Magnoila Trail

[jgs1419]

Grace Builders is currently preselling 11 homes on East Hedrick at Avenue L in Magnolia Park. Prices start at $115k and go to $128k. Design not withstanding, do you think Magnolia Park is ready for new construction? Who do you think is the target audience?

See their site for details.

Magnolia Trail website

[Guest danax]

I drive through Magnolia Park a lot and often think about it's future. I would like to see people come in from the West side and elsewhere and take advantage of the still-affordable great location and fix up the older homes and turn the original neighborhood around. Some parts are a little run down but the place is far from hopeless. However, if that dream were ever to happen it would've already started years ago. I think now, with the townhome gold rush discovering the East End , most of those homes will end up being destroyed and Magnolia Park will retain it's name and very little else.

The western end of Magnolia Park will probably get more high-end townhomes having nice skyline views and 5 minute downtown access. The area where Grace has started building will probably start getting replaced by similar examples. They should attract first-time homebuyers of more moderate income than what we have on the westside. The MetroRail and hike and bike will be just blocks away and the Buff Bayou being developed to the North, they could attract many urban types who can't quite afford the Westend.

They look ok and I think it's a boost up for the neighborhood and East End in general. As a resident out here, I do fear that, as we will likely be quickly filled with this version of the modern city dwelling and that many of these townhomes could be cheaply constructed which, once the newness wears off and problems like mold and cracked slabs arise, could end up being foreclosed upon and the area could decline once again.

I think in 20 years we will barely be able to recognize that stretch of land between Harrisburg and Navigation known as Magnolia Park.

[kjb434]

The homes seem like affordable housing especially with the price point.

I just don't like one vanity in the Master Suite.

[GREASER]

Are these actually townhomes? The lots are around 2000 sf. That is 3 dwellings per lot. This cheap construction is a great concern of mine, is the East End going to eventually a bunch of cheap housing? I have been thinking about selling and getting out of the neighborhood. As I look around Lawndale area most the houses are 2 bedroom peir and beam construction, and if fairly run down condition, but they are repairable. Why do people people want this crap.

OK just a bunch of thoughts that might not much sense, but do y`all think Lawndale (Telehone/Lawndale) will eventually be alot of cheap, new construction, housing?

[jm1fd]

OK just a bunch of thoughts that might not much sense, but do y`all think Lawndale (Telehone/Lawndale) will eventually be alot of cheap, new construction, housing?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Depends on how well the old houses that are there right now were built. I think Broadmoor will stay laragely in tact....the houses seem to be pretty well built, and it makes good economic sense to rehab them. I don't know about the housing quality of the other areas around there.

[jm1fd]

Design not withstanding, do you think Magnolia Park is ready for new construction?  Who do you think is the target audience?

See their site for details. 

Magnolia Trail website

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The target audience is somebody who just HAS TO HAVE a NEW house inside the loop, but can only afford the bare minimum....looking at the floorplans and specs, these things are going to be absolute bottom of the line junk....I'll bet they're making a killing on this at those prices and that low level of finish.

[GREASER]

OK I didn`t want to offend anyone, but yes these wil be junk. This is the Walm@rt mentallity that pisses me off. Why buy a house that will be a p.o.s. in 8 yrs. , when for the same amount of money, a house can be bought. For the people that don`t know the area, these houses are cheap. It makes no sense to cram all of these on small lots. I`m sure with this wonderful addition there will be alot of financial incintives to get people (who otherwise couldn`t afford it) into these units. I hate to be negative, but these will be future slums, nothing more.

[Guest danax]

OK I didn`t want to offend anyone, but yes these wil be junk. This is the Walm@rt mentallity that pisses me off. Why buy a house that will be a p.o.s. in 8 yrs. , when for the same amount of money, a house can be bought. For the people that don`t know the area, these houses are cheap. It makes no sense to cram all of these on small lots. I`m sure with this wonderful addition there will be alot of financial incintives to get people (who otherwise couldn`t afford it) into these units. I hate to be negative, but these will be future slums, nothing more.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's the initial reaction I had too. However, the land in Magnolia Park is considerably cheaper than other inner-loop areas so, is a $120K townhouse in Magnolia Park of lesser construction quality than a $150K in Rice Military or a $200K in Midtown?

I look at this as a seed project. Neighborhoods improve and decline, not in huge leaps and bounds, but in waves. This is a first of it's kind project in that particular area, an area that hasn't seen much in the way of optimism since 1910. The existing housing stock is simple and very old at this point and the residents have run it about as far into the ground as it will go. This is obviously not going to turn the area into the River Oaks of the East end but it is an improvement over what is there now.

Does anyone know what the first seed projects were in Midtown? That area was pretty dumpy 10 years ago. Are those first projects dumps now? They got the ball rolling and attracted new blood to the area and land began to get more and more pricey until now, I don't believe anything new will be built there that is as cheap, in 2005 dollars, as whatever started the upwards movement. Will another Perry Homes ever be able to afford to build in Midtown again?

Worst case scenario: these things start falling apart in 5 years and turn into rentals and foreclosures. That would definitely be a downward force affecting the East end. However, I believe that the predominant force will overpower any downward forces, that force being the rising cost of land due to location. Pockets of older, less desirable housing might slow a upward wave but that's all part of the natural process. Almost nothing in nature goes in straight lines, even light is composed of waves.

As for the immediate effect, these homes should attract multi-racial working class families and some singles too, which will start the breakup of the mono-culture out there. The downside to dense housing is that the buffer zone between neighbors is gone. In this project, unlike the many singles and childless couples on the Westend who live in townhouses, these people might have children which will add a potential apartment-like atmosphere to a dense community. In 50 years, will the inner-loop be 90% high density housing? One big apartment complex? We need to add greenspace and save some of the old houses with yards or it might look just like that.

[kjb434]

Good point danax. I think these may be the start you've been looking for the East End.

[GREASER]

Good points Danax. I feel a little better about the neighborhood on a long term basis.

[Guest danax]

Guess we can add this project to our book of the dead. I drove by today and the big signs are gone, replaced by little realtor signs selling the land only, apparently. Not a major project, but this had some potential to start a development spark in the heart of the East End and it's a shame to see die.

Too deep in the bowels of the barrio? Lost funding? Disappointing pre-sales?(my guess). Nice try, Grace. Maybe just a little too much of a leap just yet. I admire your guts to try something there.

Magnolia Park might as well be Muncie, Indiana to most of Houston. It's a great piece of land though; small hills, the big bayou, downtown views and proximity. One day it will rise.

[EastEnd Susan]

I grew up in the Eastend and lived at 6640 Ave. L. For 18 years, My grandmother had lived there since the 30's. I went by there 10/7/05 and was shocked to see some of the houses on my block had been torn down and replaced by tiny brick homes. It was almost as if they has asked themselves..ok, how small can I build a house before they call it a dog house. The lots in this area are very narrow. Its not that I mind that the homes were torn down, some of them were in bad shape, but couldn't they at least have built homes that looked like the beautiful wood frame homes that were there before? I guess it could have been worse. A business on Navagation bought the land behind them which is on Avenue L and tore down about 5 or 6 houses to extend their lovely metal buildings on one part of land and used the other parts to store all kinds of pipe and other crap. What an eyesore. I will always love the Eastend. I had always hoped for better for her though.

[Guest danax]

That area of the East End has been abused continuously for almost 100 years. It's like no one treats it as their own. I see the potential and get frustrated too, and hope that people with a more beautiful vision step up and start the transformation soon before the next generation of rinky-dink self-proclaimed developers/rapists start replacing the current eyesores with worse.

[EastEnd Susan]

That area of the East End has been abused continuously for almost 100 years. It's like no one treats it as their own. I see the potential and get frustrated too, and hope that people with a more beautiful vision step up and start the transformation soon before the next generation of rinky-dink self-proclaimed developers/rapists start replacing the current eyesores with worse.

That exactly how I feel. Even Navagation used to be alive with grocery stores, a movie theater and all sorts of little shops and big factories like John Deere and Bama Jelly. It was a busy place on a Saturday morning. And when the wind blew just right there was always the smell of roasting coffee beans from the coffee plant on Navagation.

[MidtownCoog]

Does anyone know what the first seed projects were in Midtown?

Perry moved into the gritty side of Midtown in 1999. The smallest homes started at $128,000.

Those same homes are now selling for $170,000 and still look fine.

The main problem is a lack of care with lawns, flower beds, sidewalks and litter. You can blame the litter on the street traffic and the lazy residents and weak homeowner associatoins for the rest.

But overall, still looks decent.