About Conroe's Lake Conroe

2009 came roaring in on the heels of a crazy economic 2008. Those of us in Montgomery County have not felt the burn as much as other parts of the country. We did see a slight slowdown in sales, development and in our economy during the last quarter of 08.

In looking back on what has occurred in commercial real estate in Montgomery County, certainly all is not bleak. We saw a lot of new strip centers and large retail centers opening up in 2008. While the lease rates slowed a bit, large anchor tenants were secured and are now up and running.

South County saw a great deal of commercial activity especially in new office building space being constructed on several sites. South County also continues to see strong retail sales with the amount of retail leases remaining steady.

In the Conroe/Willis area tremendous retail growth is evident. The Montgomery corridor along Hwy 105 showed a very positive growth in the retail sector with many new businesses locating to the new lake retail development.

Of course East County is sitting in a strong position for potential commercial growth. The East Montgomery County Improvement District along with the developers have ironed out the details regarding Earth Quest Adventures, the 150-acre dinosaur park and 50-acre museum that is scheduled to be completed by 2012. As this park takes shape, we should begin seeing more land sales throughout this year and beyond.

Another commercial market area that is showing a positive growth is the building of many new multi-family units in the area. As residential sales slowed, multi-family developers are seeing an opportunity to build new units throughout Montgomery County. Currently there are several new sites in the Conroe area with developers looking for other possible sites.

We are awaiting the statistics on the Texas economy from the State Comptroller's office. Those numbers will be interesting to look at to help make projections for 2009. For those of us in Montgomery County, a slight slowing in retail growth right now should begin to increase gradually throughout 2009.

Montgomery County is quite attractive to retail developers, multi-family developers and land developers. All of the economic forecasts for our area indicate that these developers are still looking at the area and planning to continue on with development plans.

As those of us in Montgomery County look forward to 2009 being a stable area, these statistics from the State Comptroller's office are very encouraging:

• In the 12 months ending in November 2008, Texas gained over 221,200 jobs, more than the combined total from the other 14 states that gained jobs.
• Over last 12 months, Texas accounts for 71 percent of entire job gains for all states with gains.
• In the past five years, Texas added 1.29 million new jobs to our economy.
• From November to December 2009, the U.S. economy lost 524,000 jobs. The U.S. is down 2,589,000 jobs for 2008. Texas gained 7,300 jobs in November.
• Texas' unemployment rate in November 2008 was 5.7 percent. The December U.S. rate was 7.2 percent, up significantly from a year ago (4.9 percent).
• The Texas unemployment rate has been at or below the national rate for 23 consecutive months.

Montgomery County continues to attract many new businesses to the area and based on the statistics above, we should be looking at this trend to continue in 2009. I am looking forward to good things for Montgomery County and am very thankful to be here during theses interesting times in our national economy.

Lake Conroe Commercial Real Estate

Last Wednesday I went to Austin to visit the Texas Association of Realtors (TAR) office building and here from TAR staff about the Legislature, the Law and how it comes into play affecting Realtors and property owners. This was the last class in the Texas Realtors Leadership Program that is sponsored by TAR. The class was originally schedule for the week that Hurricane Ike came through and had to be rescheduled for last week. We technically graduated back in November, but this class had to be made up.

Having worked in Washington, DC for two different US Senators, I'm fairly familiar with the lawmaking process and what is needed. However, it was quite reassuring and nice to know what all TAR does for the member Realtors as well as home buyers and sellers. There legislative priorities are to protect private property rights for all land owners and to minimize the government's fingerprints on the process that would hamper or make more difficult the home buying or selling process.

A good example of this is the city of Austin's city council was considering requiring any and all homes purchased or sold to be updated or retrofitted to comply with certain environmental standards regardless of age. So if you have a property that is 2000 square feet and was built in 1945 that currently has a fair market value of $65,000, it would need to be updated, before sale, environmental friendly updates for interior and exterior amenities. This process would obviously slow the transfer of homes and would be cost prohibitive for sellers and would drive up the costs for buyers.

It was a great time and my last trip with my colleagues. If you would like to discuss some of the other priorities for TAR during this legislative session, please email or call me at 832.797.9229 or jaymac@franketeam.com.

Article by: Jay Mac Sanders

Lake Conroe Waterfront Homes

The Houston Association of Realtors continuously updates their free idx tools that they offer to Houston area agents, and last week I discovered the addition of sold homes. Now any agent can put a link on their website that will display all of their sold homes, the most recently sold showing up first. HAR still doesn't display the exact sales price of the home to the public of course, but they do provide a price range with only a 10%-15% fluctuation.

Although this tool in particular doesn't include agent-based lead generation functions like the rest of their tools, HAR is one of the leading MLS's in the country and provides their members with a very impressive arsenal of free idx and general web services that you rarely see in other markets. They are also improving their lead generation and branding capabilities all the time.

To see a working example of the HAR idx system, feel free to visit www.franketeam.com

Article by: Jacob Hebert

Lake Conroe Real Estate

I can bet that most of you out there are still reeling from the roller coaster ride that we have all been on for most of 2008. I can certainly say that it has not been boring. Challenging yes but never a dull moment!

Looking back at all of the challenges we have faced in real estate always gives me pause to really think about the fact that with challenges come learning experiences and opportunities. I am looking for the opportunities and exploring ways to make my business stronger than it was before everything changed.

Shortly after the year began in 2008, the sub-prime lending crisis occurred. The entire mortgage industry changed overnight. A lot of fraud was exposed as was necessary, however, our market was definitely hit with the beginning of a down turn.

During the mortgage fiasco, rates were changing faster than any of us could keep up with. Lenders tightened up and money became very scarce. All in all, everyday was a coin toss that none of us could even begin to predict. Needless to say, doing business as usual was highly challenged.

The summer months seemed to be a slight loosening up with the mortgage industry yet other challenges were looming. The upcoming election was nipping at our heels and most folks were holding back from making any big decisions for awhile.

In September, those of us in this area all remember vividly the effects of IKE. Most of our businesses took a direct hit by being shut down without power, phones and man power. Our homes were damaged and the cleanup efforts were a little daunting.

November election time greeted us with a new administration preparing to take office. The economic crunch seemed to be at an all time high while the government began bailing out our banks and other businesses. Tensions were mounting and it seemed as if everything just froze.

So, here we are in December looking at incredibly low interests rates and lenders who appear to be moving money a bit more. Our phones certainly increased this month which leads me to believe that there are some good things to look forward to in 2009.

With home prices good and sellers ready to sell coupled with low interest rates, we should begin to see things moving again. I am ever optimistic that no matter what the challenges we are faced with, we are stronger, wiser and more knowledgeable than we were a year ago.

I wish you all prosperity and peace for the coming year! Montgomery County is one of the best places in the country to be right now and personally I am very thankful for that! I welcome 2009 and look forward to the new challenges and opportunities that await us!

Lake Conroe Luxury Homes

1. Even little girls, in all their blithe, unharrowed innocence, have a presentiment of sorrow, hardship, and adversity...of loss. Women, throughout their lives have an intrinsic and profound understanding of Keat's sentiments about "Joy, whose hand is never at his lips Bidding adieu".

2. This sage knowledge of, and ability to abide, the inherently fugitive nature of happiness somehow accounts for the extraordinary beauty of women as they age.

3. Women have an astonishing capacity to maintain their equilibrium in the face of life's mutability, its unceasing and unforeseeable vicissitudes. And this agility is always in stark and frequently comical contradistinction to men's naively bullish and brittle delusions that things can forever remain the exactly the same.

4. Women are forgiving but implacably cognizant.

5. Women are almost never gullible but sometimes relax their vigilance out of loneliness. (And I believe most women abhor loneliness.)

6. In their most casual, offhand, sisterly moments, women are capable of discussing sex in such uninhibited detail that it would cause a horde of carousing Cossacks to cringe.

7. Women are, for all intents and purposes, indomitable, It really requires an almost unimaginable confluence of crushing, cataclysmic forces to vanquish a woman.

8. Women's instincts for self-preservation and survival can seem to men to be inscrutably unsentimental and sometimes cruel.

9. Women have a very specific kind of courage that enables them to fling themselves into the open sea - whether it's a new life for themselves, another person's life, or even what might appear to be a kind of madness.

10. Women never - no matter how old they are- completely relinquish their aristocratic assumption of seductiveness.

And here is one last thing I know - and I know this with a certitude that exceeds anything I've said before; that men's final thoughts in their waking days and in their lives are of women...ardent, wistful thoughts of wives and lovers and daughters and mothers.

I agree 100% with this article written by Mark Leyner, a husband, a father, a son, and a brother, and the author of eight books and a cowriter of the movie War, Inc.

Article by: Marion Franke

Title by: Jacob Hebert

Lake Conroe Waterfront Homes