Filed under: Julie C. Nichols Texas Mortgage 1-888-66-JULIE (58543) Guardian Mortgage Company Inc.

D-FW: 'Tested and proven'

Dfw

There are many ways to illustrate a region’s success in attracting and retaining corporate citizens.

For Dallas-Fort Worth, the best way to paint that picture is through the onslaught of recent accolades: best cities to live and do business in, best region for new college grads, fourth-largest metro and a leading job creator in the country.

Read More: http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/print-edition/2011/10/28/d-fw-tested-and-proven.html?page=all

Texas home-sales volume increases as prices hold steady in third quarter

Texas homes continued to hold their value as sales jumped up in the third quarter of 2011.

For the period of July through September 2011, the volume of single-family home sales in Texas was 58,019, nearly 18% more than the same quarter in 2010. Real estate prices remained flat in the third quarter with the median price statically unchanged from Q3-2010 at $151,800 and the average price down less than one percent to $197,833, according to the latest Texas Quarterly Housing Report issued by the Texas Association of REALTORS®.

Read More: http://www.texasrealestate.com/web/2/25/

Audit finds that dead people were among beneficiaries of homebuyer tax credit

Shame_on_you

Remember the federal tax credit programs offering $7,500 and, later, $8,000 to first-time home buyers? The credits were designed to deliver a jolt to the reeling housing industry. And they did: More than 4 million people applied for and have received nearly $30 billion worth of credits.

Most of them, according to the Internal Revenue Service, went to people who legitimately qualified for the credits. But a series of audits has documented foul-ups by the IRS, ranging from credits granted to prison inmates and dead people, fraud schemes involving claimants who never bought a house and even credits for purported home purchases by teenagers and kids as young as 3 years old.

Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/audit-finds-that-dead-people-were-among-beneficiaries-of-homebuyer-tax-credit/2011/10/31/gIQAF9BFmM_story.html

 

Freddie could take more than a decade to unload REO inventory

Freddie_mac

Freddie Mac vendors sold fewer REO properties in the third quarter than they did earlier in the year as nonperforming loans continue to climb.

More than 25,300 repossessed homes held by Freddie Mac sold in the third quarter, down 13.5% from the nearly 30,000 in the previous three months. It was also a 17% decline from the record-setting 31,600 sold in the first quarter.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/3dukdc4

New Texas Homestead laws effective 9/1/2011

House-money
Effective Sept 1 2011, Changes in "Texas Homestead Exemption," Law

Effective September 1, 2011, the State is now asking for you to submit a copy of your driver’s license and vehicle registration with your form. Both the DL & registration address MUST MATCH the physical address of the property you are claiming as your homesteaded property.

Visit your county's central appraisal district website for specific details.

http://appraisaldistrict.net/county.asp