Looped In

Everything's bigger in Texas. Even tiny homes. Texas is the top market in the nation for a type of tiny home known as a park model RV, and developers are building communities specifically for these dwellings outside of Houston.

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Tony Buzbee, who's headed to a runoff Saturday in the 2019 race for Houston mayor, sat down with Nancy Sarnoff and Chronicle City Hall reporter Jasper Scherer to talk about his rise from small-town kid to millionaire lawyer and mayoral hopeful. This a one of two episodes featuring the candidates for mayor.

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Mayor Sylvester Turner decided what he wanted his future to look like after watching the Kennedy/Nixon debate in 1960. That determination propelled him through school, where he graduated as valedictorian, all the way through Harvard Law, which was not his first choice. Turner sat down with Nancy Sarnoff and Chronicle City Hall reporter Jasper Scherer to reflect on his life in politics and the struggles he faced along the way. This is one of two episodes featuring the candidates for mayor.

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NAR’s new policy on pocket listings is expected to result in a more transparent housing market, but there are loopholes, Nancy and Rebecca explain. They also talk about a recent luxury real estate event where agents learned about condo amenities for the ultra-rich.

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For a long time, the phrase "man camp" evoked images of tents and mobile homes, but many have received a makeover. Large energy companies clamoring for safe housing — where their employees can get food and rest without any of the late-night carousing that can lead to trouble in the oil fields the next morning — has led companies like The Woodlands-based Target Hospitality to specialize in temporary housing. Perks include pools, basketball courts, fresh-squeezed orange juice and wood-fired pizzas.

 

 

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Matt Zeve delivers a lot of bad news as deputy executive director of the Harris County Flood Control District. In the coming years, he'll be delivering a lot more. Potentially thousands of Harris County homeowners have fences, sheds and even swimming pools that encroach onto land the district owns or has the right to access. With the district now embarking on hundreds of flood mitigation projects, Zeve and his staff have started enforcing the encroachments. Nancy and Rebecca talk to Zeve about how the enforcement process works and what can happen when a property owner doesn’t comply.

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After Harvey came the crisis investors, who bought hundreds of homes to flip. In places, they snapped up entire blocks. What do those communities look like two years later? Vacant and abandoned homes, as well as impromptu rentals, dot the landscape. Real estate agent Ace Tejada and home appraiser Mike Taylor take Looped In on a tour.

Read the story:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Investors-promised-revival-after-Harvey-It-14473105.php

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In Independence Heights, developers are tearing down the original bungalows and replacing them with skinny townhomes with six-foot fences. Whole Foods, often a harbinger of gentrification, has opened a store there. Like in other neighborhoods under a similar threat, there's been a growing movement toward preserving what's left -- even if it's just memories. The Chronicle's Sarah Smith joins Nancy and Rebecca to talk about her recent reporting on the community and what residents are doing to retain its historical character.

 

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Late billionaire George Mitchell was a Galveston-born wildcatter who became widely known for being the father of the modern process of fracking. Yet as a young executive, Mitchell became fixated with the idea of creating a healthy, sustainable community at a time when many American cities were experiencing urban decay. Author and former Chronicle Business Columnist Loren Steffy explores Mitchell's paradoxical life in a new book titled “George P. Mitchell: Fracking, Sustainability and an Unorthodox Quest to Save the Planet.” He joins Nancy to talk about the legendary Houstonian.

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The number of craft breweries in Houston has grown by more than 250 percent since 2013 when there were only 18. The industry explosion (there are now 64) helped pave the way for new legislation that allows breweries to sell beer to go. Beer aficionado Ronnie Crocker and Chronicle business reporter Paul Takahashi join Nancy to talk about what the new law means for Houston's brewers and how the rise of craft breweries has come at the expense of the home brew market and the small retailers that cater to it.

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