For all you daily devourers of Candy’s news and views about Dallas real estate, we hope that the Rangers’ big win on Friday helped you overcome the sorrow you felt upon hearing the news that our real estate reporter has left the D family. We’ve given a great deal of thought to how we can [...]
If the real estate market has universal lessons for us, it is that change is inevitable. My passion for the subject and the industry and everyone in it has led me to pursue full-time my work nationally with AOL at HousingWatch.com and, very soon with Move.com. And I am leaving to edit my very own [...]
A young friend of mine named John J. Stathas is a law student over at Texas Wesleyan Law School in Fort Worth who has been telling me for awhile why he loves Cowtown. I mean, Fort Worth. So I asked him to write it down and tell me why: Slowing sipping on an ice cold [...]
This hot, dry summer probably did in a lot of foundations, so this question doesn’t surprise me – Dear Candy: We moved into a pier and beam house last year. At the time, we knew it had some small foundation issues thanks to the inspection — a couple rotted sill plates, and a broken beam. [...]
Well, except for the teenage heroin deaths, but that was a whole generation ago. Forbes selected the safest cities in America and our Plano, Texas tops the list! “There are still plenty of U.S. cities where the living is easy. Take Plano, Texas–residents of this wealthy Dallas suburb enjoy the lowest violent crime rate of [...]
Oh Kevin, Danielle: where are you going? Is 2000 Rock Dove Court just too close to mom and dad and the bros over on Wisteria? (We hope not!) Late Saturday night, K2 as he is known, the eldest and only married Jonas brother and his wife, Danielle, put their 5045 square foot Vaquero home on [...]
Let me see if I get this: all that genius securitization of mortgages had one bank selling notes to another. Over and over again. This entity called MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration System) was created — JP Morgan is a part-owner — to smooth over the process. But the legal world from D.C. to Utah to [...]
I love real estate. Even more, I love questions about real estate. So when you send me your questions for “Ask Candy”, I tell you the answer (if I know it) or find an expert somewhere in the Naked City who knows more than I do, and can answer it. Like, who knew that homes [...]
She doesn’t work Sundays, Mondays or any evenings. You pre-pay for her assistant when you list with her. And her website hasn’t worked in four months. Though she’s in Cali, I have heard this story in very sunny Dallas, too. Would you fire this agent if she was “selling ” your home? Dear Candy: I [...]
So last week I took Ben Fountain to task for telling the world through the New York Times about the effect of our “Z” sales. He implied they falsely elevate prices by keeping the lower prices out of the system; I think they hurt the system by damaging the appraisal process and who can trust [...]
Given: People who live in bigger houses pay more in property taxes and people on the east coast of the U.S. pay the highest property taxes as a percentage of home value. The folks in Westchester County, New York, pay the highest median property tax rates in the country. This according to a chart by [...]
Gina Branch, ABR of RE/MAX Dallas Suburbs, offers a response to our Eager seller of the day who hasn’t seen any movement in her $150k home on the market for a week: Dear Eager: This is a great question currently on the minds of many homeowners across the nation. The good news is the national [...]
Here’s the “world is falling apart ” take from an anonymous source in the financial services industry — who knows whether to believe him/her or not. The points have a ring of sense – could the the “robo-signed” foreclosure mess end up worse than Lehman Brothers going on the auction block? Full disclosure: I saw [...]
Under contract. Look back at what I wrote about this house exactly two years ago, when it was listed with Erin Mathews back when she was still with Briggs Freeman. And the price was? $4,9995,000 Now listed with Becky Frey at Briggs Freeman and under contract, last asking $3,850,000. Architectural design by David Stocker of [...]
I love these interactive maps that the Dallas Morning News creates on their website — so cool. Notice who is doing the best in this market? Park Cities, Westlake, Southlake, North Dallas/Preston Hollow, despite the Dallas City Council. Also Coppell, Irving, Oak Lawn. Garland should really stop gassing those poor precious animals in their “shelter” [...]
