Another Secret House (Almost As Secret as the First One) for Sale in Dallas

Nobody ever sells on Stonebridge Drive in Dallas (well, two were sold in the neighborhood whole of last year).  The street has anti-tank berms at the north end that virtually eliminate rush hour rat-runners and drunken revelers lost after midnight. It makes for a quiet existence, dismembered from the hurly-burly of living in the heart of America’s fourth largest SAMA. So, it is triumphally significant that 4104 Stonebridge Dr. is “coming soon” from David Griffin Realtors and parrot-owning agent Jarrad Barnes. The yard sign has been in the tease state for a month, so this may all be a spoof.

But wait! Barnes tells me the house isn’t really for sale, but it’s not a tease. The house is built on two lots, and one of them is for sale. That makes it a 60 foot wide slither of land totaling just over 7,500 sq. ft. (the minimum lot size in the neighborhood). The interesting thing is, a river runs through it. Or, as math majors and Barnes’ parrot would say, bisects the property  Far from making building a house impossible, it encourages the kind of innovative cantilevered design found on Park Bridge Court just a few minutes south down Turtle Creek Boulevard. As Barnes puts it “This lot will be bought by someone who reads Dwell”.

From the dog-walker’s perspective, I see potential with this lot. It backs onto the Katy Trail. The owner can dynamite cut, his own personal access to the best urban trail in Dallas. Second, this location is only one and a half miles from downtown Dallas. If the city continues to grow, it has to command an increased congestion premium. All of this doesn’t describe the location (which we just did, above). For all that, the $695k asking price sounds like fair value.