Rice Military Townhouses and Single-Family Residences in Houston, Texas

Rice Military is a bustling neighborhood in the Inner Loop of Houston, Texas.  It has transitioned into one of Houston's highly sought out neighborhoods from Yuppies (young professionals), artists, young families and empty-nesters.  Due to high demand and increasing land prices, developers and builders constructed 3-story townhouses and single-family residences to maximize space and margin.  

After 10 (more or less) years of transformation, Rice Military bloomed from one of the lower income neighborhoods with an average of $55,000 homes to $300,000 homes.  The majority are townhouses and single-family residences.  So what is the difference?  The best way to tell the difference is that townhomes have adjoining walls and single-family homes do not.  Though most homes sit on a zero lot line, which means one side of the house sits directly on the property line while the other has a minimum of 5 feet for the building line, they are still considered single-family because they do not share wall space. 

The picture above is a great example of a single-family residence in the neghborhood.  As you can see, it does not share an wall with the house next door but it sits at least 5 feet away from it.

How does the value of the Townhouses and Single-Family Homes compare to each other?

Below are statistics from HAR (Houston Associates of Realtors) on the Single-Family Market vs. the Townhome/Condo Market.

HAR also breaks out the sales performance of existing single-family homes throughout the Houston market. In January 2010, existing home sales totaled 2,071, an 11.9 percent drop from January 2009. The median sales price rose 13.7 percent to $133,000 compared to last year. The average sales price of $180,159 shot up 23.0 percent from its January 2009 level.

Single-Family Homes

January sales of all single-family homes in Houston totaled 2,514, down 12.3 percent from January 2009. This is the Houston market’s second consecutive monthly decline in sales. However, broken out by segment, sales of single-family homes priced between $250,000 and $500,000 jumped 21.6 percent in January while sales of luxury homes—those priced from $500,000 to the millions—surged 40.0 percent. By contrast, sales of homes in the below-$80,000 segment fell 28.9 percent and those priced between $80,000 and $150,000 slid 19.3 percent.

Townhouse/Condo

The number of townhouses and condominiums that sold in January rose 14.8 percent compared to one year earlier. In the greater Houston area, 241 units were sold last month versus 210 properties in January 2009.

The median price of a townhouse/condominium fell 11.3 percent year-over-year to $111,500. The average price slipped 4.3 percent to $147,501 from January 2009 to January 2010

Gran it, the statistics are on the overall market in Houston, Texas.  The townhome inventory in Rice Military dominants the market in Rice Military.  In my opinion, the Buyer’s perception of a single-family home is better because they are not sharing a common wall with their neighbor.  Ever heard of the phrase, fences build good neighbors?  While it is true in most cases, the residents of Rice Military have adapted to neighbors at arms length. 

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