Subprime Woes Not Felt in Dallas Like Rest of Country

Could this actually be a positive report about real estate in the Dallas area? Why yes it is. Although everyone is still scared of what the future holds it's still nice to show that we are insulated from the doom and gloom of the Florida and California real estate markets. Dallas was 1 of 5 real estate markets in the country in the second quarter to see a gain in sales prices. I like these two takeaway quotes from the story.

"In a lot of places in Dallas, home prices are still going up by double
digits. "In other neighborhoods, they are actually falling. But across the board, the gainers outweigh the losers,"

And,

"The mortgage shakeout is affecting other parts of the country a lot more than it is Texas. We didn't have anywhere near the level or magnitude of subprime loans that other markets did. But that doesn't mean that Dallas-Fort Worth homeowners aren't going to be hammered with a steady diet of bad news about the U.S. housing market. Those negative reports weigh on consumer psychology."

But then this isn't news to me.

Tax Appraisal, Shmax Appraisal

While many of us fight our tax appraisals every year because we don't want to pay more taxes than we have to, some people are enjoying more than a $4 million gap in their favor when it comes to how much the city of Dallas thinks their home is worth.

Check out this story that gives some nice examples of this serious oversight by the city of Dallas. I could go down the list of D-Magazine's 100 Most Expensive Homes list and come up with enough tax dollars that'll make your head spin. But honestly, the people I would be tattling on have a lot more money than me and I am scared of them and the people they could hire to shut me up.

Paris Hilton's Home Up For Sale

So I’m a little behind the times on this one but apparently (I had heard) Paris was cut off financially from her Grandfather due to her “bad behavior” and almost immediately she put her home on the market for $4.25 million. The house boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms and a separate guest quarter and office. One bedroom was converted into the “ultimate closet.”

Looking at the pictures of all the white and grays and black I guess I expected, oh, I don’t know…a little more pink!

Kitchens That'll Make Your Mama Wanna Cook

Nice.

Dead People are Selling Thier Homes Too

Ok seriously. This is the second story involving a real estate agent discovering a dead body while showing a home since May.

I think we should investigate whether or not the sellers were using organic or conventional pest control methods. Someone should look into this. This could be ground breaking.

Dallas Suburbs Still Sprawling

NEW YORK (Forbes) – Twenty Texas cities sprawled into Forbes’ latest “100 Fastest-Growing Suburbs” survey, the most of any state making the list.

Frisco, ranked 7th, grew at a galloping 128 percent while Wylie, ranked 8th, grew at just over 109 percent, according to Forbes.

Other Texas cities making the list were Cedar Park (11), McKinney (13), Rockwall (21), Sachse (22), Pflugerville (23), Corinth (30), Allen (33), Pearland (34), The Colony (47), Round Rock (49), Saginaw (50), Mansfield (54), Georgetown (55), Burleson (58), League City (65), Missouri City (78), Schertz (91) and Terrell (96).

The fastest growing suburb in the country was Lincoln, Calif., which grew last year by almost 237 percent.

$165 million estate for sale...nuff said

Apparently "The Beverly House Compound," the fabled estate of William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies in Beverly Hills, CA, has just officially been put on the market for $165 million. Take that Highland Park and your silly little $15 million lot! Here are some stats on this little cottage.

• Located on 6.5 acres
• 29 bedrooms
• 72,000 square feet
• 2 tennis courts

Ok, I just can't talk about this anymore without my head spinning. The listing broker is Westside Estate Agency Realtors but the listing is not yet on their website. But they did have this nice $75 million, 12,000 square foot "gated beach front compound" available in case you need to scale down. So the commission on $165 million sale would be...????

There's "HOPE" for the "F" Word

NeighborWorks America and The Ad Council have launched a National Foreclosure Prevention Awareness Campaign.

NeighborWorks® America, one of the nation’s largest housing and community development organizations, announced a new public awareness campaign today with the Ad Council aimed at preventing home foreclosure that urges homeowners in financial trouble to call 888-995-HOPE. The Homeowner’s HOPE hotline, provided by the Homeownership Preservation Foundation, is the cornerstone of a foreclosure prevention effort involving many of the country’s largest mortgage market companies. The public awareness campaign strives to reduce the number of homes entering the foreclosure process, which is expected to exceed one million households in 2007.

Is this because they just nice people and care about the national overall real estate market? No. Here's the real reason why as stated in the release.

Given that each foreclosure costs $30,000 or more, the total cost to the housing finance system of one million foreclosures could approach $30 billion.

Basically they're trying to save their own behinds. Which they should seeing as how their poor predatory lending practices are the reason this HOPE number is even necessary in the first place. Shame on them.

And on a self serving note, good agents will help their clients avoid "creative" financing which ends up hurting thier clients in the long run. In my experience, those people who purchase homes without using a Realtor are the ones who get srewed the worst. IJS.

Harry Potter Is Coming!!!

Just in case you haven't heard. Book number 7 (the final book?), Harry Potter & the Deathly Hollows, is due to be released July 21st at 12:01am. By printing 12 million copies in anticipation of the book's release I would say Harry's publishing company, Scholastic, is pretty confident it will do well. If it's any past indication of how this release will go, when book number 6 was released in July 2005 it sold 6.9 million copies in the first 24 hours. Take that iPhone with your measly forecasted 4.5 million units in it's first year! But then again, one book doesn't set you back $500. Ouch!



Get this and other HP countdowns at LeakyNews.com




And then there's the movie for book number 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which can be seen July 13th. One week before the book is released. See the trailer here.







J.K. Rowling is counting her billions all the way to the bank. Nice!

Traditional Living Room = Functional Obsolescence

Many of us have noticed this trend specifically with new construction but as this article points out, the older homes are getting rid of their traditional living rooms as well.

Informal living styles, with eating, cooking and living spaces combined so thatfamily members and visiting friends could congregate together through various activities are popular. Open floor plans and voluminous space were desired more by baby boomer buyers.

Preston Hollow, known for the 50's ranch style home, has an abundance of unused living rooms which is why many families are opting to knock down walls and raise the ceilings to give the home a more "open" floorplan. Anyone out there still have furniture in theirs??