Paige Martin

I answer one question about a property in West U: is it worth more to a family, or to a builder? That is the whole subject of this site. The replacement rate here is measured rather than guessed: the Census Building Permits Survey records 535 new single-family homes authorized in West University Place from 2015 through 2025, against the 5,308 housing units the 2020 Census counted in a city of two square miles, which is about one home in ten over eleven years. I publish that series year by year with the declared valuation written on each permit, and I publish what it does not measure, because most people quote it wrong: it counts authorizations rather than demolitions or completions, it misses two teardowns consolidated into one house, and it misses a gut renovation, which is the same event to your neighbor and to your comp. What decides whether a builder wants your lot is the city's own zoning, and every number in it is public. A building site established with its present boundaries before 24 October 1987 can be as small as 5,000 square feet, where a site created after that date needs 8,250; at least 45 percent of a site must stay open and 35 percent pervious; and a principal building is capped at two and a half storeys, 35 feet, and 80 percent of the site in framed area. Most owners do not know which kind of site they own. Then there is the part that surprises people. Once there is a development permit in play, every large tree on the site is protected, and the building official may not issue that permit until the urban forester has approved a tree survey and written the tree conditions into it. Every figure on this site comes from a public record, and the page names the document it came from.

Paige Martin is a Texas real estate agent (TREC License #510592) with Real Broker, LLC.

Email

PMartin@HoustonProperties.com

Phone

(713) 425-4194

Calendar

Book an intro call