AOL Real Estate - Blog http://realestate.aol.com/blog AOL Real Estate - Blog http://realestate.aol.com/blog/media/feedlogo.gif AOL Real Estate - Blog http://realestate.aol.com/blog en-us Copyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/VA Loans: Homebuying Help for Veteranshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/va-loans-homebuying-help-for-veterans/va-loans-homebuying-help-for-veterans/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/va-loans-homebuying-help-for-veterans/va-loans-homebuying-help-for-veterans/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/va-loans-homebuying-help-for-veterans/va-loans-homebuying-help-for-veterans/#commentsA VA loan is one of the most desirable mortgage options available to homebuyers: It allows an eligible veteran to buy a home with 100 percent financing, the lowest possible interest rate and minimal fees.

Some veteran buyers may even qualify for the holy grail of mortgages, known in real estate parlance as a "VA No-No" -- no down payment and no closing costs.

According to Lisa Peters of Dallas-based Shelter Mortgage, veterans are eligible for a VA loan if they've served on active duty in the United States military and received an honorable discharge after a minimum of 90 days during wartime or 181 continuous days during peacetime.



VA Loans' Beginnings

The VA loan was created in 1944 and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was part of the GI Bill of Rights, a far-reaching package of educational and housing benefits for vets returning home after World War II. The bill provided veterans a federally guaranteed home loan with zero down payment.

The GI bill helped jump-start an unprecedented building boom in the United States. New housing sprouted up across the nation, from Levittown in New York to Lakewood in California. Prior to World War II, most people bought homes with cash, as mortgages were rare. That limited homeownership to the wealthy. But with government-backed financing, millions of middle-class citizens became homeowners and went to work, keeping the U.S. economy humming.


VA Loans Today

VA loans have come a long way, even from the 1980s, when all files had to be physically mailed to the Veterans Administration. These days, you can get a VA loan from any approved private lender, such as a bank or mortgage company. Veterans are not automatically eligible for the program; they must apply and prove entitlement. (See the requirements at valoans.com.)

In lieu of a down payment, the VA will guarantee a maximum of 25 percent of a home loan amount, up to $104,250; the maximum amount that can be borrowed is generally $417,000. In areas where real estate values are higher, maximum loan amounts can be as much as $900,000. The guarantee means that the lender is protected against loss if the vet, or even a future homeowner, fails to repay the loan.

Instead of requiring private mortgage insurance, VA loans charge a variable funding fee up to 3.3 percent, which depends on the amount of the veteran's entitlement or length of time in the military. Funding fees can be rolled into the financing package or paid by the seller.

VA loans can be assumed, even by a non-military buyer, but the veteran should make sure he obtains a release of liability from the mortgage that is being assumed.

Income qualification ratios for VA loans are also generous: The PITI (that's principal, insurance, taxes and interest) must not exceed 41 percent of gross income, says Lisa Peters. And there are rules covering "residual income" -- that is, money left over after regular monthly obligations are paid out.

The amount of residual income required depends on the number of family members and cost of the property purchased. For example, residual income must be at least $382 for a single person buying an $80,000 home, and up to $1,003 for a family of four in a more expensive home. (Also see "How Much Home Can I Afford.")


Caveats to Watch Out for With VA Loans

One significant way VA loans differ from conventional financing is the obligations they put on the seller. Because VA loans prohibit the buyer from paying some fees, such as certain closing costs, the seller typically pays them. The costs the seller has to cover varies from state to state. In Texas, for example, sellers must cover the processing fee, appraisals and title fees. While having to pay those costs can sometimes affect the seller's willingness to negotiate on price, it shouldn't derail the deal. (Also see "How to Negotiate a Home Offer.")

Another place where VA loan deals can get bogged down is the appraisal process. VA appraisals are stringent, and the process sometimes takes longer than a standard appraisal. However, VA appraisal requirements have been loosened recently, so that they are now comparable to those associated with a traditional mortgage, said Tim Harrison, the "straight-up mortgage guy."

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]]>how to apply for a VA loanHowToApplyForAVaLoanmilitaryobtaining VA financingObtainingVaFinancingVA loansVA loans good for buyersVA loans good for sellersva mortgagesVaLoansveteransVeteransDayCandy Evans2012-07-04T09:05:00 00:00Home Builder Turns Trash Into $10,000 Green Homeshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/25/home-builder-turns-trash-into-green-homes-for-10-000/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/25/home-builder-turns-trash-into-green-homes-for-10-000/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/25/home-builder-turns-trash-into-green-homes-for-10-000/#commentsFiled under: ,

dan phillipsDan Phillips is one of the most unconventional home builders you'll ever find. In fact, he's more an ecological social messiah than a home builder (see video below). For $10,000, he builds affordable homes for low-income people that are attractive, energy-efficient and save landfills. Most builders purchase building materials -- piles of wood, sheet rock, nails, bricks, and tiles -- that are used in construction and then, when the house is finished, the waste is discarded to the dump. Phillips, 66, salvages those materials, hauling them from the trash or even picking them up on the road, to build or remodel homes for low-income buyers.

He says he's just doing what people have been doing for years -- using whatever they can scrounge up to to build shelter.

"And if you ponder what could be used," says the Huntsville, Tex., resident, "then building materials are everywhere."

Phillips himself has been "everywhere": He worked as an intelligence officer in the Army, then as a dance instructor, an antiques dealer and a puzzle maker. Fourteen years ago he started a new career: Creating affordable homes for low-income families out of trash. He is a self-taught carpenter, electrician and plumber. His motivation came from the disparity he saw between
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landfills overflowing with discarded building materials and a lack of affordable housing. He started Phoenix Commotion, a for-profit company that hopes to solve the world's social problems associated with housing.

Phillips builds homes for as little as $10,000, making them energy-efficient with tight insulation, solar hot water and even a rainwater catchment system. He hires unskilled workers, teaches them marketable construction skills and then helps them find jobs when the project is complete. He keeps the landfills shallow by using truckfuls of leftover building materials such as lumber, tile and granite. Locals even hand off their old fixtures and doors to Phillips when they remodel, which he keeps in a warehouse and distributes free to low-income and needy people and organizations.

Huntsville officials say he is saving costs as well as Mother Earth. In fact, his materials warehouse has inspired a spin-off in Houston, the nation's third largest metropolitan area. The Houston warehouse opened in October, 2009 and within the first six months diverted 200 tons of building materials.

So far, Phillips has built 13 homes that are highly unusual, especially in Huntsville, a town of 35,000 north of Houston whose main industry is the huge high security prison that houses Texas death row inmates.

There's the "Bone House," which features a stairway made of bones, floors covered in wine corks and beer bottle caps, and a skylight made from -- are you ready? -- a Pyrex baking dish.

There's the Storybook House that has that medieval Hansel and Gretel feel. There's the Budweiser House with an exterior of red, white and blue. There's the 600-square-foot Doll House, built for Gloria Rivera, a doughnut-shop cashier who put her own thumbprints in the bright yellow stucco walls, which was constructed of almost 100 percent salvaged, donated or recycled materials.

To Phillips's dismay, about half the homes he has built in Huntsville have been lost to foreclosure. As he told the New York Times in 2009, "You can put someone in a new home, but you cannot give them a new mindset."

Undaunted, he is continuing to spread the story of what he does to others and preach his philosophy: You may not save the world anytime soon, but you can help tidy up your own backyard.

See photos of other amazing green homes here.

%Gallery-120434%


For more green coverage, visit the Huffington Post Green section.


Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com. and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.


 

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]]>$10000+green+home$10000greenhomeDan Phillipshuntsville texas real estatemaking homes from scraprecycling home buildingtexas real estateCandy Evans2011-04-25T11:59:00 00:00Homegrown Infomercials Aid Desperate Sellerhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/22/homegrown-informercials-aid-desperate-seller/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/22/homegrown-informercials-aid-desperate-seller/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/22/homegrown-informercials-aid-desperate-seller/#commentsFiled under: ,,

Desperate home sellers are resorting to novel real estate marketing strategies these days -- including filming their own infomercials. For example, when Gary O'Neal decided to sell his 19th-century estate on a 30-acre mountaintop in rural New Hampshire, complete with historic chapel and a ton of religious history, clearly he needed more than a prayer to attract buyers.

A few years ago, after his mill flooded, O'Neal decided to sell Crestwood for $3.5 million. That was before the real estate market collapsed and prices cratered. The last offer was $2.5 million from a Baptist church, but "they just couldn't put the deal together in the end," says O'Neal. They only wanted 19½ acres and "wanted me as part of the deal." O'Neal told them, "We don't do indentured servants anymore in New England!"

Now O'Neal is marketing Crestwood in an unconventional way. No more Realtors, no Multiple Listing Service. O'Neal teamed up with Reelife Productions to make a series of infomercials aimed at -- are you ready? -- the Asian market. Here's his thinking: There are a lot of students in private schools
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in the northeast, many of considerable means. He has had the infomercial translated into four languages -- Japanese, Russian, Chinese, and Korean -- and is sending it around the globe.

"I figure they can fly here in a helicopter, and have very little contact with the community," says O'Neal. "And buy."

Crestwood is a 116-year-old estate which sits on the top of Scofield Mountain with glorious views of three states: Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. It was built and owned by Cyrus Ingersol Scofield, a 19th-century religion scholar, who created the Scofield Reference Bible at Crestwood.

In 1895, Crestwood was one of the first residences in tiny Ashuelot, N.H., to have gas light, utilizing miles of zinc galvanized pipes and carbonic acid gas. In the late 1920s, the estate was purchased by the Count and Countess Phillippe Videl, who owned it for about five decades. O'Neal bought the property in the 1970s after the couple died.

Though only in his 20s, O'Neal set about making Crestwood into a glorious retreat, bed and breakfast, and charming wedding chapel.

After Realtors tried but were unsuccessful at selling this most unusual property, the price cratered from a firm offer of $3.5 million for 19½ acres to, as O'Neal puts it, "being dead" in the New York Times online edition listed for $800,000. Say O'Neal, "I had to do something different."

So far, so good. He says he's had more responses from his infomercial than he had from any print advertising. There's no cash left in this area, says O'Neal; to sell the estate, it's going to take a global buyer. He is also targeting alumni newsletters and magazines, and using students to help him enhance his web presence.

"We've had a few tweets, and it's posted online," says O'Neal. "We are hopeful."






Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com. and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.

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]]>church for saleCrestwoodCyrus Ingersol Scofieldnew hampshire real estateCandy Evans2011-04-22T11:59:00 00:00Rich People Buying Homes Again -- Should You?http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/20/rich-people-buying-houses-again-should-you/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/20/rich-people-buying-houses-again-should-you/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/20/rich-people-buying-houses-again-should-you/#commentsThe rich know something you and I get awfully confused about: Now really is the time to buy real estate.

Wealthy people are buying homes as quickly as they can in traditionally hot cities, according to Christie's International Real Estate. "The confidence is back in the market," said Christie's CEO Neil Palmer. "This money naturally finds a home first at the top end of the real estate market."

Liquidity, he says, is coming back in the market, much of it in hard cash. And Christie's knows what it's talking about: The average list price on its homes runs $3.5 million, and the company has 475 listings across the globe valued at more than $10 million.

"It's the new financial psychology," says Jarvis Slade, Jr., Christie's managing director for the Americas. "We've had two years of hesitation, the sellers are realistic, the buyers confident and cautious, but Americans are starting to feel better."

Slade's backyard, Manhattan, is on fire, he says, with 18 percent appreciation in certain segments. New York City is always a bellwether, but it could soon be surpassed by Hong Kong
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and other markets benefiting from the politically risk-averse climate. Supply and demand is so tight, mountain-hemmed Hong Kong real estate values are rising up to $10,000 per square foot, fueled in part by Koreans buying second homes in Hong Kong for escape, "just in case." London, New York, Paris and Monaco real estate values are also heading upward, benefiting from tensions in the Mideast.

"London's high end prices stalled from the fall of Lehman's to fourth quarter 2009," said Palmer. "Prices are just off 2007 peak pricing at this moment, and there is quite simply a lack of stock."

In the U.S., coastal markets are also experiencing a surge of foreign buyers in New York, Palm Beach and San Francisco. They are shrewd consumers and drive hard bargains, asking sometimes as much as 30 to 40 percent off a property.

Which makes them no different from Texans, who are also taking Texas-sized advantage of sellers' need to unload. Dallas broker Allie Beth Allman reported five offers on a recent deal.

"My buyer," she said, "came in a million and a half dollars under the list price."

Sellers have finally come to the realization that market won't get better, home prices won't appreciate, and prices are not moving up. In fact, they are happy to see them just not go down. The "new psychology" has helped boost Allman's sales by 10 percent this year alone, shedding 61 million dollar homes since January.

It's only April, but Allman says she has signed seven high-end home contracts in the last 10 days, and just listed the home of Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett for $1.95 million.

Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com. and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.


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]]>buy a houseChristies EstatesChristiesAuctionHousedallas real estatehousing crisisinternational real estateluxury real estatemanhattan real estatesecond home buyingCandy Evans2011-04-20T14:25:00 00:00Baby Boomers Launch Remodeling Boomhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/18/baby-boomers-begin-remodeling-boom/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/18/baby-boomers-begin-remodeling-boom/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/18/baby-boomers-begin-remodeling-boom/#commentsFiled under: ,,

baby boomersThe first wave of Baby Boomers turned 65 last year, which will have a significant impact on real estate and the nation's housing market. Not only should home sales increase, but hammers and nails will be flying as homes change hands from older to younger owners, while the home remodeling industry strikes it rich.

In fact, home remodels could be in for their best years ever. According to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, home owners over age 55 comprised a third of all home sellers between 1997 and 2007. That is a trend that experts say will only increase over the next 20 years as more Boomers retire.

And home remodelers have it made in the shade because if the Boomers sell their homes and move, younger buyers are extremely likely to remodel. If Boomers decide prices are too soft to sell and stay put, they are likely to adapt their home for old age, adding in more lighting, elevators, and principles of universal design. So the home remodelers win either way.



Looking at recent housing turnover data between the years 1997 and 2007, buyers of existing homes tend to be younger, the sellers, older. Of the 24.5 million owner-occupied sellers between 1997 and 2007, about 7.6 million, or almost one-third, were over age 55 when they sold their
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home.

And who buys these homes? People under age 45, who purchased 57 percent of the homes the old folks sold off. In fact, the median age buyer was about 33. With the median age seller almost 68 years old, we see that buyers tend to be about 35 years younger than the owners of the homes they purchase. And old people tend not to buy other old people's homes: Fewer than 25 percent of homes sold between 1997 and 2007 by sellers who were age 55 or older were swooped up by contemporaries.

Which means, of course, that the housing stock these Boomers are shedding is at least as old as they are.

In fact, the age of owner-occupied housing stock has been trending upwards over the last ten years. In 1997, the median age of the average American home was 29 years, but crept to 32 by 2007.

You know what we Boomers used to say: Never trust anyone over age 30.

With housing stock that old, the likelihood for a buyer coming in and remodeling is huge. The age and condition of these units makes them more affordable to younger buyers, and they tend to be located in the suburbs. On average, 80 to 90 percent of homes sold by older sellers to spring chicken buyers are single family detached units.

"The new owners of baby boomer suburban housing," the report said, "will likely be concentrated in the 35-44 and 45-54 age groups and higher income categories that have historically spent the most on remodeling."

But here's a new headache for buyers: Thanks to the financial crisis, many seniors who planned to downsize and free up some home inventory are staying put, because the financial melt down took a toll on both the equity in their homes and their retirement accounts. Mobility rates among older homeowners posted sharp drops between 2005 and 2009. But fewer "senior" seniors have had home equity wiped out, because most of these folks have owned their home for years and paid down mortgages. Still, many Boomers may postpone moving out of their homes because they simply cannot afford to move.

Which means that when they do finally vacate those homes, the places are going to need a lot of work. The study also showed something we real estate reporters have always known: recent home buyers spend buckets of money when they first buy a home. There's a reason why Lowe's caters to the 45 to 54 year old age group: home buyer expenditures peak in the 45-54 age group because these are the wonder years when families, home equity and incomes grow and flourish. And goodbye Formica: what rooms do buyers who buy from older sellers focus on? Kitchens and baths. Which is why Lowe's very best customer is the new homeowner. Home buyers age 35 to 44 spend more on average for home improvements than any other age group.

But then, the Boomers are the generation who did things "their way." Don't expect them to follow their parents' retirement patterns. As this study notes, they have made different housing decisions the whole way. Boomers are more likely to live in newer, suburban homes, and continue to spend a lot on home improvements once the housing market stabilizes and mortgage lending loosens. Remodeling, says Dallas architect Gary Gene Olp, is in their DNA.

"I see more Boomers moving back into the city from the suburbs, to older homes they are remodeling because they love urban social fabric and cultural amenities," says Olp, who specializes in LEED certified green architecture and building. "They are re-populating the inner city, ditching cars and walking, even in Dallas and Houston."

San Antonio developer Leobardo Trevino of Ricchi Dallas Investments, LLC, who is undergoing three ambitious Dallas commercial projects, has begun building what he calls "Smart Mansions" outside of San Antonio, TX. His buyer: downsizing baby boomers who want it all but in 2500 square feet or less.

"These people want all the bells and whistles, " he says, " but not necessarily all the space."

Trevino's Smart Mansions have a main living room, dining room and Euro-kitchens, decked out marbled masters and secondary bedrooms. They have high ceilings and top energy efficiency but less lawn to tend, and zero wasted space.

"Boomers no longer want to overspend or overbuild," says Trevino, "Been there, done that. But at the same time, there is absolutely no lowering of their standards."

Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com. and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.


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]]>baby boomers retiringBoomer moving trendsGary Gene OlpJoint Center for Housing StudiesLeobardo TrevinoSuburban home buyersUniversal DesignsCandy Evans2011-04-18T16:49:00 00:00Undecorating Trend Undoing Home Sales?http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/06/undecorating-trend-undoing-home-sales/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/06/undecorating-trend-undoing-home-sales/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/06/undecorating-trend-undoing-home-sales/#comments
Undecorating: It's the design trend of the moment. There's even a new book to prove it.

"Undecorate: The No-Rules Approach to Interior Design" lauds the quirky, the personality-driven, the DIY approach to home design. Like the one practiced by the Chicago couple at left, who parked an Airstream trailer smack in the middle of their loft.

While giving your imagination free rein might be good for your ego (and, arguably, your pocketbook), what does it do to your ability to sell your house? If the central tenet of the undecorating movement is, in the words of the New York Times, "that personal expression matters more than professional polish," you have to ask yourself whether some of those undecorated homes aren't languishing on the market.

How do you undecorate and still sell your home? Start by "unarting" the place, says Dallas-based home stager Karen Eubank.

"It's not so much that personal expression will hamper the sale," says Eubank. "Stagers want your house to have some style and personality." The trick is to make sure your repurposed tables and flea-market treasures appeal to the taste of your potential buyer.

So that burlap coffee sack you've appropriated for a slipcover may fly with house hunters in Deep Ellum, Dallas' version of SoHo, but not in Highland Park, its equivalent of the Upper East Side. Ditto for photos and other highly individualistic works of art.

"I had to convince a Houston home owner to take down some Hurricane Katrina art," Eubank says. "Yes, it was beautiful and moving, but so depressing potential buyers would have wanted to slit their wrists."

A good professional stager will know the neighborhood and the lifestyle of potential buyers, Eubank says, and be able to draw a distinction between decor that is charmingly quirky and choices that could kill a sale.

Here are some more of Eubank's tips for selling an "undecorated" house:

  • Remove all clutter. Keep projects hidden in pretty boxes or baskets.

  • Organize every inch of space, including the home office and workshop.

  • Ditch the wild paint colors.

  • Put three-quarters of the items in your closets into storage to create the illusion of more closet space.

  • Clear the fridge and walls of any child's artwork or photos.

  • Consider your art collection. Is it overpowering? Could it be offensive? Does it dictate the mood of the home?

  • Take up the rugs. Bare floors make rooms look larger.

Undoing your undecorating isn't necessarily the answer to nailing a home sale, says Eubank. "It's not about painting everything beige," she says. "It's about making the home appeal to the target demographic."

For more information on staging your house for a home sale, see these AOL Real Estate Guides:
Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com. and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.


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Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
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]]>home saleshome staginginterior designreal estate design trendsselling your homestaging your home for saleundecorateundecoratingCandy Evans2011-04-06T17:00:00 00:00H.L. Hunt's Great Grandson Hit With Mortgage Fraudhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/06/h-l-hunts-great-grandson-hit-with-mortgage-fraud/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/06/h-l-hunts-great-grandson-hit-with-mortgage-fraud/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/06/h-l-hunts-great-grandson-hit-with-mortgage-fraud/#commentsAl G. Hill III, the first great-grandchild of legendary Texas oilman H.L. Hunt (see photo below) -- once known as the richest man in America and who died in 1974 -- has been indicted in Dallas County on several felony counts of mortgage fraud for a home improvement loan of more than $200,000.

Hill, 40, and his wife, Erin Nance Hill, a former beauty queen and Dallas socialite, were charged with making a false statement to obtain property or credit and one count of securing execution of a document by deception. Hill claimed a monthly income of $54,341, while Erin claimed to have more than $100,000 in a bank account. Apparently, they did not.

Erin, 38, was charged with two counts of making a false statement and one of securing execution of a document by deception. The charges are first-degree felonies, with a punishment range of probation or five years to life.


The charges center on a real estate home improvement loan the Hills obtained from OmniAmerican Bank in 2009, claiming to be sole owners of their $1.9 million dollar Highland Park home, pictured. (Highland Park is an exclusive township in Dallas County.) Turns out, they are not.

According to the Dallas Central Appraisal District website, the couple owns only 20 percent of their $1.9 million home on tony Bordeaux. The majority interest is owned by the Albert Hill H.L. HuntTrust, whose beneficiary is Al III's father, Al Hill Jr., and H.L. Hunt's grandson. And here's where it gets gritty. Father and son have been embroiled for years in a high-profile, bitter series of lawsuits over the Hunt estate and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In Dallas, there is speculation that this is just one more chapter to the Hunt's never-ending family feuds and complex family tree skirmishes. Or could it be the final straw to destroy the foundations of one of the nation's wealthiest family fortunes, because the great grandson, Al Three as he is known, is a spendthrift?

Margaret Hunt Hill's name is on a highly touted new city bridge under construction, designed by Santiago Calatrava. Margaret is the daughter who, when she learned that her father had sired at least 14 acknowledged children, suggested trust funds for each of them. Her son, Al Jr., is a handsome former pro tennis player who suffered an unfortunate fall at his Highland Park mansion nine years ago that left him both paralyzed and a teetotaler. For a time, the tragedy brought him closer to his son, Al Three, who had sworn off alcohol in his college days at Baylor University after a serious car wreck. The son went to work for his father managing the family's investments for $10,000 a week. At this point, for some reason, the father signed over most of the billion-dollar estate he inherited from his mother to his children, Al Three and two daughters.

But when Margaret Hunt Hill, died in 2007, Al Three became disgruntled over money. He started complaining about family finances and sued his father, sisters, aunts, and long-time family advisor Tom Hunt, H.L.'s trusted nephew and confidant. Tom Hunt, 84, started working with H.L. in the oilfields of East Texas when he was 16. Al Three's beefs were numerous but centered on tax fraud, mismanagement of trust funds, and the prime family jewel, Hunt Petroleum, which the family wanted to sell, putting about $5.5 million a year in interest income in his pockets.

But Al Three wasn't satisfied.

Hunt Petroleum was sold to XTO Energy for $4.2 billion in 2008.

The word in Dallas, and as chronicled in a 2008 Vanity Fair story by Dallas society reporter Alan Peppard, was that Al Three and his wife, a former Miss Georgia, lived way beyond their means: a $98,000 revolving charge balance at Neiman Marcus, not uncommon with the high net worth, my sources tell me, but when added to $81,000 revolving credit at the Stanley Korshak department store; a couple Mercedes and a Porsche; $188,821 for household staff, including a British butler that some relatives dubbed the "manny"; and countless costly vacations, including $343,000 blown on one trip alone to Cap d'Antibes, France, with the kids and Erin's mother, well, the couple got overextended.

Erin was nicknamed Georgian American Princess by some Hunt insiders and family. She was on Dallas's coveted best-dressed list three times and also worked feverishly on the Dallas charity circuit, raising close to a million on events. But the family money was all tied up in tight trusts. In 2002, the father okayed a $2,275,000 advance from Smith Barney to cover the son's debts. Three's combined personal and business debts topped $20 million, but most of the business debt was eliminated through bankruptcy.

Al Jr. felt his son was spending way too much and suggested a monthly budget of $45,000. In 2004, he gave his son $3.1 million for an 80 percent ownership of Three's home on Bordeaux. The elder Hunt family is notorious for being frugal. Legend has it that H.L. ate lunch at a small Dallas diner almost every day because it was cheap. Caroline Rose Hunt, founder and chairman of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, still refuses to fly first class. The children of H. Ross Perot, says one Dallas Realtor, live far more outlandishly than do the Hunt children.

In 2007, the young Hill's clothing expenses for ten months of the year topped $460,713. The father-son lawsuit over control of the trust was settled last spring, but that, too, was complex.

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The father claimed he signed away his mother's millions while in recovery from the fall that paralyzed him, and he was under the influence of drugs and painkillers. At first the court bought it, but then, two versions of the irrevocable disclaimer surfaced, one that was reportedly updated to avoid about $500,000 million in taxes. Father and son were ordered to mediation of the $92 million, and Hill Jr. had to pay his son's hefty attorneys fees.

But the battle did not stop there. The father sued the son for committing corporate espionage against Hunt Petroleum, which he claims lost them $439 million on the XTO sale.

Al Three and Erin had their Highland Park home on the market briefly (and quietly) last year, but no longer. A confidential source tells me they have pared down their lifestyle somewhat: Whereas Erin used to have a nanny for each child, there is now a house manager who cooks some and tends to the three children, plus two housekeepers and gardeners. The British "manny" is gone. Last week, reports the Dallas Morning News, Al Three filed an appeal in federal court of the almost year-old mediation settlement.

The Dallas Morning News story also noted that the great grand-son of H.L. Hunt and his wife do not have legal representation, at least not at this time.

Al Hill, Jr. told the paper that it's "a very, very sad day for our entire family," and said he no longer has contact with his son -- even a birthday gift for his grandson was refused at the door. A spokeswoman for the Dallas County district attorney told the News they plan to pursue these cases just like any other case in Dallas County. Meantime, the father continues to dabble in the real estate business. His father, Al Hill Sr. developed Garden of the Gods Club, a lavish golf and mountain resort in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1951 and built three homes there. (The Hunt family still vacations in the area.)

Real estate is in Al Hill, Jr.'s blood, too. He built his first spec house in Dallas in 1971, several townhouses throughout the '70s, plus more homes in Colorado and Plano, Tex. Building homes is a vocation, he told me in an interview at his home last year, and he selects his locations methodically. Hill has built three high-end spec homes in his Highland Park neighborhood, where he now prefers building, on lots he snapped up in 2007 and 2008. One of his daughters is living in one while her new home is under construction, and one sold for about $10 million. A beautiful 12,000-square-foot French chateau with high quality finish out, is listed for $7,800,000, reduced from $9,250,000. It's been on the market for more than two years, but Hill says he's not a bit concerned.

"Two of the lots I bought two weekends in a row," he said. "The following weekend I was out looking with my physical therapist, and he said, aren't we going to buy another house today?"


Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com. and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.

 

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]]>al g. hunt jr.Dallas oil mans great grandsondallas real estateH.L. HuntHunt family dynastymortgage fraudCandy Evans2011-04-06T10:36:00 00:00Underground Real Estate Boom: Bomb Shelter Sales on the Risehttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/31/underground-real-estate-boom-bomb-shelters-sales-on-the-rise/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/31/underground-real-estate-boom-bomb-shelters-sales-on-the-rise/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/31/underground-real-estate-boom-bomb-shelters-sales-on-the-rise/#comments

Home prices may be double-dipping and dripping downward across the U.S., but there's one real estate market that's looking up, way up: luxury underground bunkers and bomb shelters.

Frustrated by a crazy world, sales of high tech survival shelters have surged from 20 to 1,000 percent. Much of the anxiety, says veteran bunker builder Walton McCarthy, stems from what he calls the "Pearl Harbor blues": This January, he says, a 161-page Homeland Security report slipped out of Washington depicting a national planning and prep scenario and listing the top 15 weapons of mass destruction and scenarios on how they could affect all major cities in the country.

Outlook: grim. A few months later we are at war with Libya, who has a leader who could very well take retribution. Japan has had an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown.

Can it get worse?


Well, yes. When Iran launched a test Scud missile from a platform in the Caspian Sea in July 2008, it was the defining moment, says McCarthy. But it took the Homeland Security report, the Japan crisis and the war in Libya to attract attention. Now McCarthy, a Defense Department contractor and national expert on designing high-tech WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) shelters, says he is getting more than 1,000 emails a day at Radius Engineering, his 52,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Terrell, Tex., 30 miles east of Dallas. In fact, his business has been doubling each year for the last five years.

"The safest place to be when all hell breaks loose," says McCarthy, "Is 35 feet underground."

The paranoia is running across the country, and surpassing the boom at the end of 1999, in anticipation of Y2K. Whatever the reasons, bomb shelter makers are making hay while the sun shines and the above-ground housing market sinks.

Northwest Shelter Systems, which offers shelters ranging in price from $200,000 to $20 million, has seen sales surge 70 percent since the uprisings in the Middle East. The Japanese earthquake and nuclear reactor meltdown spurred further interest. For a company that normally sells four shelters per year, 12 shelters are booked for production.

Inquiries are way up over at UndergroundBombShelter.com, a company that sells portable shelters, bomb shelters and underground bunkers, including a bargain-basement nuclear biological chemical shelter tent number for $9,500 that are flying off the shelves -- four sold in California last week, compared to about one a month normally.

Of course, some Californians are so worried about radiation from Japan across the Pacific they've also been making a run on iodine tablets.

And Hardened Structures said inquiries for its apocalyptic 2012 shelters, radiation-protection tents, and nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) air filters have shot up about 20% since the earthquake.

OK, now I am starting to get worried. Maybe its time to invest in an underground bomb shelter in my backyard. Turns out, many of my neighbors already have.

"It's a great investment," says McCarthy. "And they are portable."

McCarthy, whose company has been building bomb shelters for 32 years, tells me his company has a bomb shelter in every city capital in in every state.

"Half my business is in the D.C. area," he says.

His biggest consumers -- not your typical gun-crazed militia-type. They are professionals like physicians and corporations, medical groups, churches, municipalities, also politicians of course, and CEOs.

Whereas he used to build a few a month, he's now building a shelter a day -- 1,300 this year at a price tag of around $100,000 each. The cheapest model is $108,000.

"We come in on a Saturday and dig the hole, it's installed by Monday morning so your neighbors
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and the HOA can't do anything. All they see is a three-foot diameter plate on the ground," says McCarthy. "Neighbors can call whoever they want -- it's a self-sufficient, temporary emergency structure not violating any codes, and no permit needed so no paper trail."

I wondered why McCarthy made a point of telling me that when he installs the shelters in that 35 foot deep hole in your backyard, he's so secretive --- uses only his crew, leaves no paper trail, even drives by the house a few times before stopping in discreet trucks. Is the guy paranoid? Not at all: The 1978 War Powers Act, he says, gives governments a right to commandeer shelters for the benefit of the public. That's why he thinks secrecy of the location is paramount.

"When Hurricane Katrina hit, government officials tried to break in with limited force to commandeer supplies at two of our shelters," says McCarthy, "unsuccessfully.

No address or paper trail means no one knows you even HAVE a shelter. Without concrete, the shelters are not considered permanent and a city permit does not have to be pulled.

McCarthy's bomb shelters are composite and fiberglass, and stealth -- they will not collect or attract an electromagnetic pulse.

"When you detonate a nuclear weapon at high altitude, " he says, "it knocks out electricity and overcharges electrical systems and computer chips."

Which could really do us in.

The shelter goes underground with 8.5 feet of earth shielding the top, internal generators, and a composite structure with no corrosion factor so the things last 300 years.

And I had to ask -- do they need to be vacuumed?

Not really, just maintained once a year. McCarthy says his shelters are designed to resist 7 basic assaults from people trying to break in and cannot be detected by planes overhead.
And don't think you are out of luck if you live in an urban apartment or condo: McCarthy sells
units to make your master bedroom and bath totally nuke safe. With freeze-dried food and water, he tells me you could live in there for 30 days without electrical power -- $30,000 delivered anywhere in the US.

Not everyone needs a shelter, says McCarthy, but they also need disaster education. He warns consumers against buying from an unemployed home contractor who is "suddenly" in the bomb shelter business to ride the wave. Because sooner or later, he thinks we'll need one. When people cannot find food or water or electricity for themselves or family, they will loot the homes of the wealthy.

"There have been at least 18,000 wars since the beginning of time, "he says. "the government is aware and planning, but people are complacent. It's human nature, and I don't think human nature ever changes.


Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com. and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.



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]]>bomb sheltersbuilding a bomb shelterfallout shelter planfallout sheltersnuclear bomb shelterreal estateunderground bomb sheltersunderground real estateCandy Evans2011-03-31T09:58:00 00:00Are Men Dumber About Real Estate Values Than Women?http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/25/are-men-dumber-about-real-estate-values-than-women/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/25/are-men-dumber-about-real-estate-values-than-women/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/25/are-men-dumber-about-real-estate-values-than-women/#commentsIt doesn't take women long to figure out that men exaggerate about, um, almost everything, including real estate values. So it should come as no surprise that men are more bullish about the value of their castles than women are.

According to a study conducted by a national polling company, The Rasmussen Report found that nearly 60 percent of men surveyed believe their home is worth more than the amount they borrowed to buy it, even in this dipping market.

In other words, they think their homes are still going up in value. Eternal optimists, or out of touch testosterone producers?
Women, however, tend to be either more bearish or realistic: Only 47 percent of women homeowners polled by Rasmussen say their home is worth more than what they owe on it. The opinions vary according to your race and ethnic background, too. Just over half of white
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homeowners (53 percent) say their home is worth more than what they owe on their mortgage, while African-Americans are almost evenly divided on the question.

Rasmussen polled 720 homeowners between March 15 and 16, 2011, and the margin of sampling error is +/- 4 percentage points, yielding about a 95 percent level of accuracy.

Income level also makes a difference. Homeowners who earn more than $60,000 per year are more likely to boast that their home is worth more than the balance on their mortgage.

"I don't know that men are more bullish/foolish so much as their sense of pride doesn't want to let them admit that the "deal" they thought they were getting isn't so much of a "deal" anymore," says Ken Yee, Marketing Manager at HomeGain, an online Emeryville, Calif.-based real estate research firm that connects Realtors and buyers.

That men exaggerate home values is not surprising, but I wondered about overpaying for real estate in the first place. In our household, my husband is the one who says no more firmly than I. So I called Ken Stevens of Accelerated Marketing Partners, a residential real estate and marketing services company specializing in auctions of new properties across the U.S. Real estate auctions, that's like ground warfare, right? Tell me, I asked Ken, who's more aggressive bidding on the floor?

"The men are definitely more gullible than women," says Ken. "The ladies are much more cut and dry. They set their prices and don't want to go above them -- the woman are in fact holding their partner's arms down to keep them from bidding."

Men, he says, get caught up in the macho-ness of winning their "trophy" at the auction and will go that extra $1,000 to get their prize.

I've wondered why real estate auctions were growing in popularity.

Other interesting Rasmussen nuggets tell us that almost a third of Americans think they are underwater on their homes, while 16 percent are not sure. Less than a quarter, or 22 percent, believe the government should help homeowners make their mortgage payments, and women are more supportive of government assistance than men. The vast majority -- 64 percent -- think hurting homeowners should just go out and find a less expensive home. Some 59 percent think interest rates will go up over the next few years, and the vast majority of people polled are solid citizens who pay their mortgages on time. Only 9 percent surveyed say they have ever missed or been late on a mortgage payment.

The remaining three percent were not sure. They were probably men.


Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com. and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.




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]]>HomeGainmale real estate consumersRasmussen pollreal estate and menreal estate and womenreal estate auctionsCandy Evans2011-03-25T11:07:00 00:00What Multimillion Dollar Homes Sales Mean for Ushttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/23/what-multimillion-dollar-homes-sales-mean-for-us/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/23/what-multimillion-dollar-homes-sales-mean-for-us/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/23/what-multimillion-dollar-homes-sales-mean-for-us/#comments Happy days are here again, at least for the sellers of multimillion dollar homes. After four solid years of penny-pinching, the rich are opening their pocket-books to buy real estate. Cash sales are on the rise. Sales of multimillion dollar homes and condos are up in all 20 major U.S. metro areas, some of which have seen double-digit increases in high-end home sales.

What's behind this buying spree?


When Wall Street fares well, sales of high end goods usually follow -- luxury autos, boats, planes, and even $8 million homes. And prior to Japan's nuclear and earthquake disaster, Wall Street had been on a roll. Even though Wall Street bonuses were slightly smaller last year, they still averaged $120,000. Luxury real estate is enjoying bargain-basement prices: $600,000 is the new million, according to Alex Villacorta, senior statistician at Clear Capital. Spurred by extreme price reductions, New York saw million-dollar-plus home sales volume grow by 25 percent. Agents in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., saw sales of high end homes spike by 20 percent. Other gainers include Honolulu (26 percent), San Diego (14 percent) Nashville (13 percent) and Dallas (1.5 percent).

The rich are also getting richer. CEO bonuses at 50 major corporations jumped 30.5 percent, the biggest gain in at least three years, according to a study of the first batch of corporate CEO pay disclosures by consulting firm Hay Group, as reported in the Wall Street Journal. Under the new financial over-haul laws, investors have their say now in every business whose stock-market value exceeds $75 million. Investors were quite generous to execs at Starbucks, Jabil Circuit, and Clorox Co. What do they do? Buy real estate.

According to DataQuick Information Systems, after four straight years of declines, sales of million-dollar homes and condos rose by 18.6 percent in every U.S. market. The biggest market for million dollar homes was, no surprise, San Jose, Calif. With all those Silicon Valley gad-zillionaires around, San Jose home sales spike 27.4 percent.

Underwater-world Phoenix saw the smallest jump at .04 percent.

But here's the weird thing: Home sales outside of this glitzy price range actually declined.

"It hasn't been a good six months for all people, but it was a good six months for rich people," said Glenn Kelman, CEO of Seattle-based real estate brokerage Redfin.

Economists, like Bankrate.com's Greg McBride, say higher income households are feeling better about their financial security and taking advantage of bargains in expensive first homes. Second home sales are also on the upswing. Martha Johnson, a seasoned broker in Big Sky, Montana, says multi-million dollar sales at Spanish Peaks, the luxury golf and ski community smack next door to the Yellowstone Club, with private ski mountain and lifts, have picked up dramatically: three transactions since February include a $4.8 million ski in/ski out home, the most expensive land sale in two years, and a $1.9 million developer cabin right on the golf course. As for bottom-feeding, Johnson says prices are down by about 4 to 5 percent.

It was even cheaper to get a jumbo mortgage for jumbo homes. Jumbo loans finance any mortgage beyond the $417,000 threshold; $729,000 in higher-cost cities such as New York and almost the entire state of California. These loans generally have higher interest rates because they are considered higher risk, and not backed Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

In 2009, jumbo loans cost 1.8 percentage points more in interest than the average loan; in 2010, they were only 0.6 points more. Think that's peanuts: A wealthy home buyer would save save about $780 a month on a million-dollar mortgage -- enough for a luxury car payment.

Luxury auto sales, by the way, are also on the rise.

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Let's get real: what does this mean for those of us without $120,000 bonuses? Should this trickle down to get us shopping, too?

Maybe, if we can afford to. Even Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, advises basing home purchasing on affordability, lifestyle choices and home preferences, not investment. Tread carefully, because many out there still think prices may dip further.

Karl Case, one-half of the famous Case-Shiller housing report index, thinks the market will "bounce along the bottom all year." His gloomier compadre, Robert Shiller, has said that home prices may crater 20 to 25 percent this year. Other experts say stable areas, he says, such as Texas and the Midwest, will probably not experience price plunges at all, but other markets could.

You may get a bigger discount by waiting a year, says Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He thinks home prices will drop 10 percent or 15 percent.

Some real estate professionals and homeowners agree. According to a nationwide first quarter home value survey over at HomeGain, 39 percent of agents and brokers, and 30 percent of homeowners believe home values will decrease over the next six months. Only 17 percent of agents expect home prices to increase in the next six months, which is slightly more optimistic than last year's 12 percent who thought this way. Lower unemployment numbers could make everyone a lot more positive.

If you have a steady job, plan to stay put in the home for at least five years, and can put some cash down, here are the top ten states where both agents and homeowners think home prices will go up:








Here are the top ten states where both agents and homeowners think prices will go down:





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]]>home affordabilityjumbo loansluxury home buying trendsmulti-million dollar homesrich are buying real estateCandy Evans2011-03-23T16:37:00 00:00Freddie Mac Goes Viral With Foreclosure Myths Videoshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/23/freddie-mac-goes-viral-with-foreclosure-myths-videos/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/23/freddie-mac-goes-viral-with-foreclosure-myths-videos/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/23/freddie-mac-goes-viral-with-foreclosure-myths-videos/#commentsFiled under: ,,

freddie macFreddie Mac is doing its part to educate homeowners about foreclosure in a new video series on YouTube called "Get the Facts." It almost sounds like a sex education campaign, but the informational videos actually smack down foreclosure myths and offers facts about foreclosures. Videos address topics such as what a foreclosure can do to your credit rating, and how homeowners should react if they think they are in financial distress with their home. Freddie Mac is operating under a government conservatorship that began on September 6, 2008, shortly after the housing meltdown began; the agency was over-stressed by too many bad loans.

"People in those situations are vulnerable, and the foreclosure scammers are always a step ahead," says Ed Jacob, executive director at the Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, which provides housing counseling to homeowners struggling with mortgage payments.


More than 2.3 million American homes have been repossessed by lenders since the recession first began in 2007, and homes in some state of foreclosure now suck up at least two percent of the nation's housing supply. That's thousands of homeowners stuck in a state of stress, depression and confusion. And as we have reported many times, the scam artists are out there taking full advantage. By web, mail, even cold calling, these companies are preying upon desperate homeowners and costing them money and sometimes, their home.

Well, the nations' chief buyer of home loans is fighting back.



In each video, a consumer voices a foreclosure myth, which a Freddie Mac housing counselor then shoots down. In the first video, a homeowner says he has heard that if his house is foreclosed on, he can never buy a home again. That's not true, of course. In the second, the counselor tackles another myth making rounds, that homeowners should stop making mortgage payments so they can get mortgage help -- wrong! The third video says no, you will not lose your home for missing just one payment; the fourth covers the paranoia that all offers of help are scams -- they are not, but you do have to decipher, and the fifth gives advice on what to do if your lender has a deaf ear -- either ignoring you, or not responding.

The counselor in the video says he has two years of experience advising consumers, and says there are plenty of myths and misconceptions about foreclosure. He's here, he says, to give homeowners the facts.




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]]>advice about home foreclosurefacts about foreclosuresforeclosure factsforeclosure facts from Freddie Macfreddie macyoutubeCandy Evans2011-03-23T10:55:00 00:00Texas Real Estate Market Gets a Kick of the Spurshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/21/texas-real-estate-market-gets-a-kick-of-the-spurs/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/21/texas-real-estate-market-gets-a-kick-of-the-spurs/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/21/texas-real-estate-market-gets-a-kick-of-the-spurs/#commentsFiled under: ,,,

texas real estateTexas real estate sales here are blooming right along with the spring bluebonnets. Average homes sales increased over the last six months in five major Texas metropolitan markets -- Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth --- according to the Federal Reserve. Is the sign of life in the Lone Star state a harbinger for a national trend?

The rise in Texas home sales comes for the first time since the expiration of the home buyer tax credit. Three cheers, that's not the only good news: looking at January numbers, Texas home inventory is down, says the Federal Reserve. Back in December, it would have taken eight months to sell off all the inventory in the state. In January, that time frame fell to 7.7 percent. Experts say 6 months is a normal market and it looks like Texas real estate is inching closer and closer to normal.

As for foreclosures, it almost seems like they've taken a vacation in some Texas markets. Foreclosure filings in Dallas/Fort Worth were down 16 percent for April -- foreclosure filings have to be posted a month ahead, so April's numbers are now out. For the first few months of 2011, Dallas foreclosure filings are 4 percent lower than this time, last year. And that is significant because last year we were still euphoric on the first time home buyer's credit.
The vacation fizzles in mid-Texas: Austin foreclosure filings were up 3 percent over the past year.

George Roddy, CEO of Foreclosure Listing Service, a company that publishes foreclosure data in North Texas and Austin, says this was the lowest percentage gain in Austin's foreclosure cycle since 2008.

Considering the surges of past years -- a whopping 49 percent from 2008 to 2009, 32 percent from 2009 to 2010, 3 percent is a drop in the bucket.

"The 3 percent gain over the past year," says Roddy, "does not seem bad at all."

Foreclosure filings were also down 20 percent in Collin County, north of Dallas in what is considered the "telecommunications corridor", and an area hit hard by foreclosures.

But Roddy says don't break out the champagne just yet: There are still a high number of troubled loans across the state, and fallout from the foreclosure crisis is going to take a log time to wade through.

"Until a significant number of workers are absorbed back into the workforce," says Roddy, " we won't see foreclosure postings decline."

Despite that North Texas foreclosure posting decline, 2011 saw a sharp increase in the percentage of residential postings in an upside-down position. In fact, the percentage of foreclosure postings on upside-down homes jumped 29 percent. That's not good because a year ago April, only 21 percent of Dallas area home were upside down.

You know what that means: The original mortgage amount exceeds the current value of the property. So the homeowner can not sell the home for what is owed on the mortgage and often, neither can the bank left toting the note.

Over the last year, as residential posting levels eased somewhat, both the volume and percentage of homes posted in an upside-down situation got worse. CoreLogic recently estimated that 12 percent of Dallas homeowners owe more than their mortgages are worth. That is about half the nationwide rates of negative equity, and can be attributed to Texas law which limits how much a homeowner can borrow against their home on HELOCS: home equity lines of credit.

So maybe what happens in Texas stays in Texas.

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]]>homegainTexas home valuesTexas real estate and the recessionTexas real estate financeTexas real estate marketTexas real estate statsCandy Evans2011-03-21T13:45:00 00:00Divorced Divas Dwell in Dallas Mansion, On Sale for $20Mhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/17/divorced-divas-dwell-in-dallas-mansion-on-sale-for-20m/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/17/divorced-divas-dwell-in-dallas-mansion-on-sale-for-20m/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/17/divorced-divas-dwell-in-dallas-mansion-on-sale-for-20m/#commentsThis Texas home could be a reality show producers' dream script. A 20,000-square-foot Texas mansion built by an oil tycoon and his ex-wife is providing shelter for homeless divorcées.

Jacque Evans (no relation) built this 19,337-square-foot palace as her dream home with her husband of 20 some years. No expense was spared in the building or design, and Jacque picked out every stitch of fabric, every stick of furniture, and imprinted her touch on every inch. There is a musical flushing toilet, 2 infinity pools, 6 living rooms, Moroccan media room, a guest house with three bedrooms, a caretakers home, Longhorn, cattle and horses and a barn (with full bar) to house them. There are even deer jumping (and getting stuck on) the fence plus rabbits, coyotes, snakes, critters, three mules, a horse, donkey, catfish and brim because the home is on the shores of Lake Grapevine. In fact, there are more than 450 feet of waterfront views of the lake from a 75-foot bluff, which is not only high for, but extremely rare in, Texas. The home took three years to build.

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After her divorce, Evans was awarded the home. She found herself opening up to other women in her situation. When she found out some of them had no place to live, she said, why don't you come over and live with me - I certainly have plenty of room.

"What is the point of having things - a big home, two swimming pools - if you can't share them with people?" says Jacque.
Now guess who's living there? Four forty-something, beautiful divorcées, rent-free, while the house is on the market for $19.9 million.

Living in the guest house is a divorcée with one daughter. Three other women are in 2 of the 6 bedrooms. And in this house, a bedroom measures about 20 by 20 feet. They are almost a football field away from Jacque'™s bedroom and spa bath. Another lives in the caretakers' home.

"We are a total support system for each other -- we pray, share food and clothes, try on clothes, and have fun all the time," says Jacqui. "We try to laugh every day and are actually having a blast!"

But there is stress without a man around: A few weeks ago, the Divas were out (in boots and heels) in Jacque's pasture trying to help a deer who had jumped over and gotten stuck on a fence. Deer, they learned, are pretty heavy. Jacque managed to get the poor dear unstuck and off the fence, and he ran off into the woods.

The estate is protected by an electronic gated fence, located within a gated community in Flower Mound, north-west of Dallas, close to D/FW airport. In fact, sitting on Jacque's lakeside patio, you would never think you are anywhere near Dallas until you see a 747 taking off in the distance. Full water views start right in the foyer.

"I grew up in Lakeland, Florida," says Jacque. "When we found this property, it reminded me of that."

The home sits on 10.4 acres, and because of the cattle and horse, the new owner will get a Texas agricultural exemption on 9.4 acres. The features and extras in this home run so way over, you have to see to believe: venetian plaster everywhere, stained glass windows, custom tile, the truly Moroccan media room where Jacqui hangs with her new beau, a friend from college, a huge bricked-in wine cellar, geo-thermal heating, smart house wiring, two Aga stoves, a walk-in food vault (both refrigerator and freezer), exercise rooms, and quality everywhere from the walnut floors to the groin vault ceilings to my favorite: a secret office off a hidden stairway located behind a bookshelf in the zebra study. Also, a billiard room with shoe-shine chairs, and a game room.

Forget The Bachelor: This home would be the perfect setting for the trials and tribulations of Divorce Divas. Because the guys would have to be pretty darn special to drag these divas out of this castle, deer or no dear!



Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com. and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.



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]]>Dallas real estatedivorceddivorced divasdivorcee havenFlower Mound Texas real estatetexas mansionsTexas real estate newsCandy Evans2011-03-17T15:36:00 00:00Terrell Owens Shedding Two Dallas Condoshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/10/terrell-owens-shedding-two-dallas-condos/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/10/terrell-owens-shedding-two-dallas-condos/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/10/terrell-owens-shedding-two-dallas-condos/#commentsFiled under: ,,

Terrell Owens, whose 15-year professional football career brought him from San Francisco to Philadelphia, down to Dallas, up to Buffalo and back to the Cincinnati Bengals, must like buying real estate as much as he does switching teams.

He is selling both of the units he owns in the ultramodern Azure, Dallas' first LEED-certified residential high-rise building designed by "starchitect" James Cheng and built in 2007. He is asking $2.25 million for his 3-bedroom, 3,559-square-foot home in the sky. Owens's larger unit is a custom residence on the 20th floor, and comes with a 6-car garage space -- what the Azure calls the G-2, playing off of the G-5 private jet favored by many high-net-worth individuals -- plus two storage spaces. The Azure has the most generous parking of any of the Dallas high-rises. This home has three outdoor terraces with gas fireplaces, tall ceilings and downtown Dallas skyline views. The kitchen features a built-in SubZero fridge, Miele gas cooktop, and double ovens. The master suite features his-her separate bath with a "tea-for-two" bathtub, and closets, a sitting area and a private outdoor terrace with a gas fireplace.

The second unit is a 1-bedroom, 1½-bath, 881-square-foot unit with a one-car garage, a generous terrace, the nine to ten foot ceilings, vast windows also overlooking Dallas, but from the third floor. This one is only $350,000.

It would be perfect to buy both and let your bodyguard/life coach/personal assistant live in the smaller one.



The wide receiver, six-time Pro Bowl selection and former holder of the league single-game reception record, has had a controversial career and "episodes" with almost every team he has played for.

On the field, his brilliant scoring and antics drew even more attention to his off-the-field firestorms
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and controversial behavior, like the time he was rushed to the hospital for what Dallas police said was an attempted suicide by overdosing on hydrocodone. His publicist insisted Owens suffered an allergic reaction to the medication combined with a dietary supplement; ESPN later reported that parts of the police report were blacked out. Owens is trying to sell not one but two condominiums in downtown Dallas. He now has a home address in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Owens was released from his contract by the Cowboys in 2009.

It might be hard for Owens to leave the Azure and Deion Sanders, who owns a penthouse in the same glitzy building. Owens was one of the building's first celebrity buyers. Sanders sweetly mediated a little spat between Atlanta Falcons cornerback DeAngelo Hall and Owens in 2006. Hall claimed that Owens spit in his face after a play early in the game. Game officials and reporters were unaware of the incident and Owens was not asked about it until his post-game interview when he fessed up, confirmed it, and apologized.

Owens was fined $35,000 for the incident. Sanders's penthouse was also for sale at the Azure, listed for $7.5 million, but according to MLS records the listing is no longer active. Sanders apparently recently suffered water damage at his $21 million ranch in Prosper, Tex.


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]]>celebrities+and+controversycelebrity real estatecincinnati bengalsdallas real estateDeion SandersTerrell OwensCandy Evans2011-03-10T16:37:00 00:00George W. Bush's Home Targeted by Alleged Terroristhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/24/george-w-bushs-home-targeted-by-alleged-terrorist/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/24/george-w-bushs-home-targeted-by-alleged-terrorist/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/24/george-w-bushs-home-targeted-by-alleged-terrorist/#commentsFiled under:

George W. Bush's home in Dallas may have been a terrorist's target. The FBI has arrested a Saudi student in Texas and charged him with attempting to construct improvised explosives and compiling a list of possible targets, including the home of former President Bush.

The home on Daria Place that former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush bought in December of 2008 is in the leafy Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas, and a few blocks from an elementary school.

The one-story home has 8,501 square feet on 1.13 acres and no pool. It was built in 1959 but
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extensively renovated by the previous owner, a Dallas investor and art collector named Dan Boeckman. The Bushes also bought the 1.26 acre, 4000 square foot ranch home next door, which had been listed at $1.6 million, but tore it down in January, 2010.

The Bush home is located on a closed cul de sac, and it was closed off by an electronic gate for security purposes in late 2009.

The student, Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, is 20 years old, and is charged in a federal criminal complaint with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Aldawsari is in the U.S. on a 2008 student visa, and is enrolled at tiny South Plains College, near Lubbock, Tex., which is the home of Texas Tech University. Apparently Ali-M Aldawsari wasn't going to stop with exploding the Bush home: he also is said to have been targeting nightclubs in Dallas, reservoirs and dams in the west, and nuclear power plants.


Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.


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]]>Bush home in TexasFBI arrestsformer president George W Bushgeorge+bush+home+terroristsgeorgebushhometerroristshome+of+george+w+bushhomeofgeorgewbushPreston Hollowsaudi studentterror plotCandy Evans2011-02-24T16:46:00 00:00Hispanic Homeowners Fuel Texas Housing Growthhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/24/hispanic-homeowners-fuel-texas-housing-growth/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/24/hispanic-homeowners-fuel-texas-housing-growth/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/24/hispanic-homeowners-fuel-texas-housing-growth/#commentsTexas, as you may have heard, is growing explosively -- and Hispanic homeowners are the main reason why. The latest Census Bureau figures show the Lone Star State grew by 20 percent, to over 25 million people, recording about a quarter of the nation's overall growth.

To put it another way, of the nation's 17 million new bodies, almost a quarter chose to live in Texas. And 68 percent of those newcomers are Hispanic.

The implications are huge politically, as Texas stands to gain 4 new Congressional seats from this expansion, and Hispanic leaders want in.

Demographers say most of the Hispanic growth came from births to families already living here - second generation Hispanics. Migration from other states and countries contributed about 45 percent. One of those was the family of the Mayor of Monterrey, Mexico, who moved his family to a suburb of Dallas for protection.

Texas's Hispanic-fueled growth spurt out-paced the entire country's, and helped brace our housing market. In contrast, the U.S. grew only 9.7 percent over the last decade, to a total population of 281,421,906.


Looking closely at which parts of Texas gained growth echoes what demographers have been telling us about American's home-buying habits. Rural areas west and east got smaller - few want to live alone like the Unabomber in the boonies of far west Texas, apparently.

Former state demographer Karl Eschbach said the trend is clear: west Texas folks are moving
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east to the bigger cities, they are moving because of jobs, and the state's cowboy image is becoming more of an icon of the past rather than a reality. The new reality is more like Hank Hill: everyone's gone to the suburbs, even the Mayor of Monterrey, Mexico.

Suburban areas won over the most transplants, gained more Hispanics and lost Anglos, and I was not at all surprised to see Fort Worth, Texas emerge as the biggest gainer. Fort Worth grew by a whopping 38.6 percent, the largest increase in the state, followed by Laredo's 33 percent, Austin at 20.4 percent, and San Antonio at 16 percent. Dallas, my home, grew by a scant 0.8 percent, hardly even worth reporting. Houston remains the state's largest metropolitan area but sustained growth of only 7.5 percent, though Harris County - those suburbs, again -- grew by 20 percent. Hispanics now comprise 41 percent of the Harris County population. But the counties that really grew like summer grass after five straight days of rain were the once rural towns just outside the big cities, one-shop stop farmer's crossings or granaries.

Curtis Tally shakes his head at how fast little Justin, north of Fort Worth, has grown. New home subdivisions sprouted up on what was once farmland around his Justin Feed Co. in southern Denton County, from 1891 residents in 2000, Justin has 3,246 today. That's a 72% increase in growth!

"We were selling seed for pastures; now we're selling seeds for lawns," Tally, 74, who has been in business in Justin since 1958, told the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

But then take Fate, Texas, a place so small ten years ago if you missed the sign on Interstate 30 twenty-five minutes east of Dallas, you missed Fate. There were 500 people and utility bills were cranked out on postcards. Fate is the fastest growing city in the state, swelling from 497 residents in 2000 to 6357 in 2010, an increase of 1,179 percent. Realtors say Fate draws many first time home buyers and young families -- average home prices are $50,000 to $300,000.

"Its the first place we've ever lived where my kids can go ride bikes all day long," resident Tina Nelson told the Dallas Morning News. "I don't have to worry too much about where they are. -- it's like the 1950's: the sun goes down, and everyone's porch light comes on."

The Interstate 35 corridor between Austin and San Antonio filled in with development as the cities merged closer to becoming one big schizophrenic metropolis. The string of counties along the Rio Grande, anchored by Brownsville and McAllen, exploded and this is one part of the state where I've heard housing values have actually risen, most recently due to the drug cartel crime in Mexico.

Dr. Steve Murdoch, director of the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas at Rice University, and also former Director of the Census Bureau, says if this trend continues, projections show that in the next five to ten year there will be more people of Hispanic descent in Texas than non-Hispanic Anglos.

"The rate of natural increase -- through births -- in the non-Hispanic white population isn't even at replacement value," says Murdock.


Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.



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]]>census bureaufast-growing housing marketFate TexasFort WorthHispanic growth in Texashispanic homeownershousing growthhousing marketTexas populationtexas real estateCandy Evans2011-02-24T10:39:00 00:00Mortgage Deduction: The Lobbyists Strike Backhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/23/mortgage-deduction-the-lobbyists-strike-back/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/23/mortgage-deduction-the-lobbyists-strike-back/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/23/mortgage-deduction-the-lobbyists-strike-back/#commentsIn his mission to lower the deficit, President Obama has proposed snipping high-income earners' tax deduction for mortgage interest payments. And yet, here he is, two years into his presidency, a truly scary unemployment rate not budging, and he has yet to meet with representatives of the nation's major home building association, the National Association of Home Builders. Home building, they say, creates jobs and adds taxes. Looks like the home builders and Realtors are going to the bunkers.

"We will oppose any limit," said Jerry Howard, chief executive of the National Association of Home Builders. "This is an attack on the middle class."

The homebuilding industry is concerned that capping the deduction will further erode the housing market, and kill off any life it may have been showing. Home builders have had their

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worst year since 1963; tighter lending guidelines have all but ended spec home building and without the lure of a tax break, home builders say they may as well go build sandboxes. Single-family housing starts are down 63 percent from peak production levels during the boom, and down 80 percent or more in some troubled markets. Capping the deduction will hurt the already flailing industry, say builders.

On Tuesday, Yale economist Robert Shiller confirmed their fears: The government's withdrawal from the GSEs (that's Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and ending support for the home industry could send home prices spiraling even -- gulp -- 25 percent further. The nation as a whole saw a 4.1 percent annual decrease in home prices in the latest Case-Shiller report, which tracks 20 metropolitan cities. The only two cities who didn't look anemic Tuesday were San Diego and Washington, D.C.

"Policy-wise, this administration has done nothing to address the problems inherent with acquisition of construction financing," says Bob Morris, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Greater Dallas.

It's the toughest it's ever been for builders, who in good times have fueled jobs for the economy. What's particularly distressing to Morris and his colleagues is the fact that the White House has yet to meet with leadership of the National Association of Home Builders.

"Two years after the inauguration, and NAHB is still waiting for an invitation to the White House", says Morris.

Here's how NAHB estimates home building's impact upon jobs:
o.3.05 jobs and $89,216 in taxes (from building an average new single family home).
o.1.16 jobs and $33,494 in taxes (from building an average new multifamily rental unit).
o.1.11 jobs and $30,217 in taxes (from $100,000 spent on residential remodeling).


The home interest deduction costs the Treasury Department about $131 billion a year. In December, a presidential debt panel recommended turning the itemized deduction in to a 12 percent nonrefundable tax credit available to everyone. It would also cut the size of eligible mortgages in half to up to $500,000.

Enter the National Association of Realtors, 80 percent of whose members claim they will remain vigilant in opposing any plan that modifies or excludes the deductible of mortgage interest

"A few members have suggested that we give up on the mortgage interest deduction," 2011 NAR president Ron Phipps posted on the NAR blog. "However, a vast majority of NAR members...said in a recent survey they favor retaining the mortgage interest deduction as is and look to NAR to carry that message to Washington."

During these financially challenging times, government incentives must be scrutinized, says Phipps. But let's not allow our critics to use today's crisis to end a policy that has served U.S. citizens well for decades.

And when the Realtors Association speaks, lawmakers listen. The group spent $17.6 million on lobbying in 2010, the 13th highest, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

In all, the real estate and home building industries spent more than $68 million lobbying last year.


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Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.

 

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]]>Case-Shiller Home Price Indexhome builders fighting home mortgage deductionhome buildingmortgage deductionNAHBNARRealtors fighting home mortgage deductionCandy Evans2011-02-23T10:15:00 00:00Townhouses Trump McMansions As New Hot Propertyhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/18/townhouses-trump-mcmansions-as-new-hot-property/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/18/townhouses-trump-mcmansions-as-new-hot-property/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/18/townhouses-trump-mcmansions-as-new-hot-property/#commentsWhen it comes to home size, American homebuyers are finally deciding that less really is more. They are cutting back on options and reducing square footage. More incredibly, they're buying townhouses instead of McMansions.

I about flipped when I got wind of a new development under construction in tony University Park here in Dallas. University Park is home to Southern Methodist University, the Bush Library, and so many McMansions that the National Trust for Historic Preservation included the Park Cities as an endangered community undergoing an accelerated amount of teardowns for years in a row.

The new development that sent me for smelling salts is The Courtyards at Normandy, a townhome community that plans the largest home to be no larger than 3,300 square feet, and most around 2,500.

Every home will be high-quality new construction under a million dollars, in a close-in municipality known for excellent schools and safety. The location is minutes from local Dallas airports and downtown amenities.

And the whole development is surrounded by 6,000-square-foot-plus McMansions.

The median size of homes purchased in the U.S. in 2008 was 1,825 square feet. For first-time buyers, it is 1,580 square feet, according to the National Association of Realtors. The U.S.
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Census Bureau reported the size of new homes fell to 2,135 square feet from 2,300 earlier in the decade.

Kermit Baker, director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, has said that consumers no longer want spaces devoted to single purposes, such as media rooms for watching videos and game rooms for shooting pool. Even people who have media rooms apparently don't like them: In a community of 4,500 square foot homes homes loaded with media rooms, Gold Class Theaters took Allen, Texas by storm when it opened last May. The theater offers orange ultra suede seats, plush blankets and pillows on a posturepedic-perfect reclining chaise. Interiors resemble a G-5, and $80 bottles of wine are served with first run films with a personal attendant at your beck/call.

The point: Why build these rooms when you'd rather go out anyhow? Requests are also in for rooms with shared uses. Studies that can double as guest rooms -- no more formal living and dining rooms. After all, everyone always ends up in the kitchen and family room, right?

The trend seems to be picking up. Cleveland Real Estate agent Scott Phillips says a McMansion was a "trophy -- a house with five or six bedrooms and that media room when you only needed two". A majority of the homes Phillips sells these days are less than 1,700 square feet.

This could be happening for several reasons: People are becoming more green. or environmentally conscious. Or they want to live within their means now that energy and other costs, like taxes, are going up.

Phillips also says Ohio buyers want to move closer to a city's core urban area, even whole families. Rural areas are just shrinking, especially in West Texas. A growing number of Texas counties now have fewer than 1,000 people, leaving vast stretches empty.
For one Cleveland homebuyer, a three-story townhome has everything she could need: energy efficiency, new appliances, a view of Lake Erie, and an 8-minute commute to work.

Like The Courtyard at Normandy, ten years ago, this neighborhood did not exist, and the homes would have been over shadowed by the McMansions all around. But Realtors say we can expect to see many more townhome and multifamily developments cropping up instead of McMansions.

"The Courtyards is a lock and go kind of place, " says Dallas Realtor Jonathan Rosen with Briggs Freeman/Sotheby's. "It's perfect for the single mother or empty nester, or anyone who wants to live near the amenities but just doesn't want to be burdened by all that extra space."



Candy Evans is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and social media consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com. Send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.


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]]>Americans downsizingAverage size us homeAverage size us new homedallas real estatemcmansionsnot so big housessmaller homessquare footagetownhousestrumpCandy Evans2011-02-18T12:59:00 00:00Energy Efficient New Homes Get a Marketing Boosthttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/17/energy-efficient-new-homes-get-a-marketing-boost/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/17/energy-efficient-new-homes-get-a-marketing-boost/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/17/energy-efficient-new-homes-get-a-marketing-boost/#commentsIf buyers could see from the start how energy efficient new homes save major dollars on energy costs, would they be more likely to open their wallets wider for a new home over old? In a market heavy with competition from distressed properties, Los Angeles-based builder KB Home and other new-home companies are betting they will -- and slapping stickers on their new homes with the relevant numbers to prove it.

Taking a cue from automobile manufacturers, KB Home is now giving consumers the complete energy lowdown before they buy, so the new home sticker shock isn't quite so shocking. The company provides prospective homebuyers with an upfront estimate of what their monthly gas and electric bills would be living in a brand- new, energy-efficient KB Home.

The label also shows buyers where the home ranks on an energy efficiency scale, much like appliances.

Houston-based McGuyer Homebuilders Inc., is also in on the act: McGuyer provides customers with estimates of what the annual heating and cooling portion of their utility bills will be on homes in the company's four Texas markets, where summers can run up huge electric bills.

Even better, if buyers end up paying more in utilities than what the sticker says, McGuyer
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promises to reimburse them for the difference in the first two years of homeownership.

This unusual strategy comes as home builders face fierce competition from existing homes, which are selling at huge discounts now in many areas. New home sales in the U.S. sank last year to the lowest level since at least 1963. New homes are often loaded with more energy-efficient features, such as thermal windows and better insulation, which can make them pricier than older homes. Given the choice, builders think buyers will choose the bargain-priced, pre-owned properties to pinch pennies, but claim they will end up spending more on utilities.

"It's the biggest purchase decision that people are making at that time in their lives, and typically they have no idea what it's going to cost to truly own the thing until they've been there for several months," said Jeffrey Mezger, KB Home's president and CEO. "It's a cost of home ownership that hasn't been out there."

Energy costs are not considered in PITI affordability determinations,

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that is, how much housing expense a family can afford. Mortgagors look at principle, interest, taxes and insurance.
And the vice president of residential market development at the U.S. Green Building Council, Nate Kredich, says builders have been adept at showing off bells and whistles within a home, but not showing buyers how it all translates to lower utility bills. This new approach could make energy efficient homes more popular, just as it did with fuel-efficient cars and hybrids.

KB's Energy Performance Guide utilizes the Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Index, which is regarded as an industry standard for calculating energy efficiency, to determine a home's ranking. The lower the score - which also is displayed on the label - the lower its projected energy costs, and the more a homeowner will save living in the home.

For example, the average newly constructed home will garner a score of 100 on the index, while Energy Star qualified homes rank at about 85. In comparison, pre-owned older homes typically fare around 130 on the scale.

Now what does that mean to consumers in dollars and cents? The difference between a score of 80 and 130 could amount to a doubling of the energy bill, KB's Mezger says. And as fuel and energy costs continue to rise, that difference will be more significant.

A Department of Energy program has been issuing certificates to builders whose homes achieve a HERS score of 70 or less. Like KB's, it features the home's HERS score and an estimated average monthly energy bill. The program has issued certificates on 5,500 homes.

Of course, the rankings and energy bills vary, depending on home size and location. A 2,167-square-foot KB house in Jacksonville, Fla., received a HERS score of 74 and an estimated monthly energy bill of $100; a 1,550-square-foot home in Las Vegas ranked 66 on the HERS index, estimated $89 a month in energy costs.

Of course, just as with autos, a lot depends on the user's conservation efforts, which puts limits on how far these builders will go. KB Homes won't guarantee specific level of gas and electric utility costs;the McGuyer Home builders energy guarantee wisely has its limits.

"If somebody puts 50 tanning beds in their home," says Ken Gezella, regional sales manager for the home builder's Dallas and Fort Worth markets, "that's not what the energy guarantee is for."

Real estate reporter & blogger Candy Evans is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com. Send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.

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Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.

 

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]]>energy efficient homesenergy efficient new homesenergy saving homesfuel efficient carsgreen home buildingKB HomeMcGuyer Homebuildersnew constructionnew home salesPITI calculatorsCandy Evans2011-02-17T11:15:00 00:00Housing Crisis Hits Previously Healthy Citieshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/15/housing-crisis-hits-previously-immune-cities/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/15/housing-crisis-hits-previously-immune-cities/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/02/15/housing-crisis-hits-previously-immune-cities/#commentsMaybe we are just getting immune to the housing crisis; to the news that homes are underwater in Phoenix and Florida; that all the "sand states" are in real estate hell; and that it costs less to buy than rent in Las Vegas, where 51 percent of the buyers are coming in with cash.

But here's a shocker: Seattle, Chicago and Atlanta are not doing so hot, either. Wait, Seattle? That's the home of on-line real estate giant Zillow and four Fortune 500 companies: clothing merchant Nordstrom, Internet retailer Amazon.com, coffee chain Starbucks and logistics company Expeditors International of Washington plus a host of thriving online and biotech companies. In nearby and uber affluent Redmond, we find Microsoft and Concur, Visible.net, and Data I/O Corporation. Why would these areas be experiencing a decline in real estate values?

As Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow, told the New York Times, he is quite perplexed. "When I go out and talk to people around town, they say, 'Wow, I thought we were going to have a 12 percent correction and call it a day,' " says Humphries. "But this thing just keeps on going."

Humphries's figures have chiseled Seattle real estate down a whopping 31 percent from the mid-2007 peak -- height of the bubble -- and he says the market still has as much as 10 percent to fall.

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As for the rest of the country, Humphries estimates we all have 5 to 7 percent more to go down before stabilizing, as soon as the hangover from last year's first time homebuyer's tax credit wears off.

"We went into 2010 feeling gangbusters, thanks to Uncle Sam," Mr. Humphries told the New York Times. "We ended it feeling penniless, with home values tanking."

Now look at Atlanta: Atlanta didn't have much of a boom, yet home prices there are down almost 8 percent over last year. Chicago home values are down 7.6 percent, one of the worst markets in the country. In fact, of the 20 cities covered by Case Shiller, only five are in positive growth territory when compared to a year ago: Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Even my bubble-free Dallas looks to have a 4 percent drop in home values, though Case Shiller reported in January that our home values were up 1.4 percent November 2009 to November 2010.

Honestly, this is like watching water boil.

David Brown of Metrostudy's Dallas housing office sure was not kidding when he said we could expect to see mixed signals in the housing market almost month-to-month, because demand will not measurably strengthen until job growth reemerges.

Experts, some of whom have said we may be in for the dreaded double dip, are perplexed that though the overall economy seems to be mending, housing remains stubbornly weak. Huge headache for the Obama administration, which brought us the first time homebuyer credit at the beginning of last year. The credit spurred some sales, particularly in entry-level homes, but critics now say it distorted the market. The administration now advocates scaling back the home mortgage deduction and dismantling of the GSEs, which could result in even fewer home sales.

We've got low interest rates, but mortgage applications are at a 15 year low. CoreLogic, a data firm, said last week that American home prices fell 5.46 percent in 2010. Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Idaho (-10.41 percent), Alabama (-8.72 percent), Arizona (-7.09 percent), Oregon (-6.30 percent) and Washington (-5.75 percent).

Redfin is an on-line real estate brokerage firm based in, ironically, Seattle. The company says "foot traffic" picked up in the last several weeks. And while still low, mortgage rates are rising, which could nudge buyers. I asked Plano, Texas ReMax agent Gina Branch what in the world it will take to get buyers back in?

"Financing is a big part of it, but there's still a lot of job insecurity out there," says Gina. "Buyers are afraid to take the leap not knowing how stable their jobs are. We've got to get people back to work to improve confidence in the market and get buyers off the fence."

If interest rates nudge up, she, too, thinks the fence-sitters will jump in.

But then there's the case of the "accidental landlords", that is, sellers who couldn't sell their homes so they put them up for lease. Whenever the market finally does come back, all those accidental landlords will unload, straining the market with more inventory plus the never-ending string of foreclosures.

"So many sellers are waiting in the shadows," said Redfin's chief executive, Glenn Kelman. "The inventory is going to expand and expand and expand. I don't see any basis for significant price increases."

Before you crack out the Prozac, listen to Fiserv, the company that produces the Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes. After analyzing prices in 375 communities, Fiserv calculates three-quarters of them will be stable by December IF there are no downside surprises for the economy.

"We're at a period near the bottom but with more volatility than we normally see at this point," said David Stiff, Fiserv's chief economist. "This sort of double dip is unprecedented for housing."

You can say that again.


Candy Evans is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com. Send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.


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