westhiemer/gessner thoughts (Houston, Briar, Meadow: apartment complexes, condos, high crime)

[tc1209]

What ate yalls thoughts on the area?future of home values? Specifilcally tanglewilde and westmont. Future/continued redevelopment? Demographics? Thoughts overall? Thanks in advance for your responses.

[micmac99]

Originally Posted by tc1209

What ate yalls thoughts on the area?future of home values? Specifilcally tanglewilde and westmont. Future/continued redevelopment? Demographics? Thoughts overall? Thanks in advance for your responses.

Are you talking about the Westchase area? That's the area of town where I live and I like it VERY much there.

I think the long term prospects are quite good. I think if the apartment complexes continue to insist on quality tenants and have good rules and regulations so they don't get away with doing just anything, things will be fine.

Westchase does not have very many single family houses, but several areas immediately nearby do and those neighborhoods seem very stable.

There is no street called Westmont, you might be referring to Westpark Drive and/or the Westpark Tollway which runs about 1/4 mile south parallel to it (west of Gessner).

[tc1209]

Westmont is the neighborhood that connects to tanglewilde to the east. (most think its the same neighborhood)

[Lost_In_Translation]

Tanglewilde will always have issues with the apartments next to it, but I doubt it will lose much value. Pretty much it just won't appreciate very fast until the apts are gone. Look at briar meadow for what the future holds.

[tc1209]

You realize the houses in that area are 150k-300k higher than tanglewilde right? Not quite the same price points.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Originally Posted by tc1209

You realize the houses in that area are 150k-300k higher than tanglewilde right? Not quite the same price points.

Same price percentage inflation. Tanglewilde is 100-250, briar meadow is 200-400.

[tc1209]

Same price percentage inflation? So they increase at the same rate but you're saying briar meadow will raise more in dollar terms because it's starting off at a higher base? Sounds like tanglewilde is a winner to me...?

[deckhanddavy]

It's a great location, location-wise, but having worked there for 5 years, I saw first hand, a high crime rate, and unsavory characters walking all over the place every day, all the time. I lived in a house in the neighborhood just south of Gessner/Westheimer, and had the house broken into and my car broken into twice within a year. Also, when I first moved into the home, a drunken idiot drove into a tree 10 feet away from the room I was sleeping in and wrapped himself and the vehicle around a thick oak tree...again, he only missed me while I was sleeping by around 10 feet. I moved.

Also, this is the only location where I've seen police helicopters search for criminals on the run in that beehive of apartment complexes behind my office building...oh yeah, my office got broken into this year as well on the 6th FL of 3100 S Gessner. That's a stop sign away from the Gessner/Westheimer location. They kicked in my office door and 4 others in our suite.

Oh...yeah, about 5 or so of my corworkers cars were broken into in our buildings parking garage. Having worked in Houston at multiple locations since 2001 after I finished my tour in the Navy, this is the ONLY location where I've experienced so much crime.

That being said, 'they' are cleaning up this area a lot I've noticed. I particularly like the new Randalls center, the cleaned up and landscaped median off Gessner and that there is new and modern looking retail building sprouting up around the area. The issue with this location is that 'beehive' of criminals living in the two blocks behind my office building @ Gessner/Meadowglen. It's seriously bad...

WIth the efforts I've seen in the past year to clean this location up, I feel somewhat positive about it. But, in the past 5 years, it's been saturated with a lot of crime. I assure you, I'm not exaggerating about my experiences I just mentioned while living there...just sharing my experiences with you. I'm still working at that location as well, BTW...

[Lost_In_Translation]

Originally Posted by tc1209

Same price percentage inflation? So they increase at the same rate but you're saying briar meadow will raise more in dollar terms because it's starting off at a higher base? Sounds like tanglewilde is a winner to me...?

They're both located between westheimer and westpark and have apartments around them, are in the same school district. Briar meadow is more expensive because it's closer to the galleria. But the same dynamics of the area affect each other. No, you won't make as much money in tanglewilde, but I assumed that the OP couldn't afford briar meadow. So based on what I've seen, tanglewilde should be a stable place to invest in, the big question marks being the apartments. I don't see the issue with my comparison.

[HoustonPharaoh]

I used to live around that area, it is a great location if you work kin the Galleria area, medical center or downtown. it has a lot of apartments around and condos that are not the best quality. Houses around that area are very old and many of them need a lot of maintenance and upgrades to have reasonable electric bills.

And the prices might be high because of the location. I never had any crimes issue there but heard that it was bad specially after hurricane Katrina