I think a chunk of your future home value will be tied into whether the super-sized mall is a success.

Certainly as the noise of pile-driving and construction vehicles fills the air, your property will be less desirable. But if the mall is a "destination" with unique stores and restaurants and a "retail experience", it could be a very good thing.

I'm hoping it's not too late for this, but make sure your neighborhood gets involved. Make sure your local government is paying attention to things like mitigating increased traffic volume, watching the number and quality of signs and parking-lot lighting, etc. No developer wants to pay for more streets or sidewalks or replacing the trees they uproot, but that's what makes the difference between a nice place to live and one in which business rules the roost. And check the zoning around the mall. Huge malls tend to attract other shopping. The last thing you want is for your subdivision to be a residential holdout in the middle of lots of retail.

We could've built our house in the beautiful TX Hill Country, but after doing all the research, and agonizing over and over, we decided that in the long run we would be better off if we built our house very close to all those places that we frequently visit (almost on a daily basis). We really like the convenience, and the savings in time and money, of being close to everything. Our selected lifestyle was more important than resale value. We ended up "overbuilding", for our neighborhood, just to have the type of house that we really wanted.

I'm smack dab in the middle of the city, less than 200 feet from Yonge Street, which is the most important street in the city, bisecting it from the lake northwards. (Yonge Street has been listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world.)

The subway runs along the other side of Yonge Street, we never hear it. Within walking distance are a supermarket (tucked away in an office building), boutiques, green grocers, variety stores, restaurants, etc.

Our home value has doubled since we bought it in 2000.

Being able to walk to shopping was an important factor when we bought our house in 1973, and we've never regretted that decision. We walk to the grocery store, the hardware store, the book store, the liquor store, half a dozen restaurants, our church, all of our health care professionals, etc. The only thing we're missing is a pharmacy, which is a two mile drive or bus ride. The bus that stops half a block from our house also goes to the train station where we can catch a train to the airport and go anywhere in the world.

Oops! Forgot to mention the impact on home value. The small town environment, gentrification, and a relatively easy commute to New York City have contributed to the value of our quarter acre of land going from $12,000 in 1973 to approximately $300,000 today. In the same time, our little 1,000 square foot house has barely kept up with inflation. It contributes about 20% to the total assessed value of the property.

Hi ranae - I live in a small (3500 pop.) town that provides most of the services I need withing walking distance - market, library, coffee shop, several restaurants, parks, pool, etc. There is a large section of waste land just on the border of town that is going to be built up soon. We are all very concerned about what impact the building there will have on our town (will it destroy the small town feel, will the town be less safe, how will it impact the environment?) To me the disadvantages of growth outweigh the advantages, and most of the residents feel this way. I'm starting to get involved in the planning process, though I must say the meetings are very tedious and it appears the townsfolk have less say than the developer.

As someone else said, the quality of the development will effect the impact on your house value. I only hope they do a good job. One thing that has gone through in our community is a commitment to green building practices. I'm not looking forward to the months (years??) of pile driving :-(

We moved to the country from the big city(DFW). It takes us about 30-35 minutes minimum to get to the grocers, WalMart, malls, etc. We purposely looked for the booneys. After living in Fort Worth, I do not mind the drive to get anywhere. I do agree with the others that it is in your best interest to stay on top of the development.

Joyce Hall
Mount Calm, Texas

RaNae, I would think if it is an upscale mall your property values would rise. But then a lot depends on the rest of the area and what will become of it. I hope it all goes well for you. Getting involved as Steve suggests, is a very good idea.

As for us, we travel about 30 min. for most major shopping but the other small town next to us does have a supermarket and drug store, plus we have various other small stores and a hardware store that serves us well in a pinch. There are also a few fast food places and two gas stations. Our little town has a small mini market/gas station, but since we are closer to the other town's shopping, we rarely go there. Then we have a post office and some realty offices. Probably sounds weird considering we are in So.Ca. We just happen to live in one of the few semi-rural areas and have to say we love it.

The area is growing, though, but our particular niche will stay undeveloped for a long time. Most all of us who live here are adamant about keeping our 2 1/2 acre minimum, plus the mountainous topography and dirt roads are a builder's nightmare. Yeah for us! : ) Yet I've no doubt these northern slopes will one day resemble the southern slopes of the greater L.A. area, filled to the brim with homes. One nice thing, though, they will most likely be built by individual homeowners and not a large developer, again due to the topography. Thank goodness for the San Andreas fault. ; )

Diana

We live about a mile from a successful mall, and our property value has skyrocketed the past 10 years. Purchased at 70K, houses like it in our neighborhood now sell in the 180's. There was no mall or retail in the area just 20 years ago.

I live in Colorado Springs, one of the original housing areas, a very old neighborhood, but a mile from major shopping and 10 min. from center of town. This area is also "old money" and houses are higher in comparable prices, a mix of mansions and tiny homes. The ambiance of the neighborhood keeps the investment a good one. On the other hand, just 3 miles from here the houses are lower priced and investment far less.

There are as many people who buy to live near shopping as there are buying rurally. Schools are an important factor too. And, with gas prices we will probably see a change in how people buy for location. The prices of homes here are based strongly on how well the neighborhood is kept up. In this area there are a lot of old neighborhoods which are being reborn and houses selling for a song. The "flip its" are a big part of such. Lots of new tracts being built on outskirts of town too which allow new buyers to get in. I think this is common all over the US and love knowing the once forgotten areas with truely great style homes are being reclaimed. Actually, I just read that Colorado Springs is in the top 10 cities for growth.

It would be difficult to know from this side what affect area changes would have for you. I just moved from the mountains, they were building big time...turning the small town of 7000 into Walmart and huge real estate buildings to serve the entire county and keep people from spending money out of town...tax income. Because of the changes it took 4 mos. to sell, vs. the average 1. This will most likely change again as people get used to all and think of it as part of the mountain living.

I'm still at the base of the mountains, but love being closer to ammenities and not having to drive 40 minutes down the pass to get there...age factor and being closer to family.

AS a suggestion, check the city and see what is being planned, a lot of information is available through city websites. Most of the time we do not know until approved and done unless we ask. Check with realtors too, specifically the investment guys. There is also a real estate paper in most cities which gives the latest info and good resource for knowing trends of your area.

We have two homes, each with a different situation. Our year-round home is in a small country town 30 miles north of Tampa. We have to drive a good distance for groceries and such, and go to larger towns for any real shopping. When we moved to this town 10 years ago, it was less populated and more "wild" and natural and I loved it, didn't mind the long drives, but now it is getting developed with homes and losing its rural feel, yet there isn't the amenities coming along with it.

Our second home is in Asheville, NC which we bought for vacations and future retirement. I originally wanted a kind of rural location, but we ended up buying right in town, literally right behind the mall, and within walking distance to every major chain restaurant that exists. We are also 1/2 block from the bus stop where we can go anywhere, and 2 miles from the vibrant, restaurant and shop-filled downtown. I absolutely adore it! I really appreciate this now as prices go up and I get older. I think there is a big move for people to want to be near amenities, and will pay higher prices for this. I must add that my while my neighborhood in Asheville is near all the commercial, you would never know it, it has a lot of forest around, many critters and wildlife and is extremely quiet. Wouldn't trade to be in the boonies, and now I wish my Florida house were closer in.

Oh, and FWIW, I live within the city limits of St. Paul, Minnesota. I'm within three blocks of two different bus routes, several churches, a supermarket, a "Quickie Mart", a liquor store, and a couple of restaurants. I can walk about a mile to downtown St. Paul or a mile in the other direction to lots of shopping/restaurants/movie theaters/churches/etc. After having lived in "get-in-your-car-to-do-anything" suburbia, being able to do things by foot has great appeal.

Thank you all soo much for your responses and input...
Steve o I really appreciate the tips on getting involved and will check out web sites later today. I am sure the mall will be a huge success- the closest High End Mall is in Dallas 40+ miles away but with this being Texas The 2 most popular past times are Football and Shopping... so I am sure it will be wildly successful

Homemaker that is fantastic doubled in 6 years WOW.
Velo - WOW what an increase!!
Postum- I'm not looking forward to the construction noise either but we are far enough into the subdivision I hope the noise will be minimal where we are and luckily our home is energy star making it very quiet.

I too like many of you look forward to being able to walk to anything we want or need especially with gas prices the way they are now - we purchased this home with the forethought of it being our last so that will deffinitly come in handy during retirement.

We have a great HOA and alot of community involvement so I believe our addition will remain well cared for thus improving the values.

So neat to hear about yalls situations I appreciate all the input again Thanks
RaNae

I live in a small urban village next door to Berkeley, CA.
I have a small home on a small urban lot. I am a mile or slightly more to four major grocery stores and two movie theaters (soon to be three). I am a little less than 1.5 miles to the Y. And I am not far from freeway access to SF and the Oakland airport. I can walk or ride a bike to shop for food when the gas prices go sky high. Also, with three dogs I am near dog parks. I am also near open space for walking or hiking.

With UC Berkeley a few miles away I get to see dance and listen to music. Berkeley also has a number of theater companies that are very professional and we also have community theater. In addition I can BART into SF for more entertainment and museums. And, we have a fantastic array of restaurants from on the cheap to very expensive.

I love where I live. Do I wish I had more land, yes, but I can't have everything. My house is worth a tremendous amount of money on today's market. But I am not planning on selling, but a few years down the road I will consider a reverse mortgage.

Carol

Where I'm at near the beach in SoCal it doesn't matter. I'm on an alley on 1 side, other side is small store retail. Prices here are around 800-900/sq ft for housing. Yeah, seriously.

It just depends where you are. IN a suburb, I could see it making a difference.

Ranae,

I absolutely know what you are experiencing, because we went through the same thing.

We moved to a small bedroom community midway between Dallas and Ft. Worth. There was available land around us but it was quickly snatched up by developers. Highways were widened, very high end sub-divisions sprung up, malls, restaurants, office buildings, numerous grocery stores and even a resort was built.

Once the first subdivision is built, especially if there are McMansions involved, all the above will be built. Maybe not the resort...but you get the picture. :-)
You can count on it.

On the plus side I have every conceivable retail, medical, and amusement right at my finger tips and with the cost of gas rising that amounts to a huge savings for our family.

To answer your question, the value of our home has sky rocketed. We have real estate agents coming to our house asking if we are interested in selling. Since we preceeded the McMansions, homes in our price range are hot commodities.

On the negative side of the equation, traffic is horrendous!! I'm talking gridlock during rush hour!

I wouldn't worry at all about the value of your home. :-)

Marilyn

Hi there RaNae!! and hello to Joyce Hall...you are nearly my neighbor!!
We have nearly 2 acres....right in the middle of town. Grocery and fast food about 6 blocks one way, the lake and a major highway about 2 miles the other way. We are 4 blocks off the bus route that goes all over the city. Our neighborhood is an older one that is now very mixed, but so far (knock on wood) we have never had any real problems.(kids will be kids, and dogs will bark:^) I enjoy short visits (while we water plants and flowers) with my neighbors, and every kid in the neighborhood "red and yellow, black and white" know that I am a soft touch!! They also know that either DH or I know how to fix most anything, so they visit us often! I'd RATHER live in the country, but this is a much better situation for us since we are not getting a bit younger. Our jobs are only a couple of miles from the house, and about 10 blocks from one another...if we had to carpool to work we could. We could even ride the bus if we chose!
Good question....I've enjoyed reading all the answers!

When looking for a house a few years ago, our realtor told us a certain street was awful because there was a fried chicken place on the corner and the smells never let up. As long as you don't have fried food cooking near you, good retail should be a plus.

We're also finding that alot of empty nesters in our general metropolitan area are selling the family suburban home and moving to condos closer in. The older folks want the convenience of easy shopping etc.

I second Steve's advice about getting involved.

Steve, You anywhere near the new condos on Grand east of Lexington?

We purposely moved to our neighbourhood because it has a "high street". That's two blocks away. It's changed over the last 8 years...now we have an antique mall, two funky galleries, some hair salons, loads of restraunts, many bars, a great coffee shop, THREE tatoo parlors, two banks, fire department, public library (these were very important to me), and a few more blocks away several fast food joints (which I do not use). There are also some very dubious corner stores and gas stations, which frequently have people hanging out and drinking or selling drugs or fronting prostitution.
1 mile down the main road in either direction are two different outdoor malls. They clearly cater to different types of clientle. One has a Super Giant Foods, Dollar General, Citi Fashions, Fashion Cents and a strange jumbled beauty supply store and a furniture rental center. The other has a Kroger, Lowes, Linens & Things, Target, Best Buy, Ross and several other small locally owned resteraunts and stores that are sort of funky and fun.
Even closer to us is a small development with an upscale hair salon, a gym, pizza, coffee, dance studio...this is a fantastic place for our community and most of the people who work there live in the immediate community.

Has this raised the value of our home? Not really. It hasn't raised the value (we bought at $75,000 and it's worth $265,000 and not fully renovated yet...that increase in 8 years!!)...the value has been steadily increasing due to our 3 minute drive to downtown location. It's also just one of the most desirable neighbourhoods in the city to buy into, although not so easy now with the price increases.
Frankly, our neighbourhood is weird. We have two familys with drug dealers, one with a gang memeber on our street. There is constantly men sitting around ALL DAY LONG drinking, the mothers of their children coming and screaming for money, their older children running drugs...(I know it sounds like something the police can handle, but they have bigger fish to fry around here). The next street over has none of this nonsense and is beautiful, quiet, friendly. We knew what it was like when we moved here.
Why did we move here? Because the afformentioned high street was an indication of the culture that this area also holds. It's the neighbourhood of artists, artizans, indepenant thinkers, street poets, wacky gardeners, musicians, teachers who think outside the box...people who thrive on the strange juxdiposition of our community. That is why the value of our homes has increased. Demand.

GGG

Steve, You anywhere near the new condos on Grand east of Lexington?

I'm a little over a mile "down the hill" in the West 7th neighborhood. Actually, I wasn't thrilled to see that development. That project and Victoria Plaza, I think, were the catalysts for the development moratorium on Grand (long overdue, IMHO). I would love to live on Grand (again; I used to live just west of Lexington), but the scale of the new projects (dwarfing their surroundings) and the "me-too" stores don't do anything for me and I think they kill what makes Grand Avenue special. I'll take my eclectic neighborhood over that anytime.

Hey there Jackie :-)

Marilyn- soo good to hear your response especially from a local who knows how it goes here in the DFW area. I bet I could name where you live in 3 tries lol and I suspect I am no more than 20 minutes from you. Hey did you know they are building a Sam Moon at 35W and Keller Hicks Rd or maybe it's Golden Triangle- anyways it is almost done yay I am soo excited lol and it will be less than 10 miles from our place. Traffic around here is already slow at rush hour but two good things we don't have to travel in it and they have been surveying our main feeder road for months and I am sure have stuff in the works for widening it etc- they just have a train trellis to deal with ugh..

So cool to read eveyrones stories.
RaNae

RaNae,

Did the word "resort" give it away?? LOL

I do know about the new Sam Moon store, and when you mentioned trains, and trestles, I have a very good idea where you are, and it is about 20 minutes away.

Welcome to Texas! Hopefully the temperatures will drop below 100 degrees someday and we'll get some rain. :-)

Marilyn

Marilyn,
Resort pegs it for me. We just checked out that resort last month we were dissapointed in comparrison to the charm of the other one in TN. Anyways your right a 20 minute straight shoot between us. My dh will start working over your way in a couple weeks- he just won a transfer and our gym is over by Bucca Di Peppa (sp?)

Here is a clue for you vroom vroom

Thanks for the Welcome we love it here. And there have been too many 100+ days this year but we are dealing- we are used to hot humid weather having lived in OK for 20 years.

Hey do you know of any resale shops in your town I found some closer to me but I like to have a bevy of about 10 to frequent - keeps the merchandise rotating nicely.
RaNae