COMMENT OF THE DAY: PUMPING THE HEIGHTS “I grew up in West University in the 1980s and watched it change from a shabby lower middle class neighborhood to what it is today. I now live in the Heights, and the area is remarkably similar to the way West University was during my childhood. The similarities include everything from housing stock, neighborhood amenities, and eclectic mixture of residents. The location is also similar to West University, in that it is convenient to all of Houston’s major destinations. Mr Kelley’s prediction that the Heights will follow the same upward trend as West University is probably correct, and I think investing in the Heights is a wise move. As the Heights continues to improve, the demand to live in the area will continue to increase and real estate prices will reflect that. If I had more cash right now, I’d buy another house in the area and hold on to it.” [Obsolete, commenting on Comment of the Day: Priced Out of the Conversation]
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Tag: Houston Heights
COMMENT OF THE DAY: PRICED OUT OF THE CONVERSATION “The fact that ‘many’ people think the Heights is overpriced is meaningless – if other people besides yourself think that home prices in the Heights are spot on and actually buy the homes, it doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks. For the record, the way you feel about the Heights is how I feel about West U. I think the neighborhood is completely overpriced and I would never pay the going rate for West U. But – clearly, many people disagree with me, as those houses continue to fetch what I consider to be ridiculous prices. I can argue as long as I want that West U is overpriced and I can take my money elsewhere, but all that means is that I’m clearly out of step with hundreds of people who feel differently.” [LT, commenting on Swamplot Price Adjuster: The Heights of 2-2ness]
Got an answer to any of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Here’s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.
- Greenway Commons: What’s that going up at the corner of Cummins and Richmond, tucked “amongst the Costco Oaks?” asks a reader:
I assumed it was a bank – there’s only one in that parking lot now which falls woefully short of standard Houston bank-to-block ratios. But the odd, football shaped structure in the background that they’re rigging appears to be for signage. Can’t find anything online.
- The Heights: First Saturday Arts Market proprietor Mitch Cohen wants to know what the workers are up to at the Heights Christian Academy activities building on the corner of 17th St. and Ashland. Signage is down and something’s going on, he tweets:
The Swamplot Price Adjuster runs on your nominations! Found a property you think is poorly priced? Send an email to Swamplot, and be sure to include a link to the listing or photos. Tell us about the property, and explain why you think it deserves a price adjustment. Then tell us what you think a better price would be. Unless requested otherwise, all submissions to the Swamplot Price Adjuster will be kept anonymous.
Location: 1447 Oxford St., Houston Heights
Details: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths; 1,498 sq. ft. on a 6,600-sq.-ft. lot
Price: $421,500
History: On the market since the beginning of last December. Price cut $5K in mid-April.
How long could Swamplot readers go without some good old-fashioned price-sniping in the Heights? The latest submission for the Price Adjuster focuses on this little 1920 home on the corner of 15th St.:
There’s just so much a 2/2 can go for in the Heights. Also, it has no garage. The kitchen has been updated but it’s not a nice kitchen. Nice backyard for sure with trellis and a bit of storage, but at the end of the day, it’s still a 2/2.
Well, then . . . what price would sell this place?
First it was up, then it sat unfinished for a good long time, then it was down, and now it’s been . . . resurrected! Viula from the Heights Life blog sends in the latest photo of the corner townhouse unit in the former Waterhill Homes development at 8th St. and Nicholson in the Heights (where 8th Avenue Elementary School used to be):
Remember the one they were breaking down on the end? Well, they built it back up again. My husband thinks the ground floor (garage) is the same but I disagree.
Real progress doesn’t always follow a straight-line path, no? Last time we studied this well-weathered unit, you’ll remember, it was indeed on its way down:
“I have to say, I have always had luck with Asian food in some sort of repurposed fast food building,” declares The Heights Life blogger Viula. Surely everyone hopes her good fortune continues: A Heights Asian Cafe (or, as the banner puts it, Height Asian Cafe) will soon lay claim to the booty that is the vacant Long John Silvers building on Yale at 22nd St.
Likewise, Jenni’s Noodle House expects to open its 3rd location in the former Mrs. Baird’s Bread outlet at 602 E. 20th (at the corner of Oxford St.) in less than 8 weeks.
Ah, but there’s more than Asian food moving in. Viula has the rundown:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THOSE FRIENDLY NEIGHBORS WITH THE CHICKENS “. . . I feel obliged to disagree with the comparison between Lone Star [Poultry] and a train. We’ve never smelled chicken or been bothered by truck noise or anything. I heard from some old-timers that Lone Star used to be a problem but neighbors complained and it’s no longer an issue. Our interaction with Lone Star has been nothing but positive…one of the truck drivers had to make room for a load of chicken and gave us a whole sack of cabbage as we were walking by.” [Katie, commenting on Hangin’ with the Large and Lonely Homes of Bammel Lane Park]
Whatever happened to that little Swamplot Price Adjuster feature — you know, the one where readers report on a property for sale that appears to need some pricing correction, and suggest a better price for it? It’s still waiting for your smart submissions! In the meantime, here’s some evidence that it actually works:
Last November, when a reader nominated the 1920 house perched on an 8,200-sq.-ft. lot at the corner of 10th St. and Cortlandt in the Heights, a bunch of you wrote in to suggest that the list price was a bit steep. The nominator gave a target:
Asking $600,000 for this is a joke and I think it should be at the most $350,000.
By December, the price had been lowered to $450K. And then, by late March, the house was gone from MLS. What’s happened to it since?
You guessed it: A brand new listing appeared at the end of April, with a new set of photos and — what? Is it listed at $350,000 now?
A reader wants to nominate the tiny offices of Marine Offshore Electric Services, at 226 W. 18th St., just west of Yale, for . . . what?
It’s so cute! And really, this has got to be the smallest freestanding office structure in the Heights at least. What about a wider area? Bellaire, you got anything like this?
And what about retail? If someone will promise me there aren’t any old Fotomats or Fedex kiosks out there ready to trip me up, I’d like to nominate this place for smallest permanent freestanding non-foodservice commercial structure too. Is that category available?
- About Us [Marine Offshore Electric Services]
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Come June, promise the owners of SSQQ, the popular social dance studio will reopen just to the west of Restaurant Depot, in the former Kmart beached on the asphalt shores at 20th St. and T.C. Jester near Timbergrove.
Last weekend, SSQQ shut down the Bellaire strip-center site it had occupied for 30 years. Why’d it up and leave? Doctors’ orders, reports the Bellaire Examiner‘s Steve Mark: First Street Hospital, which owns the center on Bissonnet just outside the Loop, is planning an expansion that would slice the center in half, knocking out SSQQ, Sweetwater Pool & Patio, and a Radio Shack. (Not all is lost, though: Charlie’s Hamburgers and that nail salon in the center at 4803 Bissonnet will get to stay.)
Besides easy access to restaurant supplies, what’s in store for students taking a swing at new Bachata and Whip moves at SSQQ’s new location?
When last Swamplot visited the tiny Freeland Historic District at the foot of the Heights almost a year ago, Samantha Wood and her husband, architect Jack Preston Wood, had just given up on plans to purchase a little bungalow at 536 Granberry St., demolish it, and replace it with a new 1-1/2-story bungalow. The Woods’ earlier plans — to build two 4-story townhomes on the property — stirred up protests from neighbors and a rejection from the city historical commission.
Did all that hullabaloo in the newly-minted historic district scare off potential buyers? A Freeland neighbor says no — and suspects most of the neighborhood’s new attention is coming from builders:
525 Granberry Street (now listed on the tax rolls and MLS as 525 E. 5th 1/2 Street) went on the market last week. So many offers have been received they ask that final bids go in tomorrow, April 16.
Why would builders be so interested in this property?
HEIGHTS WELCOME WAGON Taryn Peine scopes out the new kids on the block: “We have two new neighbors. Not one, but TWO. As I fight my way through my terrible case of new person anxiety (What if they just start showing up all the time? What if they ask us to do things for them? What if they’re the borrowing type, and we never see our step stool, our weedeater or a full carton of eggs again?) in order to make my way over to introduce myself, I’ve been super-secretly scouting them out. Memorizing their routines. Doing an inventory of the stuff in their garages. Making note of the fact that they already had window coverings on the very day they moved in, instead of waiting two years like we did. You know. Just making sure they understand there is a creepy neighbor on our street, and that creepy neighbor is me. . . .” [A Peine for Your Thoughts]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE BEST KIND OF NEIGHBOR FOR YOUR LAWN “I live on a large lot in the heights with a couple of mature trees. I haven’t bagged one leaf, actually I have picked up lawn clippings and leaves from neighbors that have been set out, and put both into my compost. I’ve filled 2 5′x25′ raised beds with the compost in the last 2 years. I now have a 3 pile/annual rotation taking up a 4′x12′ area. I doubt I will ever run out of capacity for waste generated by my property. Sorry but this arguement about not enough space is not a logical one.” [SaintCyr, commenting on New Rules for Yard Waste]
Hey, how’d they do that?
Several retail outlets near the railroad tracks at the base of Heights Blvd. near Center St. are complaining that traffic changes accompanying the new Washington Ave. quiet zone have already hurt their businesses. Department of Public Works spokesperson Alvin Wright tells Channel 39’s Jason Volentine that Federal Railroad Administration requirements mandate that crossovers through the Heights Blvd. median near the tracks be closed off for the quiet zone to be implemented.
Without a quiet zone, train conductors are required to blast their horns at all at-grade crossings. The Washington quiet zone will extend from Sherwin St. north of I-10, to National, about a quarter-mile east of Studewood:
