Decemeber 15 was the Houston Association of Realtors annual Realtor Celebration Event. It took place at the Houston Country Club and celebrated the leadership of our 2022 Chairman, Jennifer Wauhob, who spent one year representing Houston Realtors on the news and at conferences all around the United States. We also celebrated the new 2023 Chairman, Cathy Trevino, who was installed with her Board of Directors, including Susan, who was newly elected in August of this year. Board of Directors are elected by the 50,000 members of HAR. The board will meet regularly to decide on policies and to discuss issues that affect the members. Each term is two years and Susan is super excited to be a part of this very amazing group of leaders!
Having a reliable lender is critical in our real estate business. One of our most trusted mortgage lenders is AMCAP Mortgage, Laura Haines. She is a local lender very familiar with working with our Japanese buyers. We like her because she is very communicative, answering her phone, text, and emails almost as quickly as Susan does! We also like her because she is trustworthy and competitive. When buyers say they are ready to buy a house, our first request is that they contact a local lender like Laura, so that the lender can assess their income and debt, and give out a a pre-approval letter. This pre-approval letter will say how much of a house you can purchase (max purchase price) and will also say how much of a down payment you can afford. This is helpful for when we select houses to look at, to make sure they are within budget, and when we submit your offer, to prove to the seller that a lender has reviewed your finances and believes you can qualify for a loan. If you are thinking about buying a home, contact us so we can connect you with Laura first!
Last Friday, Dec 2, Laura held her annual Christmas party at her beautiful home in Kemah, TX. The subdivision is called Clear Lake Shores and there are many cute coastal themed homes there. Laura loves Christmas and her house was decorated more beautifully than the most beautiful Christmas store! Can you believe throughout the house, including real trees and decoration trees, she has a total of 89 trees throughout the house!? It was so fun for Team Annoura to attend the party to meet so many other realtor friends at the same time. Thank you, Laura!
We have entered the last month of the year and we are trying to end the year strong! Mariko just moved in a new expat family with Yamato to a luxury apartment in Katy, while Mik worked with a new expat family with Daikin and helped them find a perfect single family home in Katy. Susan picked up a new listing in Sugar Land, a lease home inside popular Riverstone subdivision, zoned to popular First Colony Middle School. With 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, this immaculate house is reasonably priced at $2700/month. See details here: www.har.com/66647307. Down at Ponderosa Forest, the third of three condos is about to go under contract, but one of our investors in Japan just signed their listing agreement for us to sell 5 of his units. That will bring a total of 7 units for sale, if you or anyone you know is looking for fully occupied condo units. Over in East Downtown, we have a two bedroom townhouse on Felt Circle for lease or for sale. To see details, check this link: www.har.com/36796102. One more rental on the market now is a two bedroom condo in the Texas Medical Center area, walking distance to the lightrail and zoned to Roberts Elementary. This spacious 2 bedroom unit is 1469sf and it listed at $1950/month! Get details here: www.har.com/56484143. On the horizon this week, one more new expat family from Japan who will be working for Daikin. He’ll be arriving on Thursday for his house hunting tour, and one new intern at the Texas Medical Center who is moving to Houston in January. With just 26 days left in 2022, Annoura Realty is workig hard to end the year strong! If you know anyone moving to Houston or if you need help with anything real estate related, please don’t hesitate to contact us!
Many people have noticed that the soaring interest rate has calmed down recently and often ask us how the real estate market is going. Do we think it will crash? Will there be many foreclosures? As of Dec 1, the interest rates were around 6.5%. Data shows that mortgage rates may have peaked. After surpassing the 7% threshold in the second week of November, rates are finally moving down as inflation is cooling. Forecasters say if inflation continues to slow, rates may stabilize near 6%. While pending homes sales (the number of homes under contract) have now fallen for 5 straight months, forecasters believe that buyers will be back around the beginning of the year as the FHFA just raised the conforming loan limits for 2023 from $720k to $800k, a 12% increase. The main reasons the market won’t crash nor will there be many foreclosures like in 2008 are: there were 8 million job cuts last time where this time there is not, W2 payroll jobs were at 130 million whereas now there are 158 million, subprime loans were prevalent back in 2008 whereas now there are virtually none, inventory on the market was around 3.9 million whereas now there is only 1.1 million. In short, forecasters do not think the market will crash in 2023.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) just released some very interesting data from research taken between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022. The report came out in early November and revealed many interesting trends:
1. First-time buyers drop to an all-time low of 26% from 34% just a year ago.
2. The age of first-time buyers (36 years old) and repeat buyers (59 years old) hit all-time highs.
3. How far a buyer moved jumped to an all-time high of 50 miles from a range that had been steady between 10 to 15 miles. (Probably in thanks to remote working trend and affordability + quality of life)
4. The share of all-cash repeat buyers jumped from 17% to 27% in the past year.
サンクスギビングは、子供たちと過ごす1週間となりました。 丈はテキサス大学から一時帰省、ザックと泰は学校がお休みでした。 週初めの数日間、インフルエンザのような症状と闘った後、案浦家は攻のトラックで、テキサス州西部への旅行に出発しました。 旅行のハイライトのいくつかと、オススメスポットの紹介をします。 まず、テキサス州バンデラを見に行き、フライング L ランチ リゾートに宿泊しました。 私たちが行ったときはまあまあの天気でしたが、暖かくなったらリゾート内のゴルフコースを楽しんだり、マシュマロを焼きながらキャンプをしたり、テニス、バスケットボール、水泳、 卓球、サンドバレーボールなど楽しめる場所満載です。場所は一種のカウボーイ リゾートなので、日や季節によっては乗馬や、ワゴンライド、西洋のエンターテイメントもあります。 とても美味しい朝食を楽しめるレストランもありました！ 次に、Vanderpoolに位置する Lost Maples State Parkに行き、自然の中でハイキングを楽しみました。 Lost Maples は、秋に訪れる私のお気に入りの州立公園の 1つです。何百本もの美しいカエデの木の紅葉が楽しめます。 残念ながら、今回は地面は泥だらけでハイキングはチャレンジとなりましたが、景色はとても素晴らしいものが見れました。最後に、お子様のいる人、そしていない人たちも是非ジョンソンシティのエキゾチック リゾート動物園をチェックしてみてください。 丈と泰が小さい頃は何度か連れてきましたが、ザックと一緒に楽しむ様子を見せたくて今年再度家族勢揃いで行ってきました！アンテロープ、バッファロー、ヤク、ダチョウ、ラマ、シマウマ、ラクダ、ヤギ、ガゼルなど、多くの動物に餌をあげながら、ガイド付きのトラクターに乗って楽しい時間を過ごしました。Webサイトをチェックすると45種以上、700以上の動物がいるみたいです！もし行く機会のある方は、サファリの敷地にある彼らのキャビンに一晩宿泊してみてはどうですか？ 動物園のスタッフによると、宿泊人はサファリツアーが付いてくるのでとてもお得といっていました！最後に、時間に余裕のある方は、ドリッピング スプリングスに立ち寄りソルト リックと呼ばれる場所で美味しい牛カルビを試してみてください。 もっと食べたいという方には、食べ放題をオススメします。 コールスロー、ビーンズ、ポテトサラダが付いて約35ドルのお手頃価格となっています！
Thanksgiving holiday gave us one week with the kids. Joe came back from University of Texas and Zach/Ty were off from class. After fighting flu like symptoms the first few days of the week, the Annouras piled into Koh’s truck and left for a road trip to West Texas. Here are some of the highlights of the trip and some recommendations if you are looking for some good ideas. First, check out Bandera, TX and stay at the Flying L Ranch Resort. When we went, the weather was kind of so-so, but if you go when it’s warmer, there is a full golf course at the resort as well as many fun activities for kids including campires while roasting marshmallows, tennis, basketball, swimming, ping pong, sand volleyball, etc. The place is kind of a cowboy resort so there is also horse back riding, wagon rides, and western entertainment depending on the day and season. There was also a restaurant that served a nice breakfast! Second, we went to Lost Maples State Park in Vanderpool to hike through nature. Lost Maples is one of my favorite state parks in the autumn, where there are hundreds of beautiful maple trees turning yellow, orange, and red. Unfortunately, the ground was wet and muddy and messy but the views were very nice and the hike was fairly challenging. Third, if you have kids or even if you don’t have kids, check out the Exotic Resort Zoo in Johnson City. We brought Joe and Ty here several times when they were little but we wanted to show enjoy it with Zach. Turns out everyone had a great time on the guided tractor ride, feeding all the amazing animals: antelopes, buffalos, yaks, ostriches, llamas, zebras, camels, goats, gazelles, etc. I checked the website and it says there are over 700 animals on the grounds representing 45+ species roaming around in their open safar park! It was totally awesome and if you go, try to maybe even stay overnight at one of their cabins on the safari grounds. The announcer said people who stay there get to do the safari tour included so that would be worth the money! Finally, if you can go a tiny bit further please stop by Dripping Springs for some of the best BBQ at a place called Salt Lick. Try the fabulous beef ribs or if you are very hungry, for the all you can eat! It is awesome and comes with cole slaw, beans, and potato salad for about $35. It’s worth it!
