USA – TEXAS Law and Practice Contributed by: Taylor Cooksey, Philip Kinkaid, Serena Kramer and David Brooks, Cokinos | Young
Cokinos | Young 1221 Lamar Street 16th Floor Houston Texas 77010 USA
Tel: +1 (713) 535-5500 Fax: +1 (210) 298-5007 Email: tcooksey@cokinoslaw.com Web: www.cokinoslaw.com
1. General 1.1 Main Sources of Law
• the Texas Water Code, which primarily gov - erns environmental regulation, local water and utility districts, and water rights. These statutory codes are supplemented by: • other specific Texas statutes; • common law (ie, court-made case law); • regulations adopted by state agencies; and • local ordinances such as building and zoning codes. Federal statutes and regulations also govern a number of areas of real estate ownership and operation, including environmental matters, fair housing and consumer protection. 1.2 Main Market Trends and Deals Residential Texas’ residential real estate market stabilised in 2024, with the number of home sales increas - ing by 1.6% over 2023, while home prices and mortgage rates remained largely steady. This was driven by a surge in sales outside of Texas’ four largest metro areas (Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio), with total home sales outside of those markets surging by 33.5% in December 2024.
The primary source of real estate law in Texas is the Texas Property Code, a statutory code that governs a wide range of issues related to prop - erty ownership, rights and transactions. Such issues include conveyances, residential and commercial leases, easements, adverse posses - sion, property owners and condominium owners associations, restrictive covenants, liens, evic - tions and foreclosures, and trusts. Other important statutory codes include: • the Texas Local Government Code, which contains laws pertaining to both city and county platting, zoning and other land-use regulations; • the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, which establishes the civil procedures and guidelines governing the enforcement of many property rights; • the Texas Natural Resources Code, which governs the Texas survey system, the regula - tion of oil, gas and other minerals, and state- owned lands; and
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