Do you want to live close to me? I know you do. But don’t fret your pretty head, you can’t afford it. The price of all the destroy-the-neighborhood new homes pretty much assure I will receive baby boomers nearing retirement. (What do they need with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths?)

I was talking to my neighbor. We think it’s time to put some cars up on blocks in our front yards.

602 E 8th 1/2 St – The most expensive listing of 67 in the area: $1,150,000. At the end of my street – a block and a half away. Still under construction.

711 E 8th 1/2 – The #6 on the list, ordered by price: $925,900. I love the architectural rendering that makes it look alone and pristine. This one is 3 houses down – almost complete.

619 E 8th 1/2 – The next is down on page 2 of the 7 pages of listings on HAR. $599.900

Hmm, the 728 across the street from me isn’t in the list. It’s complete and been on the market for a while. Had a pending sign for a while, too. It’s had an “Open House Sun 2-4” sign since January, and I’ve only seen it open a few times. It’s not listed on the open house list on the realtor’s site.

724 E 8th 1/2 St [nextag] – The boarded up duplex between the newly built and two just started constructions is valued at $266,860 – but it’s not clear that it’s actually for sale.

I’m not sure the nextag site is worthy – i think it’s a property estimate site. It lists the three closest schools as Wharton School, Christ The King School, and Jefferson Elementary School. I’m assuming they only are listing elementary schools. They missed the closest two: Harvard and Travis. Their link to Jefferson is a bogus link. Both it and Wharton are past major Interstate highways.

Yet another house on my street, one that’s two doors down, is about to cease being. At least this one’s gonna drive off. I assume. They wouldn’t just lift it up. It is in the bottom three of “how good of shape the old house is in”.

Hmm, maybe that’s the consolation. Soon, I’ll be the least recently built/renovated.

The new sun-blocker across the street had a one-day makeover (landscaped and added stairs to get up to the porch) and then had an open house on Sunday. It wasn’t overly busy – though I wasn’t making a point of it to check on it.

Someone (the builder) had parked their large white pickup in the front yard next door to it. Very tacky. I’m sure it was allow the visitors to drive into the driveway (which wasn’t theirs).

To top it off, they’ve had a sign in the front yard since December: “Open House Sun 2-4”. I waited till 2pm the first Sunday after it went up, and it became apparent that they did not mean 2pm to 4pm. TG checked the calendar… “Feb 4 isn’t a Sunday.” And of course, the sign remained up for two months, even on the day of the open house, February 3rd, 2008. The day of the Super Bowl. And the Sunday before Mardi Gras. That’s about the worst time I can imagine it being scheduled.