Douglas Newby insights on Architecturally Significant Homes, Neighborhoods, and the Evolution of Cities
Impact on Homes That Make Us Happy
Holy Grail of Homes Buyers Desire During the Pandemic
When sheltering at home people think about their homes differently. Nature, views, sunlight permeate their thoughts. Previously content homeowners become buyers during the pandemic. Here is the type of home buyers desire that has all the characteristics of home people love , even more during a pandemic. Homebuyers Want Their Home to Look Over a...
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...
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 →
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...
Organic Urbanism is the Cure for New Urbanism
New Urbanism is Like a Virus New Urbanism is a virus that keeps coming back in mutated forms – Organic Urbanism is the cure – Douglas Newby Why Does New Urbanism Need a Cure? New Urbanists increasingly don’t like single-family homes, which most Americans prefer. Didn’t you enjoy living in a single-family neighborhood? Even if...
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? ...
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...
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...
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.
