No kidding.

The sales woman at Dobson said that had 40 units leased already...which is pretty good news assuming its true. They were giving 2 free mos though... That is a really nice project but the prices are way up there.

They are going to have to knock the rental prices down somewhat..just like Westrum and some of these other developments will have to drop their sales prices. Prices have to rebalance all around to support income levels. They'll fill up if priced accordingly. Location is still good. No matter what more and more people are going to consider moving from the suburbs back to the city. The end of cheap energy will dictate as much...

Four of the units will be sold at absolute auction, one with a reserve of 125k, one with a reserve of 175k, and the last two with reserves of 250k. The other seven will have undisclosed reserves. Why Westrum would do something that looks so desperate is beyond me. I have wondered why they haven't been breaking ground on anything new recently, as they seem to be finished the three rows they already started. Maybe John Westrum doesn't have deep pockets, and is at the mercy of his bank.

I guess he's just trying to stop the bleeding and pay his bank back something on the construction loans. And if he's auctioning off what's already been built, I guess no additional units will get built on that site for several years. Good luck having your neighbor be a giant mound of dirt.

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Matt McClure for President 2012
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Yeah, and watch your h/o association fees skyrocket since there are only 15 homes paying for all the grounds maintenance, trash removal and snow plowing!

Anyone on this thing live here? It would be interesting to hear some insider dirt.

As far as Hilltop vs the older homes on Warden & Coulter that have been posted, it really all depends on what you're looking for. The square footage is comparable even if there are fewer bedrooms. And if you're not looking for acreage and the Saturday morning lawn mowing / snowy morning shoveling that goes with it, new construction in a development can be a very attractive alternative.

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This is a great house - faces McMichael Park and has a true backyard. I would think this one will sell quickly.

This Westrum job never made sense from the get-go. If you have $750,000 to spend in East Falls you have a lot of quality options. Why would you chose to share a subdivision with public housing when you can buy this for $200K less?

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"Life's tough, and it's a lot tougher if you're stupid." My Dad

The house on Coulter has an awkward layout, with a landlocked fourth bedroom, the third bath on the first floor where there isn't a bedroom (or so I infer), and a dated kitchen (also inferred). It is only 2500 square feet, but I still think it is underpriced; I fully expected a price well in excess of 600k.

Living in an old, obsolete house is alot of work and is very expensive. I found the interiors of the Westrum places to be very appealing, the exteriors to be not appealing.

When Winther (Dobson Mills) and PHA (Falls Ridge) projected that two bedroom units would rent for 2k per month, I thought they were on dust. Now, years have gone by and those numbers aren't so hopelessly out of reach anymore. I have been waiting for the same thing to happen with the Westrum stuff. I don't understand why they have run out of patience. When I stopped by the sales office last week nothing seemed amiss.

The sales listings of the Hilltop at Falls Ridge stuff seem to have been removed from the Multiple Listing Service. Maybe the entity that owns the Westrum portion of Falls Ridge has declared bankruptcy and the bank is liquidating the assets. I would find that to be flabbergasting, though. I really don't like how much the Westrum stuff looks like a development, but this would be a drastic way to effect a change in idiom.

Personal opinion...Westrum=balsa wood.

First time I have seen this here in this market, but in California, specifically east bay area they have done this with condos to create 'bargain' atmosphere, when all they are doing is selling them at a 20% discount (granted, nothing to sneeze at) but it could just be clever marketing on what in this market is a tough sell....a non-neighborhood neighborhood. Houses with driveways on the font turn the adjoining houses into a panopticon where the neighbors dont know what is on either side of them.

Good luck to all the bidders!

It seems that Westrum is 'reconfiguring' what they will build there, and has stopped the present configuration, including, evidently, the sales staff.

It should be noted that Wiehle Street and Heywood Street, both off of Indian Queen Lane, were spared the cookie cutter look by the bankruptcy of their original builders and the completion of the job by a new builder. Westrum is evidently not yet in this position, but there is hope. As much as I would love to see the sclerosis on Ridge Avenue become as pleasant as lower Midvale, I am happy that Westrum stopped their vinyl-city development, and I hope they sell to someone with better taste altogether. I have no confidence that their re-engineered development will be an improvement over the presently lacking development.

Did Westrum get that land for development as part of a deal with PHA? I know that when the "Falls" project was demolished part of the deal with HUD was that it be mixed housing. IIRC, PHA was to develop the subsidized rental units and a private developer would build the market rate units.

If this is indeed the case, what recourse does PHA have to see that the development is finished?

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