Texas
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.
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…
I guess what I like about demographer, futurist and urban observer Joel Kotkin is that he is upbeat about both America and Texas, and he shares my gut common sense instinct that most people, families, want to live in homes, not a bunch of scrunched-together apartments. (So why are we building so many in Dallas???)…
Comes news today that Kwame Kilpatrick, the shady former mayor of Detroit, is asking Michigan officials to change the terms of his probation because Texas is just too darn big. According to exclusive emails obtained by The Detroit News, which YOU MUST READ, the former Detroit mayor has to drive too much in Texas because we are such a big state, he cannot walk, so doing community service is a super duper burden.
Here’s more proof of how well home builders are doing in some parts of the country, namely, of course, Texas: a Coral Gables residential developer recently bought up a super successful builder of residential communities, many in Texas. In early May, SouthStar Communities paid $29 million big ones to buy Bluegreen Communities, which has created…
