Bye Bye Byrdie?

It is said that the way neighborhoods change is by nibbling away at the edges, and before too long the heart of the neighborhood is at risk.

Frequently this takes the form of commercial development at the fringes of a residential area. Or high density housing. More recently, in this neck of the woods, it is taking place in the form of extremely high dollar homes going into a settled, well valued neighborhood.

Take, for example, the new high dollar mark for this stretch of White Oak Road, and the tone it establishes for Byrd, the side street at its corner. A stroll down property value lane will give the status at the 2000 tax valuation. Multiply those land value figures by 3 to see where things are currently.

This is the house before it was scraped.



This is the new house taking its place.




The million dollar question is whether Raleigh neighborhoods are more vulnerable to similar re-development after such a new structure is added, or if community diversity can be the norm.

In the golden olden days, old Raleigh has been a delightful mixture of housing stock. In the brassy new days, what will we become?

Parallel to Byrd is Beechridge, another of the truly wonderful mixtures of different size older homes. The first mega-rebuild came at its corner with Glenwood Ave. The idea has travelled down the block, so that there are currently 4 replacement homes in the $2M range next to original homes. Could Mansion Creep be a real danger to neighborhood stability? Who Knew....