COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: LONGING FOR LONG POINT 
“how long until the teardown trend crosses to the north side of Long Point?” [anonymous, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Global Warming] Illustration: Lulu
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I live just north of Long Point and Wirt. There’s already some new town homes that have been there for at least five years but I haven’t seen any activity other than that.
It’s a decent area but I still think it’s a ways out. South of Long Point still has plenty of tear down opportunity. But who knows, maybe you’ll get some people trying to get ahead of the trend.
I think that school zoning is a major factor here. Properties in neighborhoods zoned to Memorial High sell at 1.5 to 2 times the price of an equivalent one zoned to Spring Woods or Northbrook. Unless Memorial High’s attendance area is redrawn to reach further north of Long Point, or the schools north of I-10 improve, I don’t think we’ll see a rash of teardowns in the areas that border the Memorial Villages.
Rodrigo nailed it.
The existing neighborhoods can improve such as they are, but school quality is the big impediment to there being any wave of teardown activity.
That being said, substantial improvement in just a single elementary school might tip the scale. And since it tends to be the case that large apartment complexes contribute heavily to the student population, even one or two teardowns or major remodels of those complexes could do the trick. (I wouldn’t put money on it, but there you go.)
NOLOPO vs. SOLOPO
I grew up just south of Long Point in the late 80’s/early 90’s and can remember when Westview was the “border”
It may take a while but if Houston continues on it’s current trend, we may see Hammerly or even Kempwood become the new imaginary line.
This may just be wishful thinking though.
There has been a lot of recent (and current) activity just south of long point. Melody Oaks has had 4 new builds this year (in the 500k range), with lots being cleared for more. Ot all the homes are being torn down, though; last night they moved one on Janak then down Wirt. Wish I would have taken some pictures of it, but that house was moving faster than I was.
Unless the apartments along Hammerly are demolished, I wouldn’t expect the spring branch schools outside of Memorial to improve. Those Apartments have been a blight on that area for 35 plus years.
The lack of decent public schools in Houston is really sad and will continue to inflate the real estate values of any house zoned to the good ones.
Memorial High School has the highest attendance of all 4 traditional SBISD high schools. If anything their attendance area will get smaller not larger. They’re 5A and the other 3 are 4A.
If I had all the money in the world from developers in Houston I would buy up these older apartment complexes that drag down the SBISD schools and replace them with townhomes or maybe even a small gated community. The potential is endless for that area but all the apartments hold them back.
There are some slum apartments that need to see the wrecking ball first.
There’s starting to be sporadic teardown/rebuild in my little post-war neighbourhood a few blocks north of Long Point. The original housing stock is going away at maybe 0.5 a year. Major additions are more frequent, and there are also plenty of modest refurbishments (which are harder to notice)–which is nice for preserving at least a few of the rapidly-becoming-historical original ranch houses.
I’ve noticed a few apartments get some modest improvements, but they largely remain old and crappy, and an anchor on the area.