Paved Streets of Prosperity
By Gregory Cantu
Gentrification of the East Side I was born and raised on East 3rd Street. East Austin is the land of my birthplace and I have deep roots there. I still know a lot of the people in the community and I work primarily in the real estate industry with a focus on East Austin.
I started my company with a mission to help people. I found out, unfortunately, that most of the real estate agents just wanted quick money. There was little interest in helping long-time East Austin residents sell to people who would actually live in the homes.
The goal back when I was young was to graduate from high school, join the military, return for higher education and let the government pay one’s tuition. But that wasn’t my story. I didn’t want to work in East Austin, I wanted out.
At 62 years of age, I learned about reverse mortgages and homesteads. What I found is that, in short, homeowners can get a certain percentage of equity out of their home and make no payments for as long as they live. Their heirs then pay back the loan after the owner dies out of the sale of the home. You can defer property taxes also; that state law was passed more than thirty years ago.
So I sold my mother’s house for what I thought was a reasonable amount. I remember showing the house to prospective buyers; most were looking for houses for their kids who were attending the University of Texas or pursuing work in grad school. I was asked if I had other properties available for purchase in East Austin. I knew of some homes for sale, having known the neighborhood, and I soon realized that I could specialize in real estate in East Austin. At a later time, a mortgage loan officer approached me and asked, “Have you ever had a ‘farm’—a particular area you work?” At the time, my sales territory was mainly addresses in South Austin. Per his suggestion, I select the place I knew best—the East Side. As an independent real estate agent, I was not well versed in marketing, direct mail and advertising. A friend of mine had just gotten his license to conduct commercial sales and asked me about residential opportunities. I suggested we do mail outs to East Austin homeowners. Eventually, we decided to open up a real estate company to help people in East Austin called Centex Real Estate. By 2005, developers and investors were flashing money at the folks in East Austin. Limousines were gliding down East 4th Street, looking to see what was available. They were buying entire blocks of real estate; I knew it was developing too fast. I’m all for growth and cleaning up neighborhoods, but mowing down homes – that’s not good for the little old lady next door.
have paved streets where we used to have caliche. If you fell, it hurt – those caliche rocks are sharp. The community won’t become entirely Anglo as many of the older Hispanic families will stay. There is some evidence that somebody many years ago drew a line on Interstate 35 and said, “Over here on the east is where Blacks and Hispanics will live.” Then UT led the way and built their baseball field on the “other side” of the freeway. They were perhaps the first to wake up and realize that land is only five minutes from downtown. When I was young, we used to walk a few
minutes to Congress Avenue to go to the movies. But Mexican Americans will not disappear from the area. When I think about the gentrification of East Austin, I’m reminded of the 1990 film “Dances with Wolves.” It’s 1863 and a Sioux medicine man asks a lone Anglo soldier how many white men are approaching their homeland. The foreboding reply is, “as many as the stars.”
After the age of 65, the owner can defer property taxes by going to local county appraisal district and filing an affidavit proving their age and they will see deferred taxes (8% simple interest to defer taxes). So a homeowner 65 or older can do that and benefit from the appreciation of their house in 20 years. I also recommend investing in a term life insurance policy instead of putting money into taxes that will be paid when you die out of the sale of the home. A homeowner’s heirs can have a lot of cash left over from the insurance policy and after the taxes are paid on the house when the house is sold. As for the evils of gentrification in East Austin, I don’t see any. There are educated people moving into the East Side neighborhoods and that’s helping everybody. The demographic change is providing a good mix of people from various ethnic backgrounds. Of course, Mexican Americans feel like it was their land to start with. After all, Texas once belonged to Mexico. They’re not necessarily immigrants from another country—they feel this is their country. Still, many of the younger kids want to move out to areas more anglicized. That’s part of life’s cycle. We as a community have a come a long way together and change can be hard. My sister still lives on East 2nd Street by the Pan American Center. Things are good here. We
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