Parrothead Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 Back in 1971, my parents bought four lots near the "Country Club" in Roman Forest, which is now a partially-developed incorporated subdivision/city north of Kingwood that went bankrupt. Those lots now belong to me. Of course, they aren't, and haven't been, worth anything since they are in the UN-developed part of the area. In fact, you can't even get to the lots. The blueprints show roads but they are not there and were never built in that section.My question is this: I have noticed new, custom homes being built on lots in Roman Forest now. Of course, these are on streets that have been there. What do you think the odds are of someone coming along and putting money into the development now that the Grand Parkway has been approved? Or will it not go to 59?I really have no qualms about the realities of the situation, I mean, it's pretty pathetic (the fact that I even pay property taxes on the land is kinda nutty) but because Kingwood is continually moving north (now they are in Montgomery County) I just wonder if another developer will see an opportunity.Also, any comments from anyone familiar with Roman Forest, esp if you live there, would be great!! I would love to know any future plans for the area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeightsGuy Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 I'm pretty familiar with the area. If I'm not mistaken, Roman Forest was like a number of other master-planned communities that sprung up in the late 60's early 70's as MUD districts. But, unlike The Woodlands and Kingwood, places like Roman Forest were not developed with deep pockets like George Mitchell's, so to finance their activities developers had to sell land as well as fully developed homes. Enter people like your parents who bought thinking they would either build their dreamhouse or sell later as a profit.As you know, that didn't happen due to a number of issues like that decade's oil crisis and Houston's recession in the 80's, so now you have places like Roman Forest only partially developed still after all these years. Unlike Kingwood though, there is no one entity that owns it all so it can't easily be developed now that times are good again. And, I think much of that land is now owned by the school district or county since many of the lot owners long ago decided it was better to just walk away then to continue paying the taxes. As an investment, for people who bought that long ago, they would have paid more in taxes by now than they would ever hope to get back in a sale.If you want to know what's going to happen to the area, I think a good place to start would be to find out what the school district and Montgomery County plan to do with the lots they own. Can a developer swoop in and buy it all, does it get auctioned off one-by-one, or will it forever sit in their portfolios.One other thing, I read a number of months back that Rice University sold a big piece of land (that was willed to them a long time ago) to a developer. It's that huge parcel of land that sits to the south of Roman Forest road between the freeway and the bridge that brings you into the subdivision. The press release about it said the whole thing was going to be filled with homes. That might spark interest in the area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeightsGuy Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 You see a lot of this in the Spring area too, driving through a subdivision, house, house, lot, house, lot, lot, lot, house, lot. You wonder who owns all these lots, it's the taxing authorities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jilltylererick Posted August 8, 2005 Share Posted August 8, 2005 I bought a house in Roman Forest last year and am hearing all kinds of rumblings about development. The Rice parcel at the front of Roman Forest flipped to a developer, who in turn sold it to Marlin Atlantis of DFW. If you go to his website (http://www.marlinatlantis.com) there are plans for what he is going to do. I'm pretty concerned about it. For one, they are certain to screw up the drainage for Roman Forest and make it mosquito city. I also am not looking forward to the traffic either. The plan in extremely ambitious (thousands of homes), which I don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jilltylererick Posted August 8, 2005 Share Posted August 8, 2005 Parrothead, I got an update today on the MUD situation. Last month the arbitration was settled between the MUDs, but nobody can develop 3 & 4 because of the bankruptcy they are under. A local realty group (Tejas) has bought a lot of the property in the back of RF, and were the hacked when they discovered that it couldn't be developed yet (I got this from a pretty reliable source). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted August 9, 2005 Author Share Posted August 9, 2005 Wow! Thanks so much for the info. I'm going to be checking that out very soon!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.