Documenting Growth, Development, and Real Estate in Fort Worth.
The sparks the interesting question of what the current economic climate will mean for the eventual build out of the Trinity River Vision project here in Fort Worth? We’ll keep a look out.
Apparently an Aledo investor thought that 106 vacant lots were a fairly decent investment. Big Sky Investments bought the lots out of foreclosure from JP Morgan. No surprise that the bank had significantly lowered there asking price in several months time. The buying company, owned by John Vernon, intends to build “affordable housing” on the lots.
That is all fine, but I don’t understand where these buyers are going to come from. I personally don’t think that investing in blank land is that bad of an idea, but I would prefer to hold the land as is. No sense in developing something residential at such an uncertain time, and at the end of the day he is really betting on the availability of credit in the mortgage market. My bet would be that JP Morgan reduced their prices to something more average to national market levels. This would look fairly attractive in the Fort Worth area as our market prices have seen the same declines of the national market.
Guess we’ll just have to see what happens with Big Sky’s investment. Mind you Dallas Fort Worth NEW home sales are down 30%. The listings should be popping up in the Rolling Hills subdivision.
While going for a Sunday burger at Fred’s Texas I was struck to see the progress of the West 7th Development. So struck that I began to wonder if Fred’s would make it through the transition. Luckily for me I was comforted by the owners short but confident answer that they would not be going anywhere.
So good news burder lovers, it appears that the Terry Chandler owns not only one fine structure, but also the land that it sits on (via his father). I would just hate to see this staple of Ft. Worth uprooted. And while the atmosphere will surely be changing, it appears Fred’s will stay the same. Until it burns down again of course.
The upward movement of the appraisal value is a bit striking however. Seems the taxable value has more than tripled in three years. Unbelievable. Those are going to some expensive burgers; I’ll still pay extra for blue cheese.
Since the Second World War our nation has built upon a trend of suburbanization. There is no doubt that we have now reached the tipping point where this trend will need to fade. Point forward the natural trend should be in reverse, we need to learn to build a more urban central society. We simply cannot continue down the path which we have created, and perhaps more importantly, we cannot continue to rely on cheap energy.
Fort Worth is perhaps a prime example of “worst-case-scenario”. Already in a major metropolitan location, Fort Worth has grown to be one of the largest cities is the country. We have completely neglected efficient public transportation, and our infrastructure hardly promotes its introduction. That is unfortunate, but it can change. What really concerns me the most is what will come if we mismanage this transition. During suburbanization we generally could point to inner cities becoming the slums of the marginalized, giving rise to the negative connotations associated with the phrase “inner-city”. Mismanagement of the transition could end with the marginalized being pushed to the outer parameters of any given metro area (Mexico City is a good example of this).
Fort Worth has done well to build out an urban residential market preemptive to skyrocketing demand, but what will come of those old suburbs?
I consider myself to be a fairly conservative person, more of the Ron Paul persuasion lately, I was a bit upset when I read a recent post from Fort Worthology.
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