Wrapping up November, we have seen a bit of a slowdown in the market. Home are not moving as quickly, price reductions are more prevalent, and days on market are increasing. November was not a heavy month for expat movement so it was good timing for Mariko to go home to Japan to visit family! With the Japanese tax law changing regarding accelerated depreciation, many of our investors are nearing their full 5 years of ownership and are deciding to sell. On the market now is a condo in the Med Center, walking distance to the Metro Rail: www.har.com/54241061. We also have a great listing in Clear Lake, price just reduced to $265,000: www.har.com/941251. We also have four condos for sale inside the Ponderosa Forest complex in Dickinson. Our newest Kaneka expat decided to lease our sale listing on Golden Thistle and congratulations to Shojiro for selling his home in League City on Castle last Wednesday! Coming on the market this week is a new home for sale in League City, 2122 Emerald Cove and a home for lease also in League City, 6215 Brookdale. We will post details for both of these new listings in our next newsletter!
With Thanksgiving holiday last week, all the Annoura boys returned home and we were a family of 5 for the first time since May. It was especially exciting to see Ty, who flew home from Annapolis on leave for 4.5 days. Thank you to Stephen Yeager for picking him up at the Naval Academy and bringing him to Baltimore Airport for us! Ty arrived in uniform and was excited to change into ‘civies’ which is a word that means normal clothes for civilians. He is allowed to wear his own clothes only when he is ‘on leave’ and this Thanksgiving break was his first time to have leave. He met up with his best friends and ran around Clear Lake every day (and night) until he went back to Maryland yesterday morning. Joe returned from University of Texas last Saturday and immediately jumped on the golf course with Susan and her Kuraray friends. He spend his one week golfing almost everyday until he left on Friday night for the UT vs. A&M game in College Station. The Annouras enjoyed a few meals with Susan’s parents and the family of five also took a one day trip to Lake Livingston and hiked around the state park on Thanksgiving Day. Susan was probably the happiest of all to have all the boys home!
The Japan trip for Susan had some super awesome experiences. First, Donna Cole is personal friends with the Governor of Japan, Ms. Yuriko Koike. We were able to have a short meeting with the Governor last Tuesday in her office! When we couldn’t get into the famous teamLAB in Azabudai Hills, Governor Koike san put a call in and suddenly we had special passes! Another neat experience was getting to meet many Japanese CEO’s and Chairmen of major companies such as the Chairman of TAITO games (inventors of Space Invaders) and the Chairman of Tokyu Hotels. After Donna praised and complimented our room at the Cerulean Tower, we suddenly had delivered to our room a beautiful bottle of wine and several Japanese gifts! On a personal note, Susan was able to visit Karuizawa on November 1, exactly the same day 21 years ago that she visited Karuizawa for the first time. She was 32 at that time, pregnant with Joe, and was in Tokyo on a business trip for Love FM to interview the U.K. artist Dido, who had just come out with a new album called White Flag. Incredible memory that was! A weekend in Fukuoka was also super special. Susan got to visit with Koh’s parents, see some friends, and to check the status of the new family home currently being built on the Annoura family land in Narayamachi. Such a great trip to Japan, and so productive too! In addition to attending the powerful USJC Annual Conference, Susan also met Yamada san, Mitsuzawa san, Watanabe san, and Shimizu san. All of these folks are Japanese investors with houses in Houston that Annoura Realty manages! It was so, so fun to catch up with everyone, update them on their houses, and to talk to them face to face. Can’t believe so much was done in just 8 days! Susan’s amazing Japan trip ended today, when she arrived back to Houston this morning (and rushed immediately to Kemah for a new client’s builder orientation). Life goes on!
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that Virginia, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina attracted the highest number of workers in the third quarter of 2023.
These states appeal to incoming workers due to their strong job markets, relatively low living costs, and favorable business environments.
In contrast, states like California experienced significant net migration losses, with a deficit of 18,485 workers—the highest in the nation—followed by Illinois with a loss of 4,598 workers.
High-cost states such as California and New York are seeing more people leave, as workers seek affordable living options without compromising career growth opportunities.
Economic benefits in states like Texas and Florida, including lower living expenses, competitive wages, fewer regulations, and expanding job markets, make them attractive destinations for job migrants.
Texas ranks close to Virginia, with a net influx of 7,036 job migrants in the third quarter of 2023.
California serves as the largest origin of outbound workers, accounting for 12 percent of the movers seeking affordability elsewhere, followed by Florida (8 percent), Louisiana (8 percent), and Oklahoma (5 percent).
Many major companies have partially or fully relocated to Texas, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Apple.
In August, Chevron Corporation also announced plans to move from California to Texas, citing policies in California that increase costs, discourage investment, and negatively impact consumers and the state’s economy, according to CEO Mike Wirth in a Wall Street Journal interview.
Even with Susan in three different countries this past two weeks, Annoura Realty was extremely busy. The day after returning from Mexico, Susan helped Ayumi san close on her first home. It’s always so exciting to have someone buy their first home and I am honored to have been a part of the process! Funny side story- At the final walk through, both of us were too short to close the heavy attic door so we had to call her best friend to borrow her step ladder. Her friend was busy so she sent her husband and all of a sudden we had the head chef of Kata Robata at our walk through helping us shut the attic door! Special thanks to Chef Manabu Horiuchi. On the topic of sales, one of our Japanese investors got lucky this week, getting two of his homes under contract. One is the house on Sun Harbor and one is the house on Castle. Fingers crossed as they all go through their inspection periods. We had a third house also go under contract last week, a referral from a past client, Paul Kajiwara. His co-worker at Landry’s is moving to work at Kemah and together we found the perfect home for him zoned to the Education Village in League City. Super excited for Tim and his family, who will be moving from California in November. In leasing news, Chestnut Springs found a new tenant, so congratulations to owner James! Additionally, Mariko found a nice home in Bay Glen for our newest Kuraray expat family, The Ueno’s. Our third family in the process of house hunting is the Suwa Family of JAXA… good luck with the hunt! In the past two weeks, we had three new apartment move ins: our first Toray client chose a townhome up in the Woodlands, our newest Mitsui expat chose an apartment closer to the Galleria, and our newest Japanese doctor moved into a Med Center unit after choosing it virtually. We are super excited for these five new families as they start their new life in Houston. Congratulations to the Ishihara family, repeat clients who Mariko helped find a different rental home and to the Kitaoka family, also repeat clients who Susan helped many years ago. As we enter into a new month, we are hopeful the election will result in a favorable swing to the home buying market. And in the meantime, we will continue to help all of the newcomers leasing in Houston. Don’t forget, we appreciate all of your referrals! If you know anyone moving in or out of Houston, please refer them to Annoura Realty Group. We have a running list of all the people we need to thank and have a special gift for every one of you. We know who you are, we just need time to deliver your Thank You Surprise!
