Baby Jake 19 Days!!!

Wow! This is great!

New Dallas Cowboys Stadium 2/24/09

The Showers in the Cowboys Locker Room.

The tunnel to the field.

Inside the Cowboys Locker Room Stalls.

WOW!

The Largest Screen in the WORLD!

Outside.

The Model.


WOW! IT IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!!

D-FW apartment sector feels economic woes

A new study from M/PF Yieldstar says apartment occupancy in the Dallas-Fort Worth area during the final quarter of 2008 fell enough to negatively counter the area’s significant apartment rental growth the year prior.

M/PF YieldStar, a provider of comprehensive analytics on the multifamily housing sector, said this week the net demand for apartments in the D-FW area hit negative 5,870 units in the period stretching from October to December. Annual apartment demand was similar, down 5,580 units in 2008 as absorption through September had been in positive territory.
The area’s occupancy rate also fell to 91.4 percent in December, M/PF Yieldstar said. Additionally, the area’s occupancy rate fell 1.8 points during the final quarter of 2008 and fell by 2.7 points for the entire year.

“This was one of the worst quarterly demand performances ever recorded in Dallas-Fort Worth,” Greg Willett, vice president of research for M/PF Yieldstar, said. “For move-outs to reach this magnitude, job loss has to be pretty substantial. It looks likely that there will be huge revisions to the current employment statistics that say D-FW is adding jobs at a reasonably healthy pace.”

M/PF YieldStar’s report added that construction on new properties, which added another 4,215 apartments during the fourth quarter, strained the market more by creating a new supply total of 12,148 apartment units.

Monthly rents in the D-FW area hit an average price of $752 per month at the end of 2008, with M/PF YieldStar claiming rents for North Texas apartments fell a slight 0.3 percent in 2008.

KB Home posts third quarter net loss

Homebuilder KB Home recorded a higher net loss in the third quarter, as market volatility led to a decline in home sales when compared to the previous year.

Los Angeles-based KB Home (NYSE:KBH), which has a significant homebuilding presence in Dallas-Fort Worth, recorded a third quarter net loss of $144.7 million, or $1.87 per diluted share, up from $35.6 million, or 46 cents per diluted share for the same period last year.
KB Home’s third quarter financial report included a pre-tax, non-cash charge of $82.2 million for inventory and joint venture impairments, the company said.

A charge of $58.1 million on a valuation allowance against net deferred tax assets also hit in the third quarter.

KB’s revenue for the third quarter was $681.6 million, down significantly from $1.54 billion for the third quarter of last year. The revenue drop is attributed mostly to a decline in housing sales.

Also, I was told Choice laid off 28 employees. Portrait Homes also shut is doors last week.

Residential new home builders are feeling the pain of the market and negative media on real estate.

Brad Holden
Holden New Homes

Homebuilders get creative to woo buyers, Realtors

Southern Land Co. believes its Tucker Hill residential development in McKinney is so unique that eventually it will sell itself. Burdened with the realities of today’s soft housing market, however, company officials are pulling out the stops to increase foot traffic — and sales — in the sagging market.

“The idea is to get people here,” said Jim Cheney, vice president of corporate communications with Tennessee-based Southern Land. The company has used everything from community concerts to plane rides to reel in buyers.

Tucker Hill’s $248 million planned community broke ground in early 2007 on 800 acres zoned for 2,100 homes and amenities such as pools, walking trails, a dog park and other green spaces. Houses will range from $350,000 to more than a $1 million.

So far, there are 30 houses finished in Tucker Hill, with contracts on 10. The homes are close together, with small front yards, large front porches and garages along alleys in the back. It is an example of neo-urbanism, a pedestrian-friendly design style with a diverse range of housing. The 16 planned phases will take more than a decade to finish. Joe Rider, vice president of community development sales and marketing, said 75 to 100 houses will be started in 2009.
To help increase foot traffic through the neighborhood and promote a small-town feel, Tucker Hill gave away trees during a spring market attended by several hundred. And over Labor Day, the community sponsored Arts on the Lawn, which included music acts and entertainment and was attended by 900 people.

“These events allow us to give folks the vision of what the community will be like,” Rider said.
Kathy Self, operations manager for Arlington-based First Texas Homes, which has homes in 51 communities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, said that regardless of marketing strategies and promotions, buyers and banks are simply too conservative for much success in the current market.

“You can throw a big party out there, it’s not going to get people in,” Self said.

Margaret Pesnell, marketing director of Hillwood Residential, said the focus has shifted away from wooing buyers and more toward impressing Realtors. Hillwood recently flew two groups of Realtors to Costa Rica to promote property there for second homes. The company also has a 15-year-old incentive program in place, “which right now is more important than ever,” Pesnell said. A Realtor who sells two new homes is rewarded with a free trip.

“As important as these Realtors are to us all the time, we need to be in front of them even more,” Pesnell said.

David Brown, director of the Dallas-Fort Worth office of the housing market research firm MetroStudy, said Tucker Hill’s “unique product and design” will set it apart from other subdivisions.

“It’s a new type of concept for the D-FW market,” he said, adding that there are just a few other communities being built in the area with similar concepts. “To capture the buyer, they’re having to raise the bar and give them a reason to come to the community, other than just another house.”

30-year mortgage rates fall sharply

Rates on 30-year mortgages dropped sharply again this week, falling to the lowest level in seven months.

On Thursday, Freddie Mac’s nationwide survey found that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages had declined to 5.78 percent from 5.93 percent the previous week.

It was the fifth consecutive weekly decline and dropped the 30-year mortgage rate to the lowest level since the week of Feb. 14, when it stood at 5.72 percent.

Freddie Mac says the big drop in mortgage rates is fueling a boom in refinancing, with mortgage applications up 58 percent since mid-August.

Rates have continued to fall following the U.S. government’s takeover of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Sept. 7. The government has pledged as much as $100 billion per company to shore up their capital, a move that assured a continuing flow of funds into the nation’s housing market.

Fannie Mae — officially the Federal National Mortgage Association (NYSE:FNM) — and Freddie Mac — officially the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (NYSE:FRE) — are government-sponsored, publicly traded companies that together hold or back about half of the nation’s $12 trillion worth of home mortgages.

The two mortgage guarantors have taken huge losses on a wave of home foreclosures.

Intelligenger says at 10 weeks, It's a Boy!

Green Boy, Yellowish-Orange Girl.

You decide?