they going to ensure we will meet the energy demands of 2012. Governor Rick Perry has this to say:
“To prepare for this summer the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT have taken some specific steps. The PUC is working with transmission and distribution companies to make better use of demand-response programs, which were created as part of their energy-efficiency requirement. ERCOT is continuing to expand its interruptible load programs, which allow large industrial and commercial users to voluntarily reduce consumption during periods of peak usage.”
So in laymen’s terms, the Public Utility Commission (PUC) and the Electric Reliability Council Of Texas (ERCOT) are taking measures to ensure better energy efficiency requirements throughout the state, and to work on their response programs to unexpected/sudden increased consumer demands (from extended heat waves, etc.).
Efficiency and reliability are all good and great, but another matter, probably the most important matter, is the development of new, affordable, and reusable energy sources. These solve all the problems and are the solutions to long-term energy demands. So what is Texas doing about this?
In Lt. Governor David Dewhurst’s report on future energy demands, he claims that “Texas’ energy resources are as diverse and abundant as our booming population.” Believe it or not, this is almost an understatement. Texas has remained at the forefront of the nation’s energy industry, and through the use and gradual growth of diverse, renewable energy sources, Texas is actually paving the way for the entire Nation’s future energy policy. Texas is currently invested in Wind Energy, Hydropower, Ocean Power, Hydrogen, and all of the non-renewable fuels, from Nuclear to oil to natural gases. In fact, Texas’ growing use of wind turbines has lead the nation in the amount and percentage of energy produced, reaching over 3% of the states’ energy production in 2007, and climbing steadily ever since. Texas is also ranked first in the nation for solar resource potential, having a virtually unlimited solar energy supply.
All statistics aside, the irrefutable reason that Texas is pushing and leading the nation in the direction of new, innovative energy sources is because of the high demand in our state. Texas needs more energy to match the growing population, industry, and rising heat. And, as humans, we respond well to necessity. Texas will meet the energy requirements for 2012, and as the population grows and the summers remain hot as ever, Texas will continue to meet the energy requirements due to the growing investments and discoveries in the energy industry. So residents of Bryan and College Station, rest assured: this summer shouldn’t get too hot, so long as you stay indoors.
PS – Susan Hilton is Bryan College Station, Texas’ real estate specialist in foreclosure sales and real estate agent career building so if you need help – CALL! 979-219-3970
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Demolition and Renewal: a History of the Plaza Hotel in College Station
May 19th, 2012 Categories: Community Events, Foreclosures, Living Here, Texas A&M University
Almost every Bryan/College Station resident would admit to driving past the abandoned Plaza Hotel occasionally in their weekly routine, if not daily. The seventeen story concrete shell stands at the intersection of Texas Avenue and University Drive, arguably the two busiest streets in the whole city. And after 6:30am on Thursday, May 24th 2012, this once pivotal structure will be reduced to nothing more than a pile of shattered concrete and useless rubble.
If you’ve driven through the city of College Station in the past few weeks, it’s likely that you’ve noticed the unusual vacancy of the Plaza Hotel. Not that you would be expected to notice a parking lot or diminished business: instead, it is the actual building itself which you would’ve noticed. The windows of various apartments and hotel rooms appear to almost open up to the sky behind the structure. I myself have viewed this spectacle on a few sunset evenings, when the sky behind the Plaza Hotel was painted with the various colors of sunset, the different tones of orange, pink, or Easter purple leaking through the hollowed frame of the seventeen story structure. It’s more than evident then, peering up through the cracks in the concrete frame, to understand how completely abandoned the Plaza Hotel had become. And to hear now that the building will be imploded this upcoming Thursday, you might not be entirely surprised.
But how did this pivotal structure, the hotel that has had such a powerful presence in the history of our growing city, come to such an abrupt end? In such instances as this, it is sometimes important to understand the buildings past in order to appreciate the present circumstances.
What we know today as the Plaza Hotel actually began as a Ramada Inn, the first foundations of which were laid in the late 1950s. Joe Ferreri, the constructor of the Ramada Inn, was approached in the 1950s by Earl Rudder of Texas A&M. Attracted to Ferreri’s success as a drive-inn restaurant owner, Rudder approached Joe with the proposition to construct a badly needed hotel on the Corner of Texas Avenue and University. After appearing hesitant about the project due to his lack of experience in the hotel industry, Rudder encouraged him forward, getting the young businessman to wonder how much different it could be than the food industry.
So Joe began to build. By 1960 the Ramada Inn opened, looking far different than the Plaza Hotel that we know today. The Ramada had been a quaint, two story Inn with an Olympic swimming pool, faculty club, banquet hall, and just over 150 rooms. But this quiet corner served as a focal point for the College Station and Texas A&M community.
The Ramada Inn had immediate success and was consistently pushed to over 90% of its overall capacity. In fact, the hotel had such great business that Ferreri was pressed to expand. In 1980 he began the construction of a new high-rise for his Hotel, and in just one year an additional seventeen story tower was built: making the shell of the structure that you see today.
But despite the initial success of Ferreri’s expanded hotel and the overall consistent business he was receiving from the community at large, only a few years after the construction of the Hotel’s new high-rise, Joe Ferreri was forced to sell the Ramada Inn. In the early 1980s there was a major economic recession, much like the most recent economic events of the late 21st Century. Rising interest rates on the debts incurred from Ferreri’s construction, along with the overall state of the economy and slowing business, forced Ferreri out of his prized construction. The result was a loss of over 32 million dollars in assets and personal funds. Ferreri was left only with his home, a single car, and his family.
Since then what began as the Ramada Inn has switched ownership several times, becoming most recently what it is known as today: the Plaza Hotel. And it would appear that a similar fate befell the success of the Plaza Hotel’s business, the inevitable slip to bankruptcy that caused the hotel to close its doors for the last time in 2010.
Unfortunately, the story does not end there. After the abandonment of the Plaza Hotel, the twelve acre site of prime real-estate has become a hot-spot for crime, vandalism, and drug use. Criminals have been simply unable to avoid the alluring pull of an abandoned, seventeen story shelter full of furniture, walls, and glass. Security has been gradually increasing over the past few months, but authorities have become hard-pressed for the funds to support the coverage of such a broad area when the use of civil authorities is generally looked for elsewhere. So what is the result? Demolition.
The demolition project has been delegated to the local Civil Engineering Company, Mitchell and Morgan. Veronica Morgan is the lead Civil Engineer in charge of the implosion, which is currently set to occur around 6:30am this Thursday, the 24th of May. The event will be free and open to the public. Veronica Morgan herself hopes the implosion “will be an event for the community.” Many are certainly looking forward to the removal of the towering Plaza Hotel, which has been described by as an ‘eyesore’ to the community at large.
While future construction in the Plaza Hotel area is still unclear (there has been speculation about student housing, shopping/eating centers, night clubs, etc.), it is obvious and in popular demand that the archaic, outdated shell of the 1960s Ramada Inn be destroyed and replaced with a more aesthetically appealing structure. While the overall value of the land has decreased 28.7% from 2008 to 2010, it is still located in a prime location with an excellent promise of prosperous business. The city allegedly has had multiple propositions processed over the past several months, and the entire community is excited to find out what the future will hold.
PS – Susan Hilton is Bryan College Station, Texas’ real estate specialist in foreclosure sales and real estate agent career building so if you need help – CALL! 979-219-3970
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Utilizing Property Tax Exemptions under New Tax Laws in Texas
May 4th, 2012 Categories: Investment Real Estate
Tax laws in Texas haven’t always been the most exciting subject for reading or casual discourse. However, if you’re looking to buy property or claim ownership of a new home in the Brazos Valley, there are some new adjustments to Texas’ laws on property tax. Primarily, the branch concerning application for property tax exemptions. And for homeowners looking for an exemption on the always tolling property tax, these new laws might be considerably interesting.
One of these new laws directly concerns the general homestead exemption. This exemption pertains to most, if not all of individual homeowners in some way. But it would hardly be considered an exemption if every home received the break. So, in order for a home to qualify for the general homestead exemption, it must meet certain criteria. First, it must be the primary residence of the homeowner. Second, the property must be owned by an individual (so basically not owned by a business or corporation). Also, the property must be the principal residence of the individual as of January 1st of that tax year. A home must also qualify as a homestead: any kind of separate structure, condominium, or manufactured home located on privately owned land. It also can be on land of up to 20 acres given that the land is owned by the homeowner and used for residential purposes.
So what is this new change in laws regarding property tax exemptions in Texas? For the homestead exemption, the recently applied ‘House Bill 252’ requires all applicants of the homestead exemption to provide a copy of the homeowner’s state driver’s license or identification card. It also mandates the presentation of the homeowners vehicle registration receipt to be sent with the exemption application. And for homeowners without vehicle ownership, the new bill allows for a simple substitution. Applicants for the homestead exemption that don’t own any vehicles may send in their current utility bill that provides their name and address, along with an official declaration indicating the homeowner’s lack of vehicle ownership.
Though, it is important to note that these requirements are not necessary for homeowners who applied for the homestead exemption before the changes in legislation. Upon applying, it will not be necessary to re-apply unless your principal residence moves or you receive a new application to be processed from your regional tax office.
The reason for these new measures might seem unusual to those bothered by the extra required documentation for the application of a property tax exemption. Yet, according to Texas Comptroller Susan Combs, “The homestead exemption is intended to help relieve the tax burden of Texas full-time residents. This new legislation ensures that the system is working fairly and legally.” Regardless, a few extra papers and methods of identification are hardly anything new in government processes. And if they help provide for a relief on a homeowner’s property tax, the extra hassle is definitely worth the return.
Changes in the requirements for homestead exemptions are not all that have changed with the recent passing of property tax legislation. All homeowners seeking for the ‘Over 65 years of age’ exemption, as well as the disabled exemption, the disabled veteran’s exemption, the extended exemption for a homeowner’s surviving spouse, and the mobile Read the rest of this entry »
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Using HomePath to Purchase Foreclosed Real Estate
May 3rd, 2012 Categories: Foreclosures, Investment Real Estate, Market Trends
There is no great wonder regarding the effects of the nation’s latest mortgage crisis both in Bryan College Station, Texas and the nation as a whole. Loans were left unpaid, and homes were abandoned as banks and the government foreclosed on them. The question is: what became of all those homes that various banks confiscated? With all the lost finances and the economic downturn, there has got to be a stockpile of these homes just waiting to enter the market at steal prices. Fortunately enough for Realtors and home-buyers, even those in the Brazos Valley, there is such a stockpile. And, through a new program instigated by the great mortgage giant Fannie Mae, these homes are now available for inspection and purchase online.
That’s right. As if the web wasn’t growing fast enough, now prospective home-buyers can evaluate and even place offers on homes via the world wide web (through a licensed Realtor, of course). But first, let’s consider Fannie Mae and how this program came to be.
Fannie Mae is in fact the largest lender throughout the United States. And the current exponential growth of their real estate ownership is primarily due to the incredible number of recent foreclosures. It is a reality of the market that when a bank forecloses on a house, businesses like Fannie Mae stoop in to relieve the Bank of their loss, while turning a small profit of their own in return. However, with the drastic quantity Read the rest of this entry »
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