Real Estate Rumblings

Oil giant's old grounds to be turned into a $1 billion development: From chemical campus to luxury digs?

The 35-acre Exxon Mobil Chemical campus on the Katy Freeway in west Houston has been purchased by a developer planning to build $1 billion mixed-use project with office buildings, shops, a hotel and residential units.

Houston-based PM Realty Group will be developing the site in conjunction with Atlas USA Holdings of Greenwich, Conn. The site is on the south side of the Katy Freeway and west of North Eldridge Parkway.

“Our vision is to create a strong sense of place within a premier business community. Here, all of the corporate user’s needs will be met in one location, unlike the single purpose office park that forces users into automobiles to obtain amenities and services,” says Dan Leverett of PM Realty Group.

Exxon Mobil Chemical will continue to use its offices there until 2015 when it relocates.

Plans for the project are not finalized, but the new development is expected to be an urban-styled project.

“Together, we intend to transform this highly desirable land into a distinctively special development, unparalleled in the Corridor, in which to live, work, play, and learn,” says Rick Kirk, PM Realty Group chairman and chief executive officer.

The site has frontage on Memorial Drive and Interstate 10 and it borders Terry Hershey Park.

Exxon Mobil Chemical will continue to use its offices there until 2015 when it relocates to the new Exxon Mobil campus, just south of The Woodlands.

Exxon Mobil is vacating a number of its office facilities around Houston, including its downtown skyscraper, to make the move to its new 400-acre campus on the north side of Houston The new Exxon Mobil campus, which will have three million square feet of office space in 20 new buildings, is reportedly the largest privately-owned construction project currently underway in the nation.

The Exxon Chemical site on the Katy Freeway is in the heart of Houston’s Energy Corridor, where scores of energy companies have their offices. A number of office buildings are under construction in the Energy Corridor and the vacancy rates in Energy Corridor office building have reached a record low of three percent, according to the CBRE Group.

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housing news

Houston ranks among top 10 U.S. cities for mobile home living

Photo by Brian Wangenheim on Unsplash

Manufactured homes have come a long way from the "trailers" of the past, according to StorageCafe.

As Houston residents navigate the city's fluctuating real estate market, manufactured homes – also known as mobile homes – are gaining traction among potential buyers seeking an affordable path to homeownership.

A recent housing study found Houston ranks among the top 10 U.S. cities with the largest mobile home inventory. Texas, as a whole, has the second-highest share of manufactured housing in the nation.

StorageCafe's housing insights report analyzed the supply of manufactured housing inventory, average sales prices of new manufactured homes, and compared pricing trends against the median value of all housing units (regardless of construction date) across all 50 states and 100 U.S. cities.

The report's author hails manufactured housing as "a cornerstone of affordability" in the country, with just under 8 million mobile homes representing about 5.4 percent of the U.S. housing supply.

There are 776,232 manufactured homes in Texas, the report found, which is 6.2 percent of the state's entire housing stock. Houston is home to the 8th highest number of mobile homes in the nation, at 10,953 units.

Here's how the rest of the top 10 shakes out:

No. 1 – Mesa, Arizona (29,335 units)
No. 2 – Phoenix, Arizona (20,564 units)
No. 3 – Jacksonville, Florida (15,393 units)
No. 4 – Largo, Florida (14,131 units)
No. 5 – Tuscon, Arizona (14,128 units)
No. 6 – San Jose, California (11,668 units)
No. 7 – San Antonio, Texas (11,208 units)
No. 8 – Houston, Texas (10,953 units)
No. 9 – Los Angeles, California (10,622 units)
No. 10 – Sunrise Manor, Nevada (9,952 units)

Why manufactured home living is gaining popularity
Affordability is of the main reasons Texas residents are turning to manufactured home living. The average sale price for a mobile home in Texas was $112,500 in 2024, or less than half of the median sale price for all Texas homes ($313,200).

The report specifies that the cost for a manufactured home does not include the cost of land in the same way that a conventional home does. Depending on zoning and local laws, residents who own a mobile home either lease the lot their home sits on, or they have to purchase a lot outright.

"Most manufactured homes sit either in parks (land rent, higher exposure to rent hikes or park closures) or subdivisions (you own the land)," the report said. "In some communities, resident-owned cooperatives (co-ops) allow homeowners to collectively purchase the land beneath their homes. This setup provides stability and protection against rising lot rents, which can otherwise affect those living in privately owned parks."

Nevertheless, StorageCafe maintains that the generally lower cost of a manufactured home still makes it a viable path to homeownership. Affordability is especially crucial for younger adults like Gen Zers and Millennials who also don't want to "compromise on quality or independence."

"Today’s younger buyers value flexibility, efficiency, and minimal maintenance, and many are drawn to simpler lifestyles that align with financial freedom and mobility," the report said. "With the rise of remote work, more Millennials and Gen Zers are exploring the idea of living affordably in smaller, well-designed spaces, often in communities with shared amenities or scenic settings that were once thought to appeal only to retirees."

Manufactured homes have also experienced a "glow up" in recent years, the report added. Most manufactured homes have open floor plans, "stylish interiors," and come equipped with modern amenities like smart-home technology and energy efficient features.

"As a result, they’re no longer viewed as a fallback option, but rather as a savvy, forward-thinking path to homeownership for cost-conscious Americans of all ages," the report said.

Mobile home living elsewhere in Texas
Other than San Antonio in Houston in the top 10, there were 12 more Texas cities that ranked among the top 100. El Paso came in at No. 16 with 7,089 mobile homes in the city, and Laredo ranked two spots behind with 6,785 units.

Here's how other Texas cities fared in the report:

No. 20 – Dallas (6,195 units)
No. 21 – Austin (6,184 units)
No. 22 – Fort Worth (6,069 units)
No. 29 – Corpus Christi (4,823 units)
No. 34 – Pharr (4,409 units)
No. 48 – Arlington (3,818 units)
No. 60 – Mission (3,207 units)
No. 65 – Bryan (3,063 units)
No. 67 – Edinburg (3,407 units)
No. 98 – Denton (2,441 units)

housing market housing report storagecafe texas manufactured housing houston