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Old 01-01-2013, 06:36 PM
 
Location: San Antonio Texas
11,431 posts, read 19,005,607 times
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I hadn't visited Montrose since 1990 and thought that it was really bohemian, kinda reminded me of Hyde Park area in Austin but a lot gayer. Flash forward, it looks like half of Houston lives there! Did people shun it in the past because of the gay population and the AIDS stigma of the 80s? When did the neighborhood start changing?
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Old 01-01-2013, 06:59 PM
 
Location: Houston, TX
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It was always popular with the artsy edges types. The masses started coming when everyone decided living in town in general was cool. A few years before midtown and the wards started their gentrification.
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Old 01-01-2013, 06:59 PM
 
Location: #
9,598 posts, read 16,570,037 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wehotex View Post
I hadn't visited Montrose since 1990 and thought that it was really bohemian, kinda reminded me of Hyde Park area in Austin but a lot gayer. Flash forward, it looks like half of Houston lives there! Did people shun it in the past because of the gay population and the AIDS stigma of the 80s? When did the neighborhood start changing?
When people started to realize that the burbs suck.
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Old 01-01-2013, 07:02 PM
 
5,976 posts, read 15,275,674 times
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Default Ha...

Quote:
Originally Posted by wehotex View Post
I hadn't visited Montrose since 1990 and thought that it was really bohemian, kinda reminded me of Hyde Park area in Austin but a lot gayer. Flash forward, it looks like half of Houston lives there! Did people shun it in the past because of the gay population and the AIDS stigma of the 80s? When did the neighborhood start changing?
Yes, sort of. The Montrose was really crazy back in the 70's from what I hear, but I came to Houston in the early 80's and it was crazy then, I'm sure you recall the festivals, crusing up and down lower Westheimer. It was not the safest place either, the cost of living in Montrose was nowhere what it is today. It lent itself to a young and vibrant crowd with abundant cheap housing, drugs, prostitution, and other vices.

It has surely changed, and had you been by in the summer, you might have noticed a lot more children in the neighborhoods as well. As Midtown started to gentrify, the cost of housing went up. A lot of the old houses have been lost to new development, where one home stood, now three exist, in the same footprint of 50X100 sq ft lots. The affluent couples began to buy up the homes, flippers brought the others and the prices have been on an increase at least since the 90s. I purchased a dirt lot that is 50x100 sq ft and paid more than 250K, and that was cheap I learned as other lots sold before our eyes at 280K+. The young couples have now begun to start families.

Every neighborhood brags about being close to everything, the Woodlands, Cinco Ranch, Sugarland, etc. And that is true. The same is true about Montrose, but Montrose is REALLY close to everything. Midtown is booming, Upper Kirby, Bagby Street is being transformed to a pedestrian friendly street, direct access to the hike and bike trail system and the Buffalo Bayou parks, which are undergoing a major improvement, and it has super easy access to all the major freeways, but being an old neighborhood, it also has countless alternate routes to get home. You can't say that for many of the suburban neighborhoods. It is also close to some of the best restaurants, clubs, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's. It is close to the Galleria, all the sports venues, rail.

What's not to like? Yes, Montrose has changed, and the AIDS era did slow things down, which affected businesses, etc. Houston also changed though, so gay couples no longer feel a need to have to live in one area, they live everywhere now, including all the suburban areas I mentioned earlier.
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Old 01-01-2013, 07:16 PM
 
Location: Charleston Sc and Western NC
9,273 posts, read 26,501,448 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv View Post
When people started to realize that the burbs suck.
Lol. No, it really began to change just before 1990. OP, you left when property value for location started to rule. By 1997, appeciation was taking off on the west side ...all the way out to the Beltway.
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Old 01-02-2013, 01:39 PM
 
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I hate what Montrose is becoming. It sure is losing its Bohemian vibe and becoming an extension of Wash Ave
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Old 01-02-2013, 02:23 PM
 
2,277 posts, read 3,961,987 times
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Originally Posted by David Dollar View Post
I hate what Montrose is becoming. It sure is losing its Bohemian vibe and becoming an extension of Wash Ave
Time to move to Eastwood.
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Old 01-02-2013, 02:49 PM
 
Location: San Antonio Texas
11,431 posts, read 19,005,607 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by David Dollar View Post
I hate what Montrose is becoming. It sure is losing its Bohemian vibe and becoming an extension of Wash Ave
Too bad that people don't dislike gays anymore. At least I might have an affordable gayborhood to move into. Oak Lawn in Dallas is just as bad these days.
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Old 01-02-2013, 02:59 PM
 
644 posts, read 1,354,042 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation View Post
Time to move to Eastwood.
it's getting expensive.... a house just sold for $440k...
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Old 01-02-2013, 03:33 PM
 
Location: Houston area
1,408 posts, read 4,054,990 times
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I don't see how Montrose is becoming an extension of Washington Ave. I like what's becoming of it. People actually want to live there. Many of the older homes are being remodeled and many of the restaurants and bars in the area continue to thrive. Values are definitely going up.

Being nestled between Upper Kirby and Midtown, there was no way Montrose could of continued to stay cheap and rundown.
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