A city full of run down neighborhoods is not without hope. A bad location today is a good location tomorrow in the real estate market. More and more often, visionary homeowners, architects, and restoration experts are moving into undesirable locations and transforming the area. These grassroots renaissance movements make once low tax base properties a real boon for a struggling city.
Many years ago, the Montrose area of Houston, Texas was considered a dangerous and undesirable part of the city. In a stroke of restoration irony, homosexual men, who were also considered undesirable, began to buy old homes there. They renovated and added new and attractive construction to the sagging neighborhood. Suddenly it was considered a hip place to live. Today, the homes in the Montrose are high dollar pieces of real estate. Its location is key to entertainment and business, and the people who revived it enjoy respect and appreciation for their vision.
Further down the road, the city of Austin is enjoying a similar restoration renaissance. The part of the city east of Interstate 35 was always considered a low income and dangerous location. The working class families lived in homes in various stages of disrepair, and many businesses sat empty. As new and innovative people began to flood the city, the east side was a prime patch of real estate just waiting to be revived. Today, the old businesses are home to condos, hip restaurants and stores and plenty of safe, friendly activity. The old homes are slowly being restored, too. Within a few short years, the city’s eastern reaches have become a destination location.
Texas isn’t the only place these kinds of transformations take place. Even cities as desolate as Detroit have a thriving visionary class who hope to restore the city with new construction, businesses and life. If they succeed, the city can revive and become something new and wonderful. Most of the people who are making this transformation want to see the auto landmark city become an artist mecca. Artists typically can’t afford much. However, they can make a bad location a good location.