Second Shelters

El Corazon de Santa Fe Under Fairmont Management: Santa Fe Vacation Home Ownership In the $100,000’s

By Candy Evans / July 6, 2012 /

Faithful readers may recall when I wrote about a beautiful fractional ownership property in the heart, and I do mean the heart, of Santa Fe called El Corazon de Santa Fe. It was fabulous then, and it is even more fabulous now! The property has been renamed “Fairmont Heritage Place, El Corazon de Santa Fe”. El…

OMG It’s a Shard Show: Renzo Piano’s Newest Skyscraper Opens in London With a LASER LIGHT SHOW!

By Candy Evans / July 6, 2012 /

You’ve just got to see this. One cannot help but think that perhaps, given the real estate reflection battle here in Dallas between the Renzo Piano-designed Nasher and Museum Tower and all the media banter about Museum Tower being a giant laser to the Nasher, that it  inspired the idea for this laser light show…

If You’re Lucky Enough to Have a Second Home in France, it Might Get a Lot More Expensive to Keep it

By Joanna England / July 5, 2012 /

One of the big promises Socialist Party Leader and French President Francois Hollande pledged during his campaign was that he wouldn’t penalize foreign property owners with steep taxes.
And yet, according to a story from The Telegraph, that’s pretty much exactly what he’s proposing to alleviated the country’s budget deficit.

Happy Fourth of July to All Second and Vacation Home Lovers!

By Candy Evans / July 4, 2012 /

Happy Fourth of July, 2012. We live the American Dream of real estate here in Texas more than anywhere. Maybe it’s because we learned our lesson back in the 1980’s — R.I.P. Danny Faulkner. Not only did we learn, we RETAINED. When I was in Denver at the National Association of Real Estate Editors Conference last month, Mark Fleming, the dashing economist for CoreLogic, told me over drinks that what saved our butts this time around was our state set limits on HELOCs, or home improvement loans. In Texas, we are limited on what we can borrow against our homesteads. That is what kept many of us from over-borrowing, so when the market fell we were not left with underwater loans*. I walked into our bank yesterday, Comerica, which I LOVE — who else sends you a thank-you note when you pay off a loan? But more than three people asked if they could offer me a home-improvement loan in the course of one hour. You know me, I’d buy a second home in a heartbeat! Our laws in Texas saved us, said Mark, in spite of ourselves.

Did Sean Payton and His Wife of Almost 20 Years Just File for Divorce? Dallas Real Estate News

By Candy Evans / July 4, 2012 /

Ryan Jones over at the Times-Picayune reports that New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton has apparently, cryptically filed for divorce from his wife, Beth. Tricky, but smart move here: a Tarrant County divorce petition was filed on June 14, the filings using initials so as to avoid making the Paytons’ identities public. Ryan says: They…