jimcas

how did you hear June 4th? I drive by daily and there isn't a sign or anything....

I called another Houston Chuy's location and asked if they knew when it was opening and whoever answered the phone said "June 4".

Is the World Market still going in? Doesn't seem like it is...

I believe the Chuy's on 1960 is opening on June 4th - this Wednesday.

This auction was held over the weekend. Anyone make it out there or hear what they sold for?

Try to contain your excitement - I know this isn't the world's biggest scoop, but I saw a sign for a new Arby's going in on 290 somewhere near the new IHOP and CVS on 290 NW of the Spring Cypress exit.

My wife and I bought a foreclosure in MNW (4225sq/ft @ $38) and love the house and neighborhood. Definately a bargain. Very few through streets and a nice club house that is great for families.

In our case, no renovations or improvements had been done on the house in 35+ years. Over that time the maintenance done has been minimal.

A lot of sweat equity later, we have a very unique, large, comfortable house near good schools and shopping. The best part is I'm ten minutes from work.

D

It's hard to argue with $38/sq foot.

I would like a J.Crew, but don't think it will happen. It is one of the few brands where I actually like most of the clothes.

Restoration hardware my wife loves, but I just can't bring myself to pay those prices, I mean Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel are rip offs, but Restoration Harware is just obscene. A Crate and Barrel would be nice as well...

Absolutely second the book store, but both B&N and Borders are having some tough financial times right now.

I hate to say it, but I don't think the current crop of no-name stores - Cheeburger Cheeburger, Peli Peli, Shogun, etc... is going to draw in too many high profile stores (or too many customers either in the long run...). There is not currently one single "destination" store on the entire tenant list.

It has always been a bargain on the price per sq ft game over there. I doubt they have much more in the way of foreclosures than any of the comparable subdivisions around there. Those monster houses that Goettee built are not finished out all the well, but the area is between Gleannloch Farms and Champion Forest, with some of the best schools in Klein, so it remains very popular.

Looks like they had about a 2% foreclosure rate in 2007, which is definitely higher than average, though not one of the absolute worst. It's also a large neighborhood of 2000+ homes, so maybe it just seemed like they had tons of foreclosures.

Here's an interesting source on 2007 foreclosures in the Houston area by zip/neighborhood:

http://www.chron.com/mm/foreclosure/

Speaking of Memorial Northwest - why are there so many foreclosures in that neighborhood specifically?

If you've looked on har.com recently, there are so many houses between 4000 and 6500 square feet going for $60 sq ft and less, and several are foreclosures.

I don't really like the neighborhood too much, but man...can you get a McMansion on the cheap there or what!

Longwood to hp.

5 miles or 7 minutes.

We need to get more people who feel that way running for the MUD boards.

I'll definitely vote for Mr. Football if he runs for my local mud board. Hint, Hint...

According to the owner, they are pening May 28th with a Grand Opening scheduled shortly after that.

That's an opinion, actually.

Being able to differentiate between a fact and an opinion is a skill schools teach in...oh, about the first grade.

Or 7th grade if you go to school in HISD.

Most school districts (no way in heck I'd ever defend districts like North Forest) are doing a pretty good job at stretching a dollar...

Get the facts.

HISD doesn't do a good job at anything. That's a fact.

What's the number? I would like to call him too.

I don't have it memorized but it's posted right outside their location on Telge. If you get it, post it.

Maybe if he gets enough phone calls he'll get the message and do something about it.... If he doesn't get the message, at least he'll know what people think of his garbage can disguised as a building.

Where is the "DEMOS" artist when you need him???

I called the number listed by this and asked if construction was complete. Unfortunately, he said it was...

I then told him it was the tackiest thing I'd ever seen, for whatever that was worth.

Either this guy is just super-cheap, or he's married to a 400 lb woman with a mustache that he thinks is beautiful.

This could help understand the problem if anyone is really interested in this topic...

http://www.cfisd.net/movies/wbm100506/Budg...e%20Hearing.pdf

I will blame it on trying to build too many schools and having an influx of people defaulting on their mortgages and having to move out of the area.

That's not it, in my opinion. This is sheer incompetence.

This area is growing, not shrinking - hence the need for the new schools.

Mortgage defaults in Cy Fair are relatively insignificant.

This isn't Miami or Orange County or even inner loop Houston. Sure there are some people defaulting - but I think it's a relatively insignificant number.

Overplanning for 20% of tax revenues that aren't going to be there because of a known homestead exemption (that isn't as heavily utilized in other school districts, which is probably why they missed it) - To me, that's just incompetence.

I'm not sure where the surplus/shortfall would be without that mistake - but surely - that's a HUGE contributor to the problem.

From that article - "The formula assumed we collected taxes on 20 percent homestead exemption, which we did not," Durham said."

Brilliant.

The only way you'll get one of these at 80k or even a decent discount is if noone shows up...

Unless of course they hired the Vintage Park Marketing Team from CBRE to promote this thing - In that case you just may be in luck!

Posting this for all of our HP people.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5775047.html

HP to buy Texas-based EDS for $12.6 billion in cash

NEW YORK

If commute times were cut significantly, he said, more people might be inclined to live in Temple and work in Houston, Dallas or Austin - and vice versa.

http://www.temple-telegram.com/story/local/2008/04/25/48890

Cool story. Only a newspaper article from Temple would take the angle that people would be inclined to live in Temple and work in Houston, Dallas or Austin... Also, you'd think a Texas Triangle, rather than T-Bone, would benefit Houston & Dallas more - getting a direct route between the two largest metros would be a good thing, even if it required building a little more track.

I wonder how much it would cost to ride on this and how far away in the future are we talking about - I might be an old man by that time...

Heatherwood HOA contact info:

myheatherwood@yahoo.com

Here's an article in today's Chronicle discussing the "Green Medians" project slated for FM 1960:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/cyf...ws/5735469.html

Mr. Football - where was that thread about planting trees on Louetta near Blockbuster and further down Louetta closer to 249? It would be really nice to have tree-lined medians all the way from 249 to Longwood's front entrance... I remember there was some good info in that post - just can't find it.

Also, as far as the back entrance of Longwood (can you tell I live in Longwood) I wonder if they will be planting trees in the median for Huffmeister (like on Telge) when its completed. Would like to see that addressed as so many trees were clearcut on Huffmeister and its lost a lot of its natural beauty... Any thoughts on who to contact or bring up on that to get that considered?

I've noticed those too and thought the exact same thing - I hope this isn't what it's going to look like when its complete. FUGLY.