Jon Anderson

An award-winning columnist, Jon has earned silver and bronze awards for his columns from the National Association of Real Estate Editors in both 2016, 2017 and 2018. When he isn't in Hawaii, Jon enjoys life in the sky in Dallas.

Cast Your Vote: AIA Dallas’ Unbuilt and Student Awards

By Jon Anderson / May 14, 2018 /

On May 17, the Dallas chapter of the American Institute of Architects will be holding their annual awards for projects that haven’t been built and/or have been designed by students.  It’s a great way to see projects that for one reason or another (like working on a school project) haven’t been built. What’s also fun…

Dallas Ushers In Its First Comprehensive Housing Policy

By Jon Anderson / May 10, 2018 /

Yesterday morning, the Dallas City Council unanimously approved its first housing policy aimed at addressing affordable housing.  It took a while, but we’ve finally put on our big boy pants.  You may recall back in January the city rolled out a Market Value Analysis that measured housing across Dallas to map the varying levels of…

Commercial Real Estate Exposed: DCAD’s Other Black Hole of Assessed Value Accuracy

By Jon Anderson / May 9, 2018 /

Whenever property taxes are spoken about, residential usually gets the most ink. The reason is simple. The commercial market offers a fraction of the data available to a residential assessor. In the residential world, similar homes are typically clustered together, placing them in the same valuation realm. There aren’t a lot of crackerboxes on Strait…

Slice of Fitzhugh Avenue Illustrates DCAD’s Inconsistent Property Tax Assessments

By Jon Anderson / May 8, 2018 /

It’s that time of year when most of us needed a bottle of Jack and a bullet to bite on just to open our property tax bills. Personally, my taxes are up nearly 52 percent in the past five years with this year alone squeaking in a nearly 13 percent rise. I’ve been increase-capped four…

On SecondShelters.com: How Natural Disasters Affect Second Homeownership

By Jon Anderson / May 7, 2018 /

The world is captivated by the images coming out of the big island of Hawai’i this week as Kilauea erupted into the Leilani Estates subdivision. Thus far there are 10 fissures opened along the Eastern Rift Zone that runs along a historic volcanic path, marked by ancient volcanic ridges to the south. Next week, I’ll…