Luxury Home Plans

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Administrator

Bryan Smith has been designing luxury homes almost as long as he’s been in the home building business, which is a big part of what Bryan Smith Homes provide its clients, and something that sets us apart from most luxury homes builders. Today’s home builders are not as hands on as what was the case 20, 30, 40 years ago, and are usually not experienced with, or capable of designing their own custom home plans, or doing the plan production, as we provide. They generally have to hire someone to do that for them.

As a luxury home builder since 1977, the years Bryan spent inside his homes under construction provided him something most plan designers and architects never obtain; first hand experience and knowledge with building new plan designs.

Bryan Smith Homes designed and built this French Renaissance Home on one of the lots in its Preston Hollow development, Estates of Avalon. The world class home has design elements and appointments you will typically only see in homes costing 2 or 3 times as much as this one sold for.

Bryan Smith Homes has designed and built multiple French Renaissance homes in Preston Hollow, and has honed this particular style of European architecture.

We are available to custom build the one-of-a-kind, French Renaissance plan on your land, and will be happy to give you a price based on your location, specifications, and finish out!

The construction plans for this home are also available for purchase in our store. We also have a newly expanded version of this plan available as well.

7029 A/C SQ. FT, with 8647 Sq. Ft. Under Roof
5 Bedroom Suites
Maids Quarters
7 and 1/2 Baths
Formal Living
Kitchen w/Large Nook
Family Room
Formal Study
Formal Dining

Multi-Level Home Theater
Game Room
2 Full Service Wet Bars
2 Utility Rooms
3 -Car Garage
Interior Finish – Very Custom
Built on Slab or Pier and Beam
Exterior Facade – Stucco and Cast Stone

Bryan Smith Homes has some of its original plans for sale in our online store, and we’re available to custom design one for you that meets your specifications. Just give us a call or fill out the contact form and we’ll be in touch.

Dallas-Fort Worth Home Prices Are Heading Higher!

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Administrator

North Texas home prices are likely to zoom ahead this spring.

In 2013, median residential sales prices in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were up by about 12 percent.

“The long-term average rate of increase is only about 4.5 percent,” said Dr. James Gaines, economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “2014 is going to be another year of double digit price increases.”

Gaines spoke Thursday night to a group of local real estate investors. The meeting in Addison was sponsored by Foreclosure Listing Service and Roddy Information Services.

He said the tight housing supply in the D-FW area insures that sales prices will continue to spike.

“Are we going to go into a price bubble? I don’t think we are right now,” Gaines said. “But in the long run these increases are not sustainable – you don’t want them to be.”

This spring and summer should be another frantic year for local builders and real estate agents.

“We are building almost as many houses as we can build – we have almost hit our physical limit,” Gaines said. “The only thing holding back home sale volume right now is inventory.

“We just don’t have enough houses being offered for sale.”

Gaines said in 2013 the D-FW had the second highest volume of home sales ever.

“This year if we can get enough inventory we we’ll do better than that.”

By Steve Brown – Dallas Morning News

Dallas Fort Worth Real Estate | Hot and Very Hot

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Administrator

Dallas-Fort Worth’s hot housing market hits new highs in latest local and national surveys

Houses sold at a breakneck pace in July and in the second quarter in North Texas. There was only a 3.5-month supply of listings at this pace, a Realtors report said.

By STEVE BROWN – Real Estate Editor – Published: 08 August 2013 09:52 PM

North Texas’ housing market may be the only thing more torrid than the temperature outside. Sales of pre-owned homes jumped 27 percent in July from a year earlier to set a record. And median home sales prices were up 12 percent last month, according to the latest local home sales data. Dallas-Fort Worth home prices also hit a new high in a second-quarter nationwide comparison by the National Association of Realtors.

“We have had significant prices increases for almost a year now,” said James Gaines, an economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “We are at the peak of the housing market in June and July. “We expected it to be something like this.” Real estate agents sold 9,397 pre-owned single-family homes in July in North Texas, according to a new report by the Real Estate Center and North Texas Real Estate Information Systems.

That’s the largest one-month total for home sales ever recorded in North Texas. Gaines said some buyers are motivated by rising mortgage costs.

“People are beginning to figure out interest rates are going to go up, and they are jumping into the market,” he said. Median sales prices in July were $185,000 in the almost 50-county area surveyed by North Texas Real Estate Information Systems.

So far in 2013, real estate agents have sold almost 53,000 North Texas houses through the Multiple Listing Service. That’s 21 percent more than in the first seven months of 2012.

On average, it took only 49 days to sell a house in North Texas. The inventory of pre-owned houses on the market fell 16 percent from July 2012 levels. There was just a 3.5-month supply of homes listed for sale with real estate agents. Dallas-Fort Worth home prices were 11.5 percent higher in the second quarter than they were a year earlier in the report, released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors.

The D-FW increase was the largest in more than a decade in the quarterly metropolitan home price comparison. Nationwide prices were up 12.2 percent in the same report. Home prices rose in the second quarter in almost 90 percent of the U.S. markets the Realtors surveyed.

“There continue to be more buyers than sellers, and that is placing pressure on home prices, with multiple bids common in some areas of the country,” Lawrence Young, economist for the Realtors group, said in the report. “Higher interest rates are now causing sales to level out, but the tight supply conditions look to be with us for the balance of the year in most of the country.”

The national median price for pre-owned single-family homes in the second quarter was $203,500, compared with $181,800 in the D-FW area. The D-FW price was a record high for this quarterly survey.

The cities with the largest second-quarter price increases from a year ago were Sacramento, Calif., up 39.2 percent; Atlanta, 38.9 percent; and Cape Coral, Fla., 36.1 percent. In Texas, the largest quarterly home price rise was Houston’s 12.3 percent gain from second quarter 2012.

Most housing analysts are projecting some moderation in the housing market next year because of higher financing costs and the surge in buying in 2013.

“A year from today, it won’t look anything like this,” Gaines said. “Maybe next year at this time it’s up 5 percent — some reasonable number.”

North Texas home resales
July pre-owned home sales and prices in North Texas and change from a year earlier:
	Single-family homes		Condos/townhomes
Resales	9,397	27%	570	47%
Median price	$185,000	12%	$157,500	17%
Average days on market	49	-27%	57	-32%
Pending sales	7,629	15%	479	40%
Listed for sale	24,439	-16%	1,606	-25%
SOURCES: Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, North Texas Real Estate Information Systems

Existing home price changes
Prices were higher in 133 of 150 U.S. markets in the second quarter from a year earlier. Here are the prices and the percentage change.
BIGGEST INCREASES:
Sacramento, Calif.	$237,000	39.2%
Atlanta	$143,300	38.9%
Fort Myers-Cape Coral, Fla.	$177,900	36.1%
LARGEST DECLINES:
Peoria, Ill.	$117,000	-9.2%
Florence, S.C.	$124,600	-8.4%
Erie, Pa.	$112,800	-5.7%
U.S. median	$203,500	12.2%
TEXAS CITIES:
Austin	$231,300	7.8%
Corpus Christi	$153,400	4.4%
Dallas-Fort Worth	$181,800	11.5%
El Paso	$138,600	2.7%
Houston	$189,000	12.3%
San Antonio	$175,500	7.8%
SOURCE: National Association of Realtors

Viridian | Clubhouse | Huffines Communities

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Administrator

Viridian – Huffines Communities

This is the rendering for the new Community Center that will be part of Viridian, a 2300 acre master planned development that is now underway in Arlington TX.

World-renowned planners and designers; Huffines assembled the nation’s finest consultants and strategic partners from across the country to create a community that is both breathtakingly beautiful and unique in design. Among them is nationally known and respected town planner and architect, Calthorpe & Associates.

A variety of living choices will be offered, ranging from single family town homes to luxury home sites on a private island; from multi-family residences to live/work spaces, and brownstones. With 4,100 single-family residences planned and multi-family or condominium homes, Viridian is truly the creation of a small town. Home prices range from $200,000 to $2 million.

Unbelievable View | Water Lot | Granbury

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Administrator

Lot With A View Over the last 35 years, I have stood on some pretty incredible lots around North Texas, while in pursuit of the next location to design and build a new spec home on. This particular lot probably took my breath away more than any one I’ve looked at over the years. If you want a new home with an outdoor living environment/pool area that features a gorgeous view that goes on for miles, miles, including a view of Comanche Peak (the mini mountain you see when driving into Granbury) then this is definitely your lot.

These pictures do not begin to do justice to the panoramic view this rare lot provides, which is located in one of Granbury’s nicer, new home developments. The lot is priced at $289K, which includes the pad work, and a nice, well constructed stone wall surrounding the pad site.

Bryan Smith Homes is available to design and build you a one-of-a-kind dream home on this amazing lot, which is located on the water, and could accommodate a custom boat house some 300 feet below. However, each lot in the large luxury home development comes with a slip in its private marina. Lots of great possibilities with this incredible lot.

Town Creek | New Braunfels, Texas

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Administrator

Town Creek, a hometown neighborhood that is environmentally, economically and socially sustainable, and a welcoming downtown district in New Braunfels.

Retail 2

Sustainability
Sprawl, a common problem across America, is theresult of a particular way of thinking. Andres Duany, one of the founders of the New Urbanist movement, describes it well. Prior to World War II, “developers were generalists — they set out to build entire villages or urban neighborhoods… today’s developers are specialists. One builds only shopping centers, another office parks, another houses. Traffic engineers design only the roads, environmental analysts worry only about the open space… but no one looks out for the big picture. The result is a collection of monocultures: a disaggregation of the elements of community into specialized areas.”*

Retail 3 This tendency to compartmentalize leads to seeing the natural environment as somehow separate from ourselves, rather that fundamentally connected to us. Town Creek integrates built and natural environments in beneficial ways. This is evident in a land plan that places home, work and other resources near each other, with wide sidewalks, tree-lined streets and on-street parking reducing the need to drive.

*Andres Duany “A New Theory of Urbanism” Scientific American, December 2000

Place Making
We are creating a real place that will endure and be loved. Brian R. Stebbins, Urban Land Institute member and CEO of Cooper & Stebbins in Southlake, Texas says there are a number of necessary elements for good place making. They include:

A comprehensive master plan that evolves over time to meet the changing needs of the community and its residents
Mixed-use. An environment that includes shops, restaurants, movie theaters, offices, hotels, residential, government and public spaces
Plans and designs that are sensitive to the geographical location help make the place a good fit for the existing community
Pedestrian-friendly environments are essential in a world of higher energy prices
A variety of public meeting places makes the destination more than just a shopping center or retail outlet.
A focus on nighttime as well as daytime activities adds vibrancy, life and around-the-clock action acknowledged as essential to locations with a diverse population.
An emphasis on architectural details gives buildings a sense of place and time
Public gatherings and traditions

Lots Retail 4

More information on Town Creek.

Crystal Falls | Hill Country Bliss

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Administrator

Welcome to 5,000 acres of Hill Country bliss. Crystal Falls is the last untouched landscape of true Hill Country living in Austin’s booming northwest corridor. A community where the stories of hard scrabbled cattlemen, homesteaders and Indians thrive and seep into every corner.

From 2,000 pound, hand carved limestone street signs harvested from our old Whitestone quarry to dramatic stockade fences made of traditional cedar stays, when you come to Crystal Falls, you know you’ve discovered a master planned community that is wildly different from any other. This is a community that truly embraces the land and its history.

Voted “Best Master Planned Community” by the Austin Business Journal, and one of the Top 50 in the Nation, Crystal Falls has quickly become one of the most sought after addresses in the Austin metropolitan area. One reason? Your home choices are as vast as our vistas. Discover gated, pristine Hill Country acreage home sites and build your custom dream estate high atop a ridge in Grand Mesa. Or settle in on your front porch and watch your kids play in The Highlands – Crystal Falls’ traditionally scaled neighborhood providing offerings from elite national and Austin home builders. You can even observe a game of golf from your own backyard in The Fairways or Cap Rock communities, overlooking the stunning Golf Club at Crystal Falls. And, while Crystal Falls is complete with many modern amenities – golf, tennis, swimming, parks and access to top-notch education – the luxurious splendor of the Hill Country skies at sunset and the wonder of sleeping under a million stars remains from eras gone by.

HILL COUNTRY ACREAGE ESTATES LOTS – From $69,000 to $150,000

Bryan Smith Homes is available to design and build you a new luxury home in this section of Crystal Falls. Imagine living in the lap of luxury while experiencing the beauty of the country. At Crystal Falls, you can own a piece of pristine Hill Country acreage to enjoy the wide-open spaces and build your perfect dream home. We offer gated Hill Country home sites in Grand Mesa ranging from 1-3 acres. Choose from panoramic ridge-top views, golf course frontage, creekside pecan bottoms, secluded canyons, pancake flat or wild and woolly terrain. Wherever you choose to put down stakes, you will have deer, turkey and other of God’s creatures there to remind you – we are just visiting. Living in Crystal Falls, you will be a part of something truly unique. Every imaginable detail, covenant and deed restriction is in place to further preserve the community’s value, nature and our residents’ experiences. Each home site is uniquely different from one another; some featuring natural limestone outcroppings while others display the beauty of native hardwood tree cover.

Unlike most large lot communities, our acreage home sites enjoy underground natural gas, underground electric and HI-DEF communications options. So you will receive inner city services without the hassle of ugly propane tanks or views spoiled by overhead utility lines. There is also fire flow protection with city fire hydrants located throughout the community – something not often available in more rural neighborhoods. This provides peace of mind and savings on insurance premiums.

Turn your dream of owning Hill Country acreage into a reality at Crystal Falls with the help of Bryan Smith Homes. More information on Crystal Falls.

Viridian | 2300-Acre Master Planned Community | Arlington

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Administrator

Viridian, a 2,300-acre+ mixed-use community located in Arlington, Texas, offers the connection with nature that one yearns for in today’s busy world, with all the great advantages that come with small-town life. Its new urbanism design, sustainability and eco-friendly environment makes it an exciting and vibrant place to live.

Unique, unlike any ever developed
Viridian sets itself apart from other communities because of its prime urban location, its commitment to sustainability and its green living environment. It will be unlike any community ever built in the Southwest and will be one of the largest infill developments in the U.S. It is the last large remaining tract in Arlington and the only remaining one – in the middle of five million people – where Huffines can create their vision of a true mixed-use, sustainable, green community, in which one could work, live and play in a urban environment that is a short walk from hundreds of acres of parks and nature areas. Huffines is making the development viable because of key local, public/private partnerships, and when completed the community will boast over a $1.5 billion dollar tax base.

Eco-friendly new urbanism
Viridian is planned to be the greenest development to date in Texas. Because of the commitment to sustainability, Viridian will have a positive effect on the environment at large. Among the many amenities residents will enjoy are over 1,100 acres of protected wetlands and open spaces, a trail system with 20 miles of trails along the Trinity and 450 acres of lakes. It will be the only Audubon International Gold Certified Community in the state.

Its new urbanism design is pedestrian friendly and will enable one to walk to the workplace, shop or enjoy the town square. Viridian will boast 400,000 s.f. of retail shops, 500,000 s.f. of office, hotel and restaurant space. No other community will come close to Viridian’s one-of-a-kind setting and lifestyle.

World-renowned planners and designers
Huffines assembled the nation’s finest consultants and strategic partners from across the country to create a community that is both breathtakingly beautiful and unique in design. Among them is nationally known and respected town planner and architect, Calthorpe & Associates.

Premier Location
With a premier location, Viridian is bordered on south and east by the Trinity River and the northern border is the TRE transit track. It is minutes from DFW Airport, Interstate thoroughfares, the Dallas Cowboys stadium, the Texas Rangers Ballpark at Arlington, Six Flags Over Texas and a myriad of restaurants and entertainment venues. Travel to Ft. Worth, Dallas or in between is easy.

At Viridian, new possibilities are ahead. Check out Viridian.

Our New Website

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Administrator

Bryan Smith Homes is a Dallas home builder who has designed and built some of the finest residences in North Texas. Our portfolio includes new homes and developments in; Dallas, Preston Hollow, Plano, Frisco, Las Colinas, Irving, Southlake, Grapevine, Keller, Grand Prairie, and Richland Chambers Lake.

As a design/build company, we custom design one-of-a-kind home plans including; large estate homes, medium size homes, small and tiny homes. We also design and build weekend get-a-way homes, lake homes, mountain cabin homes, back-yard guest/mother-in-law suites, as well as multi-family homes.

Not only are we a custom home builder, Bryan Smith Homes also does custom remodeling and home repairs including; room additions, out-door living environments, summer kitchens, detached game rooms/media rooms/guest quarters, as well as detached garages.

Dallas | Fort Worth | Austin | San Antonio | Houston

972.861.2848