Page 1B • The Leader • July 27, 2013 • www.theleadernews.com
EXPERT
OPINIONS
Q: With mortgage rates increasing to their highest level in two years, is it possible that we’ll be seeing Houston’s home sales boom flatten out or turn around? Rising interest rates may slow the market down a bit, but I don’t think it will make much difference with today’s buyer. It may in fact, make buyers that are thinking about buying –– be it a first home or upgrading –– “get off the fence.” We are still short of inventory, and that means when your dream home comes on the market, you buy! My first home was at 14 percent! Pat Walker - Realtor Keller Williams Metropolitan Mortgage rates have increased from record low rates, however rates are still way below a 15-year average. I do not expect rates to go really high in the short term as our economy and confidence is not strong enough Rates are still great, and home prices are increasing again, so I think home sales will continue to improve as long as the feds don’t do anything stupid. Jay Stoneburner Stoneburner & Associates It is always possible that we could see the pace slow down for both new listings and for buyers. However with the limited amount of inventory available through out the city, I doubt the increase in the interest rates will have an impact on sale prices or multiple offers on homes in high demand areas, after all Houston’s real estate market has not seen this kind of activity since 2006. As a Realtor specializing in Houston’s Inner Loop neighborhoods, I commonly see listings receive multiple offers and many times before the pictures are even uploaded onto the MLS site. The biggest challenge has been and will continue to be the limited amount of available inventory. Pamela Efferson Pamela Efferson Properties Keller Williams Metropolitan Although mortgage rates have slightly increased I don’t anticipate it will affect our market at all. Houston is growing so fast that the demand is going to remain strong regardless. Remember, just a few years ago people were so excited to get 6.5 percent on a 30-year fixed mortgage. Allen Frieze Keller Williams Metropolitan
The High Co$t of Homes
Compiled By Charlotte Aguilar Editor
Homes are easily topping million-dollar mark in Leader area With home prices escalating monthly, those with roots in Leader communities love to tell stories about prices back in the day. The stories about grandpa picking up a Heights bungalow for well under $10,000 back in the 1930s or mom and dad living out the 1950s suburban fantasy
for $11,000 with a new home in Oak Forest are legendary. Boy, times have changed. The Leader decided it would be fun to find some of the top residential properties in the most booming ZIP codes we cover (and report hous-
ing statistics for each month as part of Leader Listings). We’ve used our friends at Houston Association of Realtors and their MLS service as the basis for this tour. Hold onto your checkbook – it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
77007 Average home prices in this ZIP are inching toward a half-million, skewed by the huge, custom homes – some in gated communities – that dot the area east of Memorial Park. In fact there are eight homes in the $2-3 million price range in this area alone. •The top listing in all Leader communities is a $4.4 million, 3-story, 5-bedroom, 8,205 square foot giant in this neighborhood at 318 Terrace Drive, listed by Robert Hamlin of Martha Turner Properties (shown at right). For that price, you get 21,000 square feet of land, a wine room butler’s pantry, outdoor kitchen, three woodburning fireplaces, his-and-her bathrooms in the master suite and four bedrooms with en suite bathrooms.
We went looking for something typical in the Heights portion of this ZIP, north of I-10, and found a $735,000 3-4 bedroom home at 815 Ashland (above) that’s under construction. When completed, it will have 3,105 square feet of living space, an upstairs loft retreat, all oak floors and a New Orleans-style courtyard. Listing agent is Teresa Coffman with Coldwell Banker. There are a number of townhomes and garden style homes in the $700,000-900,000 range being built throughout 77007.
77008
For $1.35 million, you can have the Heights dream – a classic 1907 Queen Anne Victorian on Heights Boulevard, 3story, 6 bedrooms, 6 1/2 baths, with a 2-bedroom 1 1/2-bath carriage house and an 802 square foot studio, shown at left. Cathy Steward with Greenwood King Kirby is the listing agent.
Priced at $1.49 million (at left), this contemporary home on three lots at 2200 Harvard, abutting a park, can also house your business. It boasts color-changing lighting, 19-foot ceilings, a floating stairway, Japanese soaking tub with more interchanging lighting, three fireplaces, art and photo imaging rooms, a rooftop sundeck and a pool with a spill-over edge. Kellie Geitner with Martha Turner Properties has the listing.
77009 Here’s what $899,000 gets you in the historic Norhill area of the Heights: a 1,526 square foot open floor plan built in 1926. It features a 55 x 18 living room and 27 x 18 den. The listing is at 2928 Michaux, handled by Kelly Walsh of Neartown Realty.
77018 Garden Oaks has its own $1 million home under construction. Facundo Homes is building the 4-5 bedroom, 3 1/2-bath, 3,345 square foot French traditional home on a 11,612 square foot lot at 1066 W. 41st St. (right). It features a chef’s kitchen, and there’s a jacuzzi in the master bath. While it won’t come with a pool, there’s room enough for one. Mary Wassef of Circa Real Estate is the listing agent.
ZIP 77018, meet the future: a $1.35 million home under construction (and for sale) in Candlelight Estates (above). The behemoth will be 5,460 square feet when done, perched on a 17,000 square foot lot. There are 6 bedrooms (one can be configured as a game or media room), 4 baths, a chef’s kitchen, outdoor kitchen, an inner courtyard and saltwater pool. For some, the property’s zoning to coveted Oak Forest Elementary School would be worth the price. It’s listed by Alejandro Pedraza of Prudential Anderson Properties.
Vintage exterior leads to a contemporary filling by Cynthia Lescalleet For The Leader The classic 1920s exterior of a renovated cottage in Houston Heights gives way to a far more modern interior. Art-loving homeowner Bobbie Knox Echard likes that unexpected contrast in her home as well as the symmetry -- achieved at her urging (and with a chalk line). A monthly look at a “The only thing original inside renovation project in is … nothing,” she said. our neighborhoods. A retired FBI agent and former attorney, Echard is detail oriented. That trait played into her hunt for a property to redo after a fruitless search (as in “hundreds of look-overs”) for a suitable one already updated. “I knew it would be my last house,” Echard said, “because the Heights was my dream location, and I knew I
DOVER
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would never leave once I got here.” Good-bye suburbia. Hello walkable neighborhood. Naysayers thought the dilapidated home she bought in 2010 was a real goner. (At times, frankly, so did Echard, who persevered nonetheless.) Her home is located on the west side of Oxford Street, so it falls inside the historic district. Properties across the street don’t. “I thought it would be wonderful to preserve an historic home, but I didn’t know how difficult it would be,” she said. Still, it was worth it. “I use every square inch every day.”
Out, not up
Originally a two-bedroom, one-bathroom home of 1,100 sq. ft., the cottage’s 2012 re-birth has 2,200 sq. ft. and a more open floor plan. Its central hallway remains,
see Do-Over • Page 4B
The open kitchen, above, and the walk-in, massive shower (left) are just two of the changes that were made to this Heights home on Oxford Street. The kitchen won the Texas Association of Builders’ 2013 STAR award for best renovation. (Submitted Photos)
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