real estate

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…

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.

Happy Fourth of July — America’s Birthday House Can Be Yours TODAY

By Candy Evans / July 4, 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…

That’s Nice: Big Rich Texas Lawsuit Between Pam Martin-Duarte and Dena Miller is, Apparently, Over

By Candy Evans / June 28, 2012 /

There’s only one, well maybe two, reasons I’m writing this. Dena Miller has a real estate connection: she’s married to Vaughn Miller, grandson of real estate developer Henry S. Miller who used to own Highland Park Village ’till he sold it to Ray Washburne. Vaughn is in the real estate biz. Pam Martin-Duarte sued Dena…

State of the Real Estate Market: Are We Recovering Addicts? Do We Still Need Betty Ford?

By Candy Evans / June 26, 2012 /

I have just returned from the “Mile-High City” where they have altitude, medicinal marijuana and a pretty decent real estate market. I was at the annual National Association of Real Estate Editors conference where, for four days, we nutcakes who obsess about real estate lived and breathed it 24/7, consuming information. And alcohol. The main take-away: enjoy that drink. Significant declines in the number of homes for sale in many U.S. markets, and fewer foreclosures (or foreclosures on hold) are boosting the country’s battered housing market. I spoke at length to two of my favorite economists, Stan Humphries of Zillow, and Mark Fleming from CoreLogic, who gave me this zippy summary up in the hospitality suite of the Brown Palace Hotel: