WHERE RENTS HAVE DROPPED The latest stats provided to 11 News by Houston-based Apartment Data Services show that at the newest complexes, rents for all size of apartments are now averaging $1,108. That’s 11 percent cheaper than last year. Rents are about the same for complexes built a decade ago, averaging $739 a month. And rents are actually up slightly at older complexes, where they’re averaging $570 a month. ‘I’d say the inner loop is probably the softest,’ said Bruce McClenny of Apartment Data Services. ‘They’re about 40 percent occupied,’ McClenny said of brand-new complexes that traditionally take a year or two to fill up. . . . We’re told rents are holding steady for many apartments in far west Houston, Katy, The Woodlands, Kingwood, and Sugar Land. Demand remains strong in those places. Why? The energy industry, for one. ‘The energy corridor’s taking off again in west Houston. There’s lot of growth, people relocating day in day out,’ according to Shannon Proteau, another agent with Find It Apartment Locators. But, in a twist, Proteau said it’s also because families forced out of homes by foreclosure are attracted by highly-rated suburban school districts.” [11 News]
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Tag: Renting
COMMENT OF THE DAY: APARTMENT MESS SKEPTIC “. . . There should be grime around the light switch – there is not. There should be a big layer of filth on the blinds – there is not. The blind cord would be filthy – it is not. The walls are very very clean & white. They should be smudgy. In another set of these pictures, the kitchen cabinets are completely clean, no grime at the door knobs, no grime at the drawer pulls. Trust me – in this much filth, you would see that grime. ALSO – the big piles of cigarette butts were obviously dumped there. When you put out a cigarette, there is a smashing action. You don’t just throw a still burning cigarette on top of a giant pile of other cigarettes. MAYBE this person worked in a bar & collected a weeks worth of cigarettes & dumped them throughout the house……maybe….. But the whole thing looks staged to me – big time.” [KW, commenting on Inside the Messiest Apartment in Houston. Ever.]
Swamplot’s story last week on that extremely dirty apartment in North Houston left out a few photos the photographer originally posted in the Houston-Imports forum. Our photo editing choices were meant to highlight the more “artistic” qualities of the display. And really, how much filth do you need to see?
More than we showed, apparently. The story was one of the most popular ever posted on this site. Who are we to prevent smut-hungry readers from viewing the trash they so obviously want to see?
So here they are, fresh from the . . . uh, cutting-room floor: 11 more photos of the messiest apartment in Houston. Ever. We hope.
A word of warning to the easily nauseated: Yes, there are a few images of the bathroom. No, it is not pretty.
Note: Updated below.
A tenant in a north Houston apartment complex has an overdue payment for more than a month. No one can get in touch with her. Eventually the bookkeeper goes inside to leave a note. And finds . . . this:
INSPECTORS WILL VISIT MANY MORE MULTIFAMILY APARTMENT COMPLEXES Hundreds of multifamily apartments in Houston lack certificates of occupancy or compliance — documents which indicate the facility complies with the city’s basic building and safety standards. “The city wants all properties to submit to an occupancy inspection and obtain a certificate, while also correcting any immediate structural, electrical or other problems inspectors identify. Those that do not respond to the city’s efforts to get a certificate or make repairs could face closure, [Mayor] White said.” [Houston Chronicle]
David Kaplan of the Chronicle catches up with Houston-apartment legend Michael Pollack and fills in a few details of the Colonial House story:
According to media reports then, Pollack lived in a super-size Colonial House apartment called “the Dream Suite,” which had a colored water fountain inside and a king-size water bed.
The Dream Suite was real, but Pollack says he never lived there. His home was the Four Leaf Towers and later the Houstonian, he said.
His glamorous stud image was just an act, he maintains, designed to rent apartments.
“I was promoting day and night,” Pollack said. “To me, it was a job.” . . .
According to Houston City magazine, he’d show up at nightclubs in a chauffeured custom Cadillac limousine with a moon roof. He traveled with an entourage, including bodyguards in satin jackets adorned with Pollack’s silhouette.
There are more memorable Pollack TV spots to be dug up:
One commercial featured Pollack in a safari outfit and a tiger. He had a fear of cats, even little cats, and being next to the full-grown beast was terrifying, he recalled.
In 1986, Pollack left Houston because, he said, the local economy and apartment market looked increasingly grim.
Colonial House was foreclosed on in 1988. It was acquired by DRG Funding Corp., the lender that financed the complex’s redevelopment. Pollack moved back to California, working there a few years before settling in Mesa[, Arizona].
In Houston, the Colonial House era is no more. A year after the foreclosure, the mammoth complex changed its name to Lantern Village.
After the jump: Laundry tips from a longtime resident of today’s Lantern Village!
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLnLsrK5Tjs 400 330]
The brave work of Southwest Houston and Houston Apartment Renaissance scholars has been rewarded — a second mid-1980s Colonial House TV commercial is now available on YouTube!
No it’s not quite as iconic and over-the-top as the one with the VCR in the pool, but look at that fabulous indoor-outdoor furniture! Almost a quarter century later, we know Michael Pollack is alive and well, but does anyone know where that living-room mandala and dining-room set ended up?
- Colonial House Apartments [YouTube, via Lou Minatti]
- Beautiful Southwest Houston: The Golden Age of Apartment Living [Swamplot]
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC5mvVXGGjc 400 330]
This charming period piece from the abortive early-’80s Southwest Houston apartment renaissance surfaced on YouTube late last month, to the great acclaim of chief Michael Pollack fan Lou Minatti, who has hosted an online shrine to the iconic and once high-profile Houston developer on his website for several years. Why was Pollack such a big deal?
What Gallery Furniture’s “We really will save you moneyyyyyyy!” was to the north side of town, the VCR in the Pool was to the southwest.
And really, who can forget the charms of Colonial House, at the corner of Chimney Rock and Gulfton? Writes Minatti:
Built in the late 1960s, Colonial House was in terrible shape.
Gangs and prostitutes had moved in, while basic amenities such as air conditioning had quit working. Pollack moved in and the gangs moved out. Pollack’s crew gutted and rebuilt each of the 1,800 units in just three months. But after all that hard work, Pollack had an even bigger task ahead: How was our suave, sophisticated hero going to fill those apartments? That’s where his infamous TV ads came in.
Here’s a question: Doesn’t the bench-pressing dude on the Nautilus about five seconds in look a bit . . . familiar?
After the jump: Pollack claims it was all an act! Plus, what he’s up to these days — with pix!
Picky property managers won’t let you paint the walls of your apartment? MarketWatch’s Ruth Mantell suggests you stick it to them:
Renters with an inflexible landlord, or those who want to avoid the mess of painting, can try wall decals, suggests Annette Hannon, founder of a Burke, Va.-based design firm.
She likes the removable decals available through Web sites such as whatisblik.com and modernwallgraphics.com. The decals come in geometric and free form patterns, with designs such as flowers, and patterns inspired by Rococo style and artist Keith Haring. A multicolored three-pack of Haring’s “Pack of Dogs” costs $23 on whatisblik.
“It’s those kinds of things that are quirky and fun, and very much something that shows your personality,” Hannon says.
“When it’s time to move, they come off really easily. And you’re not spending so much money that you become so invested in it.”
Of course, with designs like multicolored Rainbow Poops (yes, you read that right), some renters might be tempted to leave a colorful grid of decals on the wall when they move anyway—just to send a special message to that special landlord.
- Six low-cost touch-ups that will make your apartment livable [MarketWatch]
- Wall Graphics for the Commitment Phobic [Blik]
- Wall Slicks [Modern Wall Graphics]
Photo: “Ambition Killed the Cat” decal at Blik
Some residents of the new Elder St. Artist Lofts (formerly the Old Jefferson Davis Hospital) in the First Ward are upset with the building’s management:
“To me it’s not an artist loft anymore,” says one resident who’s been there since the beginning. “We receive the newsletters from ArtSpace in Minneapolis and we see the artist live-work spaces that are opening up in Buffalo, New York and in San Francisco and other parts of the country, and they’re active and they’re artist-run and they’ve got the support of the city, they’ve got the support of the community and they’re vibrant. And we’re not on that level, and I don’t know if we ever will be.”
Current and former tenants gripe to the Houston Press that the resident managers play favorites and will only rent month-to-month, and that there aren’t enough artists in the building.
- Artists’ Lofts [Houston Press]
- Jeff Davis [Avenue CDC]
Photo of Elder St. Artists Lofts: Greater Houston Preservation Alliance
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