Episodes
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Texas summers, women’s winters
Office buildings in the South can be notoriously cold in the summer months – or at least that’s what a majority of women would say who jokingly refer to offices in the summer as “women’s winter.” This year as more companies return to the office amid record heatwaves and requests by ERCOT for…
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Breaking down Houston's battle over feeding the homeless
A group of volunteers that, for nearly two decades, has offered free meals four evenings a week outside Central Library has recently started getting fined for breaking city law. The 2012 law, which limits giving free meals to those in need, has been deeply controversial and had gone largely...
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Is River Oaks losing its history as homes are razed?
Description: The recent demolition of a $24 million historic home by Astros owner Jim Crane renewed conversations about the preservation of the iconic River Oaks neighborhood. Since its founding in the 1920s, the high-income Houston enclave became a quiet retreat from the rest of the city where…
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Texas' new property tax relief explained
After much political wrangling and not one, but two special legislative sessions, the Texas legislature has finally agreed on a property tax relief bill. It has something in it for all property owners -- not only homeowners, but also investors and businesses -- and legislators argue that it will...
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Not your average subdivision: How master-planned communities are rethinking development
Master-planned communities are playing an increasingly important role in housing families priced out of urban cores. How do designers and developers go about planning the future of these massive mini cities to respond to the growing risk of climate change and housing affordability concerns –…
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Adult dorms? Why coliving is growing in the South
Living with roommates has long been a way to save money on housing. In the past decade or so though, a new class of professionally managed roommate housing has emerged called coliving – think of -up version of college dorms. Coliving providers take the typical hassles out of roommate living while...
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Landlords can save $1M with this affordable housing tax break, but what's in it for renters?
R.A. Schuetz and Marissa Luck discuss a tax break meant to create affordable housing that's in the center of some controversy. Public Facility Corporations have drawn scrutiny both in Houston (we'll hear about some tense words between Mayor Sylvester Turner and the housing authority) and in the...
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Here's the next frontier in real estate's battle against climate change
The real estate sector is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions globally – and it’s not just because of the power used to electrify or cool a building. Creating and transporting all of the materials that go into a building is a huge source of carbon emissions that the…
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Could conservation districts give residents more say in a city famous for no zoning?
Mayor Sylvester Turner is seeking City Council support for a conservation district program he and city planners say could help lower-income neighborhoods preserve their character and fend off gentrification. Critics say it may end up causing gentrification. Marissa Luck and R.A. Schuetz speak…
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Why we're still talking about the Ashby high-rise 16 years later
There’s a new project proposed in the site of The Ashby high-rise, a contentious apartment tower first pitched 16 years ago that set off one of the most intense land-use battles in Houston’s history. We dive into the history of The Ashby, and provide an update on The Langley, the revised version…
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What to expect for Houston’s shifting housing market in 2023
After the pandemic’s housing boom, which spurred bidding wars and drove up home prices to dizzying highs, the market has shifted. Interest rates have risen, inflation has eaten away at budgets and some economists have forecasted a recession. As many would-be homebuyers have been priced out of the...
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How a proposed Chinese investor ban could impact Houston real estate
Houston is one of the most diverse cities in the country with a large population of Chinese residents who have helped to contribute to thriving commercial corridors such as Asiatown near Bellaire and Asiantown near Katy. How would SB 147 -- a proposed law barring citizens and companies from…
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What it's like to learn the internet thinks you're dead? A HOA duck feud's latest twist
Nearly five months after a Houston Chronicle story about a retired couple's battle with their HOA over feeding the ducks gets picked up by outlets around the globe, the reporter gets a call from the couple's daughter. While Mrs. Rowe and her lawyer said that they had begun feeding the ducks after...
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Houston's biggest eviction prevention effort is ending. What lessons can we learn?
A nationwide, $47 billion effort to prevent evictions during the pandemic is winding down, leaving tenants to cope with higher rents amid inflation. How well did emergency rental assistance, which funneled aid through local and state programs, work? Looped In hosts R.A. Schuetz and Marissa Luck...
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Sinking homes, toxic soil: Why the ground under your house matters
Some homeowners in Houston are dealing with a host of unexpected environmental issues - from discovering years after purchasing their homes that their land was sinking underneath them to learning there are still cancer risks tied to old school industrial developments nearby. As Houston…
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Buffalo Bayou East will transform East End. Why affordable housing is the first step.
An ambitious $310 million transformation of the eastern side of Buffalo Bayou gets underway this week as Buffalo Bayou Partnership -- which developed the 160-acre Buffalo Bayou Park between Allen Parkway and Memorial Drive -- breaks ground on the first piece of its decade-long plan to transform…
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A behind-the-scenes look at East River, one of Houston's most highly anticipated projects now
Houston’s East End is in the midst of massive change as the neighborhood once dominated by industrial buildings and small bungalows is turning into a hub for mixed-use developments, apartments and adaptive reuse projects. A major catalyst of the East End’s transformation was sparked by East…
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What Harvey did (and didn’t) teach us about building in the floodplain
Meyerland, built on former rice fields in southwest Houston, was one of Houston’s earliest master-planned communities promising to bring suburban life relatively close to the city. But the neighborhood has been repeatedly ravaged by floods, with some of the worst damage occurring in Hurricane...
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What a controversy in Beyonce's old neighborhood tells us about historic districts
In a city with virtually no official zoning, the ability to create a historic district over a particular neighborhood is supposed to be a key tool Houstonians can use to preserve the character of a place. But in the case of one historically Black community in Houston’s Third Ward, called…
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How a nonprofit puts the "choice" back in housing choice vouchers
A federal program is meant to give low-income families the freedom to choose where they live. But most landlords are not interested in participating, put off by requirements such as lengthy inspection periods and the prospect that the voucher might not meet them where the market is, relegating...
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Why downtown Houston will never be the same
More than two years after lockdowns turned downtown into an apocalyptic landscape of darkened towers and deserted streets, downtown Houston is coming back to life. While it hasn’t completely recovered yet, people are once again crowding into Astro’s games, catching concerts at Jones Hall…
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FOMO, and why that phrase “housing bubble” keeps bubbling up
A new paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas warns we may be in a housing bubble, driven by fear of missing out (FOMO) in the market as prices surge and mortgage rates rise. But it’s a tricky thing defining a bubble, and even then, bubbles don't necessarily pop — Rebecca Schuetz and Marissa...
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Hello, hybrid
A hybrid workplace is emerging as the new normal for office workers post pandemic. But how will splitting their time between their pajamas and their pumps impact the way employees work? Can cubicles cut it anymore now that employees have grown accustomed to lounging on their patio or taking a…
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What’s up with Luby’s?
Luby’s, a cafeteria-style restaurant, is so ingrained in Texas culture that the TV series “King of the Hill” has a character named after its signature platter. So when Luby’s board voted to liquidate the brand, many were shocked. But — as Amanda Drane, who formerly covered retail for the Houston...
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The 'mini' Exxon effect
When Exxon built its big campus north of Houston back in 2014-2015 it set off a wave of real estate development nearby in what many called 'the Exxon effect.' Now that the company is officially relocating to Houston what can we expect? Looped In co-hosts Marissa Luck and Rebecca Schuetz speak…
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Meet Marissa and 2022's housing market
Meet Marissa and 2022's housing market Things have been on the move at the Houston Chronicle. Rebecca Schuetz has switched to focus on housing, and we're welcoming a new real estate reporter to the team: Marissa Luck! Marissa answers some tough questions -- like which pet is really her favorite…
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How money meant for Houston affordable housing led to a high-profile firing and federal scrutiny
Mayor Sylvester Turner's decision to go against staff recommendations and instead direct millions of city money to a project with ties to his longtime law partner is attracting national scrutiny. City hall reporter Dylan McGuinness and investigative reporter Mike Morris talk about how the news...
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Jackie Cooper opened doors
Jackie Cooper, the first female president of the Houston Black Real Estate association, has had a lot of doors slammed in her face. That didn’t prevent her from convincing homesellers, homebuilders and even Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to give Black real estate agents in Houston their business. She...
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How outer space is reshaping Texas real estate
Believe it or not, Texas real estate is being shaped by outer space. As billionaires bent on commercializing travel to the heavens base their operations in remote parts of Texas, those areas are seeing a huge influx of employees and investors. Andrea Leinfelder, the Chronicle’s space reporter,...
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How real estate agents are paid in other countries
Right now, there is a fight that could change how commissions work that is winding its way through the court system. In it, the defendant, who thinks that real estate commissions are too high, is pointing to the United Kingdom as an example of how things could work. So we spoke to real estate...
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Educated guesses on the future of home sales, offices and retail
When asked about the future of real estate -- are we in a home price bubble? will offices fully recover -- real estate economist Jim Gaines is quick to caution that "there isn't an economist in the world that really knows what the heck he's talking about." We’ve never gone through anything like...
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Neighborhoods are pushing to remove racist deed language. They hope the state will make the process easier
Many neighborhoods throughout Houston, Texas and the United States have shocking language in documents restricting how the land can be used. “None of the lots… shall be used, owned or occupied by any person other than of the Caucasian Race," reads one example, the deed restrictions of Oak Forest....
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Moving on up: What's going on with mortgage rates?
Rebecca visits her dad and share news on her refinance. But a lot has changed since she was shopping for a new mortgage. She chats with Frank Nothaft, chief economist for the real estate analytics company CoreLogic, about what is causing rates to go back up and what he thinks the impact will be…
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You signed a lease. Then a storm damaged your home. Now what?
In the aftermath of Houston's litany of hurricanes, floods and storms, renters are realizing that renter protections in Texas are anemic at best. If the apartment's condition has deteriorated to the point where it impacts physical health or safety and the landlord does not make timely repairs —...
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Meet the brokerage that taped those calls and takes credit for starting a DOJ suit
The commission a buyer's agent earns is in the spotlight because of how they're set up. While the buyer's agent has a fiduciary responsibility to the homebuyer, their commissions is largely set by the homeseller before the property is listed on an agent-to-agent database known as the multiple...
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Rebecca refinances (or does she?) and avoids the cocktail party trap
Even as Rebecca interviewed people who had shaved hundreds off their monthly mortgage payments — giving them increased financial security in the midst of a recession — and spoke to coworkers and friends about how the historically low rates had benefited them, she put off doing one of her own.…
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And the Loopies for 2020 go to...
Every year, Looped In celebrates by recognizing the best and worst of Houston real estate.In 2020, there was a lot to choose from.The pandemic and the need to socially distance has shaped the way we interact, which has shaped the spaces we interact in. Home sales and renovations boomed, while...
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“I’m not even going to show it to them, to be honest with you.”
Houston real estate agents have been recorded saying they will not show certain homes to their clients — even though the houses meet all the buyers’ desires. This is one of the conversations. Read the story:...
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“I’m not doing that.”
Houston real estate agents have been recorded saying they will not show certain homes to their clients — even though the houses meet all the buyers’ desires. This is one of the conversations. Read the story:...
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“We can stop right there.”
Houston real estate agents have been recorded saying they will not show certain homes to their clients — even though the houses meet all the buyers’ desires. This is one of the conversations. Read the story:...
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Nancy has some news, eh?
Looped In host Nancy Sarnoff packs up her bags and moves to Canada, with a detour down memory lane. Connect with Rebecca Schuetz and Nancy Sarnoff. Support the show: https://offers.houstonchronicle.com/?offerid=125&origin=newsroom&ipid=podcast
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Realtors banned from racist posts
Realtors banned from racist postsThe National Association of Realtors tackled racist social media posts at their annual conference. On this episode of Looped In, Nancy Sarnoff and R.A. Schuetz discuss the background leading up to the vote. Connect with Nancy Sarnoff and Rebecca Schuetz. Support…
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Texas’s first cohousing community
We’ve all heard of coworking. But cohousing? Not so much. That’s because there are no cohousing communities in Texas, something a group of Houstonians in the East End are planning to change. They’re designing a 33-unit condominium where a sense of community will be the key amenity, a need for…
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Post-post office
Kirby Liu of Lovett Commercial and Jason Long, a partner with architecture firm OMA in New York, discuss POST Houston, the redevelopment of the 16-acre downtown post office property. They highlight some of the architectural oddities they unearthed from the midcentury structures on the site and...
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Going, going, paused
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo has been quietly postponing real estate foreclosures through executive orders, shutting down the facility where those auctions are held and providing relief to struggling homeowners and landlords. Connect with Nancy Sarnoff and Rebecca Schuetz. Read: Lina Hidalgo...
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It's quiet downtown. Just ask Charlie Patel
Convenience store owner Charlie Patel has spent the past two decades selling birthday cards, candy bars and small gifts to urban office workers. With most of his customers still working from home, he's had to find ways to adapt to the current reality. Patel explains how he's surviving.Read:...
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Worth another listen: Hines not Heinz
The late Gerald D. Hines adopted Houston as his hometown in 1957 and became one of the world's foremost property developers. Hines -- the man and the company -- was the subject of one of Looped In's earliest episodes. It’s time for another listen. Connect with Nancy Sarnoff and Rebecca Schuetz....
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Hunting for an apartment during COVID
Virtual tours and contactless showings. For those on the hunt for a new apartment in the midst of a pandemic, seeing the place before signing a lease involves navigating a series of precautions put in place to protect leasing staff and renters. Looped In hits the road to see how things have...
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Has the pandemic made corporate campuses obsolete?
The office is about to undergo its biggest change since the cubicle. Thanks to the pandemic, companies are rethinking the amount of space they occupy and the role it plays in their corporate culture. Lauri Goodman Lampson, who has designed workplaces for some of the world's biggest energy firms,...
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How the pandemic may change the way homes are designed
Nancy and Rebecca talk to housing consultant Scott Davis about how the new coronavirus is informing the way builders design homes and how past pandemics led to lasting changes in the way we live. Connect with Nancy and Rebecca Support the show:...