It’s not looking good for the few remaining low-slung postwar Ranch homes on Banks St. in once-aptly named Ranch Estates, in the northeastern stretch of Boulevard Oaks. Last year architect Karen Lantz took apart the Ranch at 1514 Banks, piece by piece. Three more of them have been idling on MLS for months, two at what the sellers consider lot value. The third, at 1515 Banks (pictured above), isn’t priced a whole lot higher, but it’s been out there since September of last year, shedding $50K from its initial $599,950 price tag. Will the owners even get back what they paid for it 15 months before putting it on the market?
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Next door and down the street, the two similarly styled homes aren’t doing much better. Monday was the one-year anniversary of 1509 Banks’s debut on the market, at a good $80K above its current “lot value” listing: $499,954.
Will 1539 Banks’s recent price cut help it any? For $419,500 — $58.5K off its original September 2009 pricing — the home makes a “beautiful building site.”
- 1509, 1515, and 1539 Banks St. [HAR]
- Previously on Swamplot: The Slowest Demo in Town: Karen Lantz Pulls a House Apart
Truely sad, but if the city of Houston would quit basing their appraisals on the land and not the house, this wouldn’t be happening.
I remember that neighborhood back in the late 80s. It was a real gem. For what it’s worth, the replacement houses, while large, are not McMansions and are all quite modern and widely varied. I was surprised to notice the exact same thing on Colquitt just west of Greenbriar a few days ago. We can rail against McMansions all we want but modern residential architecture is thriving in Montrose, Southampton, and Shepherd Plaza.
Wow, so incredible that these great homes are unwanted. The words “Beautiful building site” always make me cringe.
I looked at two of these houses with the possibility of living in them. I don’t want a monster house and I love ranches and the mix of styles in the area.
The problem is that the market does not support the price that the owners are looking for. It isn’t rocket science that when well priced homes in the area sell in a week or less and with multiple offers a house that sits on the market for a year is overpriced.
Lot value has dropped as the market changed. These lots are probably worth $00,000 in today’s market.
Make that 400,000