Whole Foods opening in Colleyville, Texas

Whole Foods to open next year in former Albertson's in Colleyville

Posted Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 

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Map of Texas 26 and Glade Road, Colleyville, TX

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BY SANDRA BAKER

sabaker@star-telegram.com

COLLEYVILLE -- Whole Foods Market will open a 40,000-square-foot store next year in Colleyville, the Austin-based company and property owner said.

Centennial Real Estate Co. in Dallas said the store will go in space formerly occupied by Albertson's in the Village Park at Colleyville shopping center at Texas 26 and Glade Road. The space that has been vacant since 2007.

Mark Dixon, Whole Foods Southwest region president, called the Colleyville shopping center "a desirable location and a perfect fit for Whole Foods Market. With our current store in Arlington and future location in Highland Village, our westward expansion gives more guests a convenient location for natural and organic culinary options."

Centennial said it plans to extensively renovate the center and adapt the space for the new Whole Foods Market store while modernizing other retail areas. The store is expected to open in mid-2014.

"We will construct a prominent storefront and entrance for Whole Foods Market while upgrading the appearance of the entire shopping center," said Steven Levin, Centennial's CEO. "Our plans include unique architectural features that combine new modern design with a concept that is consistent with the culture and setting of Colleyville."

Westlake Ace Hardware, Goody Goody Liquor and Vineyard's Antique Mall are also located in the 190,664-square-foot center.

Marty Weider, Colleyville's economic development director, said the deal to bring Whole Foods to the shopping center has been in the works for about two years. He called the deal a "game changer" for Colleyville and the shopping center, saying the store will attract shoppers from nearby cities and other quality tenants that want to be located near a Whole Foods store.

"It's a huge shot in the arm," Weider said. "We're happy to make this happen. We view this as a phenomenal opportunity for the shopping center to be upgraded. It's tough to keep inline tenants when you don't have an anchor."

Whole Foods enters a competitive grocery market in Northeast Tarrant County. Market Street is located just north on Texas 26, at Hall-Johnson Road, Tom Thumb has nearby locations and Central Market is located in Southlake.

Centennial said it assembled the shopping center from three separate owners over the past 18 months, allowing the company to bring in Whole Foods Market and redevelop the existing retail space. Centennial acquired Village Park with partners Gideon Interests, Inc. and Atlantic Creek Real Estate Partners, Llc. ViewPoint Bank provided the debt for the transaction, Centennial said.

In its earnings report last week, Whole Foods said it recently signed 11 new leases. In addition to Colleyville, new stores are scheduled for Toronto, Canada; Canada; Berkeley and Los Angeles, Calif., West Palm Beach, Fla., Lafayette and New Orleans, Louisiana, Westford, Mass., St. Louis, Miss. Cherry Hill, New Jersey and Newport News, Virginia.

Sandra Baker, (817) 390-7727

Star Telegram

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/18/4627687/whole-foods-to-open-next-year.html#storylink=cpy

DFW Median Home Price Now $10,000 Higher Than 2007 Peak

Just the Facts

30% of Sales Hip-Pocket

Statistics are now showing that 30% of all home sales in certain Dallas neighborhoods are hip-pocket.     The home is sold before it ever hits MLS.  Ted Wilson, a housing analyst with Residential Strategies Inc states, “Those sales may never make it into MLS.”     Numerous North Dallas neighborhoods and various north side suburban communities are experiencing strong hip-pocket sales.   It is estimated then that the actual number of sales are significantly under reported.

-          Dallas Morning News, April 9, 2013 (excerpts)

DFW Median Home Price Now $10,000 Higher Than 2007 Peak

Reported home sales were up 22% in March, and home prices were up 8% from one year earlier.  That is on top of the 7% increase in the previous one year time period.   March’s median DFW area home price rose to $168,000, about $10,000 higher than the peak of the market in 2007, before the recession hit.  And all indications point to significant further increases.  (As a reminder, RMDFW home sales were up 50% from one year ago in March.)

-          Dallas Morning News, April 9, 2013 (excerpts)

Condo Sales Up 55%

The increase in condo and townhome home sales in the DFW area are surpassing the increase in single family home sales.  During March, condo and townhouse sales in North Texas soared by 55% from a year ago.   And some in-town neighborhoods are now seeing a 100% increase in sales.   And condo home prices – now up 11% from one year ago.   The condo and townhouse market has never had this sharp of increase in Dallas history.

-          Dallas Morning News, April 11, 2013

New Home Starts Jump 35% in DFW

A surge in demand has North Texas builders scrambling to start thousands of homes.  Dallas-Ft Worth home starts rose 35% in the first three months of 2013, the highest first-quarter construction volume in five years.  The increase would have been even greater but for a shortage of lots, materials and labor.  And new home prices are soaring, notes David Brown, regional director of Metrostudy.    Further, Brown notes that builders are now in some degree raising prices in an effort to slow down activity because they simply do not have the ability to deliver more houses.

-          Dallas Morning News, April 9, 2013

Texas Jobs and Oil Production Surge

 

Texas Jobs See Record Surge

Texas employment surged in February as employers added the most new jobs ever in a month.  The Texas Workforce Commission on Friday reported 80,600 new jobs across the state.  New jobs were heavily in construction, housing and energy.  The next closest state with job gain was California with 42,000 net new jobs.   “The addition of over 80,000 jobs in Texas in one month is remarkable,” notes Ray Perryman, an economist with the Perryman Group.

-          Dallas Morning News, March 30, 2013

Texas Oil Production Surges 30%

The Texas oil boom is showing no signs of abating.  Statistics released by the Texas Railroad Commission this week showed oil production in January rose 30 percent over the same period a year ago to more than 1.4 million barrels a day.   “I don’t see this slowing anytime soon.  Not with the oil prices where they are,” said Michael Powell Jr., editor of the Powell Shale Digest.

-          Dallas Morning News, March 30, 2013

Home Prices Make Huge Year-Over-Year Jump

The S&P/Case Shiller 20-City Composite index posted its largest year-over-year gain in January since the summer of 2006.  It showed home prices up 8.1% in all 20 major metro areas since January 2012, and the first report that showed all areas of the country have price increase.    The top 10 cities with price gains are as follows:

·         12.1.% - Los Angeles

·         12.1% - Minneapolis

·         10.8% - Miami

·           9.8% - San Diego

·           9.2% - Denver

·           8.9% - Tampa

·           8.7% - Seattle

·           8.3% - Portland

·           7.0% - Dallas

·           6.0% - Charlotte

-          Inman News, March 26, 2013

Housing Stirs Economy in 2013

Just the Facts

Housing Boom Stirs Economy

Today, the federal government announced that the unemployment rate dropped in February to 7.7% from 7.9%, and 236,000 new jobs were created last month.  The big reason – the national housing boom.    There is an estimated one million new home starts in 2013, up from 600,000 in 2012.  With this boom comes new construction workers, cabinet makers, kitchen appliance makers, a furniture boom, etc.  One new home creates 36 jobs, and with one million new homes – the economy grows.

-          ABC Moneywatch, March 8, 2013

Immigrants Buoy the Housing Market

Immigrant homebuyers have bolstered the housing market across the country and will continue to fuel demand at least through 2020, according to a new study.   Foreign-born buyers are now accounting for the bulk of growth in homeownership in states with large immigrant populations, especially with the new housing boom this past year.  Immigrants who make up 13% of the U.S. population now account for 39% of net growth in homeowners.  Immigrants are more likely to buy a home after they become settled and economically stable in the U.S., typically after renting a few years.  Hispanics had a 15% homeownership rate in the 1980s.  Today, 53% of Hispanic families own their own home.  Foreign-born buyers represent 82% of the growth in home sales in California, 65% in New York and 42% in Texas.    Most foreign-born homebuyers in Texas are in Houston and Dallas.

-          Wall Street Journal. March 7, 2013

U.S Home Prices Rose 9.7% in January

Nationwide home prices shot up by almost 10 % in January.   And researchers at Core-Logic Inc. said Tuesday that indicators point to a similar home price gain in February.  It was the biggest such increase in seven years in the final days of the housing bubble.  Dallas-area home prices were up 8.1% in January, but some northern suburbs showed an increase of more than 15% from one year earlier.

-          Dallas Morning News, March 7, 2013

Homes selling for more than List

Just the Facts

New Housing Boom Mantra - Paying More Than List

It all seems long ago now – the casual home shopper, the drives to check out the neighborhood, the luxury of sleeping on the largest decision you’ll ever make.  Trying to buy a home now feels more like being thrust into the trading pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange – the frenzied bidding, the need for lightening fast decisions, the packs of serious shoppers at an open house.  In one fraught situation, a home near Union Station in Washington, D.C., drew 168 offers in December and sold for almost twice the asking price. In the tonier neighborhoods of Los Angeles, 20 bids per house is not uncommon, according to real estate agent David Kean. And the speed of deals can be intense. "In the middle of a snowstorm we have seen houses sell in one day," says Sam Schneiderman, owner/broker at the Greater Boston Home Team agency. "At open houses on million-dollar homes you are literally bumping into people, it's that crowded."

A dearth of homes for sale has run smack into a suddenly energized buying crowd egged on by rising values. The National Association of Realtors says the number of existing homes on the market in January -- 1.74 million -- was 25 percent lower than a year ago, and the lowest level since 1999.  Price is obviously the main lever in all deals. What’s particularly important now is to understand how the seller will handle bids. Some collect all bids and immediately choose a winner, typically the highest offer, which is often more than the asking price. Other sellers give the top three or five bidders the chance to make one counteroffer. In those instances, you want to get into the bake-off but leave yourself room to counter.

In today's tight market, some sellers are asking every bidder to counter. That's what happened to a client of Schneiderman's in the recent sale of a house in Newtown Center, Massachusetts, listed for $975,000. The seller got nine offers -- four to nine offers is the norm now, Schneiderman says -- and asked for counter bids on all nine. Schneiderman's client bid $1,016,000 and lost. The seller's agent said the winning bid was "significantly higher."

       -        Bloomberg News, March 1, 2013

RE/MAX DFW Associates Has High Customer Retention

Based on  postings of source of business, the agents at RE/MAX DFW Associates report 40 percent of all home sales are repeat business – clients whom the agents have worked with in the past.  Most importantly, over 80 percent of all RMDFW agents reported a repeat business sale or listing in 2012.  This is an extremely high rate in the industry.  RISMedia Magazine in their surveys report:

1)      Six percent of agents with 3 to 5 years of experience received repeat business last year.

2)      Agents with 6 to 15 years of experience, the number is only 17 percent for 2012.

3)      Only 38 percent of agents with over 16 years of experience received repeat business during the previous calendar year.

Most real estate agents do not make an effort to maintain a solid relationship after the closing.  Yet every closing is a huge opportunity for referrals and future repeat business.

-          RISMedia Magazine, February 28, 2013

Record National Home Sales in January

January posted a 4.5% increase in previously owned home sales in January, and new homes posted a 16% increase.  The only month better than January 2013 in the past six years was April 2010 – the last month of the federal tax credit.   The increase is the latest positive report for the housing market, which began recovering last year after a deep, six-year slump. Steady hiring and nearly record-low mortgage rates have encouraged more Americans to buy homes.  Home prices, meanwhile, rose by the most in more than six years in the 12 months ending in December.  Steady price increases are also contributing to the housing recovery. They encourage more people to buy before prices rise further. Higher prices also build homeowners' wealth, which can spur more spending and economic growth.

       -      Associated Press, February 27, 2013

Prices in DFW are pushing UP

Just the Facts

Why Home Sellers Are Seriously Scarce

The lack of home sellers as the spring selling season nears is of little surprise.  Nationwide, the supply of existing homes for sale has fallen for seven straight months.  Competing multiple offers abound with most of the country now a seller’s market, just one year into a housing recovery following the worst downturn since the Great Depression.   The shortage of sellers is expected to ease as home prices rise.  Many homeowners cannot afford to sell because they do not have enough equity to put into another home.  Some potential sellers are waiting for the prices to rise a bit more.   Many have learned to be content during these past few years of the national recession.  They have simply rearranged their priorities and decided their current home is fine.    Major companies have nixed potential employee relocations.  And some are simply concerned with our national politic malaise.   But with all of this – economists predict sellers will sell again, and soon!

-          USA Today, February 27, 2013 and Wall Street Journal, February 27, 2013

Builders Fuel Home Sale Rise

Sales of new homes are surging in the U.S., far outpacing sales of existing homes and creating an unusual disparity in the housing recovery.   The trend partly reflects the small inventory of previously owned homes, now at a 13 year low.  But the strong sales of new homes also show how the nation’s home builders have mastered the art of selling.  New home sales jumped 28.9% in January from a year earlier, as sales of previously owned homes rose 9.1%.  This desperate selling pace exists even though a typical new home costs 37% more than one already built, the widest gap since figures started being tracked in 1968, according to Barclay’s Capital.   In the past two years, more builders have offered to pay closing costs and arrange home loans through their in-house lender, and made heavy use of government backed loans with little or no down payment.   Over three times more new homes today are sold with an FHA mortgage than just two years ago.  The result – it is easier to buy a new home, although the better value may be an existing previously owned home.

-          Wall Street Journal, February 27, 2013

Investors Driving Up Home Prices

During the housing bubble, investors played a significant part in overheating home values.  And when all the air went out of the home market, the mortgage companies and ultimately the economy were left holding the bag when the investors bailed out.  Now that housing is picking up steam again, investors are back buying up thousands of homes in North Texas and across the country.  Indeed, a flood of dollars (by investors) is driving up home prices and dramatically reducing the number of homes for sale.  And while most of the purchases are for cash, what happens five years from now if many of these investors cash out of their deals?  The numbers are just huge.  In some markets, investors are 20% of home sales.  In other markets, it is much more.

-          Dallas Morning News, March 1, 2013

Dallas Projected 25%-30% Gains

Just the Facts

Dallas Projected to Have 25%-30% Home Price Gain

Over Next Three Years

Two recent respected studies, one from a federal agency and the other from one of the most respected world banks, show that home prices will increase in most, but not all U.S. cities over the next three years.  Both reports show that Dallas is poised to have the largest price gain over the next three years of any American city, due to its significant expected population growth.   Houston and Denver also rank high in expected price gain.   Some major U.S. cities are still expected to have declining home values.

71% Believe Their Home Value Will Go Up in 2013

What a change a few months make.  In December polling, some 71% of Americans believe the value of their home will increase in 2013.  That is up from only 37% that believed that just ten months ago.   With that optimism, Americans are beginning to “move-up” again – selling their existing home and buying a large home.   The percentage of first time home buyers is stable, but with the increase of move-up buyers, the real estate market is hot in almost every part of the United States.     Virtually every market saw a 5% to 25% increase in home sales in 2012, and that number will surely increase in 2013.

-          Real Trends Report, January 12, 2013

Home Affordability Record in 2012

The National Association of REALTORS announces that 2012 was a record year for housing affordability.  NAR’s national Housing Affordability index stood at 198.2 in November, based on the relationship between median home prices, median family income and average mortgage interest rate.   The higher the index, the greater the household purchasing power; record keeping began in 1970.  An index of 100 is defined as the point where a median-income household has exactly enough income to qualify for the purchase of a median priced single-family home.  Housing affordability was 184 in 2011, and is projected to drop to 160 in 2013, due to rising home prices and increased government regulations.

-          REALTOR Mag, January 2013