When disaster strikes: Hurricane Katrina

​​​Editor’s note: This post is part of a new series about the impacts natural disasters have on a region’s public health, economic activity, and individual decision-making. While the papers cited in the posts extend beyond natural disasters in Texas, the results will be contextualized to the state’s

When disaster strikes

​​​In May 2022, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasted the seventh consecutive year of above-average Atlantic hurricane activity. Despite 16 days remaining in hurricane season, NOAA’s prediction proved accurate, with ten hurricanes and an additional six named storms re

Trust is based on perception, not a 51-year history

​​We became the experts for Texas real estate on May 18, 1971. The minute Gov. Preston Smith signed Senate Bill 338, the Texas Real Estate Research Center was created, and Texans had a place they could go to for answers. We were instantly experts not by virtue of anything we had done to date but […]

First-time homebuyers and the bank of mom and dad

First-time homebuyers generally lack the money to make large down payments on a home. According to the Survey of Consumer Finances, the medi​an net worth of renters measured $6,300 in 2019. Meanwhile, U.S. Census Bureau data indicate that nearly half of all renters in the U.S. were younger than 30;