I posted this in Real Estate forum, but figured I'd post here as well...

I'm looking for general thoughts on the Cottage Grove neighborhood in terms of both a place to live and as an investment. We are looking at the 3bed/3bath townhomes and have seen a few we like, but driving through the neighborhood seems like a nightmare with narrow streets and so many homes. I understand this is a common theme ITL Houston and assume you get over it, but it seemed like it may be worse than other spots I've lived/driven ITL? I wish they wouldn't have jammed so many houses in there, but understand $$$ drives decisions.

Additionally, seeking opinions on how those homes might hold their value over the next 3-5 years? I did see that InTown homes is building an additional "community" to the northwest side and Fenway Development owns the remaining property to the north of the existing neighborhood and south of the bayou. We're also considering places in the Rice Military for comparison. Not opposed to making upgrades to an older home in the Rice Military area instead.

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but it seemed like it may be worse than other spots I've lived/driven ITL?

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It is.

And there's always going to be newer crappy 3-4 story townhouses built somewhere close. So I wouldn't do it for investment reasons.

We've lived in CG for about 3 years now (on Kansas St) and we like it. The crowded streets aren't bad as long as your town home has a driveway. If you have to street park, I would hate it. As far as driving on the narrow streets, you get used to it, and its really not a problem either. One day the city will widen it, like they did on the other side of TC Jester.

For an investment purposes, who knows...Our 2 story town home that we built in early 2014 has gone up in value since we bought it 3 years ago, but the value has kinda plateaued of in the last year.

Over all, we like the neighborhood. It's nice to be able to walk to Down the Street bar and sit on the patio. Rumors are a coffee shop/Wine bar is opening up as well soon next to Down the Street, so that'll be a good addition.

I live in CG and love it. Great location and a plus that is in walking distance to Down the Street. As for investment, who knows, but I do like that it has natural boundaries and most places have been built in the last 5 to 7 years so once most tear downs are gone (and they disappear all the time) I believe those facts will ultimately limit the ability to just build a new and better unit and should allow existing units to retain better value. Ultimately, though, the question is do you want to spend somewhere around $30 to 40 square foot more (which was avg difference when I bought a year and a half ago) for an equivalent place in the heart of Rice Military. I personally did not value the Rice Military location that much.

Townhomes can be a dodgy investment as a buy and hold. There will always be newer ones in the area until land runs out so theoretically will probably not appreciate except purely relating to land prices and even then you only have a small plot of that value. If you're willing to commit to keeping it as an income producing property after you move it could be worthwhile, depending on how the rental markets go....but then again the inner city is adding apartments some would say unsustainably.

For some reason i thought the coffee shop already opened? Least that is what the wife said. I was driving around Sunday and couldn't find anything

I wouldn't live anywhere on Larkin near Down the street. The parking and traffic is a cluster and the neighbors are annoyed with it (per the Next Door app/CG Facebook page)

From what I understand about the coffee shop is being built by the lady who owns Down the Street and it will be next door (or 2 doors down) to DTS in a old house that is being remodeled now. Supposedly it will have parking for both DTS and the coffee shop. It will be a similar set up similar to Agora in Montrose. This is all stuff I've read of Nextdoor.

I live in CG and love it. The streets don't really bother me too much anymore, you get used to them.

I heard from a guy moving into CG that DTS will send a golf cart to pick you up. Any truth to this?

Yes, DTS does have a golf cart that will pick you up, or drop you off. I see it all the time running up and down the neighborhood.

It's a mess, and you'll probably take a $ beating, per other posters. Can you pull off Camp Logan next door?

An actual enclave, 90%+ built out, right next to Memorial Park. Actually sold a TH for 20% over purchase price.
Better builders, IMO, too. They're throwing up newbies in "Cottage Grove" as we speak....some are cheapies.

Beats Midtown for sure, but you can do better.
Hear the train?

We've lived on Larkin st, east of TC Jester for a little over 2 years and we love it. The east side of CG has decent street parking, with one of the main streets recently completing a widening project. Its not like the part west of TC Jester, where most streets are no parking on either side, with all 3 story townhomes.

We built with Sandcastle for many reasons, but one of the main ones was a good sized driveway. We made a pretty penny selling our Washington ave/Rice Military townhome and moved over here, and I would make that move again 100%.

Down the Street is fun to visit, PJ's and Gumbo Jeaux's are fun to walk to and we cant hear the train where we are at. There is petty crime from time to time (mostly broken car windows or stuff walking off) but its Houston...where does that not happen?

A buddy of mine was your neighbor for a while; he lived in the townhouses right next to Larkin Mini Mart and loved it other than the time that he left his truck in front of the vato's house across the street overnight and his tires got slashed.

whoa! I made it a point to walk by their house one afternoon when they were all outside doing whatever the hell it is that they do on their porch. Said hi, chatted for a few minutes, and we've never had an issue. Two of those little houses are supposedly for sale now, so they will prob be gone in no time.

I keep wondering when the mini mart is going to be gone. The nice Vietnamese man who owns it joked about cashing out and selling it last week when I was there buying some beer.

Isn't that just a few blocks from the train? Maybe that's a silent zone or something...but if not, hard to believe you can't hear train from there. i can hear it from my house almost 2 miles away. Not that's it's a big deal...

My wife and I were just saying how we heard it more when we were off of Washington ave than we do here. We were at the yale and washington intersection so there was that bridge over yale that we could hear.

Some of the folks 2-3 streets north and on the west side of CG post on nextdoor about the train yard when they idle during the cold, but we honestly have not heard it. New house= better insulation & windows maybe?

Lived on Kansas St from 2009-2011. Great location to downtown, galleria, Memorial Park, & Washington. Make sure you have a driveway....street parking is bad. People always say townhomes aren't a good investment, but my buddy bought his 2 bed, 2.5 bath for 220k in '09 and sold or for 280k in 2013.

Train was never an issue for us. Heard it occasionally, but wasn't very loud. I'd imagine that varies greatly depending on what street you are on.

DRE06 said:

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People always say townhomes aren't a good investment, but my buddy bought his 2 bed, 2.5 bath for 220k in '09 and sold or for 280k in 2013.

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2/1 in Timbergrove would have cost the same or less in 2009 and sold for maybe $100K more in 2013. But 1 ****ter is a PITA.

VCG since 2007 - 10 years in the hood!

We are outliers in that we didn't move out after having kids. Thought about moving for a while but we like the location too much, don't want an hour plus commute or to pay $600k+ for a run down house in spring branch or memorial. We were fortunate to win the HISD magnet lottery, otherwise we would have been forced out due to the cost of private school.

The streets suck but we live close to TCJ so don't have to deal with them that much. Also note that the area near TCJ is a little higher - it is in the 500 year flood plain while most of CG is in the 100yr. The street in front of our house has never flooded, further west the drainage is not as good and people have gotten water in their garages during some of the recent heavy rain events.

The addition of the bike trails has been awesome, it is great to be able to bike to the Heights or downtown.

Where did you get the kids into... OFE?

We're trying our luck at the magnet right now. We're OK with Parker but figured it couldn't hurt to try for a couple others ones.

We applied for all of the decent vanguard and magnet schools within a 7 mile radius and got in at Harvard. Happy with it so far.

Good work.

We only have 2 worth applying to around here. Being able to walk to Parker might seal the deal though.

Good luck!

Diggity helped us find a new house in CG east and we love it. From being in the Facebook group and Nextdoor app it seems like the west side has way more problems with parking and maybe crime. But being in the east close to tc jester it has been pretty quiet and nice. My number one desire/complaint is that they will redo the streets one day but I'm not holding my breath. There are probably more ghetto houses on the east side but ehhh haven't had any issues with it. You should definitely try to get a place with a driveway to avoid street parking.

Oh and also another recommendation for sandcastle homes.

We've been in a sandcastle home for 5 years. Technically in cottage grove, I think, but we're south of I10, really close to buffalo bayou brewery.

We only considered houses that were 2 story and had a private driveway. I still prefer the two story but no way I'd buy a house without a driveway. Nextdoor is full of people *****ing and moaning about not having a place to park.

And even for us, parking is an issue, hard to have people over, etc. with nowhere for them to park.

I'm not sure how true it is but someone posted on Facebook that cottage grove east might be getting the funding to fix the streets and drainage starting later 2019

Sandcastle FTW

did ya'll see InTown is building like 300 new townhomes on Kansas out West towards Hempstead?

That Frank Liu is never afraid to go full throttle!

No but I also saw they're building a shlt ton in Spring Branch right at Hollister and Kempwood.

Yes, it is nuts how many units are going in over there.

Hopefully those folks will be accessing the neighborhood via Hempstead Hwy and not clogging up the streets by driving east.

What do yall CG residents think of the tire shop guy storing his used car lot inventory in the yard behind his shop (NE corner of Petty & TC Jester)? The crotchety old man in me wants to notify the police since you can't just park cars in your yard but I'm also bout snitchesgetstitches.

This is what it looked like before he loaded it up with 2000 Suburbans and 95 Sunfires

Dunno about his parking practices, but the guy has helped me out a few times with fixing flats. Good dude.

Yeah, he seemed like a nice guy when I went by there to get prices to swap out 4 TPMS sensors. It just looks like **** with 8 cars parked in the dirt there at all times now.

Drumboy they have an entire lot of cars parked on petty down the street. That little strip is just the tip of the iceberg lol.