Douglas Newby insights on Architecturally Significant Homes, Neighborhoods, and the Evolution of Cities
Their Impact on Homes That Make Us Happy
Home Sweet Home? How Shelter in Place Changes the Way We Think About a Home
The recent challenges from the coronavirus force us to shelter at home and think of our home in whole new ways. Traditionally, when a buyer looks for a house to purchase, they are usually thinking about practical and financial criteria, like the square footage cost of the investment, how much house can they afford, are...
Northern Hills: Why is it a Favorite Dallas Neighborhood and Crown Jewel of Original Land Grant?
In the 1920s, Northern Hills was described by the McNeny brothers much like I described the Northern Hills neighborhood in the 1986 book I wrote on the older neighborhoods in Dallas and in my 2020 video on Northern Hills. Regardless of where Northern Hills was in its evolution, in its infancy in the 1920s, re-emerging...
Max Architectural and Preservation Achievement of Architecturally Significant Home, Max Levy Architect
Max Levy, FAIA, helped save an architecturally significant home, the Stretto house designed by New York architect Steven Holl, from being torn down. This architecturally significant home built in 1991 was offered for sale for less than its 1.5 acre Preston Hollow land was valued. The house was headed for destruction. Its demise kept inching...
Direction of Dallas and Urban Growth
Should the direction of Dallas urban growth continue to grow north? Does inserting low-income housing in North Dallas create an inclusive urban growth direction for Dallas? Does the direction of Dallas and its current goal of moving low-income wage earners closer to higher wage jobs in North Dallas increase or decrease wealth for low-income families? ...
The Characteristics of Homes People Love
For the people who really love their home, 10 characteristics that make them happy come up over and over again...Continue Reading about The Characteristics of Homes People Love →
MLS Remarks Can Diminish Value of Home For Sale
How an agent writes about a home in MLS Remarks impacts how well the home sells. I will be giving you an example of how generic MLS remarks might cost the seller a million dollars. If an agent can’t write about a home, an agent can’t talk about a home. If an agent can’t talk...
Inclusive Urban Growth: Dilute the Strong or Fortify the Weak Neighborhoods
As cities increasingly become enclaves for the rich and reservations for the poor, the debate rages on how to create inclusive urban growth to make cities less economically segregated and more vibrant. In Dallas, the Trinity River gives a geographic definition to the high income and low-income neighborhoods, dividing the historically prosperous northern half of...
Tax On Aesthetics – Architect-Designed Homes
Who would think low-taxed Texas would have tax on aesthetics, curtailing the construction of architect-designed homes? There are many unintended consequences of high taxes such as impeding economic growth or high tax rates reducing tax revenue collected (i.e., New Jersey and Connecticut). Only now do I realize that Texas’ high property taxes impede the building...
Dallas Super High-End Homes—Boom or Bust?
What constitutes “super high-end homes” in the Dallas area? Recently Steve Brown reported in the Dallas Morning News that one part of the D/FW market that shows no sign of a slowdown is the super high-end homes. However, that depends on how you define super high-end homes. Three years ago I wrote that there was at least a...
Patchwork Quilt of Backyards is Dallas’ Central Park
In 1990, when Dallas was going through its great economic depression, it actually had a chance to have more than just backyards and trees. It had a chance to have a version of New York’s Central Park. Southland Corporation had assembled 200 acres one small lot at a time. After the devastating economic downturn, this...
Adding Density Destroys Neighborhoods One House at a Time
Density is the Holy Grail of New Urbanism, from creating new zoning for granny flats, rooming houses, townhouses, duplexes, fourplexes and backyard two-story rental houses in established neighborhoods to encouraging dense mixed use development on undeveloped or redeveloped land. The advantage of urban density and the idyllic effect of density has been the battle cry...
Backyard Rental House/Granny Flat Zoning Threatens Trees, Breezes, Birds and Neighborhoods
The Dallas city manager and housing director are proposing a devastating blanket zoning change: allowing ADUs (additional dwelling units), better known as granny flats, actually backyard rental houses, in single-family zoned neighborhoods. This change would allow a 44-foot wide by 30-foot tall rental house to be built on the back of a standard 50‑foot wide...
Douglas Newby Expertise
A life long curiosity and interest in art, culture and economics, and how they impact homes, neighborhoods and cities shape the prescient understanding Douglas Newby has for evolving real estate markets. His uncanny ability to see which homes and neighborhoods thrive and which will lag and when has been immensely beneficial to his clients and to the city. Ultimately, what is most important is homes that make us happy.
