The Good News From Keller Williams DMN

“What’s The GOOD News?”

05/17/17

1.*   Homeowners who sold in the first three months of this year saw an average price gain of $44,000 from purchase, according to a report from Attom Data Solutions released April 27, 2017. That represents a 24% return on the purchase price - the highest gain since third quarter 2007.  Nationwide, the median home price was $225,000 during the first quarter of 2017, the report stated, up 13% from a year ago. Homes in more expensive markets have seen the highest average price gains so far this year, the report found. Sellers in San Jose, California, saw an average price gain of $356,500 (71% return on investment), followed by those in San Francisco with a gain of $276,750 (65% return on investment).  The Austin-Round Rock, Texas market is the only Texas market that shows up on the Top 20 metro areas where home sellers are making the most money when selling their homes, with an average return on investment of 39% and an average price gain of $81,795…..and that puts them at the #19 spot on the list.   

2.*   Delaware and New York no longer have a monopoly on storing gold and precious metals for IRAs. This month, Noble Gold Investments opened an IRA depository in Dallas, the first of its kind in this region of the country.  Charles Thorngren, CEO of Noble Gold, said they will store everything from bullions to coins and platinum to palladium at the high-security facility. He could not disclose the  location, only that it is in Dallas.

And yes, they are storing the physical metal. Like any asset, gold prices do fluctuate from day-to-day based on economic conditions and demand. On May 12, spot prices for gold were at $1,226 an ounce.  Noble Gold stores the precious metals for a flat $300 annual fee.

3.*   International telecommunications firm Altice USA Inc. has decided to expand its presence in North Texas with a new 79,000 square feet office in Plano. The company already has an office in Plano, and this new office, which they expect to occupy by the 3^rd quarter of this year, will bring 400 relocated or new jobs to the city.  The company provides internet, video and phone services throughout the country with 4.9 million residential and business customers in 21 states.  Altice has expanded its 1 Gigabit per second broadband services in Texas to about 85 communities in the state and has announced a five-year plan to build a next generation fiber optic network capable of delivering speeds of up to 10 Gbps.  

4.*    Construction has begun on an office park made entirely of shipping containers, which, once started, will deliver a new office and retail option to tenants near downtown Fort Worth.  The three-story office park, called Connex Fort Worth, will sit on a tract at 1201 Evans Ave. and is being developed with the help of 40 shipping containers.  The Connex office park is slated for completion by the end of October.  Upon completion, the Connex office park will bring a zero energy building powered with the help of solar power and wind turbine trees atop the roof of the structure.   

5.*  Early April marked the grand opening of the Kubota Tractor headquarters campus in Grapevine, completing a 2 year building process.  The new facility includes the headquarters building and an adjacent 62,000 square foot research and development building, an outdoor water garden, and a large employee lounge and food service area.  The facilities already have about 280 employees working there, with 2017 employment expected to reach 340 jobs created. The new Grapevine campus is built to ultimately house as many as 600 workers, and has already brought a payroll of $25 million annually to our area. The completion of the $50 million campus for Kubota Tractor Corp in Grapevine has pushed the vertical limit of tilt-wall construction, with its tallest concrete panel coming in at 82 ft 11 in.  In the past, tilt-wall construction has been reserved for mainly industrial buildings, but as technology has evolved — so has the use of tilt-wall construction — and it has fully transferred into the construction of office buildings.  The building appears to be four-stories tall instead of its actual three story height and has 20-foot floor-to-floor heights. A 300-ton crane was used to erect the concrete walls.