​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. 

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.

CDS Community Development Strategies

​Last night at St. Arnold's Brewery near Downtown Houston, CDS released the latest edition of the Lot Price Survey. The event was well attended by representatives from the area's residential development industry. Beer and BBQ were served, and a presentation was given summarizing the latest trends and findings from the survey. Lennar's Cindy Hinson also presented on the topic of multi-generational housing.

 J. Kirby Snideman and Brenda Crenshaw
CDS Community Development Strategies

Among the things that Americans are famous for loving, like peanut butter, ice, big cars, and football (real football that is), Americans are also known for loving… well, stuff. Lots of stuff. Sometimes too much stuff. Which is why it is estimated that one in ten US households currently rents at least one storage unit. Because of this, the self-storage industry has been one of the fastest growing commercial real estate sectors over the period of the last 40 years. This article provides a look at this growing and competitive industry.

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.

J. Kirby Snideman, ACIP
CDS Community Development Strategies

While many demographic trends in America ebb and flow, there are a few that remain constant. One important trend: America is becoming less rural. In the past, both rural and urban areas have grown—urban growth just far surpassed rural growth. Recently, however, non-metro areas in the U.S. have seen the first overall population decrease since these numbers were tracked.

​A look at the Numbers
​In 1900, the U.S. urban population was just over 30 million while the rural population was just shy of 46 million. The split was 39.6% urban and 60.4% rural. By 2010, the urban share increased to 80.7% while the rural share shrank to 19.3%. For some states, like Texas, this reverse was even more drastic, going from 82.9% rural to 15.3% over the same time. 

While the share of rural residents in America has decreased significantly, the number of residents has actually increased… but only slightly. In comparison, the number of residents considered urban has increased exponentially. Put another way, nearly all the growth in this country has been urban.

Rent Cafe Blog

While location, location, location is something we tend to emphasize a lot, the best places often come with compromises that are hard to come to terms with—chief among which, the financial matters. But price in itself isn’t everything either. After all, renting a space to live in is all about, well, space. And if you’re anything like us, the more stretch you get for your cash, the wider your grin, so apartment size is important. Then again, you cannot lose sight of location completely…

​Here’s what $1,500 rents across the US—from 271 sq.ft. in Manhattan to 1,948 sq.ft. in Memphis

For the full article click here.

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. 

The map below shows the largest race or ethnicity in each Census Block Group geography in the 8-county Houston region* in 2000 and in 2010.  Each of the four major race or ethnic groups in the Houston region are color-coded, and the shade of each color indicates the magnitude of the largest group in each geography.  The darker colors indicate Block Groups where greater than 80% of the population is part of the largest race or ethnicity.  The medium shades show where the largest group makes up between 50% and 80% of the population.  The lightest shade of each race or ethnic group’s color code indicates a geography where the largest ethnic group makes up less than 50% of the population.  It is these lightest shade Block Groups where race and ethnic diversity is highest.

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. 

CDS Community Development Strategies

The Energy Corridor District recently released the 2016 Land Use and Demographics report, completed by CDS Community Development Strategies. This report presents a complete profile of the population and development located within the boundaries of The Houston Energy Corridor. CDS has completed a similar report for the Energy Corridor over the last several years. ​​

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. 

Ty Jacobsen
CDS Community Development Strategies

For residents, the name of a neighborhood is usually a source of identity and pride. But for home builders and developers, it's often part of the marketing plan. Tabbed with their pleasant and descriptive monikers, single family subdivisions make up a large part of the American residential landscape. Sometimes when navigating that landscape, place names can seem a bit repetitive. This has been something we at CDS have noticed after compiling the Greater Houston Subdivision and Lot Price Survey for nearly 40 years now. In an attempt to measure just how common some names really are, we analyzed a list of over one thousand “active” subdivisions (actively selling homes) in the Houston area. Think you can guess the top ones? Take the quiz below. 

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.

Last Thursday, Walmart ended its Walmart Express concept, shuttering all 102 such stores. Walmart announced earlier in January that they planned to close several underperforming stores across all of their formats, but it was the entirety of Walmart Express that made up the bulk of the planned closures. Despite that fact, the Walmart Express format meets a relatively quiet end, as discussion of Walmart store closures as an economic indicator largely drowned out discussion of the Express format itself. It is a format that deserves some further examination.

​In addition to having more dogs, households are spending more money on them. While the percentage of households owning a dog increased by roughly 6% from 2005 to 2015, total U.S. consumer spending on pets nearly doubled, going from just over 36 billion to a projected 60 billion over the same period. A significant portion of that pet spending is dog related.

Not only are the number of dog owning households increasing, but dog owners have become increasingly vocal. Jurisdictions around the country have been responsive. In the 100 largest cities the number of dog parks have increased from roughly 420 in 2005 to more than 650 in 2015, a 53% rise. 

CDS Community Development Strategies

Link to the video. PDF of the Presentation.

​CDS President Steve Spillette recently spoke to a group of graduate students in the Bauer Graduate Real Estate program at the University of Houston. Mr. Spillette has several years of experience in retail market analysis and multiple degrees related to real estate and planning--including an MBA from Texas A&M University. In addition, he has performed a variety of market studies and financial pro-forma analyses for both private and public clients related to single family and multifamily residential, office, industrial, hotel, meeting facilities, and golf, as well as significant public sector studies related to major investments and strategic initiatives.

In this presentation he details the process and method required to perform a credible retail market analysis. This type of analysis is often performed for commercial developers who want to gauge how successful their planned development will be.

Click on the image below to watch the video on the CDS Youtube channel.

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.