Move over: Oklahoma City is attracting more 'horizontal apartments'. Here's where
More "horizontal apartments" — entire high-density neighborhoods of single-family homes built as rentals — are popping up, and over, in and around Oklahoma City.
"Horizontal apartments" are rent houses with high-end amenities on small lots, with on-site property management handling lawn care and maintenance on all units — like most if not all apartments, whether built horizontally or as multistory buildings. They first came to OKC last year.
It's one of the fastest-growing trends in housing, said expert Brad Hunter, writing in Forbes.
Built-to-rent single-family development started in Arizona and soon spread to Texas, before coming to Oklahoma City
It started in Phoenix, Hunter wrote, "born out of the distress of the Great Financial Crisis" of 2007-2008, which led to the Great Recession. Investors bought up foreclosures, "but by 2012, they had exhausted much of that supply, and started to build whole new communities of homes for rent."
Phoenix and Dallas-Fort Worth are the leading markets for build-to-rent neighborhoods, wrote Hunter, who runs Hunter Housing Economics in West Palm Beach, Florida.
"These kinds of rental units are usually marketed as 'cottages,' and they offer two main advantages over traditional apartments: private outdoor space for each unit, and few or no shared walls," wrote Hunter.
RELATED: First 'horizontal apartments' hit the OKC rental market. Here's what to know
Oklahoma City is a growing market for horizontal apartments
Energy executive Saxby Stradinger's Blackfin Development LLC has all-rental Magnolia Row under way at 6300 W Memorial Road, on the south side of Kilpatrick Turnpike west of MacArthur Boulevard. Stradinger is president of Blackfin Energy LLC in OKC.
Magnolia Row will have 87 homes: one-bedroom on a single floor, and two- and three-bedroom with two stories, in a "new urbanist" style.
That means walkable blocks and streets, shopping close by and accessible public spaces. In other words: "human-scaled urban design," as the Washington, D.C.-based Congress for the New Urbanism puts it.
Blackfin also has a similar neighborhood in the planning stage at 2332 NW 150, on the south side, west of Pennsylvania Avenue.
RELATED: What's old, but new again, in 117-year-old Main Street Addition near downtown Edmond?
Texas-based, all-rental, single-family developer expands to the OKC area
Houston-based SimplyHome is building 100 rental homes in its Crimson Lake Estates addition at 1508 Crimson Lake Blvd., north of Interstate 40 and west of S Country Club Road in El Reno. It will add to SimplyHomes' 10,000-plus rentals.
Three- and four-bedroom single-and-two-story homes will be available for move-in by July, according to the company, which bills itself as "one of the nation’s largest operators of new, single-family build-to-rent homes."
RELATED: Downtown Edmond has a new pocket neighborhood. See what makes The Lark so special
"Horizontal apartments," single-family rental neighborhoods, are gaining traction in Oklahoma City
Trulo Homes Quail Village, the first such development in OKC, is well under way at 2145 Watermark Blvd.
This “horizontal apartment” product is gaining steam around the U.S. and now in Oklahoma," said Bert Belanger, managing director for PACE Equity in Oklahoma and principal of Lincoln Square/Belanger Brokerage LLC. Stradinger is a client.
It's all about lifestyle, Stradinger said, and "no shared walls." OKC's Wheeler District and alternative pocket neighborhoods like The Lark and Main Street Addition in downtown Edmond demonstrate interest and demand among homebuyers, he said, and Magnolia Row offers the same for renters.
RELATED: Will there actually be a 'spring housing market' this year? Realtors weigh in
All-rental, single-family neighborhoods are an answer to rising costs of home ownership, Houston-based SimplyHomes says
The Oklahoma City area is ready for SimplyHome's Crimson Lake Estates in El Reno, said Matt Hansen, president.
“We’ve been looking at an opportunity in Oklahoma City for quite some time,” Hansen said. “Crimson Lake Estates offers an accessible location, minutes from Redlands Community College, the Crimson Creek Golf Course and several recreational amenities for those seeking the feel of home ownership without the price tag."
RELATED: Moore is a top 10 market for first-time home buyers. Is post-tornado development a cause?
Hansen said SimplyHome was drawn to Oklahoma City’s "strong employment, robust job market and more than 135,000 students attending area colleges and universities."
SimplyHome designs, builds, leases, maintains and manages its rental homes, "an integrated approach which ensures residents enjoy a superior quality home," Hansen said. He said the company has more than 100 single-family all-rental neighborhoods.
“We combine the flexibility of renting with the comfort and privacy of a single-family home,” he says. “A single-family rental home community is ideal at a time when the cost of home ownership continues to be a challenge.”
Sign Up:Weekly newsletter Real Estate with Richard Mize
Senior Business Writer Richard Mize has covered housing, construction, commercial real estate and related topics for the newspaper and Oklahoman.com since 1999. Contact him at rmize@oklahoman.com. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Real Estate with Richard Mize. You can support Richard's work, and that of his colleagues, by purchasing a digital subscription to The Oklahoman. Right now, you can get 6 months of subscriber-only access for $1.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma City is attracting more single-family 'horizontal apartments'
