Centex Homes’ Hills of Rivermist Slope Failure Updates
The saga continues…
Yesterday, Centex Homes officials announced they did not have a permit from the City of San Antonio for the retaining wall in Hills of Rivermist. As this issue came to light, more people have begun focusing on the retaining wall as the cause of the slope failure (technically not a “sinkhole” although it was called one at first).
It looks like Centex is taking the blame, so my guess is they’re preparing to make the right moves, something I highly encourage. The long term effects of this incident remain to be seen, but in the foreseeable future, I suspect we will see declining home prices in both Hills of Rivermist and Rivermist. I hate to say it, but I do believe that’s what we’ll see and most that I have spoken with agree. It will be interesting to see how Centex Homes deals with those homeowners outside of the direct influence of the evacuations, as although they are not affected immediately by the slope failure, they will face a neighborhood with a stigma that most likely won’t go away too fast.
Other news sources and information.
KSAT12 – Neighborhood Weighing Legal Options
KSAT12 – Crumbling Wall Raises Concerns In Cibolo (another Centex community)
KSAT12 – City Officials Inspect Walls
KSAT12 – Centex Admits Blame In ‘Slope Failure’
AOL Housing Watch – Landslide Threatens San Antonio Home-owners and Home Values (I was interviewed for the article)
Search Twitter for #sinkhole, #slopefailure, and #sinkholegate.
Feel free to add any sources of stories to the comments below.
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Comments
How did the homes (toboggans) get a certificate of occupancy? The city permit office should have red tagged the whole neighborhood before hundreds of millions worth of homes was built. But, alas, those homes were residential tax ba$e for the school district to float bonds against to build “educational” palaces and secure ever more high paying administration salaries. It created tax ba$se for the city as well. But nobody budgeted more competent inspectors to ensure that the tax ba$e was properly constructed. They just took the property tax money and ran.
Watch the Appraisal District fight the property value devaluations, even as the houses slide downhill into one another. The chief appraiser will sit there with a straight face and declare that the pile of rubble still has full value because it’s no worse than the Presidential Palace in Port Au Prince.
Thomas Johnson´s last blog ..$451,827 :: 5415 Crooms St, Houston TX, 77007
Thomas – Well the first of what I imagine will be many lawsuits has been officially filed according to the local news. I just took a look at it a few moments ago. I wonder how long it will take for Centex/Pulte to start suing the engineers and City of San Antonio? This is going to be a big mess for sometime to come. Good point on the Appraisal District. I can (unfortunately) see that happening too.
Huh, I didn’t know that all this was going on, thanks for the info. Good to know.
Chris´s last blog ..Bridgestone Motorcycle Tires
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