Results tagged “houstonassociation”

Good morning, Houston. Imagine it: a penthouse apartment in the Galleria area, complete with your own personal dome. Nice — and did we mention it's free? Or at least it is for one guy who's been squatting in the attic of an Uptown business: According to KTRK, he's set up a pretty sweet pad, with cable, a flat-screen TV, surround sound, air conditioning and a bathroom. It's a pretty sweet deal for the guy,... more ›

Good morning, Houston. Pardon us, but we seem to have lost our phone number. Can we borrow yours? Yeah, we know — it's lame. And apparently we're not the only one with a bad pickup line: Houston is the country's 14th best city for singles, according to Forbes magazine. We lag behind Dallas-Ft. Worth (No. 9) and Austin (No. 12), but we're far ahead of San Antonio (No. 28). On the bright side, Houston... more ›

More information in the story of Sonoma, the giant mixed-use development being planned for a two-block site in the Rice Village: The Chronicle reports that the city has released the appraisals for the 2400 block of Bolsover Street, and there's a little bit of variation between the two — about a half-million dollars' worth, to be specific. The appraisals — for $913,171 and $1,460,340 — pertain to Lamesa Properties' plans to buy that stretch of... more ›

Good morning, Houston. Seems like it's getting harder and harder to smuggle a ton of pot around these days — just ask the 37-year-old Houston man who was arrested at a Falfurrias border checkpoint Monday after agents found 2,537 pounds of marijuana in the tractor-trailer he was driving. A border patrol dog sniffed the stash out as agents were determining the man's citizenship: He turned out to be an American citizen, and the pot... more ›

Houston City Council passed amendments to the current preservation ordinance that will make it easier for residents to designate neighborhoods as historic districts, and a two year building permit penalty if any historic landmark or structure in a historic district is demolished. For district designation, there will need to be a 51% consent of property owners, down from 67%. The permit penalty will prohibit the city from granting building permits for a site where a... more ›

Could perception of HISD's merit-based bonus program get any worse? Yes, of course: Today, most of the district's principals will be getting bonuses, with Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra taking home a whopping $67,000 in extra pay. As you might imagine, the news isn't sitting well with teachers and staff members who already feel slighted by the bonus scheme. At least 250 principals — that's 83 percent of the principals in HISD, according to the Chronicle —... more ›

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-backed plan to clean up Houston's air doesn't go far enough, according to a suit filed yesterday by a local environmental group — in fact, the group claims, changes in the local air-quality rules would actually allow industries to pump more smog-forming pollution into the air. The proposed revisions to the clean-air plan were submitted by the state of Texas and approved by the EPA in September. They shift the... more ›

So things are looking pretty good for the local real estate market: Last month, the average single-family home price in Houston topped $200,000 for the first time. The average price for a single-family house in May was $204,005, up 8.2 percent over last year's average, the Houston Association of Realtors reports. Meanwhile, the median home price in Houston also reached a record $152,000. (In case you're wondering, yes, that is much less than the national... more ›