Michael Prats joined CDS in January 2017 as a Senior Market Analyst where he provides demographic, economic and real estate market research, analysis and evaluation for a variety of private and public sector clients.

Paul Takahashi 
Houston Business Journal

Steve Spillette, president of CDS, was recently interviewed by the Houston Business Journal. His interview is as follows: 

Developers are lowering prices on large home lots as luxury home sales have slowed during the oil slump, according to a new report. Community Development Strategies, a Houston-based real estate research firm, recently released its bi-annual lot price survey, which polled developers in 100 communities across the Houston metro region about the cost of their home sites. Most major developers, except for The Howard Hughes Corp. (NYSE: HHC), participated in the survey, which was conducted in July and announced in late September.

Steve Spillette
CDS Community Development Strategies

Houston remains the largest US metro area most economically tied to oil and gas. Houston benefited from those ties from 2011 to 2014, during a period of high oil prices, adding 380,000 jobs. But since then, oil prices have dropped significantly. While nearly all sectors of the area's economy have felt that drop, some have felt it more than others. The apartment market is receiving a noticeable impact. This article originally appeared in the August 2016 issue of Texas Real Estate Business.

The industrial city of Baytown, just east of Houston, has long been ignored by residential developers who create masterplanned and amenitized communities.  CDS performed a series of studies for the Baytown – West Chambers County Economic Development Foundation in 2008 – 2010 covering both retail and housing demand in the area.  Our work showed that both new retail and housing development serving middle class households was justified by existing market conditions.  Since then, Baytown has had great success in attracting well-known retail businesses to fill shopping and dining gaps, plus new quality apartment development.  

The last piece of the puzzle was attracting a developer to create a new amenitized residential community serving the well-paid professionals and managers who work in the fast-growing industrial facilities nearby.  This customer base has long been buying homes in more distant suburban communities such as the west Lake Houston area and Clear Lake, and increasingly in the adjacent community of Mont Belvieu.  We demonstrated that a new higher-priced single family development was feasible in Baytown itself, especially if the community supported its development.  Finally, 2016 has brought the news Baytown has waited for.  The city has accomplished a lot since CDS’ studies, and it’s a credit to local leaders who have worked to attract new investment.  See the article linked below.

Link to Article. PDF of Article.

Link to article.  PDF of article.

Houston's suburbs are among the outlying areas in the country grappling with changes as they adjust to becoming more than bedroom communities for major cities. 

To address some of these challenges, the Houston's branch of the Urban Land Institute and the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rive University will study suburban Sun Belt communities and such consumer issues as climate and market demand. The groups, think tanks that study urban issues, will also study ways to make suburban community more sustainable, compact and walkable. 

The study will draw input from public officials, real estate developers, investors and financial professionals and planning experts to address questions, including how to help the communities survive ups and downs in the economy, how to attract and retain residents of all ages and avoid becoming obsolete and how to withstand the impacts of climate change. 

Groups helping the urban think tank with this project include CDS Market Research, Elmore Public Relations, Johnson Development Corp, TBG Partners, Walter P. Moore and 1216 Consulting.  At the ULI-Houston Surburban Marketplace COnference on April 7, 2016, the group will present a workshop on the study. The full report will be released in fall 2016.
Funding for the study comes from the ULI Foundation with matching funds from the local district council.

Link to article.  PDF of article.

As real estate becomes more valuable in Houston's urban core, a shrinking number of federally subsidized housing in these wealthier neighborhoods could threaten the economic diversity of people who live there...

Steve Spillette, a Houston-based urban development strategist with Community Development Strategies, said that as real estate values increase and neighborhoods become more affluent, they typically see reduced crime, have more desirable schools and attract more businesses. The employees who work there, however, might not be able to afford to live there.

He said affordable housing in Houston's core is decreasing and farther-out neighborhoods considered affordable often have the lower-performing schools and fewer transportation options.

​"The land value will go up and it becomes hard to add housing that is affordable," Spillette said. "It's hard to keep that mix (of incomes) in high-quality areas."

Link to article.  PDF of article.

It's often said that in Houston, and Texas, we love our cars. While that's probably true, it also seems that we are obsessed about parking. Perhaps some Houstonians feel that free, easy parking adjacent to every building that we're trying to access is an inherently essential feature of Houston's quality of life. The mandatory on-site parking requirements, one of the city's most intrusive land-use regulations, would seem to reflect this viewpoint. And parking controversies tend to generate vocal and emotional responses from the electorate.

As we enter the mayoral election season, I wouldn't be surprised if our candidates hear from citizens that our city isn't providing enough parking, so our officials need to "fix it" - in other words, do what it takes to get us closer to the ideal of easy-and-free parking anywhere we want to go, while no one else can park on our own street except me and my neighbors.

However, I wonder if the politicians and bureaucrats who hear this perspective from the citizenry realize the prices paid for all the vast supply of parking that is implied to be necessary. While I could highlight many ways that the omnipresence of parking as a land use can negatively affect us, such as excessive and polluted storm runoff and urban heat islands, I want to focus on two main impacts: the reduced appeal and effectiveness of walking and the terrific financial burden our obsession with parking places on both the private and public sector.

See link for full article.

Link to article.  PDF of article.

Additional large multi-family apartment projects are not necessarily being recommended in the near term, CDS Market Research President Steve Spillette said during Enid Regional Development Alliance’s annual meeting and quarterly luncheon Thursday.

CDS Market Research performed the 2013 Enid Housing Study and recently updated it with current data — leading to recommendations presented during the meeting.

It has been estimated Enid will need 613 new housing units in the next two years, CDS Market Research Senior Analyst Kirby Snideman said during the presentation.

“The majority of these 613 units should be owner-occupied housing and 200 of those, rental housing,” he said.

Spillette said Esplanade Apartments at Stonebridge — on which ground was broken Thursday — will add 200 units in 2016.

“We don’t necessarily recommend any additional large multi-family apartment projects beyond that, in the very near term. That said, we do think that there should be a continued effort on the part — and we’ve heard that some developers are really looking into this — to build smaller rental projects, such as infill rental townhomes,” he said. “We do think that that would actually be a very good thing to add to the market, in addition to the Esplanade project, especially ones that can be done fairly affordably.”

Spillette said there should be continued efforts to increase the number of moderately priced homes."

See link for full article.

Link to article.  PDF of article. 

The Houston Parks Board is asking for public input at open house meetings on a case study examining ways to implement the Cypress Creek Greenway... Meredith Dang, land use transportation coordinator for the Houston-Galveston Area Council, said the case study is part of a larger grant to study regional sustainable development. The larger study is focused on the 13-county region. "One of the components of that is we are looking at ways to promote (sustainability) at the local level," Dang said.

...Steven Spillette, president of CDS Market Research, has been involved in the information-gathering process with the Houston Parks Board and Marsh Darcy Partners since December 2012.

"We've been doing a lot of background work to compile demographics and economics in the area, the status of governance … and developing a public outreach strategy," Spillette said. "In many ways, the core of this effort is having very extensive dialog with the community in the Cypress Creek corridor."

Since then, CDS Market Research - an urban consulting and market research group - has conducted numerous small group meetings.

See the link for the full article.

Link to article.  PDF of article.

David Weekley Homes has expanded into Indianapolis in April at a time when it is unusual for homebuilders to enter new markets. Houston-based David Weekley Homes purchased assets of established homebuilder Estridge Homes for an undisclosed amount. Founder Paul Estridge will run the new market operations for David Weekley Homes, said Chairman David Weekley. The acquisition made sense, said Weekley, because the two companies are similar...

CDS Market Research shows Indianapolis, like Houston, did not have big jumps followed by large dips in housing prices over the past few years. The firm shows 3,720 permits for single-family homes were pulled in 2010 in Indianapolis, up slightly from 3,604 single-family permits pulled in 2009.

​See link for full article

Link to article.  PDF of article.

Coventry Development Corp. plans to create a master-planned community near acreage Exxon Mobil Corp. has acquired for a possible campus.

Springwoods Village is designed as a sustainable development in a forest-like setting on 1,800 acres south of The Woodlands, and the newcomer will rival its neighbor to the north with a similar mix of residential and commercial...

Springwoods Village will directly compete with The Woodlands in the residential and commercial realms. The new community in Houston’s extraterritorial jurisdiction plans a residential mix of single family homes, townhomes and apartments from the onset.
The properties will go up against those in The Woodlands, one of the fastest-selling master-planned communities in the country. 

Charlie Savino, executive vice president with CDS Market Research, says The Woodlands sold 635 homes during the first six months of this year, and closed a total of 1,260 homes in 2009. 

Savino, who was hired by Coventry to do a residential market analysis for Springwoods Village, says The Woodlands is selling homes at a rate that will build-out the community within seven years if no more land is acquired. That bodes well for Springwoods Village, which Savino says could fill 5,000 residences by 2025. “Our forecasts are not outrageous,” Savino says. “We’re confidant that the project will be successful.” Coventry is planning 8.5 million square feet of offices and medical space for development at the same time the residential properties are being built.

For the full article see the link.

Link to article.  PDF of article.

Judging by its tenants, the commercial area of Houston known as the Energy Corridor is the nerve center of the world’s energy capital.

From the late 1960s to today, the stretch of Interstate 10 between Kirkwood and Fry roads has served as a hub of oil and gas commerce. Today, the area is a home to major industry players including BP America Inc., Citgo Petroleum Corp., ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil Corp., as well as a host of other exploration and production, oil services and peripheral oil and gas companies...

As more companies established their headquarters in the area, it began to coalesce into a real estate submarket with developed commercial and residential areas. That growth is expected to continue after the Energy Corridor shrugs off the latest recession. In a recent study commissioned by the Energy Corridor Management District, Houston-based consulting firm CDS Market Research says the number of employees in the area is expected to increase to more than 97,028 by 2025, with total office space increasing by 36 percent.

See the link for the full article.

Link to article.  PDF of article.

The developer of the Mosaic condominium tower on the edge of Hermann Park has filed for bankruptcy protection, averting foreclosure of the 29-story building... The Mosaic was announced in 2005 and twin towers were built at the 5925 Almeda site.

...With other big developments around the city being shelved or called off entirely, the Mosaic bankruptcy is just another sign that the national recession and credit crunch is affecting the Houston real estate market.

R. Kent Dussair, president of CDS Market Research in Houston, said the Mosaic was designed to fit a market niche that wasn’t being addressed — affordable high-rise living.
The average price per square foot at Mosaic is $325, meaning a 900-square-foot unit would cost around $292,500.

But the high number of units combined with the economic slowdown was bound to take its toll on the project.

“Eight hundred units of anything is a major project and makes it even more difficult during these kinds of times when there’s less of a demand for housing in general,” said Dussair, whose company did a market study for the developer in its early planning stages when Mosaic was being considered as an apartment project.

​See the link for the full article.

Link to article.  PDF of article.

By 2050, the tri-county West Houston/Katy area is expected to add about 260 square miles of residential development and double in population to about 2.2 million.

To help plan for that expected explosion, the West Houston Association on Thursday unveiled its blueprint entailing more than two years of study, ''West Houston Plan 2050: Envisioning Greater West Houston at Mid-Century."

Topics tackled by a panel of experts include market research, residential development, infrastructural management and trends in city growth.

West Houston has seen an increase of 85,000 net jobs — most in business and professional services — in the the last 12 months, said panelist Charles Savino, executive vice president of CDS Market Research.

The economy is largely driven by the oil and gas industry, Savino said, and that is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future with ''the Energy Corridor, Westchase, Memorial Parkway and Interstate 10 all continuing to be major activity centers."

A conservative estimate, he said, is that at least 400,000 housing units and 43 million square feet of office space will be needed during the next half-century.

''To maintain growth we will have to improve the things we're doing — low cost of living, low cost of business hurdles," Savino said. ''Nothing's secure, nothing's certain, (but) attractiveness factors help areas grow."

See the link for the full article.

Link to article.  PDF of article.

In a city known for suburban sprawl, competing developers are testing a different concept: master-planned, high-density projects combining residential, retail, offices and hotels. While these trendy developments, where people can walk from their homes to shops, restaurants and even their workplaces, have taken root in other parts of the country, they've been slow to show up here. That's about to change. In the Houston area, at least nine of these projects are planned or under construction. Most of the sites are in the heart of town. Land is just now being cleared for some of them, while others in the suburbs are further along. The trend is driven by affluent young professionals and empty nesters tired of long commutes. Rising land costs also factor in by requiring developers to build more on smaller spaces...

The impending wave of mixed-use construction reflects the willingness of developers to take risks based on the city's current prosperity and projections that the Houston area's population will grow by 3.5 million in less than 30 years, said Kent Dussair, president of CDS Market Research, a Houston-based consulting firm.

Cities such as Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix and Austin are already in various stages of building urban-style projects, while Houston, "with the strongest economy of the bunch," is playing catch-up, he noted.

See the link for the full article.

Link to article.  PDF of article.

Link to article.  PDF of article.

A six-acre gap in Westheimer real estate has been locked up by a developer with plans to replicate the high-end feel of some other properties nearby...

Kent Dussair, president of CDS Market Research, said he's not surprised this area is getting this kind of attention, and dubbed it the "new Uptown."

"The Uptown area is Houston's most established retail market, so any new retail added here will be complementary instead of directly competitive," Dussair said.

Trademark is not alone in its plans to develop a mixed retail and residential site. Right next door, Cypress Real Estate Advisors plan to develop 29 acres between Westheimer and San Felipe inside the West Loop.

"The land values are strong here, and the Uptown Galleria area is just rapidly urbanizing," Dussair said. "You look for areas of that nature for mixed-use projects."

​See the link for the full article.

Link to article.  PDF of article.

The Galleria, queen of all retail, is getting a neighbor who could soon have her own commanding presence. Local developer Wulfe & Co. announced Thursday that 21 acres of prime Galleria-area land will become a major mixed-use site for retail, office, hotel and condominiums, anchored by Houston's flagship Whole Foods Market.

In recent years, the U.S. has seen an increase in "pedestrian-friendly" mixed-use developments where people live, work, eat and shop. Several are planned for Houston, including at Kirby and Westheimer; downtown; Memorial City; and the former Central Ford site on Westheimer.

"Several are on the drawing board, but this could be one of the first ones out of the gate," said Kent Dussair, president of CDS Market Research, a real estate market consulting firm in Houston, referring to the proposed mixed-use projects.

Major mixed-use urban projects like BLVD Place are being built in competing cities across the country, Dussair said. "Dallas, for example, is ahead of us. We're anxious to see a quality development like this in Houston," he said.

See the link for the full article.