Have you ever gone to Top Golf? It’s a kind of entertainment style driving range and has become quite popular for both kids and adults. Adults often go with friends or for company parties. The golf clubs are provided for you and there is a full menu with food, drinks, and alcohol. People make teams and aim at targets, hitting golf balls and socializing with friends. Well… there is a new golf related concept that has come to Katy! Already successful in 3 locations in Florida, Pop Stroke chose Katy as their first Texas location. Similar to Top Golf, adults can socialize over alcoholic beverages while PUTTING on a Tiger Woods inspired putting course. “PopStroke is a family entertaiment facility where we offer 36 holes of Tiger Woods-designed miniature golf,” said Greg Bartoli, who is the founder, co-owner and CEO of PopStroke. I had a chance to go check it out and it looked really fun. When I went, it was a beautiful Thursday afternoon, and there were many people there playing (did not go to work?!) and socializing. There was a full menu and a full bar, with a huge screen showing sports. The price board showed $25 for all day play. They do not take reservations; it is first come first serve. Could be a very fun outing for a group of friends! Click here for details: https://popstroke.com/houston-katy/
January is the most popular month for economic forecasts. Economists analyze the data from the previous year, crunch data, and create trends to guess the future of the economy. So far in the first two weeks of January, I have heard several different forecasts from various different people. All of them have very interesting perspectives and reasonings and I will share some of what I heard.
First of all, COVID stimulus package after package after package (there were 3) injected too much money into the economy. In addition, the extremely low interest rates (under 3% for mortgage rates at one point) encouraged heavy spending for everything including home buying. In all, the government injected $5.4 trillion of stimulus money into the economy, effectively over-stimulating the economy. This resulted in inflation. But overstimulating the economy was not the only thing that caused inflation. Labor shortages also caused prices to go up. Why did we have labor shortages? Because COVID made some people decide to retire early or to quit their salary jobs. The labor shortage also caused prices to go up. Other causes that affected our economy last year included: the war in Ukraine which disrupted supply chains, the spike in COVID cases in China, an extraordinary cold Europe using more than expected natural resources. So here we are with high inflation.
In an attempt to control inflation, last year, the government raised the interest rate 7 times in a row with sometimes quite aggressive increases (June 2022 they hiked it 0.75%!). The logic is that increased interest rates makes it more painful to borrow money, hopefully resulting in less spending, hopefully resulting in lower prices. The housing market has definitely seen a difference. Home sales are down 9 months in a row here in Houston.
What we need to be careful of is to not confuse this situation with a full blown recession. Once the general public believes we are in a recession, it affects their behavior and they become conservative and stop spending. Their thoughts and behaviors can create a kind of recession that actually is not there yet. The economist for the Greater Houston Partnership believes that even if we do have a recession, it will be short and shallow in Houston. He cites purchasing managers still ordering supplies, no significant uptick in claims for unemployment, no uptick in layoffs, and car sales are actually up. This means that companies are not slowing down, and people are not losing their jobs, and that people are optimistic about keeping their jobs. Hopefully interest rates will stabilize and that will stabilize inflation. Once inflation is under control, affordability will come back, not only for homes but also for simple things like a bag of potato chips (now as much as $6!). To see the extremely interesting Economic Forecast by Patrick Jankowski, Chief Economist for the Greater Houston Partnership, click here.
The Houston Rodeo is one of my favorite events in Houston. It’s like a huge festival for the whole city and it continues for 3 whole weeks. If you have never been to the rodeo, you must go check it out at least once! Beware that weekday and weekends, the rodeo starts at differnet times. Weekday rodeos start at 6:45pm. The entertainer takes the stage at approximately 8:45 p.m. NRG Stadium gates open at 6 p.m. Weekend rodeos start at 3:45 p.m. The entertainer takes the stage at approximately 5:45 p.m. NRG Stadium gates open at 3 p.m. But, you can get onto the grounds much earlier and I recommend that you do! On the grounds is a huge carnival where the parking lot normally is, and inside Reliant Center (next to Reliant Stadium) has lots of shopping and many kinds of animals. There is also a Champions Wine Garden with several live music stages. One of my favorite things to do is to buy a bottle of wine on a beautiful day, sit with friends, and listen to the live music! And now…I hope you are reading closely! Annoura Realty Group is giving away a pair of tickets to the concert on March 18 for Brad Paisley. That is an $80 value! If you would like to go to the rodeo with this free pair of tickets, please respond to this article below! We will do a drawing at the end of this month and announce the winner in the first February newsletter!
This year, the rodeo will begin on Feb 28 and will go until March 19. The World Champion BBQ Contest will be the previous weekend, from Feb 23-25 and Good News….The team from Japan, BBQ Shogun, has been invited back to compete!
It is always interesting to hear which names were the most popular in the United States. A recent report revealed what the most popular baby names here in Houston were for 2022. For baby boys born in Houston, here are the three most popular names:
Liam
Noah
Mateo
For baby girls, the most popular baby names in Houston for 2022 were:
Emma
Olivia (had been #1 for the past 3 years)
Camila
Baby name data was released by the Houston Health Department.
And… in case you were wondering, we looked up the top baby names in Japan for 2022. For boys, the top three most popular names were:
The Annouras were planning an end of the year trip to Turk and Caicos but after delayed flights and several miscalculations with Southwest Airlines, they gave up in Fort Lauderdale and pivoted to Key West for the holidays. As many people struggled with their flights on Southwest, the answer to many people’s problems was to just rent a car and get to their destinations by driving. Instead of wasting pre-booked hotel rooms and cruises, we have friends that rented cars and drove halfway across the United States to make their vacations come true. For us, it was still fun driving through Miami, then through the Keys, to get to the southernmost point of the USA, walking along Duval Street, and relaxing on the beach. We checked out the snorkeling at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo and headed to Miami’s South Beach for New Year’s eve. All along South Beach was packed with people walking up and down the esplanade, private parties happening at the restaurants, and at midnight, there were several amazing fireworks shows. We watched from the beach along with hundreds of other people, then made our way back to Fort Lauderdale, turned in the rental car, and took the first flight back to Houston on Jan 1. It was a very fun winter trip!
In other Annoura Family news, oldest son Joe is working on getting his Texas real estate license. He has completed all his courses and will take the state and national test later this week! By the time our next newsletter comes out, we should have an additional member of Team Annoura. Fingers crossed and good luck, Joe!
