Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

Houston is little change. Inventory has risen, but prices are still rising gradually.

@-ffbd, Yes Indeed, insult someone anonymously for doing exactly the same thing that you do. So, by your own judgement, you are a loser and a waste with no point to make. Don't be so hard on yourself. This is a layoff's forum and many people are here simply to get stuff off their chest. We understand that you are sore and "butt-hurt" as they call it on this site. No need to take it out on your co-workers who are in the same boat as you.

Have the last word if you like. I do t have time to waste trading words with losers. I made my point already.

Are you the "self-projection, perhaps?" troll @J4V1Bm0-fdpn, who looks at a post then automatically sees that characteristic of yourself in it? I've seen a lot of those pathetic posts on here. It's not unlikely, since you are trolling layoffs forum and you can relate to some of the grief. Hang in there, pal. things will turn around! Keep your head up!

Read back your own words, ftzf. That's youself that you're mumbling about. Laughable!

-eqnw, thanks for revealing your identity as the jealous butthurt loser who licks his wounds as he trolls this site. You poor pathetic miserable soul with no life. You need sites like this to continue your fantasy that you have a purpose and a life. There is still hope. Don't give up. God bless you sweetheart.

-ewsd is only himself a troll perusing this site licking his wounds and trying to find comfort in others sorrows after being laid off and thrown to the curb. Where does it indicate that lucky person -cwjw was laid off. The year 2015 shouldn't be anything to go on. That's the year he or she made sold and made out a bandit on that real estate sale.

@J4V1Bm0-cwjw, This is a layoffs forum and you are on it for a reason. There's no need for you to make up stories to make yourself feel better, dear. we are all in this together. You are obviously a miserable and pathetic person to be trolling here if you are not. Nice fake jab at your employer whom you depend on for your existence, though. God Bless you.

Won't help anyway, after absolute total ultimate final collapse of everything in the us, it will be close to zero, just prepare, relax and be ready, you don't have any control on natural way of "Great Justice" coming on you very soon

My home and 6 acres of land in rural Houston went from $98,900 in 1998 to just over $19 million in 2015. I sold it to a Dallas-based independent oil exploration & production company. I didn't even bother to ask Chevron if they would be interested in offering me a price.

As of 3 months ago, Bakersfield's market was holding up alright. According to our realtor, houses under $400k were still selling like normal as compared to the past couple years. Values have been very steady over that time and houses (if in good, move-in condition) were selling in about a month or less. Houses greater than $400k, however, are sitting on the market for 3 months or longer and are seeing multiple price reductions.

(reposted bc text was removed between "less than" and "greater than" signs. lol)

As of 3 months ago, Bakersfield's market was holding up alright. According to our realtor, houses $400k, however, are sitting on the market for 3 months or longer and are seeing multiple price reductions.

Sounds like Houston has weathered it well so far. How about Bakersfield?

http://www.khou.com/mb/news/local/neighborhood/breaking-down-the-houston-area-housing-market/309409549

Old town Katy is one of the areas doing well

The economy in Houston is more diversified than ever, but still about 44% of city GDP is from energy. Downstream has a huge presence and is expanding rapidly under low feedstock prices. Housing still has pent up demand from shortages the past few years. Current inventory is 3.7 months vs long term average of 5.1. Prices have only softened in the >$500k range. I forecast housing to remain strong in Houston for at least a year, probably longer.

Bakersfield is less diversified than Houston but has a huge agriculture segment. However, ag is down due to the drought. Home prices bottomed out in 2012 and are rising but flattening.

Want to know the truth about American fascists and millions of dead people, hundreds of millions of people in poverty because of American criminals? Visit this site...

@J4V1Bm0-2ofm, So you just admitted that you are a criminal pervert, a peeping tom and have no life, no woman and can't get any, because you are basically a pathetic loser with no prospects who gets off at the mere sight of nudity, since you have never been around a naked woman in real life.. Good luck with your perversions. You know, the real thing is much better, perverted criminal loser peeping Tom, but of course, you wouldn't know that and never will. . That's really pathetic. At least you are honest about being a loser pervert without a life. Many on this site couldn't even fess up to that.....

Let me return the conversation to the topic at hand; the Housing Market.

I own my home outright. I don't plan on selling it. I've retired well and enjoy it where I'm at. I have a beautiful 26 year old exhibitionist who bought the house behind mine last month. She doesn't like to draw the curtains or close the Venetian blinds. I clipped a coupon to buy a telescope and tripod set this morning. Now finishing up the final assembly and focusing the lens. Yes, the housing market is real good over here where I'm at.

@1lrc - The problem with healthcare as an industry is not that healthcare is not a business or that there aren't enough sick people. The problem is that the majority of healthcare customers are local, so it doesn't generate money for the local economy, it just moves it around. The Texas Medical Center is prestigious enough that many people do come from other parts of the state and even overseas for treatment there, but I don't think those numbers are enough to make that much of an impact on the local economy.

Direct economy and secondary influences are different things. If the 5% cash in disappeared, yes it would have broader influences. That said as a percent this is MUCH lower than during the 1980s.

@aij, "O&G is only about 5% of Houstons direct economy"...I would say the whole economy revolves around O&G. I don't see healthcare as an industry, because that would imply that people are making a profit off of people being "sick," which sounds pretty sinister to me. Healthcare industry won't make money if people are healthy and don't need to go the doctor, which I think most people are.

Thousands of very high paid professional people have been laid off in Houston from various oil companies during the past year. Obviously, that includes Chevron. Most of those probably received severance pay of 6 to 12 months. A good percentage, say 30 to 60%, probably have a house payment. The number of houses for sale, as a result of these layoffs, has not peaked because most are living off their severance and are holding out in hopes of finding employment. Just wait another 6-8 months and you will likely see the real effects on the local housing market.

Don't Feed the troll who is just trying to get attention on his mommies PC

The sooner you sell your house the better price you get, after the inevitable financial catastrophy it will be close to zero

TROLL ALERT

The prices will go to the bottom because total financial collapse is coming

"Expect tax appraised values to go down in 2017"... I will believe that when I see it! When they head up they reappraise every year, when heading down about once an election cycle.

Yeah, I was pretty "butthurt" (to use the official terminology of this site) when I found out that my home in the Woodlands wasn't worth much more than what I paid for it several years back. Of course I have a nice place to live, but if I was forced to bail out, I would pretty much lose on the loan after all the costs, etc. most likely, unless suddenly there is a shortage of homes in the range/area/class that I have like when I bought, which is not likely. I think that if you are looking for a better than average place with good schools, churches, neighborhood, and are not willing to settle for less or live anywhere then you are more likely to feel a "perceived" housing crunch.

In Houston area now, how quickly you can sell a house depends on how much you are willing to lower the price. I think over the past few years sellers got a little spoiled when buyers were bidding higher than the asking price. Now that is not happening. If you aren't willing to compromise on the price, expect your house to be on the market for a while, unless maybe it is special or unique in some way. Prices have dropped in 2016. Expect tax appraised values to go down in 2017.

i appreciate your comments, rjk. But, I reaffirm the fact that I have looked up my deed information online on my county's courthouse records website. I can read the entire scanned document of my sales transaction including the price I paid and the loan amount from my mortgage company and my signature. I was floored when I first discovered this was public information. The previous state I lived in did not disclose this type of information so easily, much less online. Each county may do things slightly different, so you may want to make sure your sensitive real estate dealings aren't out there for anyone to see. I'm going to call or visit my county records office very soon about my records.

@qji - The county only has access to sale prices from owners who voluntarily respond to surveys sent to property owners. They do not have access to actual sale prices for other transactions. They do have access to mortgage information, which they can use to estimate sale prices, but these can be way off if there is a large down payment, for example. Not sure what you saw that had an actual sale price on it, but it's not generally available. If you don't believe me, look at this presentation by the Williamson County Residential Appraisal District at http://www.wcad.org/property-owners/webcast/item/1263-residential-valuation. There are generally enough people who disclose the sale prices that the appraisal districts have pretty good data, but not always. Realtors often have access to more sales price information, because if the house was listed on MLS then realtors are generally authorized to report the sales price to MLS. Sites like Zillow and Trulia try to get information when and where they can, sometimes they send out questionnaires to buyers and sellers, or they can try to get them from real estate agents, but anything you see on these sites is not necessarily accurate. As to the difference between non-disclosure and secret, I'm not sure what you mean. Everything I've heard or read indicates that if everyone involved in a real estate transactions wants to keep the actual sales price secret they can. Just like a secret ballot, if you want to keep your vote secret you can, but no one will stop you from telling the world how you voted, so sure, it's not a secret ballot for someone who announces on Facebook how they voted.

In any case, the point is that price information and trends for homes in Texas are much more difficult to estimate than for most states, which is one reason you see posts on sites like this where one poster says prices are skyrocketing and another says they are plummeting. In most states it's much easier to get an accurate and reliable answers to questions about housing price trends.

@qfa - I've looked up Texas properties on Zillow and have noticed sometimes that they do post the last selling price along with the month & year if last sale. The site claims all information is from public sources. Even though Texas is a non-disvlosure state, I can attest to the sales price of all Texas properties can be looked up at the county courthouse records office. Some counties allow these deed records to be looked up online. You will see the actual scanned mortgage or sales documents detailing everything, including the sales price, loan amount and who holds the lien to the deed. Furthermore, all Central Appraisal Districts have all actual sales data. If you know how to look up the information while visiting the district's office, you'll realize that "non-disvlosure" doesn't mean "secret". When I spotted my home when it was on sale, the first thing I did was visit the Central Appraisal District's office to find out the last sale price. I made my purchase sales offer based on having that knowledge at hand. I received a fairly good reduction off the asking price knowing that the seller was also making a fair profit for having held the property for only 3 years.

Texas is a so-called "non-disclosure" state, which means that unlike most states, such as California, the sale price of homes is not a matter of public record and does not have to be disclosed to anyone. Thus there is no accurate way to know for sure what house prices are really doing at any time. Prices can be estimated using mortgage information, listing information, surveying realtors, etc., but they are only estimates. Your tax appraiser will give you his estimate of your home's worth, but again it's just his estimate, he doesn't have access to actual home sale prices either.

House prices in Houston have significantly increased since 2010-2011. I check zillow a couple times every month and a large and increasing number of homes have price reductions of 5-10k or more, depending on the price. Sellers are generally not getting top dollar and can't wait to have their house on the market for a long time. Even with these reductions, prices are pretty high compared to a few years ago. The city will always appraise to maximum price for tax purposes.

Since the Oil prices downturn in 2015, the Prices of homes in many Houston neighborhoods has decreased tremendously and I have made a lot of profit from it from buying from displaced workers on the cheap. It's laughable how people living in these communities are in denial and believe everything they read without doing any research. Yes the price and availability of homes are affected. 10% increase? Please give me some of the $hit that you're smoking, because I sure would like to get high with you!!

I would add that prices are still much more reasonable in Houston than the Bay Area suburbs (San Ramon, Danville , Dublin etc)

@ctd, I'm not sure where you live or get your information, but most areas around the greater Houston have been increasing in value to the tune of over 8% every year for 2014, 2015 and 2016. I'm a homeowner and am very aware of the notice values handed out by the appraisal districts in Harris, Montgomery and Fort Bend counties each year. Property values are on the rampage to 10% increases each year. People are selling and buying at very high prices. Never mind the downturn in the oil and gas industry. The Real Estate market didn't get the memo.

In Houston area, houses were flying off the market in 2013 and 2014. Now things have slowed considerably and I believe will continue to do so. Prices are dropping.

Google it: no reason to base this on individual experience as it is watched closely by the realtors and the press. Houston has seen some softening as defined by time to sell (a few months longer on average) but really no big drop in prices yet. I expect the inner loop will stay more stable than some of the huge home new builds farther out, but today O&G is only about 5% of Houstons direct economy...so not like the 1980s.