A new survey from John Burns Real Estate Consulting has ranked some of the top-selling Master Planned Communities (MPC) in the U.S., and Houston was extremely well-represented in the survey’s findings.
In total, 11 communities in and around Houston were among the 50 ranked communities, and The Woodlands, Cinco Ranch and Telfair developments were even in the top 10, with the former two making it all the way to the top five.

Mobil Steel International Inc. and its employees have been taking part in charitable events and making contributions to local charities, according to an article by UltimateSpring.com. The company has given six donations to Sagemont Church’s Helping Hands ministry, an organization that provides assistance to seniors and shut-ins. Mobil Steel is also a regular participant in the annual fundraiser for Boys and Girls Country, a Christian home provides families in crisis a safe place to stay.

The Builder trade journal has stumbled upon an interesting anomaly in the Houston real estate market – rather than downsizing, an increasingly popular trend that has been increasingly covered by numerous outlets since the housing downturn commenced, builders in the Bayou City are taking advantage of the inexpensive land costs and building bigger.

Prudential Gary Greene Realtors at the Champions office received the No. 1 ranking in both units and volume during the third quarter for the central United States region of Prudential Real Estate & Relocation Services – a feat that has never been achieved before, according to Sharon Teusink, office manager of the Champions office.

The Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC) announced that The Woodlands have assumed a leadership role in The Bridgeland development project, a planned community in the Houston-area.
Grant Herlitz, president of the HHC, said the new role of the HHC is one of collaboration and success.

2012 seems poised to be a year of rambunctious construction activity for builders, according to a new study by Houston-based Metrostudy.
Mike Inselmann, the president of the firm, said that builders will start at least 20,000 new single-family home projects this year, a 10 percent increase over 2011, according to a story by the Houston Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff.

As nearly every one in Houston knows by now, high-rises are not particularly popular with the Bayou City’s residents, and a new wave of developments inside the 610 Loop seem to have bared that in mind.
As reported by Clifford Pugh for Culture Map, the developments feature a number of four- to six-story buildings that are more “mid-rise” than high-rise, and that feature all the luxury amenities that are to be expected for premium city real estate.

Standard & Poor’s released the latest resultsof its influential Case-Shiller Home Price Indices just moments ago for the month of October, and like the previous collection of data, it shows both monthly and year-over-year declines for housing values in the vast majority of U.S. metropolitan areas.
Monthly, home values were down 1.1 percent for the 10-City Composite and 1.2 percent for the 20-City Composite, from September to October, while annually, the composites were down 3.0 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.

Houston Agent will be taking a brief break next week, but we’ll be back the first week of January to continue bringing you the most timely, invaluable real estate news around.
Happy Holidays!

After a period of considerable debate, the Houston City Council has adopted new regulations to govern the construction of high-rise buildings near residential, single-family developments.