140 Callaghan Ave 78210 – Lavaca Historic District
Newly priced for VA financing. This home, built in 2007, is centrally located in the Lavaca Historic District. It features a second floor master suite that opens onto a large balcony with commanding views of downtown & the Tower of the Americas. The downstairs floor plan provides wonderful entertaining space with open flow among the kitchen, living, & dining rooms. Also downstairs is a fourth bedroom or media room. The corner lot is fenced and has a workshop and carport that can accommodate up to four cars. **Click on the photo for more listing information and photos.**
LISTING – 514 Madison St 78204 – King William Historic District
This two story Queen Anne home sits on a double lot just steps away from the River Walk in Historic King William. Double wrap around porches provide the perfect vantage point to watch the Fiesta King William Fair & Parade. The home features high ceilings, tall windows, beautiful hardwood floors, space for attic expansion, & a grand entry with elegant stairway. The family room overlooks the spacious yard shaded by mature trees. The detached two car garage off S. Alamo has a second story studio & full bath.
What do turkey legs, numerous cups of beer, and throngs of people have to do with historic conservation? More than you may know. The Southside Reporter posted this article yesterday detailing San Antonio Conservation Society’s historic rehab grant program and how money from A Night in Old San Antonio (the event with the beer, turkey legs, and folks) helps make the grants possible. The article also lays out the requirements needed in applying for a grant.
Conservation Society offers historic rehab grant money
Special to the Southside Reporter
Using the proceeds from its 2012 “A Night In Old San Antonio” event and in keeping with its mission, the San Antonio Conservation Society is accepting applications for grants to individuals and organizations for restoration or rehabilitation of residential or commercial structures in the San Antonio area that are at least 50 years old.
The deadline for all entries is 4:30 p.m. Sept. 28. Grant recipients will be notified by Dec. 3.
The Conservation Society began awarding grants in 1990. Examples of grant projects funded in past years include restoration or rehabilitation of roofs, foundations, windows, plaster, facades, chimneys, front doors, porches and stonework.
Since 2000, the society has awarded $1.8 million to individuals and organizations through its grants programs.
Wonderful two bedroom and two bathroom home in Historic Lavaca. This home was renovated in 2007 to include foundation repairs, metal roof, and double pane windows throughout. An architecturally designed complementary addition was built to add modern amenities such as a master bath, dressing area with walk-in closet, laundry area, and a screen porch. Large lot includes a storage building. Great location in the neighborhood with easy access to Hwy 281.
Click on the photo for more pictures and information about the house.
Contemporary construction in the center of the King William Historic District. This luxurious and spacious home has it all. A gourmet kitchen is at the heart of the open floor plan which allows for wonderful entertaining or simply spending a quiet evening in. The private master retreat features a dressing room wrapped with California Closets, two restful balconies, and a well appointed bath. The pool, yard, and patios provide great spaces for outdoor living. Impeccable condition and centrally located.
Click on the photo for more pictures and information about the home.
As San Antonio begins to rebuild our streetcar system it’s important to reflect on how the streetcars of the past helped shape our center city. This is a good piece written by Christine Vina.
Building San Antonio: The streetcar suburbs of old and new
Written by Christine Vina and posted in the San Antonio Express-News on November 27, 2011
If you take a look at the streetcar map of early 1920s San Antonio, it is quite easy to identify the neighborhoods that were connected by the 19 different streetcar lines that existed at the time. If one lived or worked within the original 36 square miles of the city (roughly the area bounded by Hildebrand Avenue, Rio Grande, Division/Morill Avenues, and 19th/24th streets), you were ‘free’ to travel around the city, and the local commerce located along these major transit routes offered additional economic development benefits to the community.
Two story dream home in Lavaca priced to move quickly. Completely renovated home sits on large lot and features a contemporary kitchen with Bosch appliances, tankless water heater, insulated walls, spray foam insulated attic and sub-floor, high efficiency HVAC system, new concrete pier foundation, new electric system, new plumbing, and more. Private master suite upstairs is stunning with cedar added to mimic exposed rafters. Seller renovated 123 Panama and many others in Southtown. Come take a look.
Click on the photo for more pictures and information about the home.
The main reason Zillow and Trulia do not work in Texas is that we are a non-disclosure state in regard to home sales prices. Zillow and Trulia pull their data from county records and in TX that data is based on county appraisals and not actual sales prices. Bexar County Appraisal District can do a fairly decent job of appraising new suburban construction but it is very difficult to accurately determine true value in older neighborhoods where the housing stock will vary widely in quality of renovations or lack thereof. If you’re looking to determine true market value of a home it is best to consult a real estate professional that knows your neighborhood and has access to comparable properties both actively on the market and those that have recently sold.
How to Figure the Fuzzy Math of Internet Home Values
By ALYSSA ABKOWITZ The Wall Street Journal November 13, 2011
Jason Gonsalves worked hard to turn his 6,500-square-foot stucco-and-stone home in the suburbs of Sacramento into the ultimate grown-up party pad, complete with game room, custom wine cellar and an infinity-edge pool overlooking Folsom Lake. When interest rates fell recently, Mr. Gonsalves, who runs a lobbying firm, looked into refinancing his $750,000 mortgage. That’s when he got startling news—the home had dropped more than $200,000 in value while he was renovating.
Or at least, that’s what one real-estate website told him. Another valued the house at only $640,500. And these online estimates left him all the more confused when a real-life appraiser, assessing the house for the refinancing loan, pinned its value at $1.5 million. “I have no idea how those numbers could be so different,” Mr. Gonsalves says.
This op-ed piece was recently posted in The New York Times. I see San Antonio moving in the direction he speaks of with our city, county, and VIA electing to move forward with their light rail plans and also with the continued work of the HemisFair Park Area Redevelopment Corporation as they finish their master plan that will lay out the future renewal of HemisFair.
The Death of the Fringe Suburb
By CHRISTOPHER B. LEINBERGER Published: November 25, 2011 in The New York Times
DRIVE through any number of outer-ring suburbs in America, and you’ll see boarded-up and vacant strip malls, surrounded by vast seas of empty parking spaces. These forlorn monuments to the real estate crash are not going to come back to life, even when the economy recovers. And that’s because the demand for the housing that once supported commercial activity in many exurbs isn’t coming back, either.
By now, nearly five years after the housing crash, most Americans understand that a mortgage meltdown was the catalyst for the Great Recession, facilitated by underregulation of finance and reckless risk-taking. Less understood is the divergence between center cities and inner-ring suburbs on one hand, and the suburban fringe on the other.
It was predominantly the collapse of the car-dependent suburban fringe that caused the mortgage collapse.
I’ve recently opened my own agency and today the new signs are out. Let me know your thoughts on the new (albeit temporary) design. I’m working with my Graphic Designer on a whole branding and design package. More to follow.
