In Texas Things Are Different!

Thankfully, better

National media reports about real estate have been gloom-and-doom for many months now, painting a bleak picture for prospective homesellers and buyers alike.

Texas REALTOR® Michael Scudder thinks those reports should end in three words … “except in Texas.” Scudder, 2008 president of the New Braunfels/Canyon Lake Board of REALTORS®, says the mortgage and housing crises affecting other parts of the country have left Texas nearly unscathed.

“The market (here) is a lot better than many believe.” With low housing prices, low interest rates, high employment levels, and a strong economy, Texas real estate has weathered the national storm fairly well, confirms Brooke Hunt, 2009 chairman of the Texas Association of REALTORS®.

“The national news media likes to talk about what’s happening in New York, Washington D.C., Florida, and L.A. – and they’re probably pretty accurate about what’s going on there,” Scudder says. “But they don’t ever talk about Texas unless we have a hurricane or something. We’re doing pretty well.”

Source: New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung

Colleyville Expands This Year’s Holiday Fun

The annual Celebrate Colleyville holiday event complete with Santa and a snow hill, will begin on Friday this year to allow three days of holiday events in the city, officials said.

"We changed it to give ourselves a full holiday weekend," said Colleyville Communications Director Mona Gandy.

The free Celebrate Colleyville event takes place from 4 to 10 p.m. Friday Dec. 5, at the Colleyville Center, 5301 Riverwalk Drive.

New events this year include a rolling snow hill for tubing and a spinning ride called Mind Winder with holiday lights. Favorites returning include the three-story holiday slide, Euro-bungee and the children’s craft area.

The fun Santa Paws Show, where the four-legged stars show off their talent, will offer performances at 4:45 p.m., 6 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.

Some of Colleyville’s talented kids from local performance groups and choirs will entertain from the main stage by the Colleyville Holiday Tree. Radio Disney will also offer fun contests and prizes.

Festival-goers can also stroll through the Holiday Market, where arts and crafts, jewelry, holiday decorations and gifts will be on sale.

The Holiday Food Court will offer holiday treats such as funnel cakes, tater twisters, sausage on a bun or stick, in addition to soft drinks and hot chocolate.

See www.colleyville.com for information.On Saturday, the 13th annual Colleyville Lions Club Breakfast with Santa is set from 7 to 11 a.m. Santa’s PhotoStop will enable people to have professional photographs taken for a fee. But, those who bring their own cameras can take pictures with Santa at no cost.

See www.colleyvillelions.com for more information.
The holiday weekend finishes off from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, with the Colleyville Woman’s Club’s Holiday Home Tour, "Home for the Holidays." Advanced tickets to the home tour are $20, or $25 if purchased the day of the tour. Visit www.c-w-c.org for information.

By Scott Price
Staff Writer

One Of My Favorite Receipts For Thanksgiving Dinner

Spiced Waldorf Salad

A spiced version of a popular Waldorf salad, made with apples and walnuts.

Ingredients:
2 cups coarsely chopped apples, about 2 medium apples
1 1/4 cups chopped celery
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/3 cup mayonnaise(or yogart)
2 teaspoons sugar
dash allspice
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Preparation:
To make Waldorf salad, place chopped apple, celery and walnuts in a bowl. Combine mayonnaise, sugar, allspice and lemon juice. Toss mayonnaise mixture with apple mixture.

Serve waldorf salad over salad greens if desired.
Waldorf salad serves 4 to 6.

Colleyville Plans Upscale Hotel for Development.

A $15 million luxury hotel will be built in the Village at Colleyville development on Colleyville Boulevard, ushering in the largest single commercial venture in the city.

The Florida-based Monopoly Hotel Group expects to begin construction this summer on the 65-room "boutique hotel" that will include a health club, a spa, three restaurants and shops. Rooms in the European-style hotel.

Content provided in partnership with By Jennifer Radcliffe, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Halloween: Haunted Trail

Halloween arrives early with the return of the Haunted Trails Fest. Scheduled Saturday, Oct. 25, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. at the Colleyville Nature Center, this popular event features a creepy journey along a pathway filled with scary creatures, spooky sounds, and special effects.

For younger children, ghosts and goblins of a more friendly variety (think Casper) will haunt the trail from 7:00-7:30 p.m. The fright factor intensifies after 7:30 p.m.

Other Haunted Trails activities include games, crafts, pumpkin decorating, costume contests, and prizes. The haunted trail is $2 per person; all other activities are free.

The haunted trail is meant to scare and may not be appropriate for some children.The trail is suggested for children 5 and up, but games and contests may be enjoyed by all.

The Colleyville Nature Center is located near the intersection of Mill Creek and Mill Wood drives in Colleyville, off Glade Road between Bransford and Precinct Line roads.

The Haunted Trails Fest is presented by Colleyville PARD, in conjunction with the Colleyville Public Library. For more information, call 817.503.1180.

On Halloween night, the Colleyville Fire Department is offering “Fire Safety Tricks & Halloween Treats” at the Central Fire Station, 5209 Colleyville Boulevard. Hours are 6:00-9:00 p.m.

In addition to treats, tours of the fire station and fire engine will be conducted. Family Fire Escape grid maps will also be available for kids to take home and complete with their families. Copies of completed fire-escape grid maps can be returned to the station for entry into a drawing. The winner of the drawing will receive special transportation one day to school or daycare in a Colleyville fire engine.

Entries must be received by Nov. 26. For more information, call 817.581.4591.
Saturday, October 18, 2008

Proposed Economic Stabilization Act

A Summary: What's At Stake?
The House has defeated the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) on a vote of 205 – 228. NAR supported the package. Media reports about it did not present the case for the many ways it would have supported the real estate industry. The summary below presents all the bill’s provisions, condensed into some general subject headings. Many of these provisions are likely to survive in whatever legislation comes next.

Help Homeowners and Borrowers
The legislation responded to the criticisms that lenders have been slow and/or unwilling to work with homeowners and borrowers. It encouraged negotiation in short sales and consumer efforts to refinance or reconfigure existing mortgagesWhen the Treasury (or other federal agency that holds mortgages) acquires troubled existing mortgages from financial institutions, agencies are required to work with lenders and mortgage servicers to find ways to avoid foreclosures. All federal agencies are required to work with servicers to facilitate loan modifications that will consider the net present value of the mortgage. Similar refinancing and foreclosure prevention requirements apply to mortgages involving owners of multi-family properties. Policy goal is to assure that tenants don’t lose their residence when an owner has problems with the mortgage. Changes to existing mortgages can include (but are not limited to) revisions in principal, interest rate and period for repayment.

Get Money into the Financial System Quickly
The credit markets are nearly frozen. Lenders can’t lend because they are receiving no payments on existing loans. The legislation allowed the government to buy troubled loans and mortgage securities. The funds that the institutions received when the government purchased the existing portfolios were to be available to issue new mortgages with more carefully specified and monitored lending standards. Provisions includeCreate a Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to purchase and guarantee the troubled assets from the financial institutions that hold mortgages and/or mortgage-backed securities.A new Office of Financial Stability within the Treasury to operate TARP, with input from the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC – the agency that works with failed and failing financial institutions to insure and protect consumers), the Comptroller of the Currency (bank regulator), Office of Thrift Supervision (regulator of former savings and loan companies) and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Timing for TARP purchases designed to assure that all the authorized $700 Billion is not released at one time. First release of funds to purchase troubled assets will be $250 Billion. Second release of up to $100 Billion must be authorized by the President. Final $350 Billion can be issued only on Congressional approval. Congress given 15 days to act.

Follow, Protect and Watch Over the Money
Congress will keep a tight rein on TARP. Congress will have the assistance of numerous agencies charged with specific tasks and reporting responsibilities. TARP Oversight Board at Treasury -- monthly activity reports to Congress. Secretary of Treasury -- detailed reports to Congress for each $50 Billion in transactions as the transactions are completed. Government Accountability Office (Congress’s auditor) -- financial reports about TARP activities every 60 days. Judicial Review Federal courts may issue injunctions when there is a finding that the Secretary of the Treasury has acted in a manner that is arbitrary, capricious or outside the law. Create a new Inspector General (IG) for TARP. An IG might be viewed as the “cop on duty” who has authority to investigate TARP’s activities. IG will make quarterly reports to Congress. Appoint a Congressional Oversight Panel – receive and process all these reports to keep Congress apprised of the state of financial markets, activities of the regulatory system and the use of TARP’s asset acquisition and disposition authority. Federal Reserve--provide reports to Congress on utilization of the lending authority created earlier this year. That authority was intended to assist ailing financial institutions.

Put Brakes on the Bad Guys
Congress wanted to curtail perceived “bad acts” of executives who made big bets and lost.Assure that skilled asset managers who buy and sell TARP assets have no conflicts of interest with prior employers or firms. No golden parachute or severance payments to executives of companies that sell assets to TARP. If a company that sells assets to TARP does make any post-employment payments (other than retirement compensation), the executive (not the company) must pay a 20% excise tax. If a company sells assets to TARP, then no tax deductions for salary or other compensation will be allowed if a worker’s compensation package is more than $500,000. All financial regulatory agencies are required to cooperate with the FBI in its investigations of fraud, misrepresentation or malfeasance in the selling or advertising of financial products.

Give the Taxpayers a Stake in the Profits
Historically, when the government has intervened to shore up a company’s or government’s financial dealings (such as the loan guarantees made to Chrysler and the aid given to New York City during a fiscal crisis), the long-term effect has been that the government has made money back on the deal.The legislation provided an “upside” benefit for taxpayersAny profits generated when the government subsequently sells TARP assets would be used to pay down the national debt. The government will receive warrants in the companies that participate in TARP. The warrants are similar to stock, but do not grant any voting authority to the government. If the participating company pays dividends at some future time, the warrants would allow the government to receive the dividend. Similarly, if the government sells its stake in the company, the warrants would entitle the government to any appreciation.

Recoup What’s Still Owed
If, after five years from the date of enactment (the date the President signs a bill), the program has lost money, the sitting President will be required to present a plan to Congress for ways to recover the funds from the financial institutions that benefited from the TARP relief.

The History of Colleyville

Colleyville began as a rural community, situated primarily between Big Bear and Little Bear Creek in the central portion of northeastern Tarrant County.

The first significant settlement of the area began in the 1850s. Samuel C.H. Witten came to Texas from Missouri in 1854 and established a farm along Little Bear Creek. He became one of the founders of the Spring Garden community, which flourished in the 1860s around a well-known school, finally declining in the 1870s as Bedford rose to prominence.

Other settlers from the upper South included Jonathan A. Riley, who came from Kentucky in 1856 and settled near the Spring Garden community; the Kentucky-born adventurer and Civil War veteran Ryan Harrington, who bought land in 1865 near the community of Pleasant Glade; and William B. Cheek, who migrated to northeast Tarrant County from Kentucky in 1869, eventually settling near Ryan Harrington's property.

Other farmers continued to arrive throughout the 19th century. William Dunn settled property between Big Bear Creek and Bransford in 1875; the James R. Forbes family, of Bedford County, Tennessee, established a farm in 1887; and French native Anthelm Bidault began cultivating his renowned orchards and vineyards near the Pleasant Run community in 1897.

The communities of Pleasant Glade and Pleasant Run were hamlets situated in clearings of the Eastern Cross Timbers. Churches, schools, and stores served the rural population. Pleasant Run Baptist Church, organized in 1877, was the first church within what is now Colleyville.The St. Louis, Arkansas, & Texas Railway (later known as the St. Louis & Southwestern or the Cotton Belt Route) extended its tracks between Fort Worth and Grapevine in the late 1800s, passing through the hamlet of Red Rock in the Colleyville area in 1888.

The nearby community of Bransford, clustered around the general store and post office of Felix G. Bransford, disappeared that same year when the store and post office were moved to Red Rock, which was renamed Bransford. The new Bransford prospered over the next several decades, becoming the largest community in the Colleyville area.

In addition to the post office, the town had two blacksmith shops, a livery stable, four general stores, and a lodge hall shared by the Masons, Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the World. Four doctors resided there.

Lilburn Howard Colley was one of these doctors. A native of Missouri and a veteran of the Union Army, Dr. Colley and his wife moved to Texas in 1880, eventually settling in Bransford soon after the town was founded. In his 40 years of active practice, he became one of the best-known physicians in northeast Tarrant County and was widely respected as a leader in the Bransford area. Colley's name became associated with a community that formed around a store opened by W.G. Couch on Glade Road south of Bransford in 1914. The surrounding area gradually acquired the name "Colleyville." The hamlets of Pleasant Run and Pleasant Glade had populations of 75 and 80, respectively, in 1940, and today have all but disappeared.

Bransford declined after World War I as the automobile took precedence over railroads for passenger travel. The last store, owned by John R. Webb, closed in 1925. The town became known primarily for a large nursery established by Andy Felps around 1920. Bransford had a population of 155 in 1940, but today has vanished except for a cluster of houses around the train tracks.

Colleyville was incorporated on January 10, 1956, and its city limits are now contiguous with those of Grapevine and Euless on the east, Bedford and Hurst on the south, Keller and North Richland Hills on the west and Southlake on the north.

Although once a predominantly rural community, Colleyville has experienced significant residential development during the past decade. From a population of about 1,500 in 1960, it grew to 6,700 in 1980 and had an estimated population of 11,300 by 1989.

Grapevine Highway (Highway 26) passes through its center, and many of its residents commute to Fort Worth.

"Tarrant County Historic Resources Survey"Historic Preservation Council of Tarrant County, TexasCopyright, 1990