G-man

No, its a about half a mile or so up Hollister from the SBMC. Hollister, north of Long Point, is one of those streets that falls in-between estalished area neighborhoods, and so there is quite a bit of development going on there at the moment. I drove by there a few days back, and there is already a David Weekly development complered acriss the street, and there are a couple of other developments about to be started on that street. So many changes going on in Spring Branch!

Here's more info from the Spring Branch Management District (SBMD) on this: http://sbmd.org/david-weekly-homes-coming-soon-to-the-village-at-spring-branch/ . As some have pointed out, David Weekley has really made a commitment to this area. They've become the prime driver int he residential redevelopment of Spring Branch, following on the heels of Lovett/In-Town. I've lived in the area (at Westview/Moritz near Spring Valley.Hilshire Village) for more than 11 years now, and I'm amazed how some still are unaware what's been going on here. The area has been redeveloping since the 90s, and for as long as I've lived here the rise in property values has been incredible. One of the posters expressed doubt at Weekley's ability to get 400-700 for these houses, but that's actually on the lower end for new houses are going for here. Their patio homes on my street ended up selling for near 800,000, and their current development on Bracher is selling for near 1 million. There are now homes in Spring Branch not in the Memorial HS zone selling for over 1 million - something compleretly unheard of only a coulpe of years ago. And newer single family homes zoned to MHS generally range from 800, 000 to 2 million. As you see, I follow these developments fairly closely, and I think we've reached a tipping point in Spring Branch in terms of its redevelopment. I think more people will be becoming familiar with what's been happening here!

The two communities that you're looking at (Sherwood Lake and Upland Lakes) are in the Spring Branch School District, which enjoys a good reputation. Even though I don't have kids, it's one of the reasons that I moved to the area, as the quality of the school district is a big help in maintaining property values. The particular schools zoned for this area are Sherwood Elementary, Spring Forest Middle, and Stratford High School, which enjoys an especially good reputation. In addition, one of the excellent SBISD operated charter schools, the Westchester International School, is located not too far away. The bottom line is that public school school system will be an option for you and property values in SBISD tend to hold up very well, as it has the highest per square foot property values of any district in the Houston area.

Rammer, I'm glad that you brought up the issue of this development as I had intended to post about it earlier. I think this is the development to which you referred in your post: http://www.dpz.com/pdf/0708-PDSpringBranch.pdf This is the Andres Duany project with Lovett, and there had been a fair amount of press about it when it was announced in 2007. But in light of the current national real estate situation, I had wondered whether the plan was to move forward with it. Duany is one of the gurus of the "new urbanism" movement, and the plan appears to incorporate a fair amount of greenbelts and other open space. The plans even refer to incorporating the stables into the development somehow. It appears as if this Spring Branch development will be part of the growing trend of mix-use developments in the Houston area. In any case, if these plans go forward, this will be a major milestone for Spring Branch, and would solidify its continued redevelopment (especially since it would be north of Long Point, though as you point out, this area has already begun to attract a good amount of development). I think that it's been a long time since we've had a 110 acre development this close close in. It would certainly be the largest single Spring Branch development in a generation or more. Again, I hope that the stables will be retained somehow, as I remember when the Pin Oak stables were lost. But maybe this is just the fate of such things when land prices reach a certain level. By the way, I think this development will be primarily single family homes, as the the Lovett townhome development in the area is a separate project, and has already opened across the street (to the west) from this site. G

SS, I couldn't agree with you more. I moved to an area in Spring Branch near Spring Valley/Hilshire Village about 6 years ago, after also looking at places in the Bellaire, West U, and Frostwood areas. I could already see that that the area was ripe for redevelopment and that there would be a greater potential for increased appreciation, as those other areas had been redeveloping for longer periods of time. And though I am often away on extended businesses trips (as I am at the moment), I am quite the fan of SB and love living there. It offers a wooded location near town, without being in the center of congestion, combing urban, suburban, and even a bit of the rural. And of course the school district is the tops in the area. It's of note that you compared Spring branch to the Heights, since when I was growing up in the 70s Spring Branch was a much more desirable place to live than the Heights. And though the northern areas of the neighborhood declined in the 80s, the areas south of Long Point really never did, and the area as whole is undergoing an amazing redevelopment. But I'm amazed that this has largely escaped the knowledge of Houston at large (possibly not a bad thing), as many appear to retain impressions from the past, and are totally unaware that it's become basically impossible to purchase a new house in many areas of Spring Branch for less than $800,00+. I as you look forward to ever better things in SB! G

Here's more on the redevelopment of the Wirt/Long Point Intersection: http://blogs.chron.com/westsidestory/2009/...ng_point_r.html http://www.hwcoc.org/en/art/461/ G-man

Here's an article concerning the recent joint-meeting of the various Spring Branch Super Neighborhoods: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/mem...ws/6349974.html I'm particularly interested in the new signage and landscaping that is to be installed at various entrances into Spring Branch, as well as at certain intersections within it. Here's a map of where this is to be installed: http://sbmd.org/Documents/Large_MasterStreetscape_Ver4.pdf It appears as if this is going to be a fairly substantial project, and I think that it's great that Spring Branch will get its own distinctive look. And as has been noted in previous posts, the redesign of intersections along Long Point has already begun. G-man

The redevelopment/improvement of Long Point has been an on-going issue for some time now, and I too saw the renovated Long Point/Wirt intersection for the first time a few days ago, and agree that it looks great. As was noted in some of the links posted in previous responses, due to the fact that property values to the south of Long Point have increased so greatly, redevelopment has in fact moved to the north. But everyone agrees that in order for things to really improve there, the physical appearance of Long Point will need to be improved. The intersection redesign is one of the major projects supported by the the Spring Branch Management District, which has some designated taxing authority over commercial enterprises located within Spring Branch. Here's an overview of the SBMD's plan: http://sbmd.org/sbmdprojects.aspx In fact, coordinating the redevelopment of Long Point was one of the primary reasons for the creation of the SBMD by the State. I think that these management districts, which get relatively little notice, will play an increasingly important role in redevelopment in Houston. As for the issue concerning the acquisition of property along the right of way to the north of Long Point, see the second article from Michael Falick's Blog from a while back: http://mikefalick.blogs.com/my_blog/2006/0...lawrence_r.html In particular, the residents of Rollingwood, a very unique Spring Branch community, were concerned about the potential loss of green space to the north of the road. In any case, it's good to see the continued improvements currently taking place in Spring Branch. G-man

I certainly remember the F.U.N (Football United National) league very well (South Main Mustangs and Frilly Fillies rocked!). As I understand it, the teams were originally affiliated with several elementary schools, primarily in southwest Houston - Parker, Kolter, Anderson, West University, Red, Alameda, etc. Later the teams were supported by booster clubs. Back in the day, the league was extremely well organized and offered a quite good level of competition for elementary aged football. A number of former players actually went on to play professional sports - Greg Swendell, Thurman Thomas, and OJ Brigance played FUN football, and I'm sure there were others. The competition for the girls drill teams ("the drill bowl") was only slightly less intense, and I remember the Westbury Cougarettes and Steerettes putting on particularly lavish performances. Of course, as these areas changed the level of support declined, and I'm not sure what has become of the league. Perhaps someone can add some additional info.

I agree Yonkers - I think they may have meant Hunters Creek Drive from the previous post, not Larston?

I've noticed that there are a couple of places in the Villages south of I-10 that still do have somewhat reasonable prices for some reason. One of these is on Hunters Creek drive within Hunters Creek Village. You can still get houses on 20,000 sq ft lots there for between 500k-700k, such as this one: http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y I assume that this is because it fairly close to the freeway, but I've driven through there before and there didn't appear to be much noise. Anyone else have an idea as to why it's so much cheaper here. In any case, you might want to check it out. G

I agree that Campbell Place is one of the better neighborhoods north of I-10 in which to buy a lot, as it has some of the larger lots in the area (the largest lots north of I-10 are actually in Rollingwood, but it's north of Long Point and thus zoned to different schools than areas further south and east; this also makes it cheaper). I was driving through Campbell place this morning and saw a couple of good lots for sale - here's one: http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y The thing is that Campbell Place and Brykerwoods (which also has larger lots) are fairly expensive and are now beginning to approach prices south of the freeway, with lots costing half a mil, and newer houses running 1.3 to 2+ million. That's one reason why Monarch Oaks/Glenmore Forest where Yonkers visited the house on Westview has been getting so much new development, even though the lots are smaller (and thus a bit cheaper). But with prices there now approaching a million, more people are getting priced out and development is now moving north of Long Point. I suppose it's jut a never ending cycle! G

Absolutely right my friend! The other patio home development is Windsor Court at the corner of Westview and Campbell and across from old Spring Branch High. Of course quality varies, but I've heard few overall complaints from my neighbors (my own place is newer construction, built around 2001, and I've had now no major problems). As for price, the huse you looked at seems to fit well with what newer homes are going for in terms of price per square foot and overall. The price for newer homes on those streets is currently running between 917k to 750k, so 829k appears to be at the sweet spot. G

You're correct that in all of the Villages those lots that were created before the establishment of specific lots sizes have been "grandfathered" in, resulting in some non-conforming smaller lots. There are are also some newer lots that have been granted exceptions from these requirements for particular reasons. For example, the City of Spring Valley lost nearly a quarter of its tax base to I-10 expansion, including about 60 homes. In order to make up for this short fall the city granted variances from the lot size requirement in order to allow for the creation of two patio home developments to make up for this shortfall. There is also a patio home type development in Hunters Creek and apartments in Hedwig that obviously don't meet the lot size requirements. You've also discovered a lot one of the least expensive lots in an area zoned to Memorial High! I had a post about this a few months back. I had long noticed that the there was less new development, and thus lower prices for houses on Ronson, Bayram, and Panatella streets than on other similar streets in the area. I came to the conclusion that the only reason for this was that those streets are accessible only via Long Point with no outlet on to Westview, which is more attractive and thus preferred. Some redevelopment has now begun to creep on to those streets as well, but they remain much less expensive (approx, 200k rather than 300k for 50s ranches) than nearby areas. Of course, this means that you'll have more opportunity for appreciation, but also a bit more risk as you'll be among the first in redeveloping those streets (that lot you linked is located next door to one of the newer houses on the street). In the 5 years that I've lived in the area, I've heard little about significant crime. The area area is located where the cities of Houston, Spring Valley, and Hilshire Village come together, as well as being located near a school and a county-owned park, you get lots of police patrols from SVPD, HPD, SBISD police, and the County Sherriff. I've found this to be one of the advantages of living in the area. G

1. The lot for this house is listed as 8800 or so. Is that typical? It seems like lots in Memorial Villages are much larger than they are north of I-10 in Spring Valley/Hillshire. Most of the lots in that area are at least 10,000 square ft or so, so that lot is typical but a bit on the smaller side. The first few streets over from Wirt (Glenmore Forest, Glourie and Pine Chase) are the older part of the development from the early 50s and the lots are a bit smaller. As you move West towards Bingle the lots (and houses) tend to get bigger - around 15,000 sq ft, and this tends to be construction from the late 50's and 60's. But your right that lot sizes south of 1-10 tend to be larger than north of it and it it;s one of the reasons that it's more expensive. In Piney Point there is a minimum lot size of 40,000 sq ft, in Hunters Creek 22,500, Bunker Hill 10,000 to 20,000, Hedwig 15,000 to 21,000, Hilshire 12,000 and Spring Valley 10,000 (there are some exceptions in all of these villages). The house you visited is in Glenmore Forest/Monarch Oaks directly across from Hilshire Village. I remember the house that ws there previously and I believe that it was sold for basically lot value. 250k would have been a typical price in Spring 2007 while now the typical price for similar properties would be in the 300-350k range. 2. This house is right on Westview. I don't know enough about this area but it seems like it's a busy street - not like Bingle or something but still well used. I could definitely hear cars. Then again I live near the Beltway now and have gotten used to it. What are your thoughts? Westview isn't really that busy or congested of a street, and should not be too much of a concern (especially for someone who lives near the Beltway!). Not surprisingly, it's most active 6-9am in the morning and 5-7pm in the evenings. The location near Valley Oaks Elem School is well patrolled by SVPD, HPD, and SBISD police, tending to keep traffic speed fairly low. 3. Just did a quick search. Looks like this lot was bought back in May of 07 for $200-250k. Not sure if this is typical of lot values in the area. Debated about buying and building a house myself. I remember the house that was there previously and I believe that it was sold for basically lot value. 250k would have been a typical price in Spring 2007 while now the typical price for similar properties would be in the 300-350k range. There are a good number of houses in that neighborhood currently under construction, as well as a few lots and houses being sold for essentially lot value. So I would recommend that you drive around and have good look. 4. Anything else you can tell me about the area? I'm generally satisfied living in the area as most amenities - shopping, schools, churches, etc. are readily at hand. And the recent completion of I-10 construction has greatly improved access to downtown (being closer in is probably one advantage to living further west). It is a bit unusual living in an area undergoing such a fundamental redevelopment, and some of the older residents in the area think there was more community cohesiveness before the current gentrification. Overall, I think that the Spring Valley area and the Memorial area near the Beltway are fairly similar - fairly close-in wooded areas originally developed in the 50s/60s in Spring Branch ISD undergoing a good deal of redevelopment Prices in both areas are similar. In any case, either would be preferable to a return to exuburbia! Hope this helps. G

Yonkers, I know exactly the house that you visited, as I live just a few streets down form it towards Bingle at the corner of Westview and Moritz - also on the "wrong side" of Westview There really is no wrong side of Westview, other than the fact that on the northern side of the street between Wirt and Spring Branch Creek the houses are zoned to Landrum Middle School rather than Spring Branch Middle School which people prefer (but as I mentioned in my earlier there are alternatives and the other schools are the same - Memorial High and Valley Oaks Elementary down the street). Pine chase is one of the streets that's really getting a lot of redevelopment. Let me know if you have any questions about the neighborhood!

I agree with the assessments made in this thread, and think that Yonkers raises all of the right issues in considering buying a place in the Spring Valley area. I bought my place in this area a bit over 5 years ago, and chose it over a similar place that I was considering in the West U area. One of the reasons that I did so was that I saw the potential for greater appreciations since the West U area was already further along in the gentrification process. I was also surprised at how few people really new SV at that time, but this has obviously changed. I am constantly astounded by the amount of redevelopment occurring in the area, and as my work often takes me away for months at a time, I can really notice the changes. Since purchasing my place I've continued to follow price trends, and 50's era ranches tend to go for $300,000 to $450,000, with newer construction priced between 800, 000 to 1.5 million (when I first moved here there were only a handful of places priced at 1 mil or more, but recently there was place on the market for over 2 mil!). In addition to Spring Valley and Hilshire Village themselves, a good many of the adjacent areas have a good amount of redevelopment - Brykerwoods, Monarch Oaks, Glenmore Forest and Campbell Place in particular. And as was noted, some of these areas are now more expensive than some of the more western areas south of I-10. This is now pushing development further north and west, and there are even major projects being developed north of Long Point (again, as Yonkers noted, this area tends to be quite different from that south of Long Point). Most of this area is zoned to Memorial High and Spring Branch Middle School (exactly the same as the other side of the freeway; for the small portion not zoned to SBMS, Cornerstone Academy is a popular alternative) and Valley Oaks Elementary, which is quite popular with parents (there are also quite a numbe rof good private schools in the area - Awty, Regents, Duschene, etc.). I've enjoyed living in the area, and it's quite convenient. Though some claim that acitivtiy might have slowed a bit recently, I'm of the opinion that the prospects for continued redevelopment in the area are very good. I've posted a few times on this topic, so do see some of my earlier posts.

I noticed that there was a thread below about 12939 Memorial, so here's a link to an article concerning a neighboring house at 12923 Memorial: http://www.examinernews.com/articles/2008/...nity/comm01.txt The original article in the Memorial Examiner contains a photo, but the web article doesn't. The article also contains a link to the very informative Memorial Bend architecture page: http://memorialbendarchitecture.com/bend.htm It will be interesting to see whether the residents will be successful in obtaining designation as a historic district. G

I recall that there has been correspondence from time to time on this site about the Georgetown Townhomes, so you might want to search for earlier posts. Here's one link: http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...?showtopic=7008 G

RWB, thanks for the excellent post! I live in the area that you explored (near the intersection of Westview and Bingle), so I found the blog entry and photos most interesting. In fact, I think that I may have actually seen you attaching your bike to the front of the bus at the bus stop on Westview (it was the first time that I had noticed anyone doing this, so I took note as drove by). In any case, here are a few comments: 1) In addition to the zip code statistics that you cite, here are the rankings of the Villages by 2000 per capita income as well as their rank among the wealthiest places in Texas [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_locatio...r_capita_income ] : 2. Piney Point Village city, Texas $97,247 4. Hunters Creek Village city, Texas $88,821 5. Bunker Hill Village city, Texas $86,434 9. Hilshire Village city, Texas $66,620 20. Hedwig Village city, Texas $52,153 34. Spring Valley city, Texas $44,912 One notes that Hilshire actually has a higher per capita income than Hedwig Village south of I-10. For point of comparison here are: 8. West University Place city, Texas $69,674 13. Southside Place city, Texas $57,021 26. Bellaire city, Texas $46,674 2) I too have wondered how all the individual villages came about, but all that I know was that there was an attempt to incorporate all of Spring Branch in the 50s before if could be annexed by Houston, but somehow this failed and the result was the creation of the 6 villages in 1955. I have no idea how the individual boundaries among them came into being. 3) Also, interesting observation about the short street names in Spring valley. I hadn't thought about it before, but one does notice that a good many of the streets are named for the German families that originally settled the area - Wirt, Moritz, Pech, Burkhart, Witte, Sauer, etc. Westview hs originally named Hartenholm. Some descendants of these families still live in the area. By the way, the foot bridge on Pech is over Spring Branch Creek, not Hunters Creek. 4) Most of the houses featured in your photos I've seen before, but it was great that you found the mod houses at Pine Creek and Westview. Not many folks know that they're there, and the one that came on to the market in the 5 years that I've lived in the area went very quickly. And even though they have small front yards, some of them have very large back yards. And I love that pueblo style house on Hilshire Green! It was on the market when I first moved into the area, and I considered buying it. 5) And finally, I haven't noticed any slowing of the tear down trend in the area. As prices have risen in Brykerwoods (one new home was on the market there recently for $2,000,0000!), there has been some shift to Glenmore Forest, Monarch Oaks and Spring Oaks along Westview, where new or remodeled homes tend to go for $750,000 to 1 million. One should note that in addition to single family homes being replaced in Spring Valley and Hilshire Village themselves, apartment complexes and other structures are being torn down along their peripheries for patio home/townhouse communities: http://www.naihouston.com/news/?p=213 In any case, I greatly enjoyed your review of architecture in the Spring Valley/Hilshire Village area, as it seems that many in Houston don't realize that we're here! On second thought, that might not be such a bad thing. G

I think that the Villages will continue to cooperate, but I think that each values its own separate identity and autonomy. As some have pointed out, there is an overlap of various services with some sharing and others opting out of particular arrangements. For example, Piney Point, Bunker Hill and Hunters Creek share the Memorial Villages Police Department, Hedwig Village has its own department, as does Spring Valley whose police also serves Hilshire Village (I think that Hedwig and Spring Valley maintain their own forces due to the fact that they have substantial frontage on I-10 which gives them greater opportunities for "revenue enhancement" shall we say ).It might be interesting if someone can elaborate as to how the individual Villages arose. All I know is that in the 50s there was an attempt to incorporate all of Spring Branch before it could be annexed by Houston (yes the annexation controversies were going on even back then). This failed, and the result was the incorporation of the 6 Villages in part of the area.

Kate - It's an interesting question regarding Landrum. Almost all of the Valley Oaks Elementary attendance zone is also zoned to Spring Branch Middle, except for Monarch Oaks and a small section of Spring Oaks, which are zoned to Landrum. I'm not sure how widely this is known, but the SBISD board has been granting waivers to middle school students from these areas to attend Spring Branch Middle even though they are zoned to Landrum. The rational being to keep them together with the 90% of their classmates zoned to SBM. The practical effect of this is that NO ONE in Monarch Oaks/Spring Oaks sends his middle schoolers to Landrum, even though Landrum gets quite good state rankings. In addition to Spring Branch Middle, the local 6-8 graders attend Cornerstone, Westchester Academy, or the St. Mark Lutheran School. Needless to to say, the confidence of the community displayed in MHS and VOE is not shown vis-a-vis Landrum. I agree that it really is tempting to buy into some of these areas. As I mentioned in previous posts, when I first moved here in 2003 there was very little redevelopment west of Blalock, and absolutely none north of Long Point, but it has since spread to these areas. You're tight, that in some places it's still quite "mixed", but I think that a tipping point has been reached, and will only accelerate when the new 120 acre development at Hammerly and Emnora is completed. That at Bunker Hill north of I-10 in my opinion stil lhs great potential because the land and houses there are still relatively reasonable compared with sites further east. G

And Here's an additional 1953 Spring Oaks ranch for under $200,000 that I forgot to point out: http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y This is just about the absolute best price that you'll get on a single family home zoned to Memorial High School. G

Glad it helped. And I agree that the commute to Kingwood would be a killer. Therefore, I think that there is an area in Spring Oaks that I think that you should investigate that's within your budget. This area is just north of Spring Valley and centers on the streets of Ronson, Bayram, and Panatella. It's in a good location and is zoned to Memorial High and Valley Oaks Elementary, but is just now beginning to get the redevelopment that is already further along all around it. here's an example of what you can get for around $240,000: http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y I live not far from here, and the area is quite nice and within walking distance of a very private park and the elementary school. Note that the 1933 built date is likely a misprint for 1953 - there was nothing but farm land around here in the 30s! In any case, I've wondered why these few streets have lagged in price and redevelopment compared to others in the area, and I think it's because those streets exit onto Long Point rather than Westview which appears to be preferred. But I think that this is fairly small issue in the grand scheme of things. G