The Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge's proposal for RESTORE Act funding to acquire land to create conservation easements between the main unit and the Bahia Grande unit has been approved. This project will help create new habitat for wildlife and connect existing habitats for wildlife travel.
Home in Laguna Vista, TX.
Via THE MONITOR
Home prices and sales have gone up over the past year across the Rio Grande Valley.
The median price for a single family home in the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area is $122,500. That’s a 3.8 percent jump compared to 2014 prices, according to the second quarter Texas Housing Report compiled by the Texas Association of Realtors and Texas A&M Real Estate Center, which came out this week.
The median price for a single family home the Brownsville-Harlingen metro area is $123,000 — a 6 percent increase since last year during the second quarter.
Across Texas, home sales have increased 4.7 percent overall and median home prices went up 8.1 percent to $200,000.
Cameron County also saw home sales jump 7.1 percent in 2015 while in Hidalgo County, those sales grew only 4 percent since last year.
But there were fewer physical houses sold in the Brownsville-Harlingen market overall — only 577 compared to 697 in McAllen-Edinburg-Mission real estate market.
As a veteran, Romero is eligible for the GI bill, which helps pay for a university education and offers a direct path for home ownership.
“Many new home buyers are in a transition for relocation or they changed jobs and got a raise and are looking to increase,” said Miki McCarthy, an agent with Cadence Real Estate in McAllen.
While the housing market in Cameron County saw a greater percentage increase, that doesn’t mean the Hidalgo County market is falling behind.
“Each one is a reflection of its own market and not in comparison to the other market,” said Mickey Furcron, president of the Brownsville-South Padre Island Board of Realtors about the report. “We’ve got some great weather here, the beach attraction, SpaceX coming into Brownsville and the port has some LNG companies interested.”
Overall though, the biggest challenge is lack of new homes on the marketplace.
“We don’t have enough new home construction going on in Texas to meet the demand and that’s part of financing too, because a developer needs a lot of credit and that’s been sluggish for the past five years,” he said.
In a quick search for available homes in the $115,000 to $125,000 price range within city limits there were only 31 that popped up on Tuesday, he said.
Hidalgo County real estate agents concurred with that assessment.
“All real estate is a local market, there is no national real estate market,” said Lee Jinks, executive director for the Greater McAllen Association of Realtors. Home sales tend to pick up from January to April then climb to a peak in August — right before school starts again — then tapers off, he said.
In Brownsville-Harlingen during the second quarter of 2015 there are 11.5 months of housing stock before the market would sell out, down from 13.4 months during 2014.
Some builders are skittish to invest in Brownsville because of the high price tag for impact fees levied by the Brownsville public utility board, Jinks said. The current impact fee for the smallest meter is $2,600 for water and wastewater, according to the agency’s website.
In the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area there is about 10.6 months worth of inventory, down from 11 months from last year during the same quarter.
In May, out of 236 residential home sales, there were six homes sold for $30,000 and below, 34 that sold between $120,000 and $140,000, and 24 sales for houses with prices between $140,000 and $160,000.
Only 22 homes sold for the $160,000 to $180,000 price range and two sold for more than $400,000, but that’s a very small snapshot, he said.
“This may be one of the best markets we’ve seen in Hidalgo County,” Jinks said. “I think it’s just a matter of the market bouncing back.”
Via THE MONITOR
Native plants and wildlife have been here a long time in the Rio Grande Valley. Like people here, the native plants and wildlife tend to be hardy, good looking, well-adapted to life in the Valley and able to take care of themselves.
Our native plants and animals lived here for thousands of years before people arrived. Native plants found ways to grow in all our soils — from the heaviest clay to sand — and have adapted to the huge variations in climate here.
Some animals fed on native plants and were important parts of the food chain for other animals. Animals naturally distributed plant seeds, creating plant colonies throughout the Valley. Most importantly, our native plants and animals were successful without any help from people!
As people settled permanently in our area they turned much of it into ranches, farms, groves, cities and suburbs. Native plants lost places to grow and native animals lost food from plants and places to live among them.
Remember the part about plants and animals succeeding here on their own? They still can. All native plants need is a place to grow. So plant some in your yard or spread seeds along a fencerow or in a pasture. Encourage natives — let them grow and then re-grow year after year. Any space can become a piece of native habitat.
Native plants are no fuss, no hassle plants! They are naturally resistant to most plant pests and diseases, and seldom need fertilizer. They get by with whatever rain that falls. You don’t need to be an expert gardener to help out nature with natives.
Where there is plant habitat and a water supply, animals will come to them. A small space in town might attract birds and butterflies, as well as lizards, raccoons and opossums. A larger area of native habitat outside town can be home to the full range of native plants and animals.
Unsure how to get started? Visit any one of our many local parks and talk with staff or park guides or contactrgvctmn.org.
Editor’s note: The Rio Grande Valley Chapter Texas Master Naturalist develops knowledgeable volunteers dedicated to the study and conservation of natural resources and natural areas in the lower Rio Grande Valley. They help the natural world through service, outreach and education.
Sales of vacation home sales are surging across the nation as Americans seek out their own place for a family retreat, a regular vacation spot or a place to ski, sail, fish or hike.
Vacation home sales were up a whopping 57 percent in 2014 over the sales of 2013, according to a national report by the National Association of Realtors.
“Vacation home sales are skyrocketing,” says Dallas-based journalist Candy Evans, a CultureMap contributor and founder of CandysDirt.com and Secondshelters.com. “Vacation home sales have shown astounding growth. I get 50 emails a day from developers with new projects that are coming up.”
Evans, who moderated a vacation homes panel in Miami at the National Association of Real Estate Editors Conference, says the surge is driven by “The One Percent” – affluent households who have done well in the stock market in recent years.
“The wealthy got even wealthier since the recession of 2008,” says John Klemish, broker in-charge at the upscale Greenbrier Sporting Club resort in West Virginia.
The buyers at the ultra-luxe Greenbrier often pay all cash and the typical buyer there has at least three or four other houses, says Klemish.
The massive Baby Boomer generation is supporting the surge in the vacation home market as they acquire vacation homes now and plan to convert them to their primary residences after retiring.
The top choice for vacation home buyers is the beach, according to the National Association of Realtors Vacation Home Buyers Survey.
Last year, 40 percent of vacation buyers purchased in a beach area, 19 percent purchased in the country and 17 percent purchased a vacation home in the mountains. The average buyer purchases a vacation home that is 200 miles away from his/her primary residence.
Foreign buyers are also supporting the vacation home boom. Owning real estate in a country with a stable economy can be an appealing haven to affluent people from other parts of the world.
“We’ve seen a huge desire for real estate from flight capital,” says Phillip Day, an executive with the IMI vacation realty company in Greenville, S.C. “We see a lot of people from Europe and South America.”
The ability to get rental income by renting out a vacation home is attractive, says Jon Gray, chief revenue officer at Austin-based HomeAway, an online marketplace that connects renters with vacation home owners.
The owner of a vacation home gains $28,000 a year, on average, by renting out their vacation home, Gray says. Many vacation home buyers can cover half, or even three-fourths of their mortgage payments with rental income, says Gray, a panelist at last week’s NAREE conference.
Orlando Realtor Chris Cain, author of “Your Made in the USA Vacation Home” says the investment aspect of vacation home buying is huge. And it is appealing to a cross-section of buyers, not just the ultra-rich.
“If your primary residence is the best investment of your life,” says Cain, “why not buy a vacation home, too?”
Via THE MONITOR
John Karcanes and his wife Linda have lived in Laguna Vista for about 12 years and they love everything about it.
“We’ve been wondering when it will get discovered,” Karcanes said.
The little town by the bay, home to Winter Texans, retirees and families, has finally made the big time.
The online publication MarketWatch.com has named the town one of the top 10 coastal towns where people can afford to retire.
The site does not rank the 10 towns.
The publication describes the town as a small residential community on the southernmost Texas coast near beautiful South Padre Island, Harlingen and Port Isabel.
“This popular resort area has a very warm winter climate and is increasingly home to many retirees as well as vacationers,” the website states.
As one of the most affordable retirement spots, the median home sale price is about $150,000. The National Association of Realtors put the national median home price at $196,900 at the end of 2013.
The friendly and quiet residential community can be appealing to most with its affordable cost of living and a wide range of recreational options including golf, bay and deep-sea fishing, birding, wind surfing and kite boarding.
The Karcanes said Laguna Vista exuded appeal as soon as they set foot in the city limits with its location, climate and affordability.
The Karcanes, who are originally from Minnesota, said the area had everything they needed, the right weather, affordable housing and a plethora of activities they can enjoy.
“We had a former neighbor purchase property here and they needed help moving,” he said.
They were in town only one day when Linda looked at her husband and insisted they move here, too.
So they did and now they live here all year round on a beautiful golf course property with a small lake view.
“We’re going to live here for the rest our lives,” Karcanes said.
Mayor Susie Houston has been saying it for years, Laguna Vista is a great place to live.
“We always knew Laguna Vista was special,” she said. “It’s the perfect place to live, raise a family and work.”
MLS #5230, Lot 29 on Lantana Ln in Paradise Cove, $50,000, gated community. Minutes from South Padre Island and Port Isabel. For more information, visit, http://www.dlohse.com/laguna-vista or call 956-761-6699.
