Why is this house so cheap? (San Antonio, Spring: houses, neighborhoods, middle school)

[dweej]

I searched the forum for posts about El Dorado Hills, and found mixed information- some suggesting that it's becoming a bad neighborhood filled with graffiti and such, and others explaining that it's just not full of white collar families. So I found this house: Single Family Home - 4911 LA POSADA, San Antonio, TX, 78233 - Realtor.com=

and it just seems like such a great value to me. Now, we're not afraid of "poor" or "hispanic" because we're a little of both . But, as a former police officer, my husband has an absolute zero tolerance policy regarding grafitti. What do you think? Is El Dorado better or worse than Northern Hills for maintaining value/showing pride of ownership? Or, do the low prices (low compared to what I can get here at home!!) reflect a neighborhoods on the decline? So far, searching the threads hasn't answered this question well. Thanks in advance for your input!

[firstclassflyer]

I think you can do much better (newer and much larger home in a better area) for 169K.

[dweej]

Originally Posted by firstclassflyer

You can do much better (newer and much larger home in a better area) for 169K.

But will it be much farther from downtown? One reason for moving is to decrease my husband's commute- anything outside the 1604 is too far. Where would you look if you were me?

[smuboy86]

I would avoid any neighborhood that feeds into wood middle school. There is a reason they are called "woodrats". I would look a little further to the west, or south.

[dweej]

Hah! "Woodrats". That's good to know

[sinsativ]

Median House price for that neighbor hood, $124,400, with per square foot of $71, so
2,242 x $71 =$159,182. 38 year old house, and BCAD has it at $137,800, so, not too bad. Its okay for the market and area. Not too low.

[dweej]

Originally Posted by sinsativ

Median House price for that neighbor hood, $124,400, with per square foot of $71, so
2,242 x $71 =$159,182. 38 year old house, and BCAD has it at $137,800, so, not too bad. Its okay for the market and area. Not too low.

You know, my pricing guage is just so off from looking at socal prices for so long. I'm thinking I'll strike that whole neighborhood off the list. I've been also looking at neighborhoods that feed into Oak Meadow and Coker Elementary schools and they seem to have a better rep. True?

[smuboy86]

those areas have much better reps

[firstclassflyer]

Originally Posted by dweej

But will it be much farther from downtown? One reason for moving is to decrease my husband's commute- anything outside the 1604 is too far. Where would you look if you were me?

How close to downtown do you need to be? I don't think 1604 on the North or West side is more than 20 miles or so.
It won't be a commute like Temecula down the 15 (or 5)...to SD. That's just crazy.
We don't have that type of traffic volume. FYI- We moved here from La Costa.

[ashbeeigh]

I live in 78249 (Tanglewood) to be exact and the drive to 10/35 downtown is about 15 minutes. It's a pretty amazing drive now that 10 is all fixed up. The schools are pretty good. the middle school is pretty new and pretty awesome and Clark is pretty good. I liked it when I graduated in '03. The elementary school that Tanglewood feeds into is within walking distance, I would definitly drive the kids..walking across Babcock and Springtime looks pretty scary...

I've read one or two posts from some people calling it "tanglehood' and there are some streets that look a little bit more shady then others, but people have been turning them around. I think it is worth a look.

But aside from that the house values are around that 150s 160s you're looking at. De Zavala Trails and Ridge Haven (I think that's what's its called) are all within that budget. Pretty nice size houses, all family friendly and close to everything. I think I even saw a fixer-uper listed at 132,000 a few weeks back.