LA FERIA — One of the hottest housing markets in the Rio Grande Valley is located here in the small city of La Feria, where a Mercedes developer is constructing not one, but three, separate single-family residential sites.
The latest, which will sell the most expensive homes, is Brooks Estates Subdivision along FM 506 with 121 lots. Around 85 percent of the lots are already sold, and the housing boom is welcomed in one of the few cities in the Valley to actually lose population between 2010 and 2020.
“What’s happened is the City of La Feria is kind of like a forgotten city because basically, you have every little restaurant and eatery here, but it’s adjacent to Harlingen, it’s basically just down the block,” said Mercedes developer Oscar Zarate. “We’re getting a lot of spillover as well, like interest now from the City of Harlingen, from the City of Weslaco, from people who actually want to live here in the City of La Feria.”
Zarate hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Brooks Estates site Wednesday afternoon. He said lots range from $39,999 to $55,000, depending on size.
The site being developed is across the road from David G. Sanchez Elementary School, and just to the south is Our Lady of the Lake University.
“This one and Moriah Palms are going to be higher developments between 175 to about 300K max,” Zarate said of home prices. “We are doing affordable housing, which is going to be your 900-square-foot living area. Those homes are going to go between 115 and 190, that’s a different development.”
Bridge Estates Subdivision consists of duplexes located on Solis Road. Moriah Palms is just down FM 506, south of Brooks Estates.
“We just finished a development on Solis Road going north,” he said. “A hundred lots, multi-family duplexes. We haven’t even started construction, and 100-percent sold.”
La Feria was one of very few cities in the Rio Grande Valley which lost population over the past decade, going from 7,302 residents in 2010 to 6,817 residents in 2020, Census Bureau figures show.
One of the contributing factors was a lack of housing.
“It’s pretty centrally located,” Zarate said, noting that his philosophy is placing his developments within a short distance of an expressway, in this case I-2.
Neta Or is an Israeli who represents overseas investors in the La Feria housing developments.
“I was just thinking about it today, this kind of project that brings so much value both to the City of La Feria and to the workers, thinking about all the workers,” she said.
Zarate said the plat was recorded Wednesday afternoon, and his company is preparing to begin pulling building permits within the next week or two.
“The City of La Feria can start having a community here, I’m super-excited,” he said. “This is something huge for the city, and it’s something huge for us.”
