Pending home sales are falling, but the slowdown isn't
Pending home sales numbers came out recently and they were not pretty, at least on a national level. The headlines wrote themselves. But I've been through
Field Notes
Every note I've written on Texas neighborhoods, priced by nothing but what I've seen and heard on the ground.
When pricing power disappears, builders have to find margin
A builder I ran into at a permit office on Springdale Road — this was maybe eight months ago — told me something I keep thinking about. He said the days
Texas Mortgage Source: Reverse is the 'largest underserved
My neighbor Dorothy has owned her home on Chicon Street for going on 38 years. She paid it off sometime in the mid-2000s, raised her kids here, weathered
Lennar's 'home within a home' targets multigenerational
There's a house two doors down from me on Lydia Avenue that used to be a single-family rental. Last spring, the owner converted the garage into a proper
Valera Homes debuts in Houston with focus on attainable
Valera Homes is new to Houston, and the first thing I want to know about any builder making noise about "attainable housing" is whether the math actually
Where builder discounts are biggest and who is still buying
Last spring a neighbor of mine — she lives over on Chicon, been there almost as long as I have — mentioned she'd been driving out to some of the new
Builders cut prices as new home supply holds at 8.5 months
A few months back, I noticed a new D.R. Horton community off William Cannon — the kind of subdivision that went up fast, those earth-tone facades all in a
Climate risk is turning insurance and resilience into deal
Last spring, a woman two streets over from me on Maple Avenue got a letter from her homeowner's insurance carrier. Not a rate increase. A non-renewal
More renters struggling with monthly housing costs
Last month the house two doors down from me on Willow Street went quiet. Sandra — retired teacher, had a garden that made everyone else's look
Design-Build Model as Texas Builders Adapt to Shrinking
There's a lot on Mildred Street, just off Springdale in East Austin, that's been sitting in limbo for two years. Vacant, scrubby grass, a chain-link
How to Hand Wash Clothes Without Damaging Them
Learn how to hand wash clothes safely, from checking the care label and choosing detergent to rinsing, removing excess water, and drying properly.
Foreclosure filings rise 13% year-over-year, South hit
A few months ago, a house two streets over from me — off Maple Avenue, one of those solid 1950s bungalows with a covered porch and a big live oak out