April 8 was a special day in Texas as most major cities were able to experience the solar eclipse. CCISD was actually off from school so Ty hit the road to Austin with his friends, while Susan and Zach stayed home to watch it from our front yard. We dragged out our zero gravity chairs, mixed some cocktails (non-alcohol for him of course), fixed some snacks, and reclined all the way back. Although it was pretty cloudy, we were able to catch the entire show, on and off through the clouds, and with and without our eclipse glasses. Some places in Texas were fortunate to have good weather and got to see the very rare total solar eclipse and the famous ring of fire. I am so glad I was able to experience the eclipse with Zach this time, because the next total solar eclipse that can be seen from the United States will be August 23, 2044, which is over 20 years from now. I hope that Zach and I will be able to see it again together. He’ll be 31 and yikes, I’ll be 72!
We have some super exciting Annoura Family news to report, finally!! Our middle son Ty, found out last week that he was admitted to the United States Naval Academy!! This was his #1 choice for college and we are super, super proud of him. We are so thankful to Senator Cruz for his nomination, to all of his teachers and coaches for their recommendation letters, his boy scout Troop 1513, his Clear Lake High School teachers, his Gateway Community Church leaders, and the moral support and prayers of his friends and family! Before we found out, we planned a trip to Boston and Cleveland to visit Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Case Western Reserve University, two universities Ty was considering going to, to wrestle on their wrestling teams. Over 55 hours, Susan and Ty flew through 5 different cities and met the coaches and teammates for both schools last weekend. They then learned Ty was accepted to the Naval Academy! On the other side of the world, Koh spent a couple weeks in Korea and Japan and returned home last Wednesday. In Korea, he did his time trials for the upcoming Keirin racing league, Derby Wheel and did great! In Japan, he met with his parents and the builder of our new home. Joe came back to Houston, but only to grab his snowboarding stuff, and to head to Bush Airport. One of his fraternity brothers has a house in Park City, Utah, so lucky Joe got to go snowboarding with a small group of friends. Susan spent a couple of days in Galveston as part of HAR’s executive committee, supporting the next group of HAR leaders on their TRLP journey. This week, she is in Scottsdale, AZ for her first T3 Summit (www.t3summit.com), also with her HAR EC. It’s going to be a busy next few weeks because Koh takes off for Belgium this weekend to coach his paracyclist athlete on another European racing tour! As if this isn’t enough Annoura traveling, Ty will also hit the road. He heads to Las Vegas tomorrow to compete in a national wrestling tournament with his club coach. A special thanks to Sue’s parents who will watch Zach while everyone is hustling around!
What a whirlwind past two weeks! Since our last newsletter, several exciting things have happened. First off, we successfully closed on Maika and Tareek’s home after a small delay in the wire. Congratulations to this sweet family on closing while still in Japan! In other extremely exciting news, our favorite sushi supplier DID win his bid for the most perfect home in Royal Oaks. We are so incredibly excited to have made it through the option period and now have our eyes set on challenging the appraisal and making it to closing. On the horizon this week we have Peter’s Bay Oaks closing and Gaku’s Katy closing and have our fingers crossed for a smooth end game. All three sales involve lease backs, so we will close all three first and get keys at a later date. On the listing side, our star ballerina Charles found a buyer for Felt, and our Baltic listing is now in pending status as we wait for the appraisal to come in. The Iwatas perfected their home in Cinco Ranch Southwest and hired Susan to list it, and within single digit days, we are holding multiple offers. Highest and best is right now (Monday 7pm) and we should be under contract by tomorrow. On the leasing side of things, we had multiple move ins last week. Our newest Kaneka expat moved into our super popular Quiet Green listing and will stay under ARG property management. Our newest Mitsui expat moved into a beautiful apartment in the Galleria area and we were happy to help her even set up her rental furniture. KDDI’s newest expat went apartment hunting with Susan and found the perfect apartment with a Japanese style bath! The shower and bath are in the same glass enclosure and the view of his unit is awesome! Getting approved was a bit trickier than normal, but with some good teamwork, we got it done and he moved in last Friday. We had a repeat Daikin client who moved to a new place from his original place and kudos to our agent Mik Ebisu for getting the Oshimi Family across the finish line! Mariko closed on her Nippon Pillar client as well as her Daido Steel client and has a new Baylor College of Medicine doctor to tour this week. Meanwhile, Susan toured a new Tokio Marine expat and is working with a new Kansai Denryoku client and will meet the newest member of Nisseki Chemical this week.
We are so grateful for our past clients referring their colleagues and successors to Annoura Realty Group. We survive on word of mouth and do our very best to help all of our clients. Arigatou!!
The Houston Chronicle reports that the population in Houston has spiked in recent years, leaving popular cities like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Here are some interesting takeaways from the article:
The Houston metro area, encompassing 10 counties with over 7.5 million people, saw a population increase of nearly 140,000 between July 2022 and July 2023.
This growth rate in Houston translates to a new resident approximately every four minutes, making it the second largest gain in the U.S. after Dallas.
In contrast, the country’s three largest metros—New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago—experienced population losses.
The Houston area has regained over 150% of the jobs it lost during the pandemic, indicating a recovery plus a 50% increase in pre-pandemic job numbers.
Metro areas such as Chicago and San Francisco have not yet regained all the jobs lost due to the pandemic, while New York has only just managed to recover its lost jobs.
Harris County, within the Houston metro, saw nearly 42,000 international migrants in the year, the highest since at least 2016 and the second highest in the U.S. after Miami-Dade County.
International migration was the primary driver of population growth in Houston, accounting for nearly 40% of its total growth last year.
Harris County also experienced the largest natural population increase in the U.S., with approximately 35,000 more births than deaths during this period.
Well, I just saw my homeowners insurance renewal come through and it is crazy high! I have read in so many different publications that homeowners insurance is becoming a major problem throughout the country for homeowners. In some places in Florida and California, insurance companies are leaving the market and not offering insurance policies at all anymore. At the same time, the insurance companies who ARE staying in the game have increased their premiums sometimes 2-3 times their previous rates. This is causing trouble for homeowners who can no longer afford insurance, but have to have it because they have a mortgage (loan) and the lender of course requires it. Sometimes this leads to the homeowner having to sell the home. High insurance premiums and high interest rates have created an environment where a lot of people are shifting to renting instead of owning homes. It is an affordability issue that has only worsened because of the lack of affordable homes to buy. A recent news article commented that now in 90% of local market in the U.S. it has actually become cheaper to rent than to own a home! Younger people polled commented that they were happy renting apartments because they did not need to be tied to a long mortgage and because they had the flexibility to move wherever they wanted without having to be tied to a home in the same city for years and years. Wow, maybe the American dream is changing?!
