Seller's market

I don't know about the rest of the country, but the big cities in Texas are now in a seller's market when it comes to homes.  Too bad we're not in the market to sell right now. 

Houston Poised For Yet Another Strong Month of Real Estate

The Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) has yet to release its official data on June home sales, but if early reports are to be believed, it seems we’re poised for yet another strong performance from the Bayou City’s real estate markets.


According to an early look from Tom Plant’s HAR blog, single-family home sales in June exceeded 6,400, which is the most since August 2007, and inventory held steady at 5.6 months supply, an “unprecedented” development, according to Plant (inventory normally rises in the spring and summer months) that makes Houston a seller’s market.

Those findings are consistent with an earlier report from Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene, which studied HAR MLS data and found:

■A 13 percent increase in single-family home sales from June 2011 to June 2012.

■A 20 percent increase in dollar volume for the same period.

■Sales increased the most, surprisingly, for some of the most expensive homes, with sales rising 32 percent for properties priced $700,000 to $799,999 and 29 percent for homes priced $800,000 to $899,999.

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene’s report also pointed out that Houston’s strong, consistent economy is a big part of its progress in housing. According to the Greater Houston Partnership, 1,000 people relocate to Houston each week, and the city has created 188,000 private sector jobs the last two and a half years.

Cody Phillips, a Gary Greene agent who works in Houston’s Inner Loop and Woodlands markets, said that with the huge amount of energy jobs coming to Southern Texas, the demand for housing has been very strong.

“The Houston market has been great,” he said, adding that he just learned from his broker that his specific office saw an increase in sales and listings for June.

In fact, Phillips said that pretty much every area located near the major arteries between Houston, Dallas and Austin have all seen their real estate markets prosper in recent months, with Houston’s master planned communities to the west and north showing particular gains.

The Price Class Spectrum in Houston


What price ranges have sold the most in Houston and how have they changed? Almost every price class from $80,000 and up is selling more homes than last year. Below is a table of the Top 10. With the exception of $900,000-$999,999, every price class from $170,000 and up is experiencing double-digit increases. The highest percentage price class increases are

1.$700,000 – $799,999 – up 32%


2.$800,000 – $899,999 — up 29%

3.$190,000 – $199,999 - up 28%

4.$200,000 -$249,999 – up 26%

5.$400,000 – $499,999 — up 26%

6.$180,000 – $189,999 — up 23%

7.$1,000,000 and more –up 21%
 
Go here.

Meme GOP

Meme GOP is another outstanding satirical and hard-hitting lefty site.  On Facebook here.  And here are some very recent samples.  Click 'em, Dano.

Ad: Firms

Great ad.   Hearing Romney's painfully discordant rendition of "America" over the backdrop of his secret holdings offshore is pretty devastating.

Jokes of the week

I think they will force an advertisement on you before the funny stuff.  Hey, without the ads, the internet would have a much harder time sustaining itself.

ISS time lapse

A pretty cool video, from space, with some nice music.  And only 2:18 long!  You should make it "full screen."  Do the Republicans REALLY want to blow up the economy just to win an election?

Space Chronicles

Just finished Neil DeGrasse Tyson's latest book, "Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier."  Having seen Neil only sporadically on TV on Real Time with Bill Maher or a couple of times on PBS, it was enjoyable to me to read the book and reflect on where we are right now with our space program, and where we've been since NASA was created in 1958.  Wow, I am older than NASA, and I haven't accomplished, uh ... ahem ... quite as much as NASA has.   Oh well, I didn't have billions at my disposal like NASA did!  So there!

With all the talk about "we should solve hunger on this planet before we explore outer space" most people don't realize that NASA's budget is one-half of one percent of the country's budget.  If we truly wanted to solve hunger on this planet, there are plenty of places to find the money.  

"Space Chronicles" is actually a series of columns and writings that Tyson has made - updated somewhat - over the last 10-15 years.  In that sense, it's easy to pick up, read a chapter, and put it down.  Perfect for those with short attention spans.  There is no ongoing narrative, except that every topic is about astrophysics of one type or another, which I am perfectly cool with.

They should put this book in every school library, especially the religious schools libraries.

Rawfully Organic

Do you have a food co-op near you?  I'll bet you do. 

This week we got our first half-share of organic produce from the Rawfully Organic Co-op here in Houston, a fully 100% volunteer-run organization.  They make it very convenient, with two different pick-up locations on Tuesdays or Saturdays.  On Thursdays, they will deliver your share to any one of 20 neighborhood locations around town, so no one has to drive too far to get their share.  How awesome is that?

The co-op was founded by Kristina Gabrielle Carillo-Bucaram in 2007 in her living room and has grown to 6,000 members.  They provide only seasonal produce and it must be organic.  That means a lot of the food comes from local farmers, but some will come from out-of-state now and then.

Kristina's bio can be found here.

Kristina also publishes a series of short videos she calls "FullyRawKristina" that can be found here. 

For our first share, we ordered only a half-share, and it's a good thing we did.  The half-share box was overflowing, and on top of that they offered three "extra" items of your choice.  This one was stuffed with a head of romaine, swiss chard, a large bunch of kale (is that seasonal??), two tomatoes, four peaches, two nectarines, two monstrous zucchini, four massive carrots, one huge cucumber, a cantaloupe, blueberries, a watermelon, and I can't even remember what else.  The fridge is overflowing. 

Support your local farmers!  Buy local!