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2008-11-09 BACK
Real Estate in Texarkana - Times Two
Real Estate in Texarkana – Times Two This article originally appeared in the Texarkana Gazette on November 9, 2008 David Reavis, CCP, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of MIS, Texas A&M University-Texarkana College of Business The latest project for the Texarkana Market Analysis Project (TMAP) is to develop a real estate market analysis report for the Texarkana area. The original pattern for developing the report was based on real estate analysis done in larger metropolitan areas such as the Dallas, Ft. Worth metroplex. The idea was to develop a similar report, providing real estate professionals, financial institutions, and developers with information specific to the Texarkana real estate market. From the beginning of the project, I knew one of the challenges would be in getting certain information from two city governments, two state governments, and two county governments. What I learned along the way was that two was the wrong number. A little investigation revealed that there are more than two of almost every entity with something to say about the Texarkana real estate market. For example, in Bowie and Miller counties there are 46 different tax districts. These include various cities (besides Texarkana), numerous school districts, emergency response tax districts, and even a volunteer tax district. In addition to the often overlapping and complex variety of potential taxing authorities, Texas and Arkansas calculate property tax rates differently. This makes a comparison of the property taxes on one side of the state line with those on the other side like comparing apples and oranges. Fortunately TMAP is only dealing with real estate on this project, and not the overall economic impact of differences in sales taxes, utility taxes, and income taxes. In working the Texarkana Board of Realtors, I learned that our local realtors divide the real estate market into 26 areas. This allows them to focus buyers and sellers requests for information on specific neighborhoods and sub-markets within the greater Texarkana area. These areas include places like Nash, Wake Village, Fouke, and Genoa which are not in either "City of Texarkana" but still must be considered part of the Texarkana area real estate market. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has grouped Bowie and Miller counties into a single metropolitan statistical area (MSA). An MSA is a geographic entity used by Federal statistical agencies in collecting, tabulating, and publishing Federal statistics. Many real estate statistics collected by the Federal agencies are reported on the MSA level, but the time lag between data collection and data reporting (often one or two years) makes the data less useful in evaluating our markets to make business or personal purchase and investment decisions. With the backdrop of this mix of data sources, diverse reporting methods, and no single taxing authority, how can TMAP develop a cohesive real estate market report that meets the information needs of its intended audience? Here is where the number two comes back into play. There are two methods that have helped move the real estate analysis from a nice idea to a reality for Texarkana. The first is the lesson learned from the Board of Realtors. While we want to give our audience a good picture of the overall market, it makes sense to break down the real estate into smaller chunks or zones, and then describe each zone in as much detail as possible. This helps reduce the complexity of multiple tax districts because in a small area there is only one or two school districts, one city government, and one state government. In TMAP's real estate analysis we have identified 14 specific zones where there is enough aggregation to meet minimum data collection requirements, but not so much grouping that we lose the uniqueness of individual neighborhoods. The second lesson learned was that we should ignore the state line when possible. This means that when we find data that is similar regardless of its state (Texas or Arkansas) we can combine it to look at the Texarkana area as one real estate market. Some of the data points where this type of analysis is possible are housing facts such as price per square foot, number of properties sold in a given period, and acreage or lot size for a given parcel of land. Looking at the Texarkana real estate market as a single market is not much different than other markets in the area. I shop for groceries on one side of the state line because my favorite grocery store happens to be mid-way between work (in Texas) and home (in Arkansas). I bank at a bank with branches on both sides of town and usually stop at the one closest to me depending on where I am at the time I need some cash. Many residents of our area treat State Line Avenue as a street, not a dividing line, when it comes to shopping and numerous other commercial activities. TMAP will deliver the first real estate market analysis in mid November. The report, titled "Texarkana Real Estate Market Analysis" or TREMA will be both an overview of the total market, and an analysis of smaller zones within the Texarkana area. It is scheduled to be produced on a quarterly basis, and provide those interested in Texarkana area real estate with a tool that will make decision making easier.
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Real Estate in Texarkana - Times Two
Real Estate in Texarkana – Times Two This article originally appeared in the Texarkana Gazette on November 9, 2008 David Reavis, CCP, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of MIS, Texas A&M University-Texarkana College of Business The latest project for the Texarkana Market Analysis Project (TMAP) is to develop a real estate market analysis report for the Texarkana area. The original pattern for developing the report was based on real estate analysis done in larger metropolitan areas such as the Dallas, Ft. Worth metroplex. The idea was to develop a similar report, providing real estate professionals, financial institutions, and developers with information specific to the Texarkana real estate market. From the beginning of the project, I knew one of the challenges would be in getting certain information from two city governments, two state governments, and two county governments. What I learned along the way was that two was the wrong number. A little investigation revealed that there are more than two of almost every entity with something to say about the Texarkana real estate market. For example, in Bowie and Miller counties there are 46 different tax districts. These include various cities (besides Texarkana), numerous school districts, emergency response tax districts, and even a volunteer tax district. In addition to the often overlapping and complex variety of potential taxing authorities, Texas and Arkansas calculate property tax rates differently. This makes a comparison of the property taxes on one side of the state line with those on the other side like comparing apples and oranges. Fortunately TMAP is only dealing with real estate on this project, and not the overall economic impact of differences in sales taxes, utility taxes, and income taxes. In working the Texarkana Board of Realtors, I learned that our local realtors divide the real estate market into 26 areas. This allows them to focus buyers and sellers requests for information on specific neighborhoods and sub-markets within the greater Texarkana area. These areas include places like Nash, Wake Village, Fouke, and Genoa which are not in either "City of Texarkana" but still must be considered part of the Texarkana area real estate market. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has grouped Bowie and Miller counties into a single metropolitan statistical area (MSA). An MSA is a geographic entity used by Federal statistical agencies in collecting, tabulating, and publishing Federal statistics. Many real estate statistics collected by the Federal agencies are reported on the MSA level, but the time lag between data collection and data reporting (often one or two years) makes the data less useful in evaluating our markets to make business or personal purchase and investment decisions. With the backdrop of this mix of data sources, diverse reporting methods, and no single taxing authority, how can TMAP develop a cohesive real estate market report that meets the information needs of its intended audience? Here is where the number two comes back into play. There are two methods that have helped move the real estate analysis from a nice idea to a reality for Texarkana. The first is the lesson learned from the Board of Realtors. While we want to give our audience a good picture of the overall market, it makes sense to break down the real estate into smaller chunks or zones, and then describe each zone in as much detail as possible. This helps reduce the complexity of multiple tax districts because in a small area there is only one or two school districts, one city government, and one state government. In TMAP's real estate analysis we have identified 14 specific zones where there is enough aggregation to meet minimum data collection requirements, but not so much grouping that we lose the uniqueness of individual neighborhoods. The second lesson learned was that we should ignore the state line when possible. This means that when we find data that is similar regardless of its state (Texas or Arkansas) we can combine it to look at the Texarkana area as one real estate market. Some of the data points where this type of analysis is possible are housing facts such as price per square foot, number of properties sold in a given period, and acreage or lot size for a given parcel of land. Looking at the Texarkana real estate market as a single market is not much different than other markets in the area. I shop for groceries on one side of the state line because my favorite grocery store happens to be mid-way between work (in Texas) and home (in Arkansas). I bank at a bank with branches on both sides of town and usually stop at the one closest to me depending on where I am at the time I need some cash. Many residents of our area treat State Line Avenue as a street, not a dividing line, when it comes to shopping and numerous other commercial activities. TMAP will deliver the first real estate market analysis in mid November. The report, titled "Texarkana Real Estate Market Analysis" or TREMA will be both an overview of the total market, and an analysis of smaller zones within the Texarkana area. It is scheduled to be produced on a quarterly basis, and provide those interested in Texarkana area real estate with a tool that will make decision making easier.
TOP