Apartment Complexes--pro or con?
We are very fortunate to have an active YaHoo! group within Coles Crossing. It helps us sell items, voice public opinion, update one another regarding suspicious activities locally, and lately it has been a place where like it or not, there have some pretty spirited political debates. I watch the threads on this group for Real Estate related posts and sometimes attempt to respond in a knowledgeable manner that is intended to help educate my neighbors.
Recently, there have been a couple of threads that have been written concerning topics that should be addressed strictly from a real estate perspective-- are apartment complexes good or bad for a community? I'll do my best to remain objective, although, it is my blog, so I am going to express a couple of opinions.
I have placed calls to both site managers; however, at this point, there has been no response from either development. The Greystar property (Hwy. 290 Park and Ride) did send me an auto-email stating they would be out until October 14th.
The Carrington Apartments located at the corner of Huffmeister (Glen Cheek Road) and Telge, will be upper end units that boast garages and many other amenities. Since they are part of the Carrington family of developments, they will be well built. A summary inspection of the construction materials and code suggests they will have superior construction and engineering. Local Carrington complexes such as the one on Park Row tend to market to white collar/managerial markets and this one should follow a similar path. However, I do expect it to be higher-end than the one on Park Row due to its location so far off Hwy. 290 and nestled close to Coles Crossing. Additionally, these units should cater to, and expect a higher percent of their tenants to be family units rather than singles since they will include 3 bedroom floor plans. According to district maps, this complex should attend Hamilton Elementary, Goodson Middle School, and Cy-Fair High School (according to current Cy-Fair ISD boundary map). When floor plan pdf documents become available, we will upload copies to this site.
The Greystar Apartments located at Hwy. 290 and Skinner Road within the new Park and Ride facility is indeed upper-end as well. Their website states they will host 273 units, with numerous amenities. Judging by the amenities list, they are catering to the upwardly mobile single crowd which will work downtown in the white collar/management/executive sector. These units will have only 1 and 2-bedroom floorplans available. The Greystar children will attend Robison elementary, Spillane Middle, and Cy-Woods High Schools (according to current Cy-Fair ISD boundary map).
How do these apartment complexes affect Coles Crossing? Generally speaking, apartment complexes do not help property values within their neighboring communities. However, there are special considerations to make regarding The Carrington development as it affects Coles Crossing.
As a local expert, I often conduct 3 open houses each weekend. Due to this, I get to meet most of the people looking to purchase property within Coles Crossing. A large percentage of people I meet want to move from Coles Crossing to Coles Crossing. This creates a somewhat stagnant pricing context within the lower price points in the community, since most people are attempting to move up, rather than down in size and price point. The proximity of the apartment community to our elementary school will help increase demand in the cottage section and the lower price points within Coles Crossing. This increased demand on the lower end of the market-value spectrum will help the owners of these properties move up with more money at closing and cause an increase in pricing going further up the price point spectrum within Coles Crossing. This increase in the upper levels of pricing will persist due to the continued desire of families to stay within Coles Crossing. Over the past year, the hardest properties to move in Coles have been the cottage homes--this increase in demand will help valuation throughout our community, because the people that live in the Carrington will want to move their children to Sampson or Goodson. Additionally, they will most likely want to move to the Coles side of Telge to get them into Cy-Woods.
Also, we should see relocation families moving from one part of the country to ours due to job relocations/transfers. Most of the people I meet that are in this situation have to rent before they can buy here, because they have to wait for their previous home to sell--many corporations are curtailing complete purchase/buyout of employees' homes in other parts of the country where property is harder to sell than it is in Houston. This need for people to rent will help places like the Carrington cater to these executive/management families settle into a community that is close to the one they have left behind.