Ennis (Dallas, Plano, Richardson: middle-class, 2015, homes)

[UnfairPark]

How come Ennis never prospered though it has proximity to Dallas, greenery, a lake and some historic buildings/traditions etc. What am I missing? Is there any chance to see builders building lakeview homes there in 10 years or so?

[Johnhw2]

It is south of Dallas. For some reason this area has grown/developed at a rate less than half that of the northern areas. Some tell me its due to the land and Trinity River areas but there has to be more to it than that in my view. Biased?

[Katana49]

Originally Posted by UnfairPark

How come Ennis never prospered though it has proximity to Dallas, greenery, a lake and some historic buildings/traditions etc. What am I missing? Is there any chance to see builders building lakeview homes there in 10 years or so?

It's still too far out, for south Dallas. There ARE lakeview homes being built right now just outside of Dallas, but closer than Ennis is. It's called Heath.

Standing in between Ennis/Waxahachie is Duncanville, DeSoto, and Lancaster. Compared to the northern suburbs, these areas are lower income, and have a majority black population. A lot of blacks who used to live in Oak Cliff now live in these cities as they were pushed out due to the "revitalization" of Oak Cliff.

Slowly these areas are being repopulated near downtown, but as you can see on a map, it took forever for Oak Cliff to start this process, and it's a helluva lot closer than Ennis is. My guess is that you won't see Ennis have any significant development for the next 30 years. It will only happen after the areas closer to Dallas have gone through it first.

[UnfairPark]

I get South Dallas factor but its surprising that people who choose to live there, didn't try to build homes on the lake. Usually, you see small lake view homes even in poor areas if they have lakes.

[Katana49]

Depends on the city/municipality there. More people would build by a lake, but only if the area is connected to city water/sewage lines. That typically will only happen if a large developer or several developers get together to develop the entire area at once, otherwise, any homes built out there will have septic systems, and most people don't want to mess with that.

[UnfairPark]

They do have beautiful blue bonnet trails so planning our annual visit. It looks lovely in April.

[Acntx]

The growth of communities south of Dallas isn't uniform and like other areas of DFW, location and other factors play a role in the development patterns we currently see. The Interstate 45 corridor is far less developed than areas further west along I-35E and U.S. Highway 67. Heading south from Dallas on I-45, you pass through the communities of Hutchins, Wilmer, Ferris, and Palmer before reaching Ennis. Before the inland port and logistics parks were built in the Wilmer-Hutchins area, there was very little in terms of employment or amenities to drive growth.

The city of Ennis is growing, just not at the rate of other DFW suburbs. The population grew from 14,278 in 1990 to an estimated 19,005 in 2015, a 33% increase. It long held the status as the second largest city in Ellis County, after Waxahachie, although rapidly-growing Midlothian recently surpassed it. I don't like to "write off" communities, particularly in the DFW area. Twenty or thirty years ago, there were places considered unattractive or "out in the sticks" that have since become the "it" places to move to. No one knows what the future may bring.

Originally Posted by Katana49

Standing in between Ennis/Waxahachie is Duncanville, DeSoto, and Lancaster. Compared to the northern suburbs, these areas are lower income, and have a majority black population. A lot of blacks who used to live in Oak Cliff now live in these cities as they were pushed out due to the "revitalization" of Oak Cliff.

I'm not sure how these places found their way into a discussion about Ennis, but I would like to clarify a few things:

1) Duncanville is not majority Black. Its peer "Best Southwest" cities - Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Lancaster all are, so is Glenn Heights. Duncanville has no majority race/ethnicity, and Hispanics form a plurality.

2) The revitalization of North Oak Cliff and areas near downtown has not spread to the majority of southern Dallas proper. There are Blacks from Oak Cliff and other parts of Dallas who have moved to the southern suburbs over the years, my family being one of them back in the late 1980s. It was more working-class/middle-class Black flight than large-scale displacement (a.k.a. gentrification) and was occurring well before this latest round of revitalization. Using City-Data's stats to back this up, the median household income for Blacks in Texas stands at $40,812 as of 2015. In Glenn Heights its $71,679; Cedar Hill ($68,195); DeSoto ($60,241); Lancaster ($50,723); Duncanville ($46,871).

We are all aware that the northern suburbs that are favored in this forum are more affluent than the southern suburbs. For the most part, however, the southern suburbs are middle-class communities overall.

[Katana49]

Originally Posted by Acntx

I'm not sure how these places found their way into a discussion about Ennis,

Because growth spreads outward from Dallas. Anyone who knows anything about the development of DFW over the past 40 years knows this. Just going back 30 years, Richardson was a top spot for development, then Plano. Then it became Frisco as Plano became more built out. Then it was McKinney. Now it's Prosper, Fairview, Melissa, Celina, etc.

Development south will be no different, and has been no different. Oak Cliff is first. Any boom in growth will need to encompass all of Oak Cliff and Cedar Crest before that growth moves to adjacent cities... Like Duncanville, Desoto, and Lancaster. Only after those cities have been redeveloped and built out will Ennis start to take off.

I'd say the Cedar Crest area is probably the biggest roadbloack to growth south of the metroplex right now. It's going to take a developer with big pockets to buy up a lot of land and homes there and start bulldozing and rebuilding bigger luxury homes to kick things off, and no one wants the headache when building north is a much stronger bet.

[ThomasCrown]

My father purchased a commercial building for garaging/storage in Ennis about 20 years ago. At the time he was really into cars, and he wanted a building where he and his friends could store their race cars close by the local dragstrip.

At the time, he figured that at the least, he could use the property for 5-10 years, then take advantage of rising property values and easily sell it and make money on it.


...I think he's still waiting for that day to come!

[Acntx]

Originally Posted by Katana49

Because growth spreads outward from Dallas. Anyone who knows anything about the development of DFW over the past 40 years knows this. Just going back 30 years, Richardson was a top spot for development, then Plano. Then it became Frisco as Plano became more built out. Then it was McKinney. Now it's Prosper, Fairview, Melissa, Celina, etc.

Development south will be no different, and has been no different. Oak Cliff is first. Any boom in growth will need to encompass all of Oak Cliff and Cedar Crest before that growth moves to adjacent cities... Like Duncanville, Desoto, and Lancaster. Only after those cities have been redeveloped and built out will Ennis start to take off.

I'd say the Cedar Crest area is probably the biggest roadbloack to growth south of the metroplex right now. It's going to take a developer with big pockets to buy up a lot of land and homes there and start bulldozing and rebuilding bigger luxury homes to kick things off, and no one wants the headache when building north is a much stronger bet.

I understand DFW development patterns and get what you are saying, but you do realize that significant growth has been taking place in the southern suburbs for years now. DeSoto's population has increased 39% since 2000, Cedar Hill increased by 51%, Lancaster is up 50%, Waxahachie is up 56%, and Duncanville, which is nearly built-out, grew by 10%. Even with that growth, Cedar Hill, Lancaster, and many of the smaller cities in northern Ellis County are less than half built-out. While they aren't experiencing northern suburb growth rates, development and business interest has continued to rise. Growth in the southern suburbs has taken place alongside the revitalization of North Oak Cliff and areas near downtown Dallas, but neither are dependent on the other to continue the current trends.

Regarding Ennis, I believe it will continue to steadily grow (the population is up 15% since 2000), however factors such as the future development along I-45 and potential spillover from Waxahachie could affect how significant the changes will be.