Katy City Limits

Team Spirit

Katy Texas is about tradition and, part of that tradition is 'Team Spirit'.  When Katy High School has a football game (click on Katy City Limit Events for the football schedule) everyone shows spirit.  And where in Katy can you go to get team spirit?  One place is My Pink Zebra Boutique. Just announced in The Katy Magazine:

June 27, Open House Celebration, Pink Zebra Boutique, 5714 First Street, 6-8p.m.

The Pink Zebra Boutique and all of their custom boutique designers announced today that because of the generous support, encouragement and feedback of their wonderful customers, they have moved to a new customer centric location specifically designed with your boutique shopping needs in mind. Their open house will have free door prizes awarded every 30 minutes and to-die-for snacks will also be provided. Starting immediately, you can now shop at the new Pink Zebra Boutique. 

Houston Real Estate Market YTD May 2008

Anyone sitting on the real estate sidelines from a media-induced coma needs to wake up and smell the future in Houston, Texas.  Yes, the Houston residential real estate market is experiencing a temporary lull from its "go-go" days of 2006 and 2007, but it is not from a lack of a robust job market  and economy. I think it is the media.  The city has even greater prospects for the future. But don't trust us, look at national publications such as Kiplingers.com, who recently named Houston as the Number 1 City for 2008 and called it the "Comeback Kid".  http://www.kiplinger.com/features/archives/2008/05/2008-best-city-houston.html

To read the entire article click here

Real Estate Market Report

Where is the 'Katy City Limits' Real Estate Market Going?

Below is the market update from the Houston Association of Realtors year to date as of the end of May, 2008.  This information is for Area 25-Far West Houston which includes 'Katy City Limits'. 

Single family home sales in the Houston Far West area are down by 16.51% in comparison to May YTD 2007, with 1,092 recorded home sales YTD.

Contracts initiated May YTD 2008 are also down by 9.89%, or 984 total units.

Listings are up only slightly by 12 units in comparison to last year or .78% with 1,544 listings currently on the market in comparison to 1,532 last year.

Average sales price for the Far West area is down by .07% over May YTD 2007 and is currently $136,985.  The median sales price [where half the homes sold above and half the homes sold below] was $123.000, a 2.40% decline over last year.

The Far West area currently has 6.3 Months of Inventory, meaning if no other listings were taken, and current buyer demand stayed at current levels, it would take 6.3 months to deplete the current supply of homes.

According to the Houston Hotness Index for May, Far West had 12.8% of all inventory go under contract during the month, earning a ranking of #9 out of 45 on the Hotness Index.

The list price/sales price ratio of homes in the area is 97% [meaning a seller could expect a reasonably priced home to sell for 97% of the list price].  Average price per square foot in the area is $64.  Days on the market have increased substantially due to a flood of inventory, from 2007 to the present – from 73 days to 92 days.

Keep in mind that there are variations in the market within the area.

 

Data compiled by the Houston Association of Realtors Mulitple Listing Service.

Katy vs. Katy area

Katy residents often split the city into two informal sections: "Old Katy" (or Katy Proper) and "Katy Area". Old Katy is the actual city limits of Katy and lies mostly north of Interstate 10. This is the original Katy from before the 1970s when Houston's Energy Corridor (and the development that came with it) made its way west on I-10.

The "Katy area" is made up of large sections of unincorporated Harris and Fort Bend counties and mostly sits east and southeast of the city limits of Katy. This area is within the Katy Independent School District and nearly everyone in this area has a Katy postal address.

The Katy area includes new upscale developments and master planned communities such as Cinco Ranch, Wood Creek Reserve, Grayson Lakes, Seven Meadows, Firethorne and Grand Lakes, while also encompassing developments from the 1970s and 1980s such as Memorial Parkway, Kelliwood and Nottingham Country.

All of the "Katy area" lies in the city of Houston's extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), not Katy's ETJ. This means that the areas of "Katy area" are controlled by the city of Houston and the city has the ability to annex it in the future. The city of Katy cannot annex this area unless the city of Houston releases the area's ETJ to Katy, which has occurred in several small chunks in recent years. The most recent instance of this was in 2001 when Houston ceded about 400 acres (1.6 km²) of ETJ to the City of Katy to allow the Katy Mills Mall and surrounding parking lot to be built entirely within the City of Katy.

The Smith Family Team live in and specialize in listing and selling real estate in 'Old Katy'.