ARCHITECTURE

PVAMU’s

Community Development Program Marks 20th Year of Building Leaders, Communities

By Subcontractors USA News Provider

Many students who walk the halls on the campus of Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) say their alma mater is in the business of “building up students.” They look back on their time at the university and remember how they felt seen by their educators and peers. They recall their time in classrooms with professors who showed them a new way of seeing the world. Mentors and peers build up their confidence and resolve to make the world a better place, laying the foundation of a sense of community and pride in who they are, where they came from, and most importantly, where they are going.

It is fitting, then, that a university in the business of building up students has the same vision for their community. And, this couldn’t be more true of PVAMU’s Master of Community Development Program, part of the university’s School of Architecture.

The program is specifically designed to build better communities, connections, and perspectives into city programming and initiatives and develop a foundation of collaborative and transformative work and relationships between leaders and residents. Building things is at the heart of the Community Development Program.

With a recent milestone marked – the program’s 20th anniversary – several students and faculty shared how the program has aided them in their careers and equipped them with the resources and tools to make their cities and neighborhoods better.

These accomplishments are thanks in part to the university’s hard work in pursuing connection and change through the development of the Prairie View community and region. Enhancing Society Enhancing Society

The Master of Community Development Program is a unique program that attracts students from diverse academic backgrounds. But they each have a shared mission and vision: they see a need, problem, or potential and care about how their community can be improved socially, physically, and economically. Many of the graduates of the program, which is one of the oldest in the country, have gone on to be involved with the design and development of new and growing communities. They are collaborating with other city leaders or solving problems alongside others, all with the anticipation of avoiding future issues faced by communities today.

This is especially true for Christa Stoneham ’08 ’10 ’12, who graduated from the Community Development Program in 2012 after receiving a bachelor’s and master’s degree in architecture from PVAMU. She now works for the City of Houston in Mayor Sylvester Turner’s office, spearheading an initiative called Complete Communities that focuses on revitalization and empowerment for ten specific communities in Houston. The program, which launched four years ago during Mayor Turner’s first term, has doubled in size since Stoneham has worked with it.

Stoneham’s role began with engagement with community residents to capture the top priorities and projects the community desired. In the years since, her role has morphed into aligning opportunities with different corporate partners, nonprofits, and public agencies to facilitate the implementation of action plans. Through this work, she aids in creating community development plans and policies tailored around focus areas like parks or health and safety to improve the overall quality of life.

“Every day, I need skills like project management tracking, the ability to document the progress of the action plan through fundraising, building community and partner relations, or donor relationship management,” Stoneham explained. “My degree from PVAMU was almost like a blueprint for this job. It couldn’t have been better preparation for me for exactly what I’m doing right now.” Although Stoneham originally began in architecture, the program helped expand her skill set and knowledge of design beyond visual and physical elements – it’s also about people, she says. She even started as an intern with the City of Prairie View, which gave her valuable experience to build on in future similar roles.

“I am thankful to professors like Dr. [Akel] Kahera, the second director of the [Community Development] Program, for helping me navigate what was next in my career and asking questions to make me think,” Stoneham said. “How do you design a community by understanding historic preservation or the foundations of development from cultural, geographic, and socioeconomic perspectives? I felt ready to do the work I am doing because of this program.”

A Close-knit Feel A Close-knit Feel

Other alumni of the program echoed Stoneham’s sentiments – and in some cases, it’s a family affair. Courtney Johnson Rose ’06, who recently served as the keynote speaker for the 2021 Founders’ Day and Honors Recognition Convocation at PVAMU, completed the master’s program at PVAMU after earning a bachelor’s degree in business economics from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon learning about the program, her mother, Thomasine Johnson ‘06, was so energized by what it could add to her experience that she completed the program alongside her daughter. “[My mother] was so determined that I attend and complete the program that she completed the program with me,” Johnson Rose remembers. “We graduated as mother and daughter with our degrees. She currently serves as a director for our firm, George E. Johnson Development, Inc. The firm is a full-service real estate development firm that specializes in community development. I currently serve as Chief Executive Officer. My experience at PVAMU has opened doors for us to serve clients such as Houston Independent School District, the City of Missouri City, St. John’s UMC Church, and the City of Houston. The PVAMU Community Development program has been instrumental in my career and a key part of my journey of becoming a developer.”

Leading the Future Leading the Future

Johnson Rose noted that one of the program’s greatest strengths is developing “conscious leaders.” When students finish the program – no matter what they end up doing or where they serve – they are equipped to be resourceful, creative, thoughtful leaders who have a deep understanding of community development processes that leads to real change and progress.

“These alumni have contributed in many ways to the progress of our region. Several graduates work in planning and development for the City of Houston, for example, and use their skills and talents developed in the program to push our region forward,” Johnson Rose said. “The work starts at PVAMU – even the current mayor of Prairie View is a graduate of the program and will be able to lean on his background in building communities to lead Prairie View.”

To learn more about PVAMU’s Community Development Program, visit www. pvamu.edu/soa.

Source: Prairie View A&M University School of Architecture

CONSTRUCTION Will the Housing Boom Go Bust?

By Lawrence Dean Regional Director, Zonda Intelligence

Back in 2005 and 2006, I was a land acquisition manager for the Houston division of one of the finest privately held home builders that is unfortunately no longer with us. That was before my career pivot to, as my eight-year-old son says, “counting all of the houses and then going around and telling everyone how many houses I counted.” Pretty accurate…out of the mouths of babes as they say.

In those heady 2005 to 2007 days, we were building and selling a ton of homes. Metrostudy (since rebranded to Zonda) observed right at 50,000 annual new home starts in the twelve-month period ending in each of 1Q, 2Q, and 3Q 2006. Builders were enjoying strong margins on all of these home sales, even in a market where the median home price was still around $150,000.

In spite of how good things were, homebuilding leaders were still quite nervous about current operating conditions. More and more homes sold were being purchased with exotic zero money down, low doc or no doc mortgages. Many of the buyers had little to no home equity, and little cash reserves in case of a rainy day. The situation did not seem sustainable. Hindsight is always 2020, and of course we now know that it was not a sustainable situation at all. Less than two years later we saw the Great Recession and related financial crisis grip not just our industry but the nation as a whole.

This history provides a backdrop for the question that we at Zonda are probably asked the most: how does the current high volume, cycle peak market, differ from that of 2006 and 2007? How is it different this time? Or is it even different this time at all?

Short answer: this time is very different. There are two key overall reasons why this is the case.

1. New home and lot supply is significantly more constrained now versus then. 2. New home demand is demographics driven and not aided by artificial subprime mortgage driven growth.

Finished Vacant Home Inventory: When Zonda performs its field survey (the going out and counting houses part) each quarter, we refer to any new home that appears to be complete but is not yet occupied as Finished Vacant. This number ties very closely to the amount of completed spec inventory a builder has. At the end of 2020, Zonda counted 49% fewer Finished Vacant homes than Metrostudy did at the end of 2006. Reduced inventory.

Total New Home Inventory: Metrostudy and now Zonda consider the following three types of new homes to be homes in inventory: 1. All active model homes 2. All homes under construction regardless of started as specs or dirt sales 3. All Finished Vacant homes as discussed above

The total new home inventory made up of those three types of homes at the end of 2020 is down 27% from what it was at the end of 2006. Again, reduced inventory for the market to contend with.

Lot Inventory: Now if you ask most builders, this is not a good thing. The inventory of vacant developed lots

(VDL), which in Zonda-speak are completely developed lots on which a builder has not yet started a home, is the lowest it has been in the entire time Metrostudy and now Zonda has served the market.

VDL inventory in Houston is seen as being at equilibrium if there are 20 to 24 months of lot inventory on hand. The end of 2020 saw a scant 14.1 months of supply. By the end of Q1 2021, this inventory level further slid to a record low 12.8 months of supply. That tight 14.1 months of supply (and 43,095 vacant lots) from 2020 year’s end represents a 33% decline from the number of VDL observed at the end of 2006.

Population and Job Growth: In 2006, the Houston MSA had a population of 5.4 million residents. In that same year the market saw right at 50,000 annual new home starts. By 2020, the same Greater Houston region had grown to nearly 7.1 million residents. However, our industry spread “just” 36,750 annual new home starts over a region whose population was now 30% greater than it was back in 2006.

While 2020’s home starts volume represents a peak thus far this cycle, the number of home starts per capita is much lower in 2020 than it was back in 2006. This contributes to the more sustainable overall market conditions of 2020 versus the 2006 peak. The Houston region has also seen greater job growth in the decade leading up to 2020 versus the 10 years leading to 2006, further bolstering demand. Mortgage Underwriting and Interest Rates: It goes without saying that the record low interest rates that the market has enjoyed for the last 12 months have aided new home demand. The median 30-year fixed rate at the end of 2020 (which has since increased slightly) was 56% lower than the same median rate at the end of 2006. And mortgage underwriting in the current environment can be characterized as normal or typical. That was certainly not the case in the subprime mortgage era of 2006. Wrapping all of these thoughts up, the current high volume new home market is built on much more solid fundamentals than the market was the last time this many new homes were being sold and built in the Houston market. Builders have plenty to worry about in the current environment: raising lumber prices, shrinking affordability, evolving land development regulations in various cities and counties, appraisal issues, material availability, increased cycle times, and so, so much more. However, one thing we as an industry likely need not worry about is this current boom cycle exploding into a housing bust as we saw back in 2008 and 2009. We simply don’t have enough homes under construction or lots to build them on to get ourselves in trouble. And the majority of new homebuyers currently have sufficient credit, equity, and other resources to avoid a foreclosure or distress sale should their situation change for the worse.

Source: Greater Houston Builders Association