​Kent Dussair
CDS Community Development Strategies

​For seniors who are thinking about downsizing or retirement, there’s another option out there that’s growing in popularity: senior cohousing. This communal housing model is particularly well-suited for seniors because it offers a support system and social environment not normally available in conventional retirement communities. By design, cohousing residents live in a close-knit arrangement that encourages neighbors to know and help each other. The objective is to create and maintain a small community of seniors who share skills, interests, and a vision of mutual support and friendship—while still preserving and respecting individual privacy. 

CDS was recently hired to perform a demographic study in the Oklahoma City area. While completing this study, we were somewhat surprised by the prevalence of large-lot residential subdivisions of relatively recent vintage. This article examines the possible reasons why large acreage residential developments are more common in the Oklahoma City area. ​

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.

Kent Dussair
CDS Community Development Strategies

​Why is the mobile home segment of the housing market so important and yet so maligned by society? The answer is a combination of ignorance, misconceptions, and images from the past where the “trailer trash” notion has been widely portrayed in movies and on television. Realistic vestiges of those images do remain. But today, many mobile home neighborhoods have cleaned up their act, while still providing housing at a very low cost. Without this layer of low cost housing, America would have a much larger number of subsidized renters (or even homeless).  Although monthly rental costs for a mobile home vary by quality of location and park amenities, in most markets a family can have a three-bedrooms, two-bath home with a yard for approximately one-half the cost of living in an apartment. 

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.

Brenda Crenshaw
CDS Community Development Strategies

​With the senior population increasing and living longer, the demand for new Active Adult housing is being explored by more developers. One developer, Greystar, has taken the plunge into senior housing recently with the announcement of two Houston properties and 26 more to come around the country. 

J. Kirby Snideman, AICP
CDS Community Development Strategies

Multigenerational housing is making a comeback. After decades of decline, the number of Americans living in multigenerational households dropped to roughly 26 million in 1970. Since then it’s more than doubled; currently there are an estimated 60 million Americans (18%) living in a home with three or more generations. This article examines the reasons behind this trend and also provides a look at the new types of homes being built to accommodate multigenerational families. 

According to data from the American Community Survey (ACS), the number of Americans living in multigenerational households in 2012 was 57 million, or 18.1% of the total population. These 57 million Americans occupied 4.3 million homes. That accounted for 5.6% of all occupied homes in the United States. That’s up from 3.7% of occupied homes in 2000.
​
Multigenerational households were more common at the beginning of the last century, but declined significantly following World War II. During this time the United States experienced a period of economic expansion which manifested itself in widespread suburban development and an increased supply of single family homes. With home ownership as national policy, mortgages became widely available. In addition, suburban growth and a ready supply of spec homes across the nation accommodated a highly mobile workforce, resulting in many families being spread across several states. 

Brenda Crenshaw
CDS Community Development Strategies

If you're anything like me and my friends, you watch Tiny House Hunters on HGTV and wonder how someone could possibly fit their life into such a small space? Is it just my generation (Baby Boomers) who think you need at least 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms to survive? Is that because we shared bedrooms with siblings and want our children to have their own space? Or maybe we want big homes as a status symbol?   

​Millennials—those currently 19 to 34 years old (born 1981 to 1996)—have been a challenging demographic group for the home building industry to figure out. They’ve kept many wondering as to when and where they will finally decide to buy a home. 

​One major reason Millennials are acting differently has to do with finances. According to the New American Foundation, the average Millennial graduating with a bachelor’s degree has nearly $30k in student loans. This long-term burden of debt competes with other expenditures, and makes it harder to qualify for mortgages. Add fewer job opportunities (and job advances) to the mix and it’s not hard to understand why Millennials are living at home longer with parents, renting rather than buying, and putting off marriage and children. More than changing preferences—these are often sound financial choices. Eventually, Millennials will be buying homes, but they will do so at a lower rate than previous generations and on a delayed time schedule. 

Reports of the death of the big American home have been greatly exaggerated. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the size of new American homes has been on the rise since hitting a low point in late 2009. In that year the median average fell to 2,159 square feet (SF), down from the pre-recession high of 2,295 SF in 2007. During that short period of decline, some pointed to the end of the big American home trend—citing the downsizing of baby boomers and the differing preferences of millennials. But since 2009, the median average home size in America has steadily increased. In 2014, the median average was 2,517 SF—a  17% increase since 2009 and a 60% increase since 1974.

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.

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 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.

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.

Houston-area home buyers appear to be ignoring a steady stream of dark reports about the faltering state of the national economy.

Sales of new homes in Houston were up 13 percent in July over the same month last year, according to CDS Market Research.

"Houstonians as a whole appear to be more confident about their future than people in other parts of the country," said Kent Dussair of CDS Market Research.

The Federal Reserve has been slashing interest rates this year, attempting to reverse the fortunes of a nation with widespread declines in corporate profits, layoffs, reduced business spending and a slumping stock market.

The rate cuts have helped to keep mortgage rates low. Thirty-year fixed-rate mortages are available at less than 7 percent. Across the nation, housing starts are up, one of the few bright points in the national economic picture.

Despite the negative national trends, Houston builders are having an excellent year, with new home sales at their highest level in almost 20 years, Dussair said.
​
In year-to-date sales through the end of July, Houston's new home sales are up 18 percent over the comparable seven months of last year, CDS reported.

See link for full article.