City of College Station City Council Meeting

The City of College Station has been working towards adding a Restricted Occupancy Ordinance (ROO) into the neighborhood overlay ‘toolkit’ over the last year.  This would give neighborhoods the ability to put in place the restriction that properties in the neighborhood would not be allowed to have more than 2 unrelated individuals living in any house (owner-occupied or rental).  Only 50% (+1) approval by property owners would be required to put the ROO in place.  The city did a survey last year and that showed that 76.4% of respondents were against the ROO.  City Council proceeds forward, though, disregarding input from staff, residents, and property owners.

This proposed ordinance could adversely impact your client’s ability to use their properties in the future.  Even if there is a grandfathering element put into place, it could affect the sale of properties in the future.

The city will host a series of virtual public interest meetings over the next three weeks.  I have included the details you will need for those meetings.  We strongly encourage you to send that info to your clients, tenants, etc. 

Talking points for these meetings

The virtual meetings will be on February 8 (Tonight), February 16, and February 22, all at 6:00 p.m. via Zoom. Please see the City Calendar for details and Zoom links. Registration is not required for the meetings. The online poll will go live on the evening of February 8 and will close on February 26.

All three meetings are open to the public and you may choose to attend one or more. They will contain identical content but be prepared for specific audiences including the real estate, investor, and development community (February 8), neighborhood groups and associations (February 16), and students (February 22). This three-prong public input approach is to allow for meaningful discussion among each group and for city staff to tailor the presentation and language to each target audiences’ familiarity with development terms and knowledge of zoning and city processes.

Each meeting will provide an overview of the proposed ROO and ask the public to consider three questions.

  • First, are you generally supportive or opposed to the creation of a ROO?
  • Second, if the ordinance is adopted, what would be the appropriate percentage of property owners needed to support the proposal and sign the petition?
  • Third, if the ordinance is adopted, what is an appropriate legacy clause (often called grandfathering) to address properties that have more than two unrelated persons living in a house at the time of a ROO’s adoption?

 

Information provided by the Bryan-College Station Regional Association of REALTORS®

Rents are down in College Station

If you’re looking for College Station rentals, you may be interested in knowing that this season may see lower rents than last year according to the Rent Cafe apartment market report. The slowest rental markets in February in the U.S. were Lubbock, TX (where rents decreased by -4.8% y-o-y), Norman, OK (rents down -2.7%) and Baton Rouge, LA(rents down -2.1%). Apartment rents in College Station, TX were also decreasing over the year by -1.2%. Pricey Stamford, CT saw rents slightly down in February, by -1.1% year-over-year, with an average rent of $2,331/month.

We just released our monthly rent report with data compiled from actual rents charged in the 250 largest US cities. The national average rent was $1,364 in February 2018, 2.7% higher than this time last year. Starting this month, our rent reports will showcase more in-depth data focused on markets by size:

  • Large cities: Las Vegas boasts the fastest increasing rents year-over-year (6.6%), followed by Denver (5.8%) and Detroit (5.7%). At the other end of the spectrum, Brooklyn and Manhattan saw the most significant decreases: 0.7% and 0.2%, respectively.
  • Mid-size cities: Colorado Springs (6.5%) and Stockton (6.3%) challenge Sacramento (7.9%) with rising rents over the year, while New Orleans is the only mid-size city to see a decline (0.7%) in rent prices this February.
  • Small cities claim 19 of the top 20 largest rent increases in the US. Odessa and Midland are the long-time leaders, with spectacular Y-o-Y increases of 38.9% and 35.7%, respectively.
  • Colorado, Nevada, and Arizona are on the watchlist of fastest growing markets, with many cities seeing rent increases well above 5% year-over-year.

 

Brazos County Realty posts properties for rent as tenants let us know they’re vacating.  Properties for lease

Brazos County Realty tenants are required to notify the Landlord within 90 days of the end of the lease if they will be renewing or the contract automatically renews for another year.  Check back often for updated information on availability.  Brazos County Realty:  979-693-0201  Office hours 9-5 weekdays.

 

 

All information is deemed reliable through Rent Cafe  but must be independently verified.

 



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