Looped In

About six months after Hurricane Harvey ripped through southeast Texas, Chronicle editor Dianna Hunt, who helped guide the paper’s coverage of the storm, took some family members visiting from Massachusetts on a driving …

A few years ago Houston preservationist James Glassman began posting each day on his Twitter feed about important events that happened on any given day in Houston history. Those tweets inspired a new book, "The …

For Looped In's second-annual Loopie Awards, Nancy asked listeners to vote for their favorite real estate deals and developments of the past year. She gets help revealing the winners from none other than Looped In …

Nancy and Allyn bring back former guest (and Chronicle tech writer) Dwight Silverman to talk about his adventures in the Houston housing market. Silverman, a baby boomer who for years owned a townhouse in Montrose, …

As promised, Looped In hit the road to visit a house listed for sale by an iBuyer, a company that uses data and technology to make fast offers on …

ibuyers, these new data-driven real estate companies that buy properties directly from homeowners, are battling for market share in Houston and …

In the second part of Looped In's discussion with Houston real estate veterans Joe Colaco, Marvy Finger, Ed Wulfe and Welcome Wilson Sr., we talk …

For Looped In's 100th episode, we sat down with some of the city's most prominent figures in real estate and development. Joe Colaco, Marvy Finger, …

Looped In has been on a mini break gearing up for a new year and new episodes, so enjoy this rerun from November 2016 on the history of Houston neighborhoods. (Incidentally, we recorded this episode right after real …

Nearly 1,800 households in East Texas are still living in trailers provided by FEMA more than a year after Hurricane Harvey. Now, many are at risk of …

More than a year after Hurricane Harvey, developers continue to build in parts of Houston that flood, and it's not expected to stop anytime soon. After all, one-third of the city is covered by flood plains. On the …

After years of catering to move-up buyers with big housing budgets, builders in Houston are introducing new models with lower price tags and smaller footprints. One company is marketing a 1,000-square-foot model with …

Nancy and Chronicle retail reporter Paul Takahashi deep dive into Mattress Firm’s strategy of “over-storing” and talk about where the company – now …

In her attempts to bring a communal-style pocket neighborhood to Acres Homes, Heidi Eagleton discovered another way she could build in the …

Whenever Houston finds itself in competition with another city, it’s usually about the food, the fashion or the attitudes of the people – and it’s usually Dallas that we’re defending ourselves against. Houston recently …

Perhaps unlike any other time in history, immigrant labor is playing a critical role in getting Houston back on track, a theme highlighted in a new …

Hurricane Harvey destroyed the lower portions of Buffalo Bayou Park, devastating the beloved dog park and causing the loss of some 400 trees. After …

Ryan Walsh, one of the county officials guiding the redevelopment of the Astrodome, and local preservationist James Glassman join Nancy and Harris County reporter Mihir Zaveri to discuss the plans, the funding and the …

Nancy and Allyn talk to Chronicle writer Molly Glentzer about her story on dismantling the 18th century ballroom at La Colombe d’Or, the boutique …

Houston native and L.A.-based filmmaker Jon Schwartz talks about his 1987 documentary This is our home, it is not for sale. The film explores integration, real estate blockbusting and white flight in Riverside, a …

In its failed bid for Amazon’s second headquarters, Houston offered up three urban sites with tremendous potential: a vacant downtown skyscraper, a sprawling property along Buffalo Bayou and an aging department store in …

Nancy gets a look behind the curtain on an industry that’s playing a key role in Houston’s post-Hurricane Harvey real estate market: investing in …

For the first episode of 2018, Nancy and Allyn asked their social media followers to cast their votes for some of 2017's most outstanding real estate …

Scott McClelland, the newly minted president of H-E-B, will open nine stores in and around Houston in 2018 and will begin building what could be …

Houston architect Brett Zamore earned high praise more than a decade ago for his modern reinvention of the shotgun house. His next move was designing and building kit houses in the urban core. Zamore joins Nancy and …

New storm data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, or NOAA, could lead to sweeping changes in the way real estate is developed in …

A world where a self-driving car is a common mode of transportation is not that far away. Such a scenario has implications for real estate development. Take office buildings, which in Houston are required to have 2 1/2 …

Two decades from now, downtown Houston could be a be a thriving neighborhood where the streets teem with life seven days a week. In this future …

A pair of developers from Montreal join Nancy and Allyn to talk urban housing trends from around the world and their newest Houston project: an upscale development in Midtown with 14 pint-sized condominiums.

Before the storm hit, Amber and Lenny Ambrose packed up their two young kids and small dog and drove to Amber's parent's house in Nederland, outside of Beaumont. The Ambrose's house in Candlelight Forest flooded during …

From episode 23, Nancy and Erin talk to Chronicle journalists Mike Morris (City Hall) and Mihir Zaveri (Harris County) about their reporting on floods and development after two major flooding events two years in a row. 

Residents of Canyon Gate say they were never told about the warning that said their neighborhood could be subject to severe flooding because it was …

Brandon Polson recounts his journey from helping his neighbors escape their flood-ravaged apartment complex to spending an evening with one of the …

As Harvey's flood waters continued to rise in Braes Heights, Scott Davis, his wife and their two young daughters fled to a neighbor's place – a brand new house built five feet above grade. As Davis sees it, the safest …

Before Hurricane Harvey's flood waters could even recede, the national media was reporting on Houston's lack of zoning and how it played a role in …

From his second-story apartment in west Houston, Milton Lawson thought he had avoided the worst of Harvey. But then officials began releasing water from the nearby Addicks reservoir. Lawson recalls his journey from …

Looped In returns with a multi-part series exploring the lives of several Houstonians who survived Hurricane Harvey but remain in a state of limbo as …

Research has shown that living near a Whole Foods, Trader Joe's or Starbucks can increase the value of your home. The same might be true of craft …

Retailers don’t just take up space in shopping malls and strip centers. Amazon, Home Depot, Walmart and others have been building giant warehouses to store everything from toothpaste to toilet paper to toys. Nancy talks …

Nancy hits the road to visit painter John Calaway in his new studio in Acres Homes, a historically African-American neighborhood that has long attracted artists for its open space and affordable land. Now, though, …

Nancy and her Chronicle colleagues Allyn West and Jody Schmal discuss the hour they spent with the new owners and consultants (including James Beard …

When real estate investor Mark Davis released some early renderings for a redevelopment project on lower Westheimer, they were criticized by some who didn’t like the plans for parking on the site. Davis tells Nancy and …

City planner Christopher Andrews joins Nancy and her co-host Allyn West to discuss how Houston’s parking ordinance and other building regulations …

Texas may be a long way from legalizing marijuana, but if that day ever comes Houston's real estate market could change dramatically. That's what …

When Houston Chronicle managing editor Vernon Loeb arrived in Houston some four years ago he rented an apartment in Montrose and began exploring the area on foot. An avid marathoner, Loeb learned his new neighborhood by …

New owners of the Heights-area farmers market say they want to expand the offerings with a seafood counter, a butcher and a baker. They plan to improve the space by adding bathrooms and fixing the jumbled parking …

In 1970s and 1980s Houston, skyscrapers were built as urban icons where form often overtook function. Nancy Sarnoff talks to the Chronicle's Allyn West about how the city’s newest office towers are transforming into …

Nancy and Erin (she’s back for one more episode!) host their first live show from the lobby of downtown’s historic Texaco building – now a luxury apartment tower called The Star. In front of about 25 of their most loyal …

A wave of new restaurants connected to local superchefs (such as James Beard Award-winning Hugo Ortega of Hugo’s and Chris Shepherd of Underbelly) are beginning to congregate in an unlikely place: the airport. From …

On Erin's last official episode of Looped In, she and Nancy share memories of their past year podcasting about the quirks, the curiosities and the characters that define Houston real estate.

Looped In will continue, but …

Eek! We’re recording our next episode in front of a live audience. Want be part of our first live show? Listen for details.

Houston has perhaps the most competitive grocery market in the country, and as H-E-B's real estate broker, it's Lance Gilliam's job to keep up with the major players and the latest trends. Gilliam, a partner with …

Nancy Sarnoff and Erin Mulvaney are joined by retail guru Ed Wulfe to discuss Uptown’s Zone d’Erotica, the adult novelty shop widely seen as a …

Nancy and Erin continue their conversation with the Houston Housing Authority’s Tory Gunsolley about how the city is grappling with its lack of …

Historically, Houston has always been a relatively cheap place to live. Now, not so much. There are more than 300,000 households here paying more …

For the past 30 years multifamily analyst Bruce McClenny has seen the apartment market boom and bust a few times. The wild overbuilding always …

Condomania: Nancy and Erin are joined by Jacob Sudhoff, a luxury real estate broker marketing some of the most expensive condos in town, to discuss why Houstonians never had much of an appetite for condo living and how …

Downtown boosters have floated myriad proposals over the years as they've worked to transform the city center into a vibrant place for people to live, work and most importantly, stay. The latest proposal is a plan to …

Many of the thousands of laborers building Houston's glass and steel skyscrapers, apartment complexes, houses and roads are immigrants living here illegally. What if they were forced to leave the country? Chronicle …

Houston architect and planning advocate Joe Webb joins Nancy and Erin to talk about “Plan Houston,” the city’s first-ever comprehensive planning effort meant to provide a strategic vision for housing, transportation, …

Before a 240-mile train connecting Houston to Dallas becomes a reality, the folks proposing it must convince an unknown number of property owners to …

Houston will get a flash of Hollywood glam this week when celebrities begin to descend on the Bayou City for Super Bowl LI. Local publicist Mark …

Thousands of Houstonians have listed their homes on various vacation rental platforms in hopes of cashing in during Super Bowl LI. But is it …

Dwight Silverman spent years raising kids in a comfortable subdivision in piney northwest Houston before deciding to buy a townhouse inside the Loop. …

It’s Swampie season. The real estate website Swamplot is collecting ballots for its annual “Swampie” awards, which showcase all that is …

Houston was hit with two major flooding events two years in a row. Roads and highways were under water. Subdivisions and people's homes were destroyed. Questions arose about why is this happening and what can be done to …

There could be weighty implications for Houston if president-elect Donald Trump picks Ben Carson for secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban …

Town centers in The Woodlands, Sugar Land and elsewhere are filled with storefront-lined streets, multifamily housing and even hotels and office …

Which Houston neighborhoods were designed to look like English cemeteries? Why does U.S. 59 outside the 610 Loop veer off at a 90 degree angle towards Sugar Land? Houston housing expert Scott Davis answers these …

Nancy and Erin hear from H-E-B's Scott McClelland, who is hoping Heights residents vote 'yes' Tuesday on the ballot measure that would allow …

On Nov. 8, residents in a corner of the Heights will vote on a measure that, if approved, would allow stores to sell beer and wine for the first time …

On the latest episode of Looped In, Parks Board president and CEO Beth White joins Nancy and Erin to chat about the transformation of Houston’s once tired bayous into connected greenways throughout the city. A Chicago …

Nancy and Erin continue their conversation with Houston land use professor Matthew Festa about the city’s lack of a formal zoning code. And in the “lighting round of questions,” find out what Festa’s favorite land use …

Houston has long been famous for its cowboys, pickup trucks and freeways. But there’s another key characteristic that’s shaped the city from early on: a lack of zoning. Erin and Nancy talk to land use professor Matthew …

A Houston developer is planning what it says will be a “transformative” mixed-use project that could shift the urban core to the east. It will be …

Some call it the Eighth Wonder of the World. Others refer to it as the albatross no one can figure out. Whatever it is, the Astrodome has a special …

Erin and Nancy give a shout out to the GBV  -- or Glenbrook Valley -- in the latest episode of Looped In. It has been called the neighborhood “where …

Nancy and Erin talk about a few different upcoming and recent stories they have worked on for the Chronicle. They explore some of the quirks of land use in the Texas Medical Center and revisit one of their favorite …

In this episode of Looped In, Erin and Nancy talk about the latest, greatest and most controversial music venue in town: The White Oak Music Hall. To help them out with analyzing the saga and Houston's …

In this episode of Looped In, Chronicle reporters Nancy Sarnoff and Erin Mulvaney speak with fifth-generation Houstonian James Glassman to explore …

An affordable housing project on Fountain View has been a lighting rod at City Hall and among residents of the neighborhood surrounding it. Erin’s been covering the story for months and has the background on this …

In this episode of Looped In, Nancy and Erin explain how Houston's apartment market got to this point and where it's heading. They talk about the development boom and teardown trend that left thousands of Houstonians …

Nancy and Erin continue their discussion of the 21-story tower planned nearly 10 years ago in a neighborhood near Rice University. In this episode, the reporters talk about their interview with Matthew Morgan and Kevin …

The Ashby high-rise and the high-profile protest it inspired has become a symbol, for better or worse, of Houston as the biggest American city …

If you don’t know who Gerald Hines is, you definitely know his buildings: the Galleria, Williams (nee Transco) Tower, Pennzoil Place and so many more. Erin and Nancy share stories about the legendary Houston developer, …

Houston Chronicle real estate reporters Erin Mulvaney and Nancy Sarnoff take their deskside chit chat to the podcasting world.

In “I’m gorgeous …