Royal real estate

Chip and Joanna Gaines' Fixer Upper castle in Waco goes up for auction

Bidding begins July 20.

Photo courtesy of Magnolia

Hear ye, hear ye: The most famous castle in all of Texas is seeking new owners. By royal decree (aka Facebook post), renovation king and queen Chip and Joanna Gaines have revealed that they're auctioning off the historic Waco castle that they spent years rehabbing and made the focus of a special Fixer Upper series on Magnolia Network.

The Gaineses' Magnolia Realty posted on June 24 that the Cottonland Castle will be offered through Concierge Auctions. Bidding will begin at 3 pm July 20, and there's no reserve. A $100,000 bidder deposit is required.

"In 2019 — after 20 years of dreaming about the chance to renovate this castle — Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines finally did. They aired the whole process on Magnolia Network last summer, then opened it up for guests to tour. Now, they’re ready for someone new to write the next chapter in this historic home’s story," the Facebook post says.

The three-story, 6,700-square-foot residence at 3300 Austin Ave. has four bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms, seven fireplaces, and sits on 1.5 acres in the heart of Waco. Construction was started in 1890, finished in 1913, and modeled after a Rhine River castle in Germany.

The Gaineses purchased structure in disrepair in 2019. According to the Waco Tribune-Herald, the price they paid was not disclosed, "but the property was listed at $425,000 and had a tax appraisal of $350,700 at the time."

The couple and their Magnolia team designed and executed a regal flip that added a conservatory, library, butler's pantry, card room, and more. It was opened to the public for tours in summer 2022 before being featured on a multiple-episode special called Fixer Upper: Welcome Home – The Castle, in October 2022. Rooms of the castle also have been featured in The Magnolia Journal.

In the ultimate modern touch — a branding opportunity — a 17-page “Castle Sourcebook” listed design elements and products and where to buy them. A “Colors of the Castle” paint collection also was created and released through Magnolia.

According to the Waco Tribune-Herald, the property was appraised this year at $1.7 million, including land - nearly $700,000 more than its $1.03 million appraisal in 2022. The castle is also being offered for sale at $2.9 million by Magnolia Realty, and a representative for Concierge Auctions told the Waco newspaper that "there remains the chance a pre-auction offer would be tendered."

The Gaineses reportedly had planned to sell the castle immediately after the series aired in the fall. But after a three-year renovation, they got a little attached, they said.

"This is a project that I was pursuing for 20 years. The reality is we need to sell it and we should sell it," Chip Gaines told Entertainment Tonight in October 2022. “But I wonder if it’s not one of those things 10 years from now you don’t look back and wonder, ‘Gosh, should we have kept it? What if somebody in the family wanted it?'"

CultureMap was one of the first to step inside the castle for a tour. Check out some of the spectacular surprises in this story.

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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)

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