Articles for September, 2009
Back By Popular Demand: House Porn on Shadywood Lane
This house is so gorgeous I had to Twitter pics while touring. The owners are from the Bay area and clean California influence is everywhere, from the uncluttered interiors to the outdoor living-friendly patio with Adirondack rocks around the salt water pool — a model pool for Harold Leidner’s ads. The approximately 7912 square foot home is on one of Bluffview’s most desired streets, and while built in 1952, the home is effectively new from the ground up, with two major remodels in 2000 and 2007. I can think of no better home for a party: walking paths take you from the pool to the rock spa and back to a hidden fire pit. Two bedrooms down including the master, which has a gorgeous bathroom, walk-in shower, and spacious master his and her closet. Detail to steal: marble surfaced island in master closet perfect for packing with full storage beneath. Three bedrooms with baths up plus a game room and snack bar. The outside covered kitchen and fireplace/patio is glorious, but I think my favorite part of this home is the hardwood floors — hand scraped in the kitchen and family room, smooth walnut in the formal areas, the various surfaces imparting a lived-in, old home feel to a home that is very much a spring chicken. Price Tag: $3,550,000 — not bad, actually, for Bluffview.
Smoking Out Your Neighbors Could Lead to a Lawsuit
Very interesting story here: a woman has filed a lawsuit (and seek$ damage$) from a former neighbor and landlord for damage caused by cigarette smoke wafting through — cracks, walls, pores — of her North Dallas apartment/townhome. The plaintiff is a retired nurse who claims her daughter is apparently allergic to the smoke, and claims the smoke permeated all their belongings. She apparently now qualifies as being disabled under the Texas Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Her physician/allergist is extremely capable: Dr. Barbara Stark Baxter, a good family friend.
You can bet that townhome and apartment owners all over Texas are watching this case with bated breath. I do not smoke and, in fact, am probably allergic to cigarette smoke though — true confessions — I smoked in high school and part of college. (But I quit!) Not too long ago, I was looking at second home fractional ownership properties on the Gulf coast and was really ready to buy BUT I thought I smelled cigarette smoke in the unit. Management said no smoking is allowed, but how do you control that? One little cigarette can stink up the entire joint.
This case could have some major impact: should tenants who smoke in non-smoking buildings be super fined or even evicted? How much responsibility does the landlord shoulder for every Bozo who lights up in their building? Should people only be entitled to smoke in homes they own? What do you think?
Live or Looking In Casa Linda? Watch Out for Rusty Water Pipes
I have experienced this — turn on the water, out comes this gross-looking brown water. And I’ve experienced it even at five-star hotels. (Even happens at The Ritz.) While this means lots of elbow grease to keep tubs and sinks sparkling, it is generally not harmful and just means a high rust content in the water, extra iron in your diet. Still, you may want to know this if you are house-hunting or remodeling. Or wondering why your water bill was so darn high.
Real Estate Round Up: Texas Coastal Cities Expected To Lead In Mortgage Origination
If you have property in the coastal cities of Beaumont and Port Arthur, or up in Amarillo, you can count on some home appreciation... because that’s where loan origination is going to be happening. Coastal California is also perking up, while Florida and Nevada continue to hog their space at the bottom of the expected performance rack. Don’t hold your breath that Congress will extend the $8000 first-time home buyer credit — though I may keep my fingers crossed. There are indicators that the real estate market has bottomed, so why bother? Or why not just give every home buyer a credit of some sort? And here’s three high end apartment complexes on the auction block in Austin — healthy, spry little Austin. You know what it’s going to be a great time for: private, individual investors — the “cycle buyers”.
Playing House, Raising Bucks: The Real Estate Council Launches Project Playhouse
This is a great chance to get a head start on holiday shopping, particularly if you have young children or grandchildren. Bid on one of three green play houses this Thursday at the TREC’s Giving Gala. And talk about letting your kid name drop: they can brag that their own little home was built by Balfour Beatty Construction and HKS Architects; ENTOS DESIGN and Tri-Tex Construction, Inc.; or Corgan and MAPP Construction LLC. In addition to green requirements, the playhouses have to meet height requirements (Playhouses have height requirements? What, like 4 feet?) and be child-safe, of course. Who knows, maybe these days play houses have to belong to special conservation districts. But really cute idea and I hope TREC makes buckets of cash on this one.
Great Real Estate Coming to Downtown Dallas
See that big red D? Soon, very soon. File this under “new celebrity homes.”
Dallas Real Estate: Prepare For Most Ghoulish Decor Contest
To tell you the truth, I hate this time of year. I am a summer gal, pink is my fave color, but the minute September rolls in we go into pumpkin overload way too early so the things are all rotten come October 31. But who am I to rain on your ghoulish decor campaign?
Apples to Zinnias, located in The Plaza at Preston Center, which is having a huge party benefiting Wednesday’s Child this Thursday, is challenging Halloween-decor obsessives to deck their houses and submit photos of their creations for a grand prize. The head witch at Apples to Zinnias will judge the photos for the most festive décor and the winner will receive just what they need: a Halloween gift to add to their decoration collection. Submit your photos by email to appplestozinnias@sbcglobal.net, or stop by at 4024 Villanova, Dallas, TX 75225. The witches will also send them by broomstick express to DallasDirt for publication.
Now if you’re talking bloody haunted houses, slimy brains and noodle guts, call me stat.
Dallas Real Estate: Coming Boom In Moderate Income Housing
The Obama administration continues to prop up housing and give the market an IV feeding, now by slating $35 big ones to provide low interest mortgages to low and middle-income families:
“The effort could trigger criticism, particularly from Republicans, for aiming federal funds at low- and moderate-income homeowners instead of other troubled areas, such as small businesses or commercial real estate.The move also comes as some lawmakers are advocating less spending. Already, 40 senators are pushing to allow the Treasury’s $700 billion bailout fund to expire and direct any remaining funds to pay down the nation’s ballooning debt.
Rep. Scott Garrett (R., N.J.) said while he hadn’t seen exact details of the plan, he questioned whether the government should be aiming more money at the housing market.
“I don’t know that we can continue this pattern of having the federal government being the lender of last resort,” he said. “Most people are calling on the government to lay out an exit strategy. This just gets us further into the quagmire.”
More broadly, the move is an attempt to bolster the role of government in encouraging home ownership, especially among low-income Americans. Considered well-meaning by many, the principle has been blamed by others for fueling the housing boom that led to last year’s financial meltdown.”
Does St. Joseph Help Sell Dallas Real Estate?
It is old legend (in the Catholic Church, perhaps) that if you want to sell your home you must invoke the blessings of St. Joseph. And it works. I buried the St. Joseph statute my mother gave me and within weeks our home had a contract on it. This effigy is made in St. Charles, Ill. near my hometown, and the savy creators now have it available in Spanish. I’ve phoned them to see if sales are up, how Texas sales are faring, and ask when they hit the New York Stock Exchange.
Dallas Real Estate Celebrates Architecture and Dallas Architects
I caught up with Lucy and Henry Billingsley, Honorary Chairs for the Dallas chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the Dallas Architectural Foundation’s thirteenth annual Celebrate Architecture Gala and Community Honor Awards Saturday night, emceed by Jeff Whittington. (Trust me, his vocal work was far briefer than that mouthful of a title.) Also there: Veletta Forsythe Lill, Executive Director of The Dallas Arts District. We had just landed at D/FW back from the east coast. The theme of the night was “Urban Renaissance”, which super accurately describes the transformation our city is undergoing. As I told Mark Hoesterey of Stocker Hoesterey Montenegro Architects, I had been in Boston at 7:00 a.m. that morning, crossing that city’s Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge on I-93 en route to Logan. While watching for Logan signs, I told my husband, soon we’ll have this elegance in Dallas plus more: majestic bridges, a 68 acre Arts District, and of course the new AT&T Performing Arts Center. Four Arts District structures designed by four of the world’s leading architects plus the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and — finally!!! — a downtown park: our downtown skyline is almost an apocalyptic renaissance, given the new commercial and residential real estate. And I remember when, back in 1980, I thought everyone had taken shelter at 7:00 pm when downtown was an after-hours ghost town. The 2009 AIA Community Honor Awards went to Lucy Crow Billingsley, Lyda Hill, Virginia Savage McAlester, and Anita N. Martinez for her Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico. Honor citations went to AT&T’s Performing Arts Center, Downtown Dallas (guys do great promos!), Hamilton Properties, and Woodall Rogers Park Foundation led by Linda Owen. In the craftsmen realm, Haley-Greer snagged an award for innovation in the glass and glazing industry — H-G created and installed the red glass curtain wall that tops the Winspear Opera House and also worked on Cowboys Stadium; McCarthy Building Companies — W Hotel, Residences at Victory Park, and the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre — was also lauded, and recently ranked by Engineering News Record as the tenth largest domestic general builder in the nation. And Rosa Finsley, ASLA, was honored for her work in landscape design which you can see sprouting up at Montgomery Farm. Firm of the year: Omniplan, the firm that brought us NorthPark Center’s beautiful bones, and Regan George, AIA, was given the AIA’s Lifetime Achievement award for leading emphasis on environmental sustainability long before green was an architectural or building buzzword. Great celebration of great contemporary architecture.
Dallas Real Estate News: The Masters Group’s Masterful Strokes
I leave town for a week and all this happens: a teen-aged Jihadist is arrested for planning to set off a bomb in downtown Dallas, turns out the guy lives in Italy, Texas and was targeting Wells Fargo; Mary Jane Young steps out of The Masters Group, that venerable club of uber high-producing Dallas Realtors — Stewart Lee and Nora Ling Lane step right in. And our D Sale of the Week already has a contract on it.
New Resource Group Forms: Dallas Green Building Alliance
Last year a group of contractors, while working together on a sustainable/green/resource-efficient residential project on Walnut Hill, started hanging out together to talk about sustainability, how to make their projects more sustainable, and how to support each other in those efforts. After months of once-a-week conversations, they decided to start a new group, the Dallas Green Building Alliance. Their mission is to be a resource for homeowners, Realtors, builders–anyone with an interest in learning more about building and remodeling in a sustainable way. Their brand-new website is absolutely loaded with information, technical and otherwise, on heating and air conditioning systems, low-VOC finishes, solar, projects, etc. Yes, they are looking for business, but they have definitely drunk the Kool-Aid and they are really committed to this. Check it out.
$8000 First Time Home Buyer Credit Expires in About 60 Days
Here’s a comprehensive article on the $8000 first time homebuyer tax credit, which expires November 30. To be eligible, you must complete your home purchase by November 30 — so get going! This is not to be confused with the $7500 loan available to purchasers who bought in 2008, which must be re-paid through income tax returns. I’ll bet the folks at Turbo Tax are going nuts. Also, did you know that if you own a vacation or rental property, but have not owned a personal residence in the last three years, you are still eligible for the credit? Wonder how that works if you are newly divorced…
Texas: An Attractive Place To Retire (After Age 65?), Ctd.
Some readers have challenged this statement, saying our high property taxes may make the Lone Star State not so attractive to endure during those golden years. And Texas does have some of the highest property taxes in the nation. Now I am light years from being 65, but as I recall, at that age property taxes are capped for seniors — right? Sure hope so, because I am going to need those funds for plastic surgery.
September: Just Not a Good Month for Dallas Commercial Real Estate
Last week we learned that 42 acres at the intersection of Walnut Hill Lane and Central Expressway are en route to the foreclosure chopping block vis a vis Wachovia Bank; this week we learn that Compass Bank has taken over the Signature Pointe Apartments in East Dallas, which were supposed to be transformed into yet another snazzy Dallas shopping/living/retail center, following the steps of the uber successful development Mecca, West Village. (If I had a dollar for every developer who said to me, “we are striving for a West Village-type atmosphere”, I’d have enough to cover how much over budget I was on the wedding!) As one of my commercial real estate sources puts it, no surprise, it’s tough all over: there will be similar stories ahead. What do you think the impact of this potential foreclosure will have on the area — East Dallas in particular?
This News Nugget May Draw Home Buyers: Texas Is An Attractive Place To Retire
While our state does not exempt pension income from being taxed, we go one better: we don’t tax any income, a definite plus for attracting retirees.
D Sale of the Week: Mid-Century Modern’s Pride of Pinocchio, No Lie
It’s called Rhapsody House because it’s in tune with the oaks, maples, and lush greens surrounding it. 11116 Pinocchio Dr. is not only on a huge 103-by-171-foot corner lot, but it’s also adjacent to a greenbelt in the coveted Disney Streets. Built in 1955 by Gordon Nichols and designed by architect Thomas Scott Dean, Rhapsody House was the first concrete ridge frame home built in Dallas. To this day it remains nearly fireproof, rot proof, and waterproof, thanks to its wood-free exterior. Mid-century fanatics, eat your heart out: the three-bedroom, two-bath home has original white terrazzo floors in pristine condition, and glass transoms throughout highlight the sloping roofline. A floating closet with wood defines and separates the living room from the formal dining, and the kitchen has been brought into the 21st century sensitively, maintaining that “Donna Reed” feel. Just like the Dick Van Dyke Show, there’s even a pass-through between the kitchen and dining room and so much mid-century you might just see Loretta Young walk through the patio door. $425,000.
Dallas Real Estate: House Next Door Is For Rent, Website Deactivated
“Should I be concerned when the house next door to me goes up for lease with signage advertising a website that has been deactivated?”
Dallas Real Estate: Why Becoming a Landlord Makes Sense Right Now
If your home isn’t selling, you may be smart to float out the housing storm by leasing it for a year or two. Leases are definitely up in Dallas, just count the increasing number of “for sale” signs that also say “for lease”. More “fence sitters” are leasing rather than buying now, either in anticipation of future price reductions or an inability to obtain credit. Experts say the leasing frenzy is really good for the market – it will cut down on short sales and foreclosures, which reduce property prices, and give buyers a chance to try before they buy. Who knows: you may even find you like being a landlord.
Dallas Real Estate Report From Maine, Ctd.
Beach house decorating tip: flower balls from the wedding tent look great on the flagpole! We could not have fathomed a more perfect day.
Dallas Real Estate Report From Maine: Why We Love Beach Houses
Greetings from Kennebunkport, Maine. This is where we all gathered the day after our destination wedding: the beach house, Drakes Island, Maine. Wedding ceremony and reception were perfect — more than perfect, actually, at Kennebunkport’s breath-taking Breakwater Inn and Spa, on Saturday. Earlier in the day, the breeze had picked up, and though it was 75 degrees outside, I was freezing and drinking hot tea at three pm. We turned on the exterior heaters but at about 4:50, the wind calmed and settled for the next hour. It was as if God had turned off the fan. Perfect timing. After a long, fun and quite eventful night… we gathered at the beach house for lunch and beach walks on Sunday before everyone headed out. The gathering made me realize, more than ever, how important homes are in our lives, how they anchor us to family, memories and friends. Here we are, saying goodbye to my daughter and brand new son-in-law as they depart for their honeymoon, on the porch of the beach house where two generations have done the exact same thing. Homes: way more than bricks and mortar.
Bridging the Trinity
Briggs-Freeman are stepping up in a big way to promote the upcoming Bridging the Trinity party on the Continental Bridge, this Friday evening, September 25. Not to mention the folks who host this blog! Lots of influential people, including the (IMHO) genius architect/engineer Santiago Calatrava.
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