A few months back, I asked Joe Guinto (a former national affairs correspondent for Investor’s Business Daily) to do some research on our local residential real estate market, with an eye toward writing a feature in the September issue of D Magazine. After making some calls, Joe reported back: “This is the weirdest real estate market ever.” I told him, “Thanks, Joe. You just wrote my headline for me.”

It’s true, though. With interest rates at historic lows and with people scrambling to find houses that better accommodate working from home and prolonged isolation, the market has been, um, active to say the least. Joe’s story went online today. Along with it, we took a look at neighborhoods where prices have gone up and where they’ve taken a dive. Plus we tracked down some listings that might surprise you on both ends of the affordability scale.

Here’s hoping you’ve got the perfect deck to enjoy this fall weather and have already ordered some firewood for the cooler months ahead.

North Texas nonprofits have had a year like no other. The pandemic increased need and demand to unprecedented levels. It decimated the volunteer force and disrupted in-person fundraising efforts that so many rely on. The call for help was so urgent that North Texas Giving Day, which normally holds its center-stage charity event in September, collaborated with United Way Metropolitan Dallas and the Dallas Cowboys to create an emergency day of donations on May 5.

But today is the main event, the annual region-wide fundraiser that last year generated a record $50 million for about 3,000 nonprofits. Organizers have the ambitious goal of topping that number again, despite the unique nature of this year’s edition.

North Texas Giving Day is an 18-hour online donation initiative that marshals a large network of nonprofits and connects them to individual donors. The effort is led by Communities Foundation of Texas and seeks to engage communities in causes that are relevant to them, from grassroots movements to larger operations like the Salvation Army. (Full disclosure, D editor Tim Rogers’ wife, Christine, handles its PR.)

This year, of course, North Texas Giving Day looks a little different. About 24 percent of participating nonprofits are new to the event. That’s 787 additional organizations. There are new search filters, which allow donors to locate nonprofits led by Black, Latinx, indigenous, or people of color, a response to the social justice reforms called for in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.

The online portal is nothing new, but the marketing approach has always involved in-person events. This year, in light of social distancing measures, that can’t happen. So the organization got creative.

In a move that should have happened years ago, the American Airlines Center will be a voting supercenter both for early voting (Oct. 13–30) and Election Day (Nov. 3).  Some dates you should be aware of:

• Deadline for registering by mail to vote is (postmarked by) Monday, Oct. 5
• Deadline to register in person to vote is Monday, Oct. 5
• The deadline to request a ballot by mail is (received by) Friday, Oct. 23

OK, I know the comments are going to be full of our usual band of dubious brothers talking about voter fraud. 1) ignore that 2) VOTE

Hey Dallas! Your Dallas Stars are in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Let that sink in for a minute. It hasn’t really sunk in for me yet. I blame it on the bubble, the weird out-of-sync timing of this year’s NHL playoffs, the lack of home games, rowdy fans, crowded bars, and all the usual trappings that mark a sports team’s journey all the way through to the season’s final showdown.

Our internal seasonal sports clocks are set to expect nothing but Cowboys chatter this time of year. Instead, the Stars clinched their spot in the Stanley Cup Final nearly a year to the day after they arrived at training camp in 2019 to begin preparing for what turned out to be an epic and bizarre 2019-2020 season.

This year is different; we all know that all too well by now. But let’s not allow that to make us lose sight of what the Stars have managed to pull off—and what they hope to bring to fruition with four more wins. It has been two decades since Dallas competed for the Stanley Cup. The last time was on the ice at Reunion Arena, which today is an empty field in a forgotten corner of downtown. Now they will try once again, only in Edmonton, Alberta. And the journey to get there has been nothing short of extraordinary.

In many ways, what the Stars have already accomplished outpaces the achievements of most sports teams in this city’s history. Don’t believe me? Have you missed it? Has the Stars’ sudden surge towards glory blindsided you? Then, let’s walk through some of the top storylines of the Stars’ incredible ride.

Hurricane Laura Evacuees Head to Dallas. Around 5,000 evacuees from the Texas coast are expected to arrive today, and the plan is for 2,000 or so to be housed at the state’s expense in three downtown Dallas hotels: the Hilton Anatole Hotel, Crowne Plaza, and Hyatt Regency. Rocky Vaz, director of Dallas’ Office of Emergency Management, says he had hoped to have more time to make arrangements and to better stagger check-ins, but he says they are “dealing with it.” The state is covering the cost of three meals per day for the evacuees, but the city will be providing snacks, diapers, counseling services at Parkland, and other necessities for what is estimated to be a two-week stay. Welcome, y’all.

Don’t Reach Blindly Into Your Trash Can. There May Be a Rabid Bat. My wife was bit by a rabid bat while we lived in Ohio when she reached into our bathroom trashcan to empty it. She then ran screaming down three flights of stairs (we lived in an old Victorian with a converted attic) and straight out the front door. We both had to get shots, which was surprisingly difficult to do because all of the rabies vaccines in town had just been used up by The Ohio State University veterinary school after the students had managed to dissect a rabid horse. (The shots don’t hurt as bad as you might’ve heard, but there are a lot of them.) I am sharing all of this as a public service announcement because a rabid bat was found dead in Plano near West 15th Street and Custer Road. If you find a bat near the ground, it is not a good thing. Don’t touch it.

There Is Too Much Tragic News About Children. Sex trafficking is real, and you don’t need to waste your time on idiotic conspiracy theories to find and stop it. Just pay attention to what’s in front of you. If you see a young boy without pants taken into a hotel room by three random grown men, for goodness sake call the police. And if anyone you know is getting overly frustrated with the children in their care, please, please, please reach out for help before it is too late. Call the Texas child abuse hotline at 1-800-252-5400.

Dallas County Reports Six New COVID-19 Deaths and 311 New Cases. That brings the total death toll for the eight-county region to 2,000. Dallas County is also reporting that 15 percent of all new September cases have been in young adults 18 to 22 years old, the highest percentage for that age group since the beginning of the pandemic. The hardest hit zip codes continue to be 75211 and 75217.

Looking to buy or sell in the pandemic? Here are the new North Texas rules.