Articles for February, 2008
Shariff-Munir Lands Plumb Building Project
They are building a new home for Darryl and Diane Johnston on Woodfin.
Perfect House Porn For a Stock-Slumping Day
Check it out and dream about the good ole days when the Dow topped 14,000…
Could Bad Press Be Hurting Our Market?
Many Real Estate experts think yes. Real Estate is a local story — and all these gyrations both local and national get people anxious and backing off from buying. I mean, look at stock market news — who among us doesn’t feel a little anxious report after report about everything sliding downward? Then you eye those $940 pants at Barneys like I did last night and think, um, maybe not a good time to purchase. But a journalists’ job is to report the news, the facts, quickly and succinctly. Accurate is always nice. The facts are there are a lot of local foreclosures, California Real Estate is in a mud slide and Florida is way overbuilt. How to balance? Maybe by doing exactly what a group of high-profile real estate developers, home-builders and other LOCAL Real Estate super stars did this week.
Movin’ On Up
To Uptown, that is. This morning David and Britt Fair told us about the continued influx of people moving inside the Loop from the far northern reaches of Dallas (Collin County, Frisco) into downtown and Uptown. This makes total sense: not only is gas $3.00 a gallon, but the time on the road takes it’s toll (no pun intended) and wreaks havoc with accidents, discomforts, consumption. Oil is responsible for any inflationary trends, they said…. what we really need to do is buy a country that has lots of oil. Oh wait. We’re sort of doing that.
Market Up, Down, Flat, Confusing?
I waited to respond to Debbie Downer’s Steve Brown’s piece this morning — which I thought was pretty balanced — until after sitting in on David and Britt Fair’s morning presentation at Keller Williams’ North Dallas office. Lots said, here’s the recap:
1. Fed meets again 3/18 — expect another rate cut.
2. The current mortgage lending environment is, in a word, sucky especially if you seek a jumbo loan — anything more than $417,000. Jumbos are about 1 point higher than conventional loans currently. Oh and as for that “stimulation” from the Feds, ain’t gonna help us as the increase in jumbos is based on a tricky percentage of the average home prices in each area. (See, even the Feds know that Real Estate is a local story. ) Our average home price at about $200,000 will keep our jumbos at $417,000. Who’s gonna benefit from the Fed’s stretching jumbo money? Riverside, CA which, according to The PMI Group, has a 94% chance of price decline.
3. But hang in there — jumbos may improve, saves Britt. I mean, why are lenders jittery over lending big bucks to worthy credit risks who have high equity in their homes and are not about to flee to Mexico? If anything, this should be a ripe market. Basically, those Wall Street shenanigans (few are buying up the jumbos) are the culprits but that may change once some investment sharpie figures it all out, more lenders enter the market, get a little competition going, yadayada.
4. Local and national media continues to blabber about the housing crisis, causing more panic and concern. Gotta get those headlines.
5. “Some reporters” compare apples to oranges in their figuring, then tell us that home sales are down 16 percent in Jan. 2008 compared to Jan. 2007. In reality, because those Jan. 2008 figures are preliminary and not complete, that is not a true picture. Sales are still down, but by 8% for the whole area from one of the busiest years in Dallas history.
6. The market really should be divided into three categories: entry level (which is down, this the place where sub-prime hit hardest), mid-level, which is up, and luxury, which is a rocket ship.
7. Comparing December ‘06 data to December ‘07, sales prices of homes priced $250,000 to $299,999 are down by 6%. But homes priced $300,000 to $399,000 are up by 2%. Homes of $1,000,000 and more are up a whopping 16%. This is all based on NTREIS data.
8. Lot sales are out of sight. Case in point: this 1.5 acre property down the street from me — several Realtors told me it would sit. Came home Monday night to see “closed ” plastered all over Jeannie’s Briggs-Freeman sign.
9. We have strong job creation, corporate relocations and the Barnett Shale.
10. DFW population has moved up to become the fourth largest metropolitan area in the U.S., under New York, L.A. and Chicago and edging out Philly.
House On Lexington
Peggy has some strong words for a property on Lexington….read the comments. Hilarious!
Crime Update
This crime report in the areas south of Lakewood comes just as those neighborhoods are getting hot. Of course, maybe this is how you have to take things into your own hands to protect property values.
More Walls In Front Of Houses
I like the rock on the left, but then the horizontal stones may lend a more contemporary look. What do you like?
Real Estate Addendum To Hunt Story In D Magazine
Absolutlely fabulous story in the new issue of D Magazine — Hunt vs. Hunt. I got kind of nosy while reading and started wondering where these characters live — that’s my sickness, I just have to know about the house(s). Did some snooping on DCAD and here’s what I found:
PS: Check out my video of 4412 Lakeside, right down the street, on the market for just under $15 million…
When Bush and Cheney (Are In Town) Live Here
Is this how it’s gonna be, 24/7? Last week I asked Martha Tiller to gauge the security entourage for the future president’s family. Double that if Cheney moves here, too.
Hillwood Says It Will Seek Financing For The Mandarin O HOTEL
But no mention of the word ‘condo’:
“At its Victory Park development in Dallas’ Uptown area, Hillwood financed the building of the Mandarin Oriental hotel’s parking garage with its own equity, but Hillwood plans to secure a construction loan for the hotel.” Confirms what a lot of the big condo developers have told me: banks are tightening up on credit for these large condo projects. Which means, we may be seeing fewer and fewer.
It’s Movie Time on Lakeside Drive
This is almost better than the Oscars: a $15 million Ellen Terry listing on Lakeside Drive. Graceful circa 1918 home completedly gutted with a limitless budget and incredible design. The home is perfect in every way, not a hair out of place. (Makes it kind of hard to believe that a real family lives there.) Consider this your personal party invitation inside…
Stroll Through Highland Park Village
On Saturday. Go visit my colleague Peggy Levinson at Ralph Lauren, check out all the stores, then spend my favorite past-time: drive the streets of Highland Park picking out your favorite homes.
Ebby Highland Park Office To Become Dave Perry-Miller’s Newest Digs
See this sign on Preston Rd. at Mockingbird Lane? You won’t be seeing it for long. This is going to be a Dave Perry-Miller & Associates office within Highland Park and a prime headquarters for his continued expansion into UP/HP. As you know, Dave took on a handful of agents after Ebby bought out Lynda Adleta (Adleta Fine Properties) — Jennifer Miller, for one. Of course he’ll keep his Preston Center office (which used to be Lynda’s). I just think of this as his landing pad after lunch at Cafe Pacific!
RE: Speedbumps
Appraiser Brad Edgar and I talked speed bumps last night at an Ellen Terry listing on Beverly that is so gorgeous, so incredibly well-built, I am seriously thinking of becoming a House Manager just so I can love live there. (House Manager comes with the House!) He said that in some neighborhoods, residents have actually jack-hammered out speed bumps. But if you decide to get them, be sure to install them on the property line so they will be out of the line of vision from the house. Who wants to look out their front window and see a big old cement BUMP.
RE: One-Walled Structures
Silly guys, those are mock-ups and not only do you build them to gauge light angles, you must see how the slate on your new roof flows with the Granbury, Austin or Rock rock. (See corner Versailles and Preston.) Pure design function. You don’t keep them up after the house is built. Mother (in-law) gets the 5th bedroom suite behind the kitchen and it darn well better have a jacuzzi and widescreen TV.
A Question for Home Builders and/or People Who Like One-Walled Structures in Their Frontyard
Tim and I stoked each other’s curiosity as we drove by this house being built at the corner of Armstrong and Bryan. What’s up with the mini-house out front? It’s not even a mini-house, but barely more than a wall of a mini-house. I noticed that the wall’s progress reflects that of the larger project: When the house was just a wood frame, the wall was a wood frame. House gets a roof; wall gets a roof. Sheetrock; sheetrock.
Tim thought it might be a city-mandated structure. Something something about codes. I pointed out that other home projects did not have them. He now thinks it’s a really small mother-in-law suite. (LOL, right?)
Me? I think it’s a home-builder flourish—a way for passersby (and future owners) to see the level of completion. But certainly someone out there knows the answer(s). I posted this over on FrontBurner, too, to see if anyone over there knows.
Speedbumps? Good vs Bad
One of our readers has asked about speed bumps. Apparently, he lives in a community embroiled in a dispute over to “speed-bump” their road or not. He wanted to know if speed-bumps have any effect on property values. I know their effect on husbands: mine has a tizzy-fit every time I turn onto Northaven, even though we both have SUV’s. We used to live on Park Lane and I wanted speed-bumps: I worried that one of our dogs would venture out onto the street while the crazies were racing to circumvent the traffic on Preston. Now we live on a much quieter street but people still race — swear carpooling Mothers in SUVs are worse than Scud missiles. (Once I was one.) So I called an appraiser to get the skinny on speed bumps: (more…)
Dallas Is Number 2 In Job Growth
Which is great and fabulous, helps our Real Estate market, and I’m a huge cheerleader when it comes to our market. OUR MARKET, that is, Preston Hollow, Park Cities, Lakewood, Kessler, anything inside the Loop. Yesterday I spoke with an Arlington Realtor who has 5 foreclosures on her hands — all in Arlington, which has been hard hit; Not one of the bank/owners are working with the homeowners to keep them in the house, she said. (Not to say they should, there’s just been talk of that from someone in D.C.) Then today the New York Times wrote about Lavon, Texas, as an example of how W’s home state is bearing its share of the downturn in this outskirt town… and my my, bet J. Michael Jones, Lavon’s city marshal and chief administrator, is having fun pinning that NYT clip to his bulletin board. I’ll bet James P. Gaines, my fave research economist at Texas A&M’s Real Estate Center and also quoted, wondered “what the heck” when he saw a 212 area code call coming in. Speaking of area codes, I know 214 is living in somewhat of a bubble because our home prices are even heading higher, as the article acknowledges. And yes, we know the story way north of LBJ is not the same one being told close-in. This story proves once again that Real Estate trends cannot be lumped together in a big ole’ cow-pattie heap. Do that, and you get something else.
Serious House Porn: Get It While The Getting’s Good
Because I hear there is an offer sitting on the table for this fabulous estate/mansion/spread that is really one of the most beautiful homes in Dallas. Not saying the offer is the asking price, however, but… you gotta wonder who can afford that size of a jumbo!
Activity At The Mandarin
Folks were working at the Mandarin Oriental last week when I snapped this photo, but got an email today from a reader who says work seems to have ceased over there. (What do I know? I was in Lew Sterrett all day long!) Says my source:
“Do you know what is going on with the Mandarin building in Victory Park? If you drive by, you will see that they have stopped construction upwards and have actually put up outside lighting posts on the structure.”
Could that be the parking garage we are looking at? Anyone know or hear anything? I was told that IS the parking garage under construction and the hotel/condo itself will be in the space just west of this construction site. But there are a million stories in the Naked City and I’d like to get the real one.
Just Sprung From Sterrett
Not picked for jury duty, and good thing: I came back to the office to hear there are many houses for sale all in a row on Armstrong. What’s the deal? Could it have anything to do with the recent spate of crime?
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