Your Expert Guide

M Streets: Where unique architecture meets laid-back neighbors

Agent Kimberli Hildreth Bailey

Photo courtesy of Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty

There are so many great places to live in Dallas that it helps to have an expert on your side. The Neighborhood Guide presented by Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty gives you insider access from the agents who live and work there, providing in-the-know info about your possible new community.

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Kimberli Hildreth Bailey always thought she'd be in commercial real estate — after all, her father has been a commercial real estate broker for more than 40 years — but the first time she helped a client find their dream home, she knew she was hooked.

Now, the residential real estate agent delights in helping others buy and sell in Dallas, particularly in the M Streets. Named for two of the neighborhood's most prominent streets, Monticello Avenue and McCommas Boulevard, the area was first developed in the 1920s as Greenland Hills.

"I live in Lakewood Heights, which is just east of the M Streets," she says, explaining that the M Streets neighborhood technically stops at Skillman Street, and that she is just east of Skillman. "My husband and I have lived here for almost two years, having lived in State Thomas for two years before that. We knew we loved East Dallas immediately."

"It's just a short drive, or even walk, from Lower Greenville and Knox-Henderson, and is also close to White Rock Lake," she says. "Lower Greenville houses some of the most fun restaurants and bars in Dallas, while White Rock Lake provides a beautiful area for people to ride their bikes, go on long walks, and take their pups to the White Rock Lake Dog Park."

Bailey offered up a few of her personal favorites about life in the M Streets. Here's her guide to the area:

Where to eat & drink
"Times Ten Cellars is one of the cutest local wine bars in the area," she says. "It has its own line of wine — the 2017 Pinot Noir is the best — sourced from all over California and Texas. My husband and I love walking our black lab, Charlie, to Times Ten and sitting outside with a glass of Pinot and a charcuterie board made with meats from Jimmy's Food Store."

Barcelona Wine Bar, HG Sply Co., Thai Thai, Taverna, Hudson House, and E Bar Tex-Mex are also in heavy rotation.

If coffee is more your vibe, Bailey suggests White Rock Coffee. "Their house blend is unbeatable, and they even have live music every weekend and open-mic nights on Thursdays at their flagship store in Lake Highlands," she says.

Where to play
Bailey names Tietze Park and its aquatic center, Glencoe Park, and White Rock Lake (plus its dog park) as go-to spots.

Where to live
"The typical home styles for this area are Tudor and Craftsman," Bailey says. "Most of the original homes in the M Streets were built in the 1920s, and one of my very favorite parts about these homes is their uniqueness. No two are the same, the layouts are all different — some have hand-painted tile, stained-glass windows and doors, sunrooms, and open patios."

A particular joy of Bailey's is unearthing a home's history and then conveying it to the buyers, explaining why certain features are still included in the structure: "Everything in these older homes has a purpose," she says.

A prime example of a classic M Streets home is 5802 Mercedes Ave., a recent sale of Bailey's that was snapped up in just one day (and sold for over list price).

With ample natural light, hardwood floors throughout, and a chef's kitchen with Carrara marble countertops, stainless steel appliances, a gas range, and a wine refrigerator, it's not hard to see why.

"Kimberli was a very professional agent who guided us through our transaction with knowledge and patience," says the seller. "She knew our specific real estate market very well, and had great insight on how to best sell our home. Our house basically sold before it went on the market — I don’t know how you can improve on that! Kimberli is an outstanding agent. Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty is very lucky to have her on their team. I would highly recommend her!"

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Kimberli Hildreth Bailey works and plays in the M Streets. For more information on buying and selling a home in the area, click here, email kbailey@briggsfreeman.com, or call 817-999-1797.

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out of reach

This is how long it takes to save for a starter home in Dallas right now

Courtesy of Tri Pointe Homes

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A new national housing affordability report has confirmed something many renters already know: The possibility of owning a home is moving further out of reach for many renters across America.

Becoming a new homeowner is especially challenging for households in several major U.S. metros — including Dallas — where it now takes well over a decade to save enough money for a down payment on a starter home.

These findings were unveiled in a new study from The Julian Bond Institute for Financial Equity Research (JBI), a nonprofit research branch of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). The report comes as a result of its Project 2050 Survey that analyzed "Americans' financial aspirations across generations and racial groups and the obstacles they encounter in achieving them."

JBI said Americans of all generations, racial backgrounds, and ethnicities haven't given up on "this aspect of the American dream," but the journey towards becoming a homeowner is "grow[ing] exceedingly challenging." In addition to saving for a down payment and closing costs, renters must also navigate high mortgage rates and high home prices. All of these combined factors have pushed monthly payments out of reach for most families.

"There has been much coverage of the difficulty aspiring homeowners face in being able to afford the monthly payments on a home loan," the report said. "But less attention has been given to an equally important part of the housing affordability squeeze: The impact that higher home prices and the affordability crisis are having on the ability of families to save enough money to afford the upfront costs of homeownership."

Using the results from a previous 2019 survey and the most recent survey results, JBI examined how many years it would take a typical renter family to save enough money to cover a down payment and closing costs for a starter home in the U.S. and in its 10 biggest metros.

The report found that it now takes the typical Dallas renter household 12 years to save for a starter home in 2026, up from 7 years in 2019. And Dallas technically appears on the lower end of the spectrum out of the 10 biggest U.S. metros.

"Although there is some variation across these areas, even in Houston — where the years to save is the lowest — it would take the typical aspiring homeowner 11 years to save enough money to purchase a starter home," the report said. "At the opposite end of the spectrum, in Los Angeles, it would take 24 years. And in all these areas, there has been a sizable increase in the number of years required to save since 2019."

For the typical American household, it now takes 16 years to save for a starter home, a figure that has doubled since 2019. That's based on an American median renter household income of $57,991, and an estimated saving rate of 2.63 percent. The report defines the saving rate as the percentage of a family’s income that can be set aside for the purchase of a home after expenditures, assuming that aspiring homeowner families can devote 75 percent of their savings toward a home purchase.

"[This] translates to annual savings of roughly $1,525," the report found. "For such a family, it would take 16 years to accumulate enough savings to purchase a starter home [at the median price of $335,574]."

Renter households that made $42,750 in income at a 3.96 saving rate would result in $1,693 saved for the purchase of a home in 2019. By those metrics, it would take the typical renter household eight years to save for a starter home at the 2019 median price of $217,520.

This is how many years it takes to save for a starter home in the 10 biggest U.S. metros compared to 2019, from longest to shortest:

Los Angeles: 24 years, up from 14 years in 2019
New York City: 23 years, up from 10 years
Miami: 22 years, up from 10 years
Washington, D.C.: 16 years, up from 8 years
Chicago: 15 years, up from 8 years
Philadelphia: 15 years, up from 8 years
Phoenix: 15 years, up from 8 years
Atlanta: 13 years, up from 7 years
Dallas: 12 years, up from 7 years
Houston: 11 years, up from 8 years

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