Texas Home That Comes With Astonishing Natural Cavern Hits the Market

2022-08-13 05:47:51 By : Ms. Jasmine Liang

What if you could have the joy of exploring an incredible cave without even leaving your own home? That is the offer of one property listing that has captured viral attention this week online.

The popular listing comes in the same week that some falling house prices have spurred talk of a potential housing market crash in the U.S. Some experts recently discussed a "critical difference" between the housing market during the last crash in 2008 and today.

But it seems any concern about where the housing market is heading hasn't stopped people from window-shopping. The 2.56-acre property in San Antonio, Texas, has been shared and discussed online thanks to one incredible feature—the home has its very own natural bridge cavern.

The cave at 24811 Creek Loop was discovered in 2004 when the owners were clearing land to build the house. Noticing a significant amount of cool air would sometimes blow from a hole in the ground, they contacted geologists from Natural Bridge Caverns and St. Mary's University.

The nearby Natural Bridge Caverns are the largest known commercial caverns in the state of Texas. First discovered in March 1960, they feature a 60-foot natural limestone bridge and are still developing today thanks to the porosity of the limestone within.

Formed by a shift in the ground causing a collapse, creating the opening, and producing the unusual slanted ceiling in the open space, water dripped through the rock and standing water in the cave created the incredible formations now found there.

In 2004, a CO2 test on the air blowing from the hole showed cave-type activity, and a ground radar machine suggested a cave potentially the size of the whole house. In 2011, a pool company dug a 6-foot-deep hole that would later become the entrance to the cave from the house.

It wasn't until 2016 that a company made a walkable tunnel, drilling through five feet of rock and connecting another 20-foot tunnel that leads to cave rooms below.

Listing agent Lori Largen from JBGoodwin Realtors in the San Antonio area told Newsweek: "The house is very nice, but the setting and the cavern make it unique."

With four bedrooms and three bathrooms, the family home went on the market on July 7. It has had hundreds of viewings between virtual online appointments and in-person.

"Since it went viral on the internet I have been inundated with calls from realtors with people wanting to see it," said Largen.

As well as the home which is located in a park-like setting in San Antonio, the one-of-a-kind cave is completely private to the homeowner, with its own entrance that is locked with a security system.

The viral response online is thanks to the popular social media account zillowgonewild, which shared the $875,000 listing on Twitter. Receiving thousands of retweets and more than 76,000 likes so far, the listing has captured the eye of people around the world.

"That is my dream house," said one commenter.

Another wrote: "Hell of a man cave."

Others suggested that the space would make an "awesome wine cellar," while others said that the home reminded them of Batman's famous Batcave: "I could live out a Batman fantasy here," said one Twitter user: "But I'm not a billionaire... Damn it."

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