Steve Castaneda's Blog: News

July was quite an interesting month for Lakewood Forest. While the average sales price fell, the average price per square foot of sold homes rose by nearly $3 from June, while the days on market took a nose dive.

$3 doesn't really seem like a wave of change, however when calculated with a 3,000 square foot home this equates to a whopping $9,000.

In July, the average sales price of homes sold was $199,850 among a 14 homes; down from 20 in June. The average price per square foot was peaking $70.12, which is an increase of $2.93 from last months average.

This weeks popular street was Peach Meadow, accounting for 2 out of the 14 sales in July.

Most Expensive Property

This month's most expensive property sold award gets handed to 12403 Pelican Isle…

Read Full Post

I had the pleasure to meet with a prospective client looking to sell their home in the Windfern subdivision, located in Northwest Houston at Beltway 8 and Highway 249.  The research derived from this meeting has lead me to believe that many homeowners in the Windfern subdivision are going to have a hard time moving out of the area for at least another 5 years.

Foreclosures Run Amok

In the past year, there have been six foreclosures with an average price per square foot of $65 that have either sold, expired, or currently active on the market.  The most popular foreclosure street in the area is a street named "Heron Nest", showing 3 foreclosures in the past year.

Foreclosures are bad for for sellers at the end of the day.  These homes are normally…

Read Full Post

I am pleased to announce a new search tool for locating homes for sale in the Houston real estate market (includes Katy, Cypress, Tomball, Pearland, etc.).  Our visitors may now:

• Save searches and manage those searches so that they don't have to keep entering in "minimum 2 bedrooms" over and over again.
• Save properties to a "favorites" list.
• Email your favorites to friends and family.
• Easily map out all properties using Mapquest.
• Easily contact us if you have any questions about properties.
• Schedule tours for any property you'd like.

If you are looking to buy a home in Houston, either through moving up from an older home or relocating to Houston, be sure to stop by and visit our Houston MLS tool. Read Full Post

Have you ever wanted to get information on the income, demographics and crime for particular parts of your city?  One great way to get this information is by using our handy tool at MyHomeHouston.com called the City Profile Reports.

This tool will allow you to see in any particular city and state:

• Demographics
• Income and Jobs
• Ethnicity
• Education
• Climate
• Crime
• Residential Sales History

We use this mostly in the Houston real estate market when viewing area crime statistics compared to a state and national level.  It has helped my team better advise our clients on crime in areas of Houston that are known to be less than safe.

If you are thinking about buying a home, performing research prior to meeting with your… Read Full Post

Rosenberg, Texas has been generating quite a buzz lately, and with the latest opening of Lennar at the Kingdom Heights location I can see that Houston builders definitely see potential in this hidden city Southwest of Houston.

What is Kingdom Heights?

Kingdom Heights is a real estate development by the Millis Group, who focuses on both residential and commercial developments, and three Houston builders: Ryland, Meritage Homes, and now Lennar. 

Their goals was to create a lakeside and parkside master planned community on 572 acres, positioned close to Sugarland to help continue the rapid development in Southwest Houston.

Pre-Construction Pricing

Lennar (for a limited time) is currently offering pre-construction pricing with their available floor…

Read Full Post

In North Houston you will find a quiet subdivision with a young community filled with a mixture of cozy single garage homes along side of newly constructed 2 car garage homes with a very affordable price entry point.

The Westbourne subdivision in Cypress, Texas is surely a growing neighborhood perfect for families looking for their first home.

Westbourne Real Estate Sales History

We keep track of Westbourne real estate so you don't have to. As you can see, the Westbourne subdivision has been experiences an upward trend in average sales price and the homes sold per year increases by a small margin. The average days on market hovers right around 2 months for Westbourne, with a noticeable increase in average sales price occurring in 2006.

…

Read Full Post

North of Houston is a booming town that goes by the name of Tomball, TX. This once small town is now homes to many new home communities, shopping, and good old fashioned country living.

Tomball TX real estate is now beginning to really make an impact on the real estate sales in North Houston.  The major freeway that extends well past Tomball, known has Highway 249, is now being expanded and actually finished, thus encouraging even more visitors to this quiet community.

Tomball is home to its very own independent school district; appropriately named the Tomball Independent School District (Tomball ISD). With 12 campuses and a 16 student to teacher ratio, your children will get the attention and education they deserve.

Tomball has a wide variety of real…

Read Full Post

Back in December of 2006, Harris county released new flood plain maps.  Many properties in the Houston real estate market that weren't in a flood plain were now classified to be in a flood plain, therefor making it mandatory that the homeowners carry flood insurance. When the maps were released, new homeowners in the new flood plain boundaries were allowed 6 months to obtain flood insurance at non-flood plain rates. The current deadline is June 18, 2008.

Here were are in May, 2007, and this deadline is quickly approaching! If your home is located within the new flood plain boundaries, be sure to take advantage of the cheaper flood insurance offered by the National Flood Insurance Program.

Find Out If You Are In A Floodplain

To get the latest maps, be…

Read Full Post