Housing Question

[tiffykay06]

Bear with me since this will take a while to explain. We recently bought a house in a new subdivision. We are at the very back of our subdivison and we typically use the entrance of another subdivison to get to our house since it is easier than our subdivison entrance. When they are done building, our subdivision will have around 400 homes in it. We recently got a letter that at the front of our subdivision there is a property dispute going on with the subdivisions across the street(houses range from $400k to $1 million). The plan was to put a front row of duplexes in the front of our subdivison facing the subdivision across the street. The people who own houses that would back up to the duplexes in our subdivision protested and the new plan would call for single family homes and a small apartment complex that would not be able to access our subdivison. They only have 2 acres of land to put the subdivison on and there would only be around 35 or 40 units total. The communities across the street are now protesting and do not want an apartment community to be built. We were asked to support the apartment complex at the meeting this week and are not sure how we feel about it. Duplexes originally sounded better because there would be less people; however, if they do duplexes they will not do any single family homes and this will be the first thing you see at the front of our subdivision. Plus we were reminded that duplexes are typically bought by investors who are out of state and may not take care of the their property as well. Apartments scare me because of the potential people who will be there. Because of the expensive communities across the street I believe that the apartments would be high rent for the area(around $900 and up). What would your opinions be on what would be best for our property values?

 

[whitebronc]

Stick with what you want. Don't vote one way cause you get a letter urging you.
If you agree with the letter, then go that way, if not go the other.

Look into it, find out the facts. Do not just go along with the "masses" are doing cause someone says they should and its good for us to go along with this.

Just my two cents

 

[MelanieNormansMom]

There are always issues with apartment/duplex type homes in that they, for the most part, are rentals and people aren't always into taking care of something that really isn't theirs, kwim? Whereas if it's a home they're paying a mortgage on they're usually more likely to keep it up. Having to choose between an apartment complex or duplexes, I think I'd be more in favor of duplexes. JMHO

 

[nycbullymama]

I don't know where you live, but I can assure you- rents here, are higher than most mortgages in the country. So I totally disagree with any insinuations that renters are less desirable.

With that said, I totally agree with [MENTION=7601]whitebronc[/MENTION] Vote whichever way makes you most comfortable. Just do it based on fact, not feelings.

 

[tiffykay06]

I don't know where you live, but I can assure you- rents here, are higher than most mortgages in the country. So I totally disagree with any insinuations that renters are less desirable.

With that said, I totally agree with @whitebronc Vote whichever way makes you most comfortable. Just do it based on fact, not feelings.

Rents are higher here(Edmond, OK - suburb of Oklahoma City) also and that is one of the reasons we bought a house is to get more for our money. I did not mean to imply that renters are less desirable. Just from my experiences in living in this area you can tell the houses that are rented versus the ones that are owned and this is especially true with most of the duplexes in the town. I was just wondering opinions since I do not have a strong feeling one way or the other. My initial instinct was that duplexes would be less people living in one area than an apartment complex but I think it would be nicer to see single family homes when entering my subdivision instead of duplexes. I hate to be one of those people but I have a feeling that I will not attend the meeting this week based on short notice and not enough time to make a decision. I will just let the zoning commission work it out.

 

[nycbullymama]

@tiffykay06 Sorry if I sounded like I jumped down your throat, really didn't mean to.
But, you should probably try to attend the meeting, as it may help you make up your mind.

 

[tiffykay06]

@tiffykay06 Sorry if I sounded like I jumped down your throat, really didn't mean to.
But, you should probably try to attend the meeting, as it may help you make up your mind.

You didn't sound that way at all. If anything I probably did stereotype renters into one classification which I know is wrong. The problem with the meeting is that they are already voting on it at this meeting and our Homeowner's Association did not tell us about it until Saturday but then they want us to quickly make up our minds and go and support them. I'm just not sure if it is worth taking off work for something where I am not feeling 100% supportive of either side.

 

[2BullyMama]

Gotta love the HOA giving you advanced notice..... I would prefer the single family homes too, but in all honesty I would bet this has all already been decided and the meeting is just a formality.

 

[LariP]

Your property value is likely to be higher if it's kept ALL single family homes with neither apartments or duplexes. I have no idea if property values are different with duplexes compared to an apartment complex however.
I don't quite understand how some HOA's work. Seems they charge big money to make a lot of rules about your property in a subdivision of single family dwellings. What do they actually do for you?