In the News
A great article our real estate team is featured in, written by Brandi Smith, and published in The Leader.
“Greater Inwood has what people need, but can’t afford in the Heights, Oak Forest, Garden Oaks and Spring Branch,” says Russell Simmons, friend and colleague.
Read on to see why so many are choosing to #GrowNear with us!
Close-knit. Unique. Affordable. They’re three words you don’t often get to use to describe a neighborhood in Houston, but Inwood isn’t your typical neighborhood.
Inwood’s first “boom” came in the mid-1960s when Houston residents felt the need to break out of the ever-congested city. This thriving development in Northwest Houston was the go-to locale for oil executives, entrepreneurs and the like. For a time, it was the envy of Houston.
“It was going to be the next latest and greatest high-end planned community around the golf course,” said Russell Simmons, a broker/investor with Texas Area Properties. “The oil crunch of the late ‘80s happened and it kind of became no man’s land for a while.”
The years following the oil bust weren’t kind to Inwood, where the number of foreclosures increased, home prices plummeted and local businesses closed.
In the midst of the decline, The Greater Inwood Partnership, representing 35 neighborhoods in the surrounding area, formed with a mission: “developing, encouraging, promoting, beautifying, protecting and unifying the Greater Inwood community.”
The result of that effort is a thriving, up-and-coming area that appeals to homebuyers just as much as developers.
“Young families, couples and the investment-minded are branching out and rediscovering the area,” Simmons said.
“The Inwood area has had an awakening that is predominantly community driven,” said Kevin Bell.
He and his wife, Cheryl, are examples of that awakening.
“I grew up here and now my family lives here,” said Bell, the newly-elected GIP president. “I want to see my young son gathering pecans from the same tree I planted as a child, which is now in our backyard.”
People with a vested interest in rebuilding Inwood, including the Bells, are the driving force behind its rebirth.
“Greater Inwood is what people need, but can’t afford in the Heights, Oak Forest, Garden Oaks and Spring Branch,” Simmons said. “I think Greater Inwood is going to thrive.”
“Young families want CASH: close, affordable, safe housing. Greater Inwood has that and more,” said Elizabeth Castro Gray of Lamppost LLC, one of Greater Inwood’s newest multi-family investors. “There’s really quite a burgeoning sense of community here.”
That sense of community was recently tested when floodwaters flowed into the neighborhood in mid-April. Instead of adopting a fend-for-yourself attitude, neighbors banded together to help each other.
“It’s heartwarming,” said Bell. “It’s been absolutely amazing to see people come out of their houses and connect with one another.”
Those relationships are one point of pride at Inwood; another is its mature tree-lined streets, intertwined with one of the most serene green spaces in the city of Houston.
“We are tied into the Hike and Bike trail system along the White Oak Bayou. You can ride all of the way into the Heights and then into downtown from here,” Bell said.
In addition to offering a wonderful environment for families, the area is almost a blank canvas on which developers can help shape Inwood’s commercial future. The demolition of blighted apartments is offering up new space for shops, restaurants and pubs.
“[It’s] a diamond in the rough,” said Dan Nankani, owner of a full-service commercial real estate firm, who recently moved his business to Houston from San Antonio. “We did the math. Within a five-mile radius, you have access to more than 330,000 residents. That’s attractive to commercial investors.”
Along with its considerable population base, Inwood also offers something that’s a struggle for other neighborhoods: affordability.
“It was priced right,” said Nankani. “The prices in other areas are so high, it doesn’t make economic sense to everyone.”
“A lot has changed in the past 15 years,” Castro Gray said. “I think there is more here than people realize.”
According to multiple publications, Inwood has matured into the next “hot spot” in Houston, thanks to the efforts of organizations such as the Greater Inwood Partnership, Inwood Forest Community Improvement Association and the Near Northwest Management District.
As a local Realtor, Bell has decided to focus all of his energy in the Inwood area.
“I am passionate about the revitalization of Inwood and its surrounding neighborhoods,” he said.
“Kevin and his wife Cheryl have been a great resource to the community,” said Eileen Egan, business development director at the Near Northwest Management District.
For more information on the Greater Inwood area, email president@greaterinwood.org or call 713-234-6763.