rps324 Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 I stumbled across this great mod in Meadowcreek Village, a great pocket neighborhood off Old Galveston Rd & Howard. 4 BR in good shape for $129,900. This would make a great find for someone wanting a cool mod at a good price. there is just something about aqua tile.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmancuso Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 interesting, but i couldn't own it becuase i would want to rip down the wall paper and that bench seat in the living room after a while...thus ruining the character of the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rps324 Posted December 11, 2004 Author Share Posted December 11, 2004 This was so deja vu for me! This could have been my neighbor's house in Westbury, a neighborhood whose homes seem very similar to these. A lot of well-designed, good-looking homes but the neighborhood is not so good when it comes to schools or crime rates, but it's trying to come back, slowly...<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Westbury is actually doing pretty well these days, especially in the Northern sections and the parts they refer to as Parkwest. Its definitely on an upswing.I would have to agree with the other posts about changing the wallpaper! Love the tile, but I can't quite embrace foil paper.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbaNerd Posted December 12, 2004 Share Posted December 12, 2004 Nice shapes, horrible decorating. A good buy, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tw2ntyse7en Posted December 20, 2004 Share Posted December 20, 2004 ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rps324 Posted December 21, 2004 Author Share Posted December 21, 2004 I don't think the foil wallpaper is critical to the design of that house. The wallper simply makes the bathroom too dark, and from what I can tell, doesn't particularly go well with the blue tile, which I too love. I think it's acceptable to change the wall paper and/or colors of a house as long as the structure remains intact and becomes a home for someone. Anyways, that living room is fantastic with that bench and really is a more critical part of the house to preserve.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>I totally agree. The tile is great but I don't think that paper works. This house is really great. it has a huge cedar closet and a great yard. Its still sitting there. The pocket it is in has some great mods, I have read in an old Chronicle article there is a Mackie and Kamrath in there somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasdago Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 Westbury includes 5,100 homes, which range in price from $74,000 to $250,000, and has more than 39,000 residents with an average yearly income of more than $65,000. Accessibility is a big key to the success of Westbury. The Texas Medical Center, downtown Houston, and Reliant Park are within easy reach from the neighborhood.Saw this from Westbury's page. I didn't realize Westbury was so big. You definitely see a ton of ads for Westbury in the 50s when they developed the neighborhood but holy cow!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest danax Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 I hope the residents of Westbury have good deed restrictions that might prevent it from being townhoused or McMansioned. That's the real danger these days for older,close-in neighborhoods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pineda Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 Westbury has always had good deed restrictions. The two main drawbacks to Westbury have been the same for years; poor schools and high crime. It's sad to have grown up in that area and hear almost nightly on the news the names of streets we used to travel daily in our youth now being used as descriptions of crime scenes. Southwest Houston, and this includes Westbury, is dangerous. If they could control the crime, the whole area might have a chance. Driving through the area now you can see so many bars on the windows and doors, it's sad... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 Southwest Houston, and this includes Westbury, is dangerous.Have to agree with you there. Ch 2 does 15 minutes of Southwest Houston crime every Sunday morning.It's sad, but true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rps324 Posted December 22, 2004 Author Share Posted December 22, 2004 Maybe I just like rooting for the underdog, but I am going to come to Westbury's defense. While many areas of Southwest Houston do suffer from crime, especially where you have high concentrations of apartments like Fondren SW, painting the entire broad geographic area as especially dangerous is a little unfair. I'm not saying its crime free, when somebody finds that totally crime free area in the 4th largest city, let us know and we will all move there! Houston ain't Mayberry. I know people who live in Westbury and really like it & don't have problems with it. In my opinion Meyerland, Bellaire, Willowbend, and a number of other Southwest neighborhoods are very desirable. I am going to respectively disagree with Westbury being described as basically not having a chance. According to HAR Westbury's price per square foot increase by two-thirds from 1998 to 2003. If you compare it with other parts of town, for example FM 1960, you can see it is doing better than you might think. In 1998 the price per square foot for the majority of subdivisions along 1960 in Spring ISD were pretty equal with Westbury, in the mid 40's psf. During the same time period these neighborhoods on 1960 have only risen on average a third of Westbury's climb. Numbers don't lie, but they do tell a story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pineda Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 I'm sorry if I stepped on your toes, rps. You obviously feel very strongly about Westbury, and that's nice to see. Hopefully, you are a member of some neighborhood association out there that is trying to help turn around that area. I was only speaking from personal experience of having grown up there and now seeing it these days and not wishing to move back because I don't think the schools are very good in that area, and recognizing street names on the 10:00 news from the old hood being listed as crime scene areas is just sad. I wouldn't exactly hold F.M. 1960 up as any shining example either, or even try to compare it to Westbury. It's not apples to oranges. Once upon a time, Ponderosa and Olde Oaks and Westador were wonderful, upscale neighborhoods, that's true. But, flooding, the rampant overbuilding along F.M. 1960, the crime that followed and the slow decline of the Spring ISD all helped to kill those neighborhood's prospects as well. Nowadays, F.M. 1960 is used as the poster child for urban sprawl and how not to build out an area. However, there are groups that are working hard to change some of that as well, as I'm sure there are in Westbury.Price per square foot analyses only tell part of the story of any area, as I'm sure you are very well aware. just as the Market Value listed on HCAD only begins to tell you how much any particular house is worth. Numbers don't lie, that's true, but they can only tell part of the story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rps324 Posted December 22, 2004 Author Share Posted December 22, 2004 Oh no, my toes aren't stepped on!thx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rps324 Posted May 17, 2005 Author Share Posted May 17, 2005 Hi! I am moving from Tampa Fl and was immediately attracted to the Ponderosa and Olde Oaks subdivisions. Unfortunately after checking school info I am having to opt further North. I have two boys 6 & 8. I was sorry to hear of the decline in those areas. Do you think they will come back? Is the Grand Parkway going to run near there? Will it help?What area would you reccomend to raise two younge boys?<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Actually, I used to live in Ponderosa. Ponderosa & Olde Oaks are still nice areas, more stagnant than in decline IMHO. Of course they are older homes that don't necessarily compete all that well with newer stuff farther out. Especially with amenity based buyers. There is a glut of apartments in Cypress Station, and down Ella Blvd, and I think a lot of people are distancing themselves from those complexes. That has affected the values. Champions, the original subdivision out there bordered by 1960 to the south, cypress creek to the north and Champion Forest to the east, is still one of the best out there. Huntwick next to has always done well. The developer did buried utility lines I think, and more of the homes were custom built with a little less repetition of floorplans. It always had some of the best curb appeal of any of the subdivisions out there. Champion Forest just to the north is one of the more popular ones. It is probably the most pretentious. It has "estate" homes on Cypresswood and towards the west of the subdivision that can exceed 10,000 square feet on a acre lot. Memorial Northwest just to the north of that has obnoxiously big houses for a song all day long, and good schools too. block after block of 4000 -7000 square foot houses in the $250,000 - $400,000 range I think, but I haven't run it in awhile. The houses don't show much in the way of architecture, but have the amenities a lot of people are looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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