Hurricane Ike is driving strong real estate sales and rentals on Galveston

Affluent homeowners and insurance companies are in competition to secure the dwindled housing inventory in Galveston due to the property devastation of Huricane Ike.

Professionals working on the island such as doctors, lawyers and business owners are filling up new developments as quickly as they become available. Many second home residents have been placing their properties for lease and they are being scooped up by those who prefer living on the island rather than renting on the mainland.

Gulf Coast Concierge, a local real estate management firm by owned by Toni Vacker, is reporting strong leasing sales and is actively seeking available properties to respond to the daily requests her office is receiving. “I recently opened an office on the 6th floor of Emerald by the Sea and our phone is ringing constantly.” Said Vacker. “Corporate rentals, as well as local residents, are taking advantage of properties such as Emerald. We leased out a penthouse the week after the Hurricane and sales have been strong ever since.”

Emerald by the Sea developer, Sunhill International, is offering a 3 year buy-back option to those who want to invest now and redirect their investment later. According to Namir Faidi, Sunhill CEO, “There are a number of individuals who are having to rebuild their island homes. The buy-back option offers a solid real estate investment that they can capitalize on in the future. Emerald has proven to be a safe, solid structure; sustaining absolutely no hurricane damage.

The new high-rise developments suffered little damage from Ike.

Randall Davis, a Houston-based developer who is building the Diamond Beach resort near the end of the Seawall, said even a storm as destructive as Ike did not dim his enthusiasm for an island the New York Times recently referred to as "an emerging Lone Star equivalent of the Hamptons."

"This storm does not change my vision," Davis said. "To me ... if you are going to live on Galveston it should be behind the Seawall in a condominium built to hurricane standards that you can lock and leave. This drives the point I've been trying to sell."

Orrin Pilkey, a Duke University geologist and one of the world's foremost researchers of barrier islands, said of the whole notion of such building: "I'm so impressed how future-looking the people were in 1900 by raising the city 17 feet. ... That made so much sense."

"The city of Galveston is not in ruins," Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said. "We will rebuild stronger, smarter than ever before."

No Mayor Galveston is not in Ruins but Bolivar is and you seem to keep forgetting about that. We are without homes,water,eletricity,food,ice,and such.We are without Red Cross meals,without Federal MRE's and ice.We have no tents nor showers.There are no motel hotel rooms in Winnie or High Island so some of us sleep in our cars.But I forget you just want our tax dollars not our complaints since we don't contribute to your vision of tourist revenue.

I agree...Bolivar Peninsula, where many, many of the Texas Coast vacationers reside as they visit and support Galveston, has been demolished and there seems to be so little concern or mention of the area by the ones who SHOULD care. What's going on, people? Those people don't want a hand out...they want a hand up!