If you were one of the 350,000 North Texans sitting in the dark (or paying for a hotel room)during last week’s power outage, you might have missed one little tidbit of information that should make the real estate-minded perk up their ears.
There are places you can live where your power is more likely to come back sooner. Now, nobody outright said, “Move to these neighborhoods and you’ll have your power back on before your popsicles start melting,” but if you’re astute, you can read between the lines.
Oncor (and pretty much every other electricity provider in the country) has triaged where power is restored based on how critical the structures in an area are to the public.
First comes the transmission line outages, because they deliver power to entire neighborhoods and businesses. Because so many can be without power if a line goes down, those are a top priority.
But here’s the bigger takeaway: there are certain structures that, if in your neighborhood, are always going to get power restored pretty quickly, too.
“Public and critical care facilities, such as hospitals and fire stations, are also top priority since they impact lives and first responders,” Oncor explained. That would include water pump stations and sewer lift stations.
Now, while you might not want to live near a sewer lift station, living near a hospital? That’s doable. And we’ve found a lot of inventory available in various price points near North Texas hospitals.
A simple search of Realtor.com showed about 500 homes in the Medical District area alone, ranging in price from the $100,000s to the $500,000s.
Near Texas Health Resources Dallas Presbyterian, there’s nothing to buy, but there are plenty of apartments and condos for rent — and bonus, they’re also going to be close to shopping and DART rail.
Near Medical City Dallas, there are about 21 homes for sale just across Park Central, ranging in price from $650,000 to $2.49 million. Near Methodist Hospital in Dallas, there are a couple of listings for sale so far as well. Near Baylor Scott and White, there were about a couple of handfuls of listings and rentals, but they might be a scoosh too far from the hospital to benefit.
And in Fort Worth, there are several rentals near John Peter Smith Hospital, as well as about 13 listings.
So after this week, what do you think? Would you live near a hospital if it meant quicker power restoration?
