New Housing Trend

One of the new, growing housing trends is actually a very old one.

Urban village centers have been around for several years but it seems more people are choosing to live in these communities where you can shop, eat and run errands all in your backyard.

Lee Kahre owns a coffee and gift shop in the Provenance community in Shreveport.

One perk of her job is it’s located right in her back yard.

That's because she also lives in Provenance.

“This is a destination and we wanted to be here,” she said.

Kahre loves the convenience of working where she lives and she loves knowing all of her customers who are also her neighbors.

“What we didn’t really understand was going to happen was that we earned all these new friends and the trust of all these families out here and we feel like in some ways we’ve become like an old general store,” she said.

These traditional neighborhood developments, or urban village centers as they're often called, are a new trend but not a new idea.

“It’s built the way traditional neighborhoods were made back in the 1930’s and 1940’s,” said Justin Sevier, Development Manager of Provenance.  “When cities began growing this is how they were planned with some sort of commercial, higher density residential.”  

The idea is to build a development away from town but still provide all of the benefits of town.

“We have a good variety of stores,” said Sarah Lowder, Sales and Marketing Associate for Provenance.  “We have restaurants up at the front, we have Red River Bank, which is wonderful.  It has a functioning post office.  We have University Family Medicine.” 

People who live there say having these amenities a few steps away saves them gas money and time on the road.

“It’s so easy,” said resident Pamela Bollinger.  “I mean, I can walk to the bank, walk to the post office, drop off my dry cleaning and pick it up the next day.”

In these types of developments, housing managers aren't just selling a home but a lifestyle.

That lifestyle is one many experts think will continue to gain in popularity.

“The trend started probably 2007, 2008 to really pick up,” said Sevier.  “Of course that was a difficult time in the overall economy but as we’ve come out of this you’re seeing a lot more of this.

Starting these communities can be a little tricky.

Many residents want to know what businesses they can expect in the community before moving in but the businesses want to know that there are plenty of residents before they set up shop.