I am so glad I found this forum a couple weeks ago. So, I want to say thanks to all those who have posted lately. Your posts saved our project!! Jared in Lake Havasu City, AZ

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Bought the lot

Posted to MRailey by Michael in Dallas, TX on 7/13/2006

Well, I bought my lot in 2000 for $6,700. Dallas opened their DART rail (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) in 1996 and I started looking around the stations for property. My goal was to reduce my own need to drive every day with public transportation. I didn't want to be more than 30 minutes from work either by car or by transit. That limited my options, due to the fact that most properties within 30 minutes would be too costly for my budget. After snooping around, I found the Cedars area and a lot listed on realtor.com.

I decided I would test it out at 5 pm leaving work and drive down to see how long it took. Well, we just made it 29 minutes by car and 34 minutes by train. I guess 50/50 is going to be okay with only 4 minutes over budget. The area was a slum just south of downtown Dallas. However, with new DART station, South Side on Lamar complete - a loft complex and only two blocks south of the central business district I figured it wouldn't stay that way for long.

Six years later, the area is starting to transform. Two weeks after I purchased my lot the city announced they were going to move the Police headquarters to my area. Unlike a substation, this is mostly admin and investigators, not many actual police cars and almost no sirens. I paid $1.32 per sq foot for my lot. Current prices in the area are now close to $12 per sq foot with asking prices around $20 per sq foot.