Houston land brokerage expands Texas reach
Dosch Marshall Real Estate, a real estate brokerage specializing in land listings and buyer representation, has opened a Central Texas division. The Houston-based company has been in active in Texas for more than 16 years with 300 statewide land transactions to date.
Tripp Rich, a senior vice president, will be responsible for finding urban redevelopment and suburban land opportunities for developers across the state, with a focus in Central Texas. He was previously an investment analyst at ARA Newmark’s Houston Land Division and before that focused on Houston-area apartment investment sales for Marcus & Millichap.
In addition to numerous Houston deals, Rich represented Trammel Crow Residential in the purchase of land on East Riverside in Austin for a two-phase mid-rise development that set a record price at the time, according to Dosch Marshall.
Ryan Parker, associate, will also source opportunities in the central Texas market as well as providing transaction management services.
WeWork expands in Houston despite corporate office troubles
WeWork has added two floors to its Houston Galleria location as the coworking company continues to grow despite troubles in its corporate office.
The company plans to open two additional floors at Galleria Tower I, 2700 Post Oak Blvd., where it already occupies 56,000 square feet. In addition to the Galleria area, WeWork now has two locations downtown: one in the Jones Building and a new space in 609 Main, where the company occupies more than 50,000 square feet across two floors. Its footprint also includes space in The Woodlands.
The announcement came as WeWork began massive layoffs. It recently struck a deal with commercial real estate services firm JLL to take over facilities management at its coworking locations in the United States and Canada. Employees who work in those functions are being offered jobs at JLL or an affiliate.
Redfin issues 2020 housing predictions
Redfin, the digital real estate information and services company, has issued its predictions for the 2020 housing market.
Among the projections are that bidding wars will rebound thanks to low mortgage rates and a lack of homes for sale. Redfin said in a release that about one in four offers was likely to face bidding competition next year, compared to only one in 10 in 2019. This is expected to push year-over-year price growth up to 6 percent in the first half of the year.
The company also said that, for the first time, Hispanic Americans would gain more wealth from home equity than white Americans. The shift comes as Hispanics become the majority of new homeowners. There are more Hispanic homeowners in Texas than in any other state, and Texas cities are likely to experience strong gains in home values over the next decade as people move here from more expensive places like San Francisco and Los Angeles. Over time, this will improve economic equality for Hispanic Americans.
New home prices dip in October
New home buyers got a little price relief in October as the Houston metro cemented its position as the biggest market in Texas for new home sales, according to a recent HomesUSA.com report.
The average price of a new home in the market dropped to $352,070 in October from $353,506 the month before, according to the HomesUSA.com Index, which tracks a 12-month rolling average for new homes listed in the state’s four local Multiple Listing Services. Prices for new homes averaged $372,366 in Dallas-Ft. Worth, $368,485 in Austin and $297,483 in San Antonio for October.
Houston reported 1,478 new home sales in October, up from 1,462 in September, according to HomesUSA.com. The Dallas-Ft. Worth reported 1,357 new home sales for October.
New home sales totaled 4,134 across the four markets in October, up from 4,098 sales in September. That’s up from a 12-month rolling average of 3,871 in November 2018.