SOLD – 339 Carnahan – Mahncke Park
This one went quick! Multiple offers received on it. I wish I had fifty more of them to sell.
SOLD – 339 Carnahan – Mahncke Park
NEW LISTING – 339 Carnahan 78209 – $285,000
339 Carnahan 78209 – Mahncke Park
Wonderfully updated bungalow in a prime Mahncke Park location. This home features two bedrooms, one and a half baths, and a study. Foundation and roof replaced in 2013. Current owner renovated in 2014 to include a new kitchen, updated electrical, new half bath, study, and walk-in closet in the master. This is an impressive home providing all the modern amenities while retaining its historic details and charm. Nice landscaping and a full length front porch provide great curb appeal. Make this your new home. **Click on the photo for more listing information and photos.**
How’s the market? Hot!
This recent article was posted in the San Antonio Business Journal about the residential real estate market in San Antonio. While the article focuses mostly on Alamo Heights I can attest that the seller’s market discussed is also happening in the downtown and central city neighborhoods. It has been my experience recently both on the listing and buying side that desirable homes that are priced well will receive multiple offers. The title of the article says it best, “The pace is back.”
“The Pace is Back.”
By Shari L. Biediger for San Antonio Business Journal
A co-founder of the boutique firm Nix Realty, Kate Park recently showed a charming 4-3-2 on a tree-lined street in Alamo Heights, only to receive a text message from the listing agent while walking back to her car.
The house just received an offer from another buyer — one who had not yet seen the property.
“The pace is back,” says Park. “It is fun.
Turn down those thermostats. Local home sales are heating up faster than the patio furniture cushions on a sizzling, summer day. And not just in the popular pockets of the past. Some of the city’s sleeper markets are awakening.
“The number of days on the market continues to drop, average sales prices continue to increase, while months in inventory continue to decrease,” says Steven Gragg, chairman of the San Antonio Board of Realtors. “Last year was a really good year. And now, within the first quarter of 2013, we are 15 percent ahead of 2012.”
Ready to pounce
It’s a trend that began last summer, says Park.
“The pace was fast in 2012 for the same three months, March to May,” says Park. “But this year, it seems as though there are more properties selling with multiple offers, which usually equates to the seller getting closer to their asking price, or even more than their ask in a few cases.”
Low interest rates and higher consumer confidence are drivers. It doesn’t hurt that election year has passed.
San Antonio’s Streetcar Suburbs
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.
NEW LISTING – 218 Ira 78209 – $209,000
218 Ira 78209
Preservationists’ dream featured in the 2011 Mahncke Park Home Tour. Built by notable developer H.C. Thorman in 1925, the two-story home maintains its historic charm while including modern amenities such as an open floor plan, dual-room master suite (convertable back to 3rd bedroom), & insulated exterior walls. Owner created larger master & has original materials to return back to three bedroom if needed. Numerous windows flood the home with natural light. Sited on a deep lot & a quiet street yet only minutes to Brackenridge Park, Ft. Sam Houston, The Pearl Farmer’s Market, Trinity University, UIW, Downtown, & more. Come take a look.
Click on the photo for more pictures and information about the house.
Building San Antonio: Demographics change, but old values remain
This is a great article by David Matiella, an architect and resident of Mahncke Park. I really relate to the idea of “new homeowners come with an infusion of energy and optimism” and their blending with “sage older residents” of the neighborhood. This is certainly the case with my neighborhood Lavaca and many other great inner-loop neighborhoods experiencing revitalization. I have many neighbors like the one David writes of that “have seen this neighborhood grow, decline and come back.”
When I look around my neighborhood of Mahncke Park, I see many new neighbors moving in. This is always an exciting time, and it gets me wondering: Will these new people be nice? Will they be young or old? Will they have young children like us or — even better — do they have babysitter-age kids?
Historical information indicates the houses in my neighborhood were built between 1920 and 1950. Starting in 1891, George W. Brackenridge gave the city 25 acres of land connecting the water reservoir at the top of the hill near the San Antonio Botanical Garden to Brackenridge Park. He asked that the land be named for his close friend, City Park Commissioner Ludwig Mahncke, and the neighborhood that developed around the park still bears his name and statue.
Mahncke Park has character and a history. Some homes are in excellent shape, having been well- maintained by their owners, while others are in need of tender care.
For many reasons, older owners will sell their homes and move away, and new homeowners will move in. Most of the time, new homeowners come with an infusion of energy and optimism.
More and more, I observe houses being snatched up by buyers who restore or rehabilitate them. Some buyers purchase in order to turn a profit with these homes. Others buy in order to rehab a fixer-upper and create a liveable home for themselves. Their neighbors may lend a hand installing wood floors or painting, creating new relationships and further tightening the bond between neighbor and community.
There’s an older gentleman my family runs into on our neighborhood walks. Having witnessed the turnover of neighbors through the years, he is happy to gaze fondly at our small children and recite stories of his own childhood in the neighborhood.
“It sure is nice to have children playing on this street again,” he says with a twinkle in his eye. “I’ve been here 57 years and have seen this neighborhood grow, decline and come back.” I cannot mistake the nostalgic pride in his manner as he says this about his neighborhood, now my neighborhood — our neighborhood.
He is not just talking about the neighborhood houses, he is talking about the people who make up the neighborhood, and I realize that my mind-set about Mahncke Park has been broadened once again by one of our sage older residents.
The man’s words become a lesson when I look with pride at the fine older homes in Mahncke Park and realize that I can put too much emphasis on the materiality of our neighborhood. A collection of houses may make a neighborhood, but it is the people who live in these homes who are truly special and create a community.
David Matiella, Assoc. AIA, is a project manager at Marmon Mok Architecture.