Dustin B Sexson - Living in Houston, Texas

07/15/2026

🏛️ Harris County is facing a $129M budget gap, and it ties straight to your property taxes.

The numbers that matter:
🔹 $129M gap (or ~$287M if the lower tax rate is chosen)
🔹 66 departments pleading to keep staff this week
🔹 5th straight year of a projected deficit
Since 2023, the county's tax rate climbed from about 35¢ to ~38¢ per $100 of value. For homeowners and buyers, that shows up in monthly payments and what people can afford.

🏠I'm keeping this to the facts, no side taken.

How much does your tax bill weigh on your buy-or-stay decision? 👇

🏡 Dustin Sexson, REALTOR®️ Houston, Texas

Source: Houston Chronicle

06/25/2026

The reason Houston can't enforce a curfew? One law. 📜

House Bill 1819 (2023):
🤝 Passed with support from BOTH parties
📊 Backed by a review of ~7,000 curfew policies
⚖️ Findings: curfews didn't reduce crime

It killed local curfew power across all of Texas, not just Houston.

So the debate you're seeing now? It runs straight into a state law that's still in effect.

Right call or wrong call? 👇

🏡 Dustin Sexson, REALTOR®️ Houston, Texas

Source: KERA News; Texas Appleseed

06/24/2026

❤️ A Houston nonprofit is making sure cancer patients don't have to choose between treatment and a place to sleep.

Halo House just announced a $10.5M expansion
43 new homes for blood-cancer patients getting care at the Texas Medical Center
Rooms cost just $25–$35 a day
Since 2019: 100,000+ nights booked, ~1,400 families served, $10M+ saved

It could become the largest facility of its kind in the U.S.

The need is real. On most days, 150+ patients are still on the waitlist. Construction begins this November.

👉 Did you know a place like this existed in Houston? Share it. Someone may need it.

🏡 Dustin Sexson, REALTOR®️ Houston, Texas

Source: Houston Business Journal

06/24/2026

☕ Houston keeps turning old warehouses into the coolest hangouts.

"Greenside" in Memorial City: a 35,000 sq ft warehouse reborn as a walkable shop-and-food village
Built around 1 acre of green space + patios, just north of I-10 at Gessner
Shell construction is DONE, opening later this year
Tenants include Merit Coffee, Tifa Chocolate & Gelato, and Original ChopShop
ChopnBlok (a NYT "50 Best in America" + Michelin pick) appears to be eyeing a spot too

It's part of a bigger trend: instead of demolishing old buildings, developers are reinventing them as places people want to gather.

👉 What shop or restaurant do you wish your neighborhood had? Tell me below.

🏡 Dustin Sexson, REALTOR®️ Houston, Texas

Source: Houston Business Journal

06/24/2026

🏠 Foreclosures are spiking nationally… but DROPPING in the Houston area.

Nationally, foreclosures rose 18% in April (year over year)
In Harris County, they FELL 36%
Just 586 foreclosures here in April, down from 728 a year ago and 908 the month before

Why? Home values up ~53% since 2019, low locked-in rates, and careful lending

The honest flip side: this mostly helps people who already own. Renters are feeling squeezed, and experts are warning about a split, "K-shaped" economy.

👉 Are you feeling more steady lately, or more stretched? Tell me below.

🏡 Dustin Sexson, REALTOR®️ Houston, Texas

Source: Houston Business Journal / Attom

06/24/2026

🏠 Houston was the big city where families could still afford to own. That's starting to change.

A new Rice University report lays it out:
Harris County homeownership dropped its most in a decade in 2024 📉
Apartments outpaced new homes built last year 🏢
More than 50% of local renters are now cost-burdened
Add high eviction filings and a double-digit jump in home insurance, and the math gets brutal fast. 💸

We picture Houston as a place that's always building. It still is. It's just building rentals for renters, not homes for owners.

Renting now but want to buy? Is that plan still alive? 👇

🏡 Dustin Sexson, REALTOR®️ Houston, Texas

Source: Rice University State of Housing report, via Houston Business Journal / KHOU 11

06/24/2026

🏡 To afford a typical home today, you need to earn about $117,000 a year. Most households make nearly $30,000 less.

That's the gap Congress just tried to close.

The 21st Century Road to Housing Act passed with rare bipartisan force (358-32 in the House, 85-5 in the Senate) and it's the largest housing bill in decades. What it actually does:

Cuts red tape so homes get built faster ⚡
Makes factory-built homes thousands cheaper 🔨
Blocks big investors who already own 350+ homes from buying more 🚫

The catch? The U.S. is short over 4 million homes, and experts say relief shows up over years, not overnight. But the direction has changed.

Buying now or waiting it out? 👇

🏡 Dustin Sexson, REALTOR®️ Houston, Texas

Source: NPR, USA TODAY & TIME

06/17/2026

06/16/2026

If you've ever lost power in a Texas storm, read this. ⚡

The state's new $200M grid investment:
🏠 Covers 538,000+ Entergy customers across 8 SE Texas counties
🔌 Strengthens 400+ miles of power lines
🛠️ Upgrades 9,000+ poles and structures
🌊 Hardens 5 substations against flooding

Why it matters for real estate: buyers ask about grid reliability now. And the utility says this won't raise your bill.

Would this affect where you'd buy? 👇

🏡 Dustin Sexson, REALTOR®️ Houston, Texas

Source: Office of the Texas Governor

06/16/2026

500–600 people. Downtown. Saturday night. 🚨

Here's the part most Houstonians don't know:

🏙️ Houston has a juvenile curfew on the books
🚫 The city legally can't enforce it
📜 A 2023 state law took that power away

So when people ask "why not just set a curfew?" the answer is… we already have one. It's just frozen.

The bigger question is what comes next for spaces like Discovery Green.

Did YOU know Houston had a curfew? 👇

🏡 Dustin Sexson, REALTOR®️ Houston, Texas

Source: KPRC Click2Houston