It's official, the George W Bush library is coming to the campus of SMU, Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, TX.  There has been much heated debate about this library and what it would stand for.  The campus was split on wanting it and not wanting it.This will be the 13th Presidential Library across the country.  Construction is to start in 2009 and they expect it to take five years to complete.  That sounds like quite a project!SMU is also where the First Lady, Laura Bush, graduated from.  Dallas is also going to be where the Bush family makes their home after his term is up.  There have been rumors on what part of Dallas he'll live in.  He used to live in a very modest home in Prestonwood.  I'm sure he'll be moving his price range up a few hundred thousand dollars from that hom... 02/22/2008

Dallasites, whether from generations back or having just moved here, are familiar with the car dealerships that have the Sewell branding.It's a brand that's been in business for a long time, and appears to be "the country's largest luxury-car dealer."  Through almost two hands full of stores, they sell Lexus, Hummer, Cadillac, Pontiac, Saab, GMC, and I almost forgot Infiniti.When Carl Sewell acquired the business from his dad some years ago, he decided that he would step-up the business plan.  His business would consciously provide such an excellence in customer service that it would "turn that one-time buyer into a lifetime customer."And very dangerously and innovative for the time, that included the total discontinuance of price haggling, the noted but despised foundation of the car b... 02/21/2008

 Jason Kidd was previously with the Dallas Mavericks in 1994 where he played a couple of years before being traded to Phoenix.  It seems like we trade everyone to Phoenix as that's also where Nash went.There are many things involved with this trade, and I could possibly explain it all, but the main thing is that we get Kidd, Malik Allen, and Antoine Wright.  We also gave up a couple of first round draft picks for next year.Jason will be ready for today's 3pm practice and ready to start.Read more details of this trade on Dallasnews.com.     02/19/2008

It has just been announced that Barack Obama will be making a stop in Dallas on Wednesday before his debate with Hillary Clinton on Thursday in Austin.  The place has not been announced.  I guess that's too small of a detail to have that when you make such an announcement, but I'll update this post when I hear.From The Dallas Morning News, " "Sen. Obama is committed to campaigning in communities across Texas and will ask the people of Texas to stand for change with him," Adrian Saenz, the Obama campaign's Texas state director, said in a prepared statement Saturday. "The primary in Texas is March 4.  We're one of the last states to vote.  The state is typically Republican on a whole, so I'll be watching very closely to see if people vote party lines and for issues, or if they vote for ju... 02/16/2008

The latest report is out and it shows DFW has a surge of 27% in foreclosures going up for auction in March.  However, the number 27 doesn't mean too much in an average.  I say that because it takes into consideration Denton County that had a 42% increase.  But, at 42%, there were "only" 464 foreclosures for the entire county.  When you look at the number 464, you think, that's a lot of homes.  It's not really that many homes when you look at the population (2006 estimated population of 584,238) and how 464 is a very small percentage of properties in the area.Then, you have a 20% increase in Collin County (2006 estimated population 698,851).  To get to that 20% increase, it's "only" 495 foreclosures.The Dallas Fort Worth area had over 43,000 foreclosure for 2007.  DFW is ranked 11th acro... 02/16/2008

Dallas-Fort Worth home prices rose 0.5% in 4th quarter But area was a winner compared with national losses Dallas Morning News February 15, 2008 By STEVE BROWN ORLANDO, Fla. – The Dallas-Fort Worth area continued to eke out slight gains in home prices in the fourth quarter, according to the latest nationwide survey More than half of the country's home markets saw price declines in the final months of 2007. Nationwide, prices fell 5.8 percent, the biggest quarterly drop on record, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. But in the D-FW area, median prices for home resales rose 0.5 percent, compared with the fourth quarter of 2006, according to the Realtors' benchmark quarterly report. "Dallas-Fort Worth generally parallels ... 02/16/2008

My husband has recently gotten out of the Military and our family is moving back to the great state of Texas! We are all very excited. I am nervous and stressing out, trying to change everything over in my business. I am moving to Garland and I have a Home Staging Business in Palm Beach Florida. We are moving in March and I would love if anyone had any advice for me, or knew of a Home Stager in the Dallas area I could talk to. THANK YOU!! 02/13/2008

  Here in Texas life is good! Anyone who has watched the news lately would naturally be alarmed over the terrible news concerning Real Estate and the Mortgage industry. Now there are certain parts of the United States where selling a home is tough. There might be a one year supply of homes and the prices have fallen by 10% to 25%. These are markets where the prices raised that much or more in the last few years or the unemployment is way up.   Texas however is different. Some change has occurred; no market is immune to that. Securing a home loan is essentially as it was ten years ago. You must prove you have an income. You must have a worthy credit score. You must have some money in the bank. We do not see a problem with this. It is true the market has shifted towards a buyer's market. ... 02/12/2008

Thanks for stopping by for our weekly Sunday after church meeting here in the park.  It's so nice to see you.I was just thinking about why Sunday trips to the park are so important to me.  They remind  me of when I was a little boy during the War years.  After Sunday school, during the spring, my daddy would bring me here so I could swing, ride the merry-go-around, and go down the slide a zillion times.  And then we'd go to the ice cream factory just about three blocks away, and get a freshly made ice cream sandwich.  We'd sit on the factory's front steps and eat that delight.  It was called Purity Ice Cream and even Texas' famous Blue Bell Ice Cream doesn't match up.My daddy, William Wallace Cherry's, birthday was last week, and if he were still alive, he would be 99-years old, but I s... 02/09/2008

The Dallas Home market has become very competive in the last few months. Inventory in up, and homes have been sitting on the market for longer periods of time. According to preliminary statistics released by the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems and Texas A&M University's Real Estate Center, pre-owned home sales in North Texas fell 16 percent in January compared with a year earlier. While adding to a long run of declines, last month's drop in sales was less than the almost 23 percent decrease in December. At the end of January there were 43,323 pre-owned single-family homes listed for sale - up 1 percent from a year earlier. The latest home market statistics indicate that the slowdown will continue.Top Realtors in the Dallas market have turned to Home Staging to get a competit... 02/09/2008

There is not much real estate left in north Dallas - by that I mean new built homes. Davenport Meadows Dallas is one of the very few left. Davenport Meadows Dallas is a small townhome community located off Davenport on McCallum (Preston/ McCallum - just south of Frankford area). When completed, there will be 42 homes built. Starting in the low $200Ks, Davenport Meadows start with 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath and 2 car front-entry garages. The 3-bedroom units are closer to the mid-$250Ks. They range from 1,800 square feet to as large as almost 2,500 square feet. In January 2008, Davenport Meadows Dallas is almost 1/3 built out with many inventory homes to choose from. The HOA dues are fairly low, at $90/month and it covers hazard/ structural insurance, front lawn maintenance and management fees. ... 02/07/2008

One recent evening I got a call from a woman.  She didn't identify herself, but her question was where she could go to find out what houses were going to be foreclosed.  I asked her if she thought hers was going to be one of them.<<--BILL CHERRY REALTORS, WORLD HEADQUARTERS"No, sir," she said, "I want to go buy a couple of them, fix them up and sell them."  She went on to tell me that she had seen a program on TV about how easy it is to do that and get rich, and had bought the fellow's books and DVDs.I asked her if she had read the material and listened to and watched the DVDs.  "Sure have," she said.I said, "After all of that instruction you didn't learn how the foreclosure process works and where to find out what will be auctioned and when?""No, sir.""And did the instructor tell you t... 02/05/2008

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS9936 WindlakeDallas, Texas 75238214 503-8563AUGUST 1, 2007 THROUGH JANUARY 31, 2008 ACTUAL SALES REPORTED TO MLS  LAKE HIGHLANDS ZIP CODE  Square FeetBedroomsFull BathsHalf BathsList PriceSale PricePrice per Square FootDays on MarketMin1100210$112,000$78,000$591Avg2015320$216,811$210,803$10453Max4702742$499,000$499,000$170259Sales that were not handled by a member firm of the Metroplex Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service are not included in these statistics.  While I believe this report to be accurate, it was nevertheless prepared from that source which I did not audit or otherwise verify. 02/05/2008

For as long as I've been in business, many of my clients have never gone to a title company office to close their half of the transaction.  I handle the closing for the title company in my private office, in the client's home, and frequently at their own office desk.Frankly there are very few of us who do this.  Licensing requirements have not focused on abstract and title issues in many years.  In some states, they never have.  Things were different in Texas in the '60s.Back when I was first studying real estate in the University of North Texas Business School in the early 1960s, the university's requirements were voluminous and stringent.  After all, those of us in the classes were getting college credit for them.On top of that, if the school certified to the state that the student ha... 02/01/2008

To those of you who have been planning to buy your first home, and to those of you who long to sell your old one and move to a new one, I want you to consider fulfilling your dream today.  Right now!You may be assured that the sub-prime loan diabolical, the rising foreclosures, the worry about a possible recession, the rising prices of gasoline, and any other negative that is spewing from the mouths of news people, politicians and your friends in the neighborhood, at work and at church, are in reality nothing more than modest glitches to the housing values.The overwhelming chances are that things are no different for you now than they were two years ago or will be two years from now.What gives me such a pedigree to be able to confidently make these statements?  I've been in the real est... 01/31/2008

  Another builder is in over their heads!!  Newmark's parent company in Houston, Tousa, filed Chapter 11 with "plans to fix its balance sheet."Newmark isn't a large builder in Dallas, but they're definitely one of the larger medium builders and have 27 communities throughout Dallas and Ft Worth.  When Newmark combines with one of their sister companies, they are ranked number 10 among closings in the last Chronicle 100 survey.They had already reduced their staff down from 3200 to less than 1400... I wonder how many communities are not manned with onsite sales reps anymore.  It's such a pain to have to call ahead and check to see if someone can meet you at the community instead of showing up between 10am-6pm and having someone there.The company continues to accept new contracts and expec... 01/30/2008

01/30/2008

Even though our market is suffering, we can still use what we have to our advantage... I have been getting numerous calls from investors and buyers who want to take advantage of all of the inventory currently on the market.  They are excited about great deals on property and low interest rates!  There is enough business out here for everyone...hopefully we will all prosper this year! 01/25/2008

I try to look for and emphasize the good news in the real estate market... and there is a lot of good news out there.  Interest rates are low, buyers seem to be interested in buying again after what seemed to be a slow 4th quarter of 2007.  Well priced and well updated homes are in high demand in several areas of town, and inventory is still high enough that buyers have some good choices.  But some numbers just are difficult to ignore!  Case in point, I was reading the newspaper last week and sadly was not entirely shocked to see a story reporting a rise in homes scheduled for foreclosure next month.  What did surprise me was the percentage rise reported... it was an increase of more than 30% from the same month last year!I took some notes while reading the article. Among them, I noted ... 01/23/2008

Some of the local boards haven't officially released their December 2007 market statistics, but the Dallas board is out in front with their final numbers. Below is the summary for the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington real estate market for December including data since 2005. See the data charts below. They are viewed best in full screen mode. | View | Upload your own DOWNLOAD THE PDF NOWDECEMBER 2007 DALLAS-FORT WORTH MARKET SUMMARYContinue reading "Dallas Stats In: View the Latest Market Update"   01/22/2008