REAL-ESTATE

Housing, hail and hunters are real concerns

Richard Mize

A mixed bag this week.

House hunting

Western Oklahoma is hurting for houses thanks to recovery in the oil patch, growth at Southwest Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, and a generally strong business climate.

That's according to the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors, which includes the area in its stats keeping.

People are renting as they spend months waiting for a home partly because investors have bought so many houses and turned them into rentals, the Realtors said.

Weatherford, population about 12,000, has just 65 homes for sale; last spring there were twice as many. New homes are being built, but they're customs, not for the open market.

Sitting tight

More than six in 10 homeowners never plan to move. Ever.

The rest say they aren't going anywhere for five years — that's the median planned length of stay, anyway, according to Bankrate.com.

That's good news for the remodeling business, assuming that people are staying put because they want to, and not because they can't afford to move, which means they probably can't afford to remodel.

My suspicions aside, 35 percent of those surveyed said they do plan to upgrade or expand in the next five years.

The numbers might not add up for everybody planning home improvements: 29 percent of mortgage holders don't know, or wouldn't say, what their mortgage interest rate is; 37 percent of millennials; 35 percent of Gen X'ers.

Read the report here: www.bankrate.com/mortgages/financial-security-0418.

2,800 carports

The carport-type shelters that popped up at auto dealerships a few years ago? You probably realized they're mainly to protect against hail. A great idea.

You might not have realized that Bob Howard Auto Mall, with 2,800 covered spaces, has the largest auto dealership hail protection system in the world, according to Dallas-based Vehicle Protection Structures.

I stumbled across that nugget searching for info on hail damage claims, since Farmers Insurance says Oklahoma now ranks No. 6 among the states: 63 percent of all auto claims the past five years were for hail damage.

The top five: Montana, 77 percent; Colorado, 77 percent; Kansas, 69 percent; Texas, 67 percent; Missouri, 65 percent.

Let hunters in

Long gone are the days when you could hunt on just about any neighbors' land if you didn't leave their gates open, tear up the fences or shoot their cows.

OK, it wasn't that easy, except maybe for kin. But it sure did used to be easier to get access, which is the main reason I haven't been dove hunting — or as I call it, for the sake of accuracy, "dove scaring" — for 20 years.

Dear landowners, you can do something to help. Enter your property in the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation's Oklahoma Land Access Program — and get paid.

The program uses federal money to increase public hunting and fishing opportunities in exchange for incentive payments to private landowners. Choose the kind of access to allow: walk-in hunting, walk-in fishing, stream access and wildlife viewing.

Compensation is up to $15 per acre based on the options selected, location and term of lease. Farmers who leave standing crops or delay harvest may be eligible for additional payments from Oklahoma Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever.

Other benefits include increased patrol by state game wardens, immunity from some liability, signs and marking of boundaries, the right to deny access to anyone with cause, the option to temporarily deny access when it adversely affects farming or ranching activities, and the ability to cancel the contract at any time.

This is the second year for the program. This year's goals are to increase dove hunting opportunities near metro areas — yes! — add stream fishing areas in eastern Oklahoma, and increase leases in western and southwestern Oklahoma.

Start the enrollment process online at www.wildlifedepartment.com/OLAP or contact Jeff Tibbits, 405-535-7382, jeff.tibbits@odwc.ok.gov; or Kasie Joyner, 405-535-5681, kasie.joyner@odwc.ok.gov.