Avenue Terrace: Multifamily At 4004 Irvington Blvd.

[Serrano]

This morning i saw that all the trucks were gone from FedEx. Every single truck. Any info?

[LTAWACS]

This morning i saw that all the trucks were gone from FedEx. Every single truck. Any info?

Interesting. I'll have to swing by there on the way to grab some tacos from that taco truck up there.

[crunchtastic]

Article in the Chron today on what's going in on the FedEx site:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metrop...an/6141832.html

"A nonprofit housing organization announced plans Monday for a 20-acre, mixed-use development on Houston's Near Northside, a project Mayor Bill White called an important step in providing affordable housing near downtown and other employment centers.

Over the next few years, a vacant FedEx Warehouse at 4004 Irvington will be transformed into 80 to 100 single-family homes, 180 to 250 apartments and a retail center, said Mary Lawler, executive director of the Avenue Community Development Corp., which will oversee the project."

Good to see housing infill coming inside the loop that is reasonably priced.

[TheNiche]

Good to see housing infill coming inside the loop that is reasonably priced.

Avenue CDC is one of the most competently-managed and ambitious nonprofit groups of its kind in the region--so congrats to them for getting this deal set up.

However from a strict policy perspective, I'm somewhat less thrilled. Haven't we learned anything from the past year? Renting and owning are just financial decisions; sometimes it makes sense and other times not. Homeownership is not anything to be aspired to or promoted in and of itself. Also, subsidized homeownership in this form tends to make transactions more difficult and adds to administrative hassle.

[crunchtastic]

However from a strict policy perspective, I'm somewhat less thrilled. Haven't we learned anything from the past year? Renting and owning are just financial decisions; sometimes it makes sense and other times not. Homeownership is not anything to be aspired to or promoted in and of itself. Also, subsidized homeownership in this form tends to make transactions more difficult and adds to administrative hassle.

Clearly there is a need for affordable housing in the city, and if these guys can make it work, I don't think we should abandon housing policy just because the current financial environment is weak. That said, I share your concern that the subsidy arrangement won't impede the project.

I also agree for me homeownership is first and foremost a business transation. But if homeownershp (or rentership) wasn't aspitational, HHN wouldn't sell a single one of their $350,000 boxes to eager 20 somethings, and there wouldn't be a midtown or a disco green or OPP for everyone to get so hyper about. The gentrification/urban living fanstasy in particular is based on aspiration. At the other end of the spectrum, you have people aspiring to get out of their crappy class C hut out on 1960, or their crappy inner loop fourplex with an absentee landlord. Hard times just make them aspire more. We can't take that out of the equaiton, but we can be smarter about the way we shape housing policy and lending regulation.

[TheNiche]

Clearly there is a need for affordable housing in the city, and if these guys can make it work, I don't think we should abandon housing policy just because the current financial environment is weak. That said, I share your concern that the subsidy arrangement won't impede the project.

There's a lot of affordable housing in that neighborhood and throughout our municipality. Most of it is crappy, but it is very affordable.

It strikes me that if more affordable, quality inner-city housing is the goal, then these government and nonprofit entities just need to devote their resources to building as much new housing as possible, beyond the equillibreum level so as that prices must drop throughout a neighborhood in order to clear the market. Price breaks probably wouldn't be as great, but more housing could be built given the same budget and the impact would be felt throughout the market, making a vastly greater variety of housing options available to consumers at all income strata.

I also agree for me homeownership is first and foremost a business transation. But if homeownershp (or rentership) wasn't aspitational, HHN wouldn't sell a single one of their $350,000 boxes to eager 20 somethings, and there wouldn't be a midtown or a disco green or OPP for everyone to get so hyper about. The gentrification/urban living fanstasy in particular is based on aspiration. At the other end of the spectrum, you have people aspiring to get out of their crappy class C hut out on 1960, or their crappy inner loop fourplex with an absentee landlord. Hard times just make them aspire more. We can't take that out of the equaiton, but we can be smarter about the way we shape housing policy and lending regulation.

I don't really understand what you're advocating, here.

[crunchtastic]

I don't really understand what you're advocating, here.

Not advocating anything, but pointing out that your earlier comment about how homeownership shouldn't be promoted or aspired to is moot, because aspiration is the very reason the residential real estate market exists.

And the lessons of the past yeart, (by which I assume you mean the subprime blowup) are moot as well if someone can make a deal work, and it appears this outfit is prepared to deal. We'll just have to see if they can execute.