Articles for May, 2009
Extreme Home Green Makeover: Fair Park’s Congo Street Gets a Face-Lift
Really heart-warming story; twenty five young people from TREC’s (that’s the Texas Real Estate Council, an active group of commercial real estate dynamos) Associate Leadership Council de-constructed, by hand, a 90 year old delapidated house at 4523 Congo Street in Jubilee, an historic African-American neighborhood near Fair Park, all of 525 square feet, and re-built it totally green saving and re-using as much of the original historical home as possible. Here is what they got : an 880 square foot LEED-certified home. Shades of Extreme Home Makeover. Way too cool, can we do more of this?
Jump for the press release.
Dallas Weekend Escape: Park City Utah House Porn
A new place for Dallas to play in just over 30 days, the Waldorf Astoria’s Dakota Mountain Lodge and Golden Door Spa opens with 104 luxury residences for ski-in, ski-out or summer mountain relaxation at the base of those gorgeous Canyon Mountains. Fly direct to Salt Lake City from DFW; Park City, Utah is about 35 minutes from the airport. Pictured here: one Bedroom, two Bathroom residences, 741 square feet, $740,000.
Dallas Bachelor Pad’s Patio: Where The Action Takes Place
Here’s what it all happens — outside. The spa is covered but ready for action, and check out this great outside bar and grill. I think this is what helped sell the house. Note to sellers: want to make your property have bachelor appeal? Create a great outdoor kitchen and bar set up! Is it the weekend yet?
Decorating Bachelor Brown’s Castle
Not a bad Great Room for a bachelor pad, but I think we need some more pillows. Guys just LOVE pillows. Do we agree the exercise room, which used to be a baby’s room, needs a paint job? (Or do we want to keep the tree tops for treadmill stim?) The upstairs game room where Ernie tucked away his media apparatus. What do we think about the (lavendar?) wall color in there?
Help Us Decorate Ernie Brown’s House
Love the smooth stained concrete floors, and so does Ernie. But do we love that red dining room? What about the color of the master bedroom? How about that sparkling clean kitchen — shall we hang copper pots and pans?
Real Home Buyers: KRLD’s Ernie Brown’s New Plano Digs
KRLD radio personality Ernie Brown recently moved from the West Village to a new “stately Brown manor” WAY up in Frisco — Shoal Creek Villas — so close to 121 you can see the highway from his second floor. But for Brown, it’s well worth the drive.
“It’s the quietest house I’ve ever lived in,” he says, “it took me two weeks to know that no noise is normal.” The house was so quiet it was keeping him up at night, in fact. You would think he wanted to be closer in to his job, like he was when he lived five minutes from the KRLD studios at Mockingbird and Central. In fact, that was TOO close to work for him — Brown says he’d often go to a sandwich shop just to mentally prepare himself for work. Or wake up.
So here’s the bachelor pad, a two story, 2800 square foot home he picked up in the mid $300’s. Smart buy: Brown’s surrounded by homes that are more expensive, including the one next door listed for $424,000. For a bachelor, the house was in great shape. His kitchen stove was so spotless I asked if anyone ever used it.
D Sale of the Week: Contemporary Tree-Lovin’ House In East Kessler Is Junior To None
1630 Junior Drive. Never mind the name of the street: this beauty sizzles with modernist charm and grace, from the yards of commercial glass windows that bring in every inch of the 1.5 plus acre wooded lot to the stucco-brick-spruce exteriors that evoke images of an Austin contemporary. Builder/architect: Blaine Ladymon. No touch of starkness, this home abounds with warmth from the rich Expresso dark oak floors to the open-tread staircase, LED and cove lighting. You get five bedrooms, gameroom, decked out kitchen with all bells and whistles, master bath that worships Kohler’s latest and greatest, 4550 square feet (really, who needs more?) on one of East Kessler’s best nestled interior lots priced at $1,649,000. Built in 2007, same price as a one-acre square of pure dirt in Preston Hollow, which is why she won’t be on the market for very long.
1630 Junior Drive
$1,649,000
Beth Borman, J.L. Forke, David Griffin Realtors: 469.939.7935
Update: I’m not kidding when I tell you these are hot props. This one just got a contract — but in real estate, it’s never final until closing!
Texas Home Owners Are Not Deadbeats
Well, at least not compared with the rest of the nation. Of course, we’re not as anal as North Dakota folks where a scant 3% are behind on mortgage payments, and that’s because those checks were probably lost in the snow. Sarah Palin’s state also either pays their mortgage obligations or doesn’t have as many people sucked into living beyond their means as we do — only 4.11% of Alaskans are behind on their mortgages. Texans sit at 7.92% behind on their payments. Now what I want to know: what parts of Texas are the most behind, and how does this compare to years past? And what is the norm? Stay tuned, I’ll try to find out.
Real Estate Development: Why Government Shouldn’t Be Overbearing and Super Duper Greedy
Because you lose business, that’s why: can you feature $5 to $6 million in fees just to pull a city permit?
Adolphus Hotel Has A New Manager, FW “Sibling”
As we told you last week, Crescent Hotels and Resorts, not to be confused with our Crescent Hotel, is taking over the management of the historical Adolphus Hotel. At first blush this seems like good news: some soft-goods and technology updating never hurts a hotel, plus Crescent is also managing the Sheraton Fort Worth Hotel & Spa. The Adolphus was built in 1912 and has 428 rooms, and the new bosses say don’t expect any drastic structural or cultural changes.
Highland Park Village Sales Price: $164 Million
So says CoStar Group, big tip of thank-you hat to Martin Weber. $170M was the number I heard tossed around. (Almost forgot to tell you, so busy writing.) What I’d really like to know is — how much equity?
One Arts Commercial 100% Leased — In THIS Economy!
Commercial spaces at One Arts Plaza are now 100 percent leased with the most recent signing of CharlieUniformTango (CUT), a full service-post production studio. The organization, which also has an Austin facility, specializes in creative editorial, visual effects, audio mixing, digital production, video and film production and other creative client services. All very arts-oriented, much like other tenants — The Art Community Alliance’s (TACA) also recently relocated its offices to the lobby floor of One Arts Plaza, Knoll, and KERA.
There are, however, 17 residential units still available. It was so smart of One Arts’ developer Lucy Billingsley to blend commercial with residential to get some cash flowing moving. Nirvana for me will be the day I can tell you that every condo in Dallas is occupied, and the checks are not bouncing.
Dear Jeff Mosier: The Jonas Brothers Do Not Live In Arlington
As you know, the new Cowboys Stadium opened the way-cool sliding glass yesterday, which has created a bubble of controversy in Arlington, some folks there upset that Dallas will end up hogging location PR while Arlington, where the place is located, will have to fade into the background like most bedroom cities nestled next to huge major metropolises often do. For example, I love my hometown of East Dundee, Ill. but do I tell people I am from there? No, I say Chicago. I am not usually hyper-critical, but I noticed that Jeff Mosier in the Dallas Morning News this morning criticized the Jonas Brothers’ Web site for placing the new stadium in Dallas. (The boys kick off their June tour at the new stadium June 20, which I hear is sold out or close to.) They should know better, said Jeff, because they live there, too. No Jeff, the Jonas Brothers live in Vaquero, an uber-exclusive gated community in Southlake. But it is in Tarrant County, which he got right (or corrected) on his blog. I’m really not being critical — I make tons of errors because we are mere mortals writing these blogs with no fresh-brained fact-checkers following to clean up our act. But since I am obsessed with real estate, I just had to make a point. Love ya Jeff, mean it.
More Texas Home Foreclosures on The Horizon?
The DMN is reporting that 8 percent of Texans are behind on their mortgage payments, which means another wave of foreclosures may be on the horizon. Mortgage Bankers Association chief economist Jay Brinkmann told the DMN that mortgage defaults won’t likely slow down until the “employment situation begins to improve.” The MBA is predicting that won’t happen until late 2010.
Yo, Tax Doctor: 14% Tax Increase In East Dallas?
Only a few more days left to protest your property taxes! I plan to get my fanny down there in the next couple days. Didn’t heed my own advice and it will probably be crowded — maybe I’ll take Kyle Kearbey with me to video. Anyhow, we have one more question for The Tax Doctor:
My very small (< 1400 sf) home is being hit with a 14% tax increase while the latest stats on East Dallas as a whole show a 37% drop in median sales price from March ‘08 to March ‘09. And the freaky part is that our land value has allegedly more than doubled while our structure has been devalued by about a third. I feel like it is either a side effect from the few teardowns or else some kind of underhanded way to screw us in the future.
We are north of Mockingbird between G’ville and Skillman.”
Tax Doctor?
Could Someone Steal Your House?
In Tarrant County, maybe.
Newest Dallas Back Yard Trend: A Chicken In Every Lot
Oh yes. With the economy down people are looking for ways to save money and put wholesome fowl on the table. Northaven Gardens had a seminar – and sale — on chickens last Saturday, the program conducted by Dan Probst of Bagienice Farms. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “chopping block”. Chickens and hens are fine, but keep the roosters away from the hen house: Dallas prohibits back-yard roosters. We used to have a neighbor who was an attorney and kept roosters despite the law and trust me, they are the loudest creatures.
Creatures In Dallas Neighborhoods
If you are new to Dallas, I want to warn you: we have many, many critters in our neighborhoods: bugs, lizards, snakes, squirrels, ‘possum, coyote, even fox. But I am trying to figure out what critter ate the exterior of this rat-trap. It’s not supposed to work this way. I put peanut butter inside as directed, caught nothing, but someone sure enjoyed the trap.
Austin The Green Nazi: Could Dallas Be Next?
Austin will soon require all owners of homes aged ten and older to conduct energy audits on their homes before putting them on the market. The audits must be done by certified Building Performance Institute builders, will cost consumers $200 to $300 for a typical 1800 square foot home (typical?) and violations will be a Class-C Misdemeanor with fines that could set you back $500. All this starts Monday.
Wow. What do we think of this? Needed in Dallas?
Your Favorite (Dallas) Real Estate Blog
The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M is looking for your favorite Real Estate blog. This is a contest. May I humbly suggest you send the name of your favorite real estate blog (ahem, ahem) to RECON Associate Editor Bryan Pope. You know, just in case you have a favorite Real Estate blog or something.
Hot Post-Memorial Day House Porn
Oh my, I don’t think I can get through the rest of the day after posting this – still fanning myself. The listing’s open house was LOADED this weekend, and no alcohol was served. That’s because you are getting pure mid-century modern (built in ‘67), more than 3,000 square feet, corner lot, three bedrooms, two and a half baths, and a pool for, tah dah, $318,500.
Technology + Dallas Real Estate = My Toys Are Better than Your Toys
Every agent has to have toys. It’s a tough market out there, and agents are keeping up best they can with all the newbies the tech world keeps spitting their way. You have read here about Realty Times, which reminds me that Nora Ling Lane is now marketing The Drexel Highlander ($699,000 – $750,000), Robert Edelman’s project so close to our current D offices you could practically crawl out our window into one of the units. But now Sam Sawyer over at Rogers Healy is using a deal called ZingDing, a cross between the virtual tours (yawn) livened up with music and e-card software that makes the presentation, well, zippity doo dah zing-y. Like this.
Getting Tough With Builders — Tell Us Your Story
The Texas Residential Construction Commission, otherwise known as the TRCC, may be biting the dust after all. The agency was supposed to be a vehicle for consumers to get a fair shake out of builders but… thanks to the input of many home builders, that didn’t happen. For one thing, TRCC ruled that all disputes had to go to mediation, creating a virtual cloak of lawsuit protection for home builders. As one home builder told me last week: wouldn’t you love it if you were shielded from lawsuits? My concern: if we start suing home builders, will that lead to an increase in building costs? Will that give consumers any real protection? Anyhow, WFAA’s Byron Harris has done a ton of great reporting on this issue.
Note: I am seeking builder horror stories from consumers, so if you have any, please send them my way at candye@dmagazine.com.
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