Downtown Amarillo Looking Up

News West 9

AMARILLO, TEXAS - Things are looking up again for Amarillo's downtown development after hitting a major bump in the road earlier this month.

Until today residential construction projects had a hard time finding funding sources. That's because banks thought it was too risky to invest in new types of projects that hadn't tested before - like high-end  Texas apartments in downtown Amarillo.

But today, seven locals banks announced they will all pitch in to loan out a pool of up to $5.6 million.

Bank leaders say this type of idea is a first for Amarillo. The banks will work with the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission to distribute the loans. That organization will begin reviewing applications on Thursday.

Although no official loan applications have come in yet, one banker says there are several interested parties who plan on investing significant amounts of money right here in downtown.

Failed Apartment Investments Cost Hundreds of Local Professionals Millions

New Orleans Business News

The MBS Companies, founded by Michael B. Smuck of Metairie, did not follow through on its plan to purchase this Houston-area apartment complex, which it planned to rename Yellowstone Ranch. The investors' money was used for other purposes

 

 

Kenner residents John and Sharon Kochera had been successfully investing for years in Texas apartment complexes managed by the Metairie-based MBS Companies when one day in August 2007, the quarterly distributions stopped.

They soon learned that MBS had not followed through on its plan to purchase a Houston-area apartment complex to be renamed Yellowstone Ranch -- and had used their money for other purposes.

Two-and-a-half years later, most of the hundreds of thousands of dollars they had invested in Yellowstone and other apartment complexes is gone. The Kocheras are losing faith about how much of their retirement money they'll ever see again.

"It's an absolute sheer theft," said John Kochera, who, like his wife, is a Realtor nearing retirement age. "We've seen one person after another who have been involved in creating Ponzi schemes go to prison, and here it is two-and-a-half years after the fact and nothing's happened."

The Kocheras are among the hundreds of local professionals who are out millions of dollars in the MBS carnage. The roster of investors includes a gaggle of doctors from East Jefferson General Hospital, groups of law partners and even an entire golf group.

MBS filed bankruptcy in fall 2007, and most of the company's assets have been seized by banks or liquidated.

Meanwhile, scores of investors have filed suit over their losses, alleging the company misappropriated funds, neglected its deteriorating apartment complexes and kept multiple sets of books to cheat investors. More than a dozen jilted investors were interviewed for this story, and several also have told their tales to federal authorities.

Many hold out hope that fraud charges against MBS principals -- and possibly other people or institutions that played key roles in the apartment deals -- could bring about restitution.

The U.S. attorney's office in New Orleans and the FBI say they cannot confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. No charges have been filed.

Katrina blamed

At the center of the controversy is Michael B. Smuck, a Metairie man who built an empire of about 20 apartment complexes in Texas and Louisiana in the 1980s. That company, the Equity Group, imploded after the federal Tax Reform Act of 1986.

Undeterred, Smuck founded MBS Realty Investors Ltd. in 1987 and began rebuilding. By the time the privately held firm crashed 20 years later, it had grown into one of the largest landlords in the country, with a $1 billion portfolio of about 60 apartment complexes, mostly in Texas.

Exactly why MBS unraveled is a matter of debate. News reports from that time note that 2007 was the year that FEMA began winding down its Hurricane Katrina rental assistance, and say that Smuck failed to anticipate that the easy rental income at his many Houston-area apartment complexes would dry up, leaving him without tenants and with units in need of repair.

About the same time, complaints to the Texas Apartments Association about collapsed balconies, wet ceilings, no hot water, rats, dead animals and overgrown grass at Smuck properties mounted, according to news reports that have been echoed in lawsuits.

Smuck referred calls to defense attorney Ralph Capitelli, who said Smuck's company got into trouble after Katrina because his insurers failed to pay business-interruption claims.

In a federal lawsuit against Hartford Fire Insurance Co. and other insurers, Smuck claims their failure to pay impeded his ability to acquire new properties, refinance existing properties and collect rents.

Hartford counters that there was "a relatively small amount of wind damage" at Smuck's offices at the Galleria in Metairie.

Many investors question whether storm damage at those offices was just a convenient excuse to explain the lack of business records and why money couldn't be distributed. Bruce Miller, a tax attorney who invested in many of the apartment deals, says the explanation doesn't make sense because rent was being paid at the Texas apartments.

"I started thinking, wait a minute, what's going on here? People are paying rents. Where is the money?" Miller said. "How could Mike say, 'The office was in disarray'?"

Smuck is still working for MBS, where he is advising the bankruptcy trustee about transferring many of the complexes to new management. He still lives in an upscale house on Palm Vista Drive in Metairie.

'Too good to be true'

In 1995, Smuck had partnered with Ed White, a Metairie commercial real estate broker who is active in religious circles and well-known among local business leaders. Until the MBS scandal started eating up his time, White also hosted a local Sunday-night television show called the Freedom Series that delved into issues of faith and free enterprise. White also has a self-published book, Financial Freedom.

Through his firm Ed White & Associates Inc., White began recruiting MBS investors. Many, but not all, of his recruits were wealthy individuals who qualified to be accredited investors as required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a designation that is supposed to certify that investors are seasoned enough to participate in high-risk deals and survive financially if they fail.

Investors say most deals had a minimum buy-in of $50,000. They would get handsome quarterly distributions of at least 8 percent and sometimes as high as 15 percent and would cash out when complexes were sold. The investments worked so well that many poured their money back into the next deal and excitedly told friends and family about the opportunity, which often earned them a commission.

Slidell attorney Richard Regan, for example, knew White as a friend and client, and began investing in MBS apartments in the mid-1990s. He reinvested every dime he ever made into the next deal -- so he's now out hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"I know now it was too good to be true. Everything I earned, I put back in and, if I earned more money, I invested that, too," Regan said. "And of course, I got a lot of friends and relatives in it, like a lot of other people. I feel guilty."

Regan reported the scheme to the FBI more than two years ago. Most investors say they didn't know about Smuck's failed venture in the 1980s. But MBS's long successful track record seemed worthy of investment and paid distributions like clockwork. And White's religious convictions, public profile and gregarious nature put people at ease.

One person who did know of Smuck's earlier chapter was Miller. He had a client who got burned with the Equity Group apartments failure back in the 1980s and said the problem wasn't the real estate crash; it was that Smuck moved money from one complex to another to pay debts, when finances should have been kept separate.

Miller said that White knew, too, but White assured him that Smuck had started over and the investments were legitimate. Miller flew see the Houston apartments for himself. The apartments seemed well-managed, the financial statements were good, and White and others putting together the deals were credible.

Miller began investing in the mid-1990s, and he invested and reinvested in 20 apartment deals. He's still waiting for the lion's share of his money. Miller and others question the explanations they've been given and whether the financial statements they saw along the way were real.

White's role

White said he realized all was not well with the apartments when he got a call from an MBS attorney in September 2007 about cash flow problems.

White said he hadn't known anything was wrong with the 28 MBS apartment complexes he was involved with, because when he would visit the properties in Texas, they looked fine from the outside.

White took his concerns to federal law enforcement officials, and because of those inquiries, he said he can't discuss what went wrong with the apartments. "I don't want to do anything to jeopardize the investigation," he said.

White held meetings with investors in fall 2007 to keep them apprised of what he knew, and took actions on their behalf.

Eighteen of the 28 complexes were lost in the bankruptcy, but White was able to save 10.

He sold three apartment complexes to earn money for investors, entered into joint ventures on two others, and pumped his own money into five of them to stave off foreclosure. His company is now managing those properties.

He sued Whitney National Bank on the investors' behalf for allowing Smuck to take the Yellowstone checks and deposit them into another account. The case has been settled.

And while PNC Bank claims in a suit that Smuck improperly transferred to White funds it had a secured interest in, and White improperly transferred them to investors, White has sued PNC Bank. He says he relied on the bank to investigate MBS before making loans, and that the bank didn't do its due diligence.

White has earned a number of grateful fans, who say that he has been their conduit for information and their lifeline in any hope of restitution.

"It was fine for a few years until Smuck ran off with a bunch of money," said New Orleans lawyer Frank Bruno, who had been investing in MBS deals for about eight years before they stopped. "I've got faith in Ed. He's trustworthy."

But others are distrustful that all of their information about the situation has come from White, who was Smuck's partner. They say if White was earning fees and commissions for his work, then he is also liable.

"Personally, I just don't believe that he was on top of his game. I think that things were going so well for so long for these guys, Ed didn't suspect anything was wrong. He didn't visit any of the properties in question to see that they were maintained properly," said Kochera. "I have my doubts."

Anthony Tridico, a physician with several hundred thousand dollars in the MBS apartments, wants answers.

"We all feel betrayed. We're angry. We're bitter. It was a Ponzi-type scheme and, supposedly, he knew nothing about it," Tridico said. "Why has two to three years gone by? This is ridiculous. We've been given a story. The only information it seems we can get is through Ed White, and Ed White was Mr. Smuck's partner."

Similarly, Robert Schimek, an 84-year-old ophthalmologist with about $250,000 in the MBS deals, said the explanations don't add up.

"According to Ed White, Mike Smuck started all this underhanded, fraudulent activity, taking money off the table and into his pocket. He said he was completely unaware of it. If you're a co-general partner, you're responsible," said Schimek. "He was collecting money and asking us to make contributions. We were really counting on him to make sure they were good investments."

White says there's no way he could have known what was going on because, while he saw financial statements on individual apartment complexes, he couldn't see how it all fit together under the MBS umbrella.

Moreover, he was the biggest local investor, so it wouldn't have been in his interest to let things slide. He even invested in the last deal, Yellowstone.

"I lost millions of dollars on this thing. I am not that stupid," White said. "Let me assure you, if I knew what was going on, I wouldn't have invested. It was well-concealed."

White says he has been assisting federal investigators and is not a target of any inquiries. He has hired defense attorney Donald "Chick" Foret, but Foret said that's only because of his familiarity with the federal investigation process.

"He is absolutely not a target. Ed White is a victim along with the other victims," Foret said. "Ed did hire me to help he and other investors because he knows that I'm familiar with the federal system. The purpose is to maximize restitution for all the investors."

In the meantime, for investors like Gary Auer, founder of the Kenner concrete and construction company F&G Services Inc., the consequences are real.

Auer got hit with a double whammy. Not only did he invest $75,000 with MBS in his first real estate deal with Yellowstone, but his wife's son-in-law worked in Antigua for R. Allen Stanford, the Texas financier who has been charged with operating an international Ponzi scheme, so he invested about $500,000 there.

"I'm still working now. I had planned on retiring last January," said Auer, who is trying to look in the bright side. "You've got a tax write-off. It's theft."

Dallas Housing Stimulus Effort Slow to Spend $25 Million

Dallas News

North Texas received more than $25 million in federal stimulus funds last fall to move homeless people into Dallas and Fort Worth apartments and prevent others from losing their homes because of the tough economy.

But so far, only a fraction of the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program money – about $2 million – has been spent, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees the program. The amount may be slightly higher because of a lag time for reporting the expenditures to the federal government.

The program was designed to provide temporary relief to people who need help with rent or utilities because of circumstances such as job losses or medical crises.

Things are off to a slow start.

Many applicants have been waiting for weeks just to get an appointment to apply for the help. And some agencies distributing the assistance say they have been overwhelmed with requests and do not have enough staff to keep up with the demand and extensive documentation.

In Dallas, where applicants have complained about long waits, the city is evaluating whether more staffing is needed.

Three charities withdrew from the program because they said they did not have adequate staff to carry out its requirements, said Bernadette Mitchell, assistant director of the city of Dallas' housing and community services. She said others are reporting problems with the online system they're supposed to use to enter client data.

"The city of Dallas is very concerned and we are evaluating the need for more staff persons to address this particular issue," she said in an e-mail. She said the city has contacted agencies that applicants have complained about for not responding to phone calls.

"The volume of people trying to access the service is overwhelming the system," she said. "Only a certain number of people can be fully interviewed for assistance and provided other needed referrals per day."

Other officials worry that many of those eligible – especially those who have never used social services before – don't even know about the assistance, which has mainly been publicized by fliers, posters and word of mouth.

"There's a lot of money in Dallas that people don't know they could access," said Paige Flink, executive director of The Family Place, which helps family violence victims. She said The Family Place received $1.3 million in stimulus funds and has distributed more than $150,000.

The meeting

A Feb. 16 meeting highlighted the lack of awareness about the program.

Only four people attended the public meeting at Dallas City Hall to learn how to apply for the funds. All were homeless and had seen fliers or heard about the event from a friend.

But they learned that the help would not come fast: They were told it would take up to a month just to get an appointment to apply for the aid, and as many as four months to move into an apartment.

London Brooks, one of the attendees, left frustrated. He said he was in a hurry to get out of a shelter after sleeping on the floor because there weren't enough cots.

"I'm trying to get out of that place as quick and fast as I can," said Brooks, whose unemployment benefits recently ran out.

Brooks called several agencies before finally getting an appointment with the Urban League of Greater Dallas' office in Garland last week. He said he was told that he could not qualify for the assistance without some type of income. Brooks, who attends school to train for an electronics career, said he's looking for a job so he can qualify.

Shirley Walker, the Urban League's senior vice president for community services, said the program aims to make sure recipients can sustain themselves after the temporary help runs out.

"Otherwise, what have we done for him?" Walker said. "We've caused him to fail and we've also put a blemish on his credit and he won't be able to get housing once he does meet those other requirements. It's like a double-whammy."

Walker said her agency is short-staffed.

"I want to assure you, I know all of the people in this community care and are trying the best they possibly can with the constraints they have," she said. "If our clients just give us a chance, we'll work to the best of our ability to serve them."

Yvette Jackson, another person at the City Hall meeting, also said she wants to move out of a Dallas shelter as soon as possible. More than a week after the meeting, Jackson still had no appointment. She said the agencies on a list did not call her back or did not allow her to leave a message.

"Living in a shelter is something I'm not used to," said Jackson, who came to Dallas 10 months ago after losing her job.

She eventually found housing through another program not tied to the stimulus money.

'As expeditiously as possible'

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided $1.5 billion nationwide. The program can pay rent and utilities, but not mortgages, for people who meet very specific criteria.

HUD announced the rapid rehousing program in February 2009, but people could not apply for the aid in many local cities until late last year or January.

During that time, the federal government entered contracts with state and local governmental agencies and provided training so they could distribute the funds in North Texas. Some of those agencies solicited nonprofits, like The Family Place or the Urban League, to help disburse the funds, which go directly to landlords or utility companies.

Agencies found the process was not as simple as handing out money.

They need extensive documentation – such as financial records and Social Security cards – that some applicants have had trouble getting together. They also need to make sure the Texas apartments people rent charge fair market rents, have been inspected and accept the federal payments. Some clients have been rejected because of bad credit records or felonies.

The city of Dallas received nearly $8 million, which it is sharing with several nonprofits. So far, about $333,000 of that has been spent, according to HUD. But the actual amount is at least $100,000 higher because of a lag time from when the city submits expenses to HUD for reimbursement, Mitchell said.

Governmental agencies and charities have three years to spend the funds, said HUD spokeswoman Patricia Campbell. She said that Dallas officials initially faced delays executing contracts with charities but that they expect a dramatic increase in the money given out now.

"We certainly are encouraging all grantees to spend the money as expeditiously as possible," she said.

Despite possible hurdles, the money is helping many families keep a roof over their heads.

In Plano, officials have distributed more than $35,000 since Jan. 1, according to HUD. The city received $509,050.

Garland, which received $304,952, has helped at least eight families and sent 20 more to search for North Texas apartments, said Tiffinay Slade-McClinton of the city's housing agency. So far, the city has spent $3,467, according to HUD.

Chelsea White, development director of the Housing Crisis Center in Dallas, said her agency has $184,877 to distribute – and is seeing a lot of people at the brink.

"There are households that, without this money, would probably be homeless," she said.

AT A GLANCE: HOUSING HELP

Across North Texas, agencies received more than $25 million through the federal stimulus package to move homeless people into Dallas apartments and prevent others from losing their homes because of the economic downturn.

The Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program is designed for people who only need temporary assistance to get back on their feet. It is not for the chronically homeless, who have disabilities and need long-term help.

The money can only be used for people who:

•Are homeless or would become homeless without the assistance.

•Have no other housing options and lack resources to obtain or remain in housing.

•Earn less than 50 percent of the area's median income of $23,650 for an individual or $33,800 for a family of four.

Applicants can call 2-1-1, a help line for social services, to be directed to the nearest agencies that offer the assistance. Applicants must have a consultation at the agency to determine the appropriate level of assistance. Documentation will be required to verify income and housing status.

City Incentives Spurring El Paso Apartments

El Paso Inc.

Incentives designed to stimulate the construction of apartments in El Paso are working, city officials say.

Almost 2,000 units have been put under contract since the incentives were approved by City Council less than a year ago, according to Kathy Dodson, the city’s director of economic development.

“I am thrilled about the results we are having,” she said. The program was created to provide off-post housing for the influx of soldiers coming to Fort Bliss.

One project taking advantage of the incentive program is The Bungalows, a 431-unit complex on the Eastside that’s being built by Bohannon Development.

Tom Bohannon, the company’s president, said units in the first phase will be ready to rent as early as next month. The rest should be finished by September 2011, he says.

But even with incentives, Bohannon says it’s still not the level of return on investment that would normally attract outside companies.

In the slow economy, builders are finding it hard to secure financing, while the cost of construction is high.

“You really need to want to build in El Paso, because it is very difficult to make the numbers work,” Bohannon said. “We have made some sacrifices in terms of the money we earn to do it.”

The incentive program rebates developers up to 100 percent of fees normally required by the city. It will expire when 4,000 units have been put under contract, unless City Council extends it, Dodson said.

Trouble brewing

In early 2009, the message was that this summer would be the breaking point when there would be more demand for off-post housing then there are places to live.

That spawned forums, studies and meetings between Fort Bliss leadership, the development community and city officials.

Many of the new soldiers are young, low in rank and not ready to be homeowners. They’d be looking for apartment in a market with a 94-percent occupancy rate for existing units, according to the El Paso Apartment Association.

And all that led to the city passing the incentives package.

Tom Fullerton, professor of economics and finance at the University of Texas at El Paso, cautions that there can be unintended consequences.

“Incentivising” the construction of that many units could put other apartment complexes out of business, he said, so the net gain might not be as high as expected.

Right now, Dodson said, they estimate that about 6,000 multi-family units need to be built to accommodate the incoming soldiers, but the number is only a rough estimate.

The stock of multi-family units in the city is projected to increase by about 200 this year, according to a report released in December by the University of Texas at El Paso’s Department of Economics and Finance. It also projects that multi-family starts will increase 32 percent.

The influx of troops to Fort Bliss is now 60-percent complete, according to Col. Edward Manning, garrison commander of Fort Bliss. The movement is projected to draw to a close sometime in 2012.

That timeline is important for builders, since it typically takes a year to work through the planning and financing stages of a new apartment complex, and two to three years to finish construction.

Bohannon says his company is approaching new projects conservatively, and not basing decisions solely on the hope of some future demand driven by growth at Fort Bliss.

“In today’s lending environment, that is really the approach to take,” he said.

What is clear is that soldiers have been able to find housing so far.

“Despite a high occupancy rate in the city, we don’t have people coming and saying they can’t find a place to live off-post,” said Col. Edward Manning, garrison commander of Fort Bliss.

To help soldiers who want to buy a home, Fort Bliss holds quarterly home buying seminars and classes.

“It makes better sense to help (soldiers) purchase homes because it is an investment,” said Yolanda Brown, director of the Fort Bliss housing office.

According to Desert View Homes’ marketing director Linda Cara, although they do see soldiers, there hasn’t been a major influx.

The company builds homes priced as low as $90,000 aimed at the first-time homebuyer.

“One of the neat things we are seeing,” Cara said, “is that they’re coming in and surprised that they can afford a home in El Paso.”

Incentives program

• Incentives available for new multi-family Texas apartments projects with at least 250 units

• Property tax increases resulting from new development will be used to rebate builders the city fees they pay

• One quarter of fees will be rebated for building 250-500 units, half of fees for 501-749 units, and all fees will be rebated for 750 or more units

• Developers must submit detailed site plan for approval by Development Services

Texas State Moves Forward with $50M Student Housing Project

Austin Business Journal

The Texas State University System Regents moved ahead with planning a 612-bed, $50 million student housing project late last week.

The group approved adding the project to the San Marcos campus' capital improvement program with an expected ground breaking date this fall. Regents will vote on design plans during its May meeting. If the project moves ahead as planned, it would open sometime in 2013.

The "North Campus Housing" project would total about 189,450 square feet on the corner of Comanche Street and Sessom Drive.

Other projects approved during the meetings Feb 18-19 include: Academic Services Building North ($985,000), Department of Housing and Residential Life Office Building ($15.8 million), Mitte Clean Room renovation ($1.1 million), Lampasas Hall renovation ($1.7 million), Multipurpose Educational Facility site and infrastructure improvements project ($2.2 million) and a rescue house and climbing tower for the Advance Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training program ($950,000).

The San Marcos location of the eight-campus school system currently has about $633 million worth of Texas apartments construction slated to take place in the coming years. The school added 2,500 students last semester and now enrolls about 30,800. The university system was founded in 1911.

Texas Real Estate Sees Modest Improvement

My San Antonio

Forget Texas' “bigger is better” mantra. In a tough economy, even modest increases in the real estate market are cause for celebration, according to a new Texas home sales report.

The statewide median home price increased 2.4 percent between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the fourth quarter of 2009, reaching $143,400.

The Texas Quarterly Housing Report from the Texas Association of Realtors also said the number of Texas apartments and homes for sale dropped, with the months of inventory falling statewide from 6.6 months to 6.5 months — considered the benchmark for a market balanced between buyers and sellers.

“The state was more or less flat, which was good. By and large the state of Texas did very well,” said James Gaines, research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “Even when we were down, we were down much less than the rest of the country.”

In San Antonio, the median home price was $147,600 at the end of the year, down 1 percent.

Houston's median price was flat at $152,100; Dallas home prices were essentially unchanged at $155,400; Fort Worth prices dropped 3 percent to a median price of $113,300; and Austin's prices dropped 1 percent, to $185,600.

But sales volume increased 16 percent statewide, with more than 53,000 home sales in the last three months of the year.

There's no way to know for sure, but the federal tax credit for first-time home buyers likely spurred more sales, Gaines said.

The credit, available to those who haven't owned a home in the last three years, essentially gave home buyers $8,000 from the government.

“We don't have any way to really count it,” Gaines said. “My belief is that on the aggregate level it might have made a difference of as much as 10 percent. Most of those sales happened in October or November.”

The tax credit was an offer that was supposed to expire at the end of November 2009. But Congress extended it through June of this year and expanded it to include more people, which could help boost home sales in the first half of 2010.

The report uses data on single-family home sales from 47 multiple listing services in cities throughout Texas.

Homebuilders Hope Boomers Return

Dallas News

Baby boomer buyers fueled a big run-up in U.S. home construction and sales in the 1970s and 1980s.

Now beleaguered homebuilders say they're hoping aging boomers, who are just entering retirement age, will once again give them robust housing sales.

 "We believe this segment of the market is going to lead the housing industry toward recovery as the market turns around," said Sharon Dworkin Bell, a senior staff vice president of the National Association of Home Builders.

The 55-plus homebuyer is being targeted by builders all over the country and was a focus of the industry's annual conference last week in Las Vegas.

The numbers are certainly there. By 2014, a quarter of the U.S. population – more than 85 million people – will be 55 or older.

"The number of people in that age group is increasing, and there is a lot of promise out there," builders' association economist David Crowe said last week.

While more than 60 percent of 55-plus homeowners say they want to keep their current homes, the rest say they are interested in alternatives.

Builders anticipate that buyers in this age group will account for almost 270,000 house purchases by next year.

Even in the down market, some 55-plus buyers move and downsize. Not all of them will want to live in Dallas apartments.

"The good news is they usually have a lot of home equity and can get a mortgage," Crowe said. "The bad news is they have to sell a house."

That worked out OK for Hunter and Judy Whitney, who sold their home in Pennsylvania just before the housing market took a downturn. The couple, both in their 60s, moved into a new house in Del Webb's Frisco Lakes development two years ago.

"When we decided to retire and relocate, we decided on the Dallas area," Hunter Whitney said. "Two of our three kids and six of our eight grandkids live in the area."

Moving closer to family is one of the top reasons 55-plus buyers move.

The Whitneys were wowed by the age-restricted Frisco development.

"We looked at a lot of places – the new construction," he said. "This is more than buying a house. You end up with a sense of community."

Frisco Lakes has sold almost 900 houses since it opened just over three years ago.

"We are one of the few places in North Texas still selling a ton of homes," said Mike Sander, divisional sales manager with Del Webb owner Pulte Homes. "We get a lot of out-of-state residents – probably 30 to 40 percent. Their kids live in Frisco."

Most of the buyers are in their early 60s, Sander said.

"About 30 to 40 percent of our residents still work in some fashion," he said. "But they want to downsize and get into a nice neighborhood."

Former Plano resident Jim Boyd and his wife downsized twice before moving into a 1,505-square-foot Frisco Lakes home in 2006.

"It was at the time in our lives we had begun to consider something other than a traditional single-family dwelling," said Boyd, in his mid-70s. "We liked the quality and variety of the community."

More than 75 percent of 55-plus buyers say they want a home in the suburbs.

But that doesn't mean they want a big house. Surveys show older buyers are more frugal about housing needs.

"The 55-plus buyers are not interested in growing their house size," Crowe said. "They are asking for about a 1,900-square-foot home" on average. "They're worried about energy costs."

Most older homebuyers surveyed are holding down their cost expectations, industry research shows.

"When we asked the consumer, 'What are you willing to pay?' they said $190,000," Crowe said. "And when we asked the builders, 'What are you building [for this market]?' they said $287,000.

"Obviously, there's a real big problem there."

Indeed, builders say they are in a quandary over what kind of housing to produce for 55-plus buyers.

"The baby boomers are absolutely unpredictable," said Andy White, a South Carolina developer who spoke to builders at their convention in Las Vegas. "There is no model to say what we ought to build.

"If a consultant comes to you and says they know what to build, they are lying," said White, whose company has been building developments targeted to older adults since the 1980s.

White said there are many risks for builders who might design the wrong product in the wrong place.

"Let's give it a few years and see what happens when the leading edge of the baby boomers reaches 70 years old, which is in 2016," he said.

Builders who aim at older buyers agree that it's a tougher sell with the recessions and housing market crash.

"Don't assume at all that everyone over 55 is looking for a luxury purchase or has unlimited funds to spend," said Atlanta builder Jim Chapman.

"Their existing homes are worth less," he said. "Some of them are afraid to put their homes on the market."

Many of these buyers are coming from nearby.

"They still want to go to the same shopping centers and see their friends," Chapman said. "The others are moving from out of the area to be near their children."

Builders who market age-restricted projects to older adults say they've seen an increase in demand for speculative houses.

"They are kind of flying off the shelf to people who have sold a home and are ready to do business," said Chris Harrison of Arizona-based Robson Communities.

South of Denton apartments, Robson is developing the Robson Ranch retirement development.

"We are seeing more activity," Harrison said. "Texas apartments for us did not have the big run-up in home pricing" seen in other areas of the country.

Texas Leads U.S. in High-Growth Cities

Business Week

A new survey finds the Lone Star State is leading in terms of growth rate and household income. Atascocita, Tex., is No. 1 in the state

Tired of reading about how rotten the real estate market is? Here's some good news that shows that even during the worst of the recession plenty of American cities, towns, and suburbs continue to grow.

One such place is Atascocita, Tex. A mostly residential community 20 miles from Houston, it gained more than 1,800 Houston apartments and households in 2009, an 8% year-over-year increase, according to new data from Little Rock-based data firm Gadberry Group. Over the decade, amenities that have helped attract residents to this wooded locale include Lake Houston, just east of the city; the school district; and proximity to the city of Houston. With new roads in the area under construction, "we're starting to see major industry start to take a look at the area," says Mike Byers, president of the Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce.

Migration levels nationwide stayed low last year as homeowners saddled with pricey mortgages stayed put—but there are some positive trends. Research by the Gadberry Group shows that some areas, resisting the effects of the recession, continue to attract both domestic and foreign migrants and, as an effect, bring in new businesses to provide services. While other cities across the U.S. have contracted, these have continued to grow.

Some states are better off than others, though. As thousands of people left places such as New Orleans and Flint, Michigan (the country's two fastest-shrinking cities), in the last decade, communities with the best mix of economic activity, proximity to job centers, and a good environment for families continued to grow. While not entirely spared by the economic downturn (some homes in these areas are now in foreclosure), people continued to move in during 2009.

Texas Grew the Most

Texas came out on top of Gadberry's survey, with four high-growth cities: Atascocita, Katy Mansfield, and Wylie. The report only included areas larger than 10,000 occupied households that met requirements for growth rate, household income, length of residence, and other factors.

Larry Martin, principal of the Gadberry Group, says many of the places with the biggest housing growth at the beginning of the last decade, such as Nevada, Florida, and Arizona, also saw the biggest drop-off since the economy sank. Texas, however, enjoyed relatively strong housing and job markets over the last 10 years, thanks in large part to the presence of major employers in the robust energy business. As of December, the state unemployment rate was 8.3% (lower than the national rate of 10%), according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It also had the largest state population growth between July 2008 and July 2009, according to a December release by the Census Bureau. "New homes and Texas apartments are still being built and people are still moving into these homes" in Texas, says Martin.

Part of the state's strength, says Mark Mather, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau in Washington, D.C., is its diversified economy. Main industries include petroleum refining, chemical production, aerospace, and information technology.

Meanwhile, areas that depended on the housing boom are now dealing with high foreclosure rates. Places such as Summerlin South, Nev., which appear in Bloomberg BusinessWeek's slide show of fast-growing cities, gained population but, like the rest of the state, may be dealing with high mortgage default rates.

"If you live by migration, you also die by migration," says Kenneth Johnson, senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute. "It doesn't guarantee continued growth."

New Business Opportunities

Migration is typically highest among people in their 20s seeking jobs near large urban cores, but employment opportunities are not the only draw. "Amenities are also important in migrational decisions," says Johnson. Many families consider factors such as schools and recreational amenities like scenic areas and parks.

This is a consideration now in Spring Hill, Tenn., which gained 7,645 households since 2000 as many young families moved to the town for affordable housing and work at the General Motors plant, which is now idle. Dustin Dunbar, chairman of the Spring Hill Economic Development Commission, says this has created demand and opportunity for businesses that provide youth activities and entertainment. "We hope to recruit some businesses to cater to our largest demographics," he says.

While migration in 2010 may remain sluggish, "we'll see a continuation of urban sprawl once the economy bounces back," says Mather.

Home Construction In Dallas-Fort Worth Rises For First Time In 3 Years

The Dallas News

 

Home construction in the Dallas-Fort Worth area rose for the first time in more than three years during the fourth quarter.

The almost 10 percent gain in home starts came as the inventory of new houses on the market fell to low levels, housing analyst Residential Strategies Inc. said Thursday.

The increase in the final three months of 2009 "marks the first uptick in the annual start rate since second quarter 2006," Residential Strategies' Ted Wilson said. "This is a significant event signaling that the housing market is in the bottoming process."

Builders started 3,615 homes in the fourth quarter, up from 3,200 in the same period of 2008.

The biggest increase in starts was for homes priced between $150,000 and $200,000, Wilson said.

"Some of the larger builders are flexing their muscles and trying to pick up market share," he said. "The strategy appears to be to have some speculative homes ready for buyers to move into this spring."

For all of 2009, home starts in the D-FW area totaled 13,499 units – the lowest construction volume since 1991.

But while home construction is picking up, sales of new homes lagged in the final quarter of 2009.

Builders closed 4,710 home sales, down about 15 percent from fourth quarter 2008. Still, sales in the just-completed quarter were the strongest in all of 2009.

"The fourth quarter typically is a slower period for new home sales," Wilson said.

The increase in homebuilding in the D-FW area comes after more than two years of annual declines.

"Home starts were generally up fourth quarter nationally, but the level is still way below where it was several years ago," said James Gaines, an economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

Builders in North Texas have fewer homes and Texas apartments left to peddle than their counterparts in other parts of the country. There is almost an eight-month supply nationally.

"Overall, the supply of housing inventory is in excellent shape," Wilson said of the D-FW area. "Total new home inventory is at a 6.5-month supply."

A six- to 6.5-month supply of new homes is considered market equilibrium, he said.

At the end of December, there were fewer than 2,700 new vacant homes on the market in the D-FW area.

Wilson said the new home market won't have a real turnaround until the underlying economy rebounds.

"Consumers need jobs if they are going to feel confident about making new home purchase or home remodeling decisions," he said.

$10 Million Boost To Post-Ike Housing

KFDM CBS News

The Mayor of Orange tells KFDM News $10 million in state funding will help rebuild most of the east side of his community that suffered damage in Hurricane Ike.

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs announced it's awarding the money to Orange to help restore affordable rental housing.

The money, and millions more that was awarded to Orange, will help rehabilitate the 80 unit Arthur Robinson Homes and build 32 single family rental units across the city.

"Well, we're making great progress," said Mayor Brown Claybar during an interview with KFDM News. "I wouldn't wish this on any community-to go through two hurricanes like we have-but I think we've made some great progress. It's taken a lot of work, and our political delegation has worked very hard for this project."

Hurricane Ike caused an estimated $29 billion damage across Southeast Texas.

(AUSTIN) - From Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs - The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) today announced a $10 million award to help restore Orange's stock of affordable rental housing damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Ike. The award is expected to bring greater stability to the lives of low income tenants and help jump start further redevelopment activities in the region.

"TDHCA recognizes that portions of the state continue to experience a shortage of affordable rental housing in the wake of Hurricane Ike, and we stand ready to address this need," said Michael Gerber, TDHCA Executive Director. "Our mission is to bring a higher quality of life to low income Texans, but we also anticipate this award creating numerous construction jobs, adding revenue to local governments, and the potential to revitalize the entire community."

TDHCA announced that it would help finance the demolition and reconstruction of the heavily damaged Arthur Robinson Homes being developed by the Orange Housing Authority. The development consists of the rehabilitation of an existing 80-unit apartment complex, as well as the construction of 32 new single family rental units in scattered sites.

"This funding will provide much needed help to those individuals and communities who continue to rebuild their lives following the costliest disaster in our state's history," said Gov. Rick Perry. "Thanks to the leadership of local officials and the hard work of so many Texans following the 2008 hurricane season, we are rebuilding and renewing our coastal communities and will continue to pursue the all federal funding and assistance available."

In exchange for this assistance, the developers must set aside at least 51 percent of the units for tenants earning no more than 80 percent of the area median family income. For the City and County of Orange, this equals an annual income of $43,450 for a family of four.

Today's award is part of $1.3 billion in federal hurricane disaster recovery funds allocated to the state just over seven months ago by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in response to hurricanes Ike and Dolly.

Of this amount, approximately $620 million has been made available to TDHCA to administer housing programs related to the state's recovery efforts, with $58.8 million specifically dedicated to repairing or replacing the stock of affordable rental housing and Texas apartments damaged or destroyed by these storms.

Hurricane Ike made landfall near Galveston on September 13, 2008, with a significant storm surge and winds topping out at 110 miles per hour. Damages have been estimated to run as high as $29 billion throughout a 34-county region of Southeast Texas.

Texas Agency Slow To Spend Weatherization Funds

The Dallas News

AUSTIN – The state received millions of federal dollars from the economic-stimulus package to help poor Texans cut their energy bills, but by the end of last month, just seven homes had been weather-treated under the program.

The state has spent $1.8 million of $163 million available over the past four months, with most of it going to administrative costs, such as the salaries of state workers.

The weatherization program was a key element of the federal effort to revive the economy, billed as a quick way to create jobs, save energy and cut utility bills.

In Texas, the task has been heaped onto a midsized agency that must figure how to hand out millions more in federal funds to local agencies and governments, but do it carefully enough to avoid wasting money.

Some community action agencies that will spend the money criticize the state's bureaucracy for the length of time it will take to get the program up and running. State officials acknowledge the slow start but say they're trying to ensure there is no waste or fraud. And they say federal red tape has been a problem.

The Department of Housing and Community Affairs is on track to get $327 million overall from the stimulus package – 55 times what the state typically gets in a year from the Department of Energy for weatherization work. It has until March 2012 to spend the money, with a goal of weatherizing 56,000 homes.

'Time and quality'

"It's the intersection of time and quality," said Brooke Boston, a deputy executive director at the state Department of Housing and Community Affairs. "If you could give agencies as long as they wanted, could you feel pretty good about every regulation followed to a T and every residence done perfect? Probably."

By the end of November, the most recent data available, the state had weatherized only seven homes through the stimulus program. Five were done by the Sherman-based Texoma Council of Governments and two by Tri-County Community Action in Center, Texas.

"I didn't expect tens of thousands, but seven is shocking," said Randy Chapman, executive director of the Texas Legal Services Center, one of several groups monitoring stimulus spending in Texas.

Boston acknowledged that federal officials "aren't excited about where we are today, and neither are we."

State officials say they expect a "huge jump" in the amount spent by March. Starting in January, the housing department plans to post data on its Web site projecting the number of homes that local agencies and governments will weatherize each month with stimulus funds.

The trickle of weatherization funds spent reflects the debate that has raged since President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus bill into law nearly a year ago. Among the questions that have been raised: whether the package was focused on work that would actually stimulate economic growth and job creation and whether government had the capacity to spend a great deal of money wisely but also quickly.

In September, Texas ranked 39th among the states in the amount spent. Texas reported to the federal government that three jobs had been created – all of them state positions. An update is expected early next month.

"No one wants to make mistakes," said Bob Scott, director of weatherization services for the National Association for State Community Services Programs. "They are trying to balance the need to show results quickly with the concern that there is increased scrutiny and accountability."

Some watchdog groups predict that states won't be able to keep a lid on waste and fraud as federal dollars flow through.

"There's all kinds of mischief in people fraudulently applying and getting the money when they're not eligible," said Leslie K. Paige, spokeswoman for the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste in Washington. "And then you have the homes and what work is done, and how you verify that."

Even groups that support the weatherization goal say the task is big.

"They were not an agency equipped to take on $327 million," said McCall Johnson, a clean-energy advocate with Environment Texas. "They didn't have the staff. To gear up for it is a lot."

Beverly Davis, an 84-year-old widow, has waited for work to be done on her Garland home since August 2008.

Davis, who said she lives on about $12,000 a year, said Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services workers recently checked her heating and air conditioning system, but it's unclear when caulking and insulation will be done. The work could have saved her money during the recent cold snap.

"It's slow. I heard they're having problems getting crews together," she said.

Daniel Araiza, a program monitor with the health department, said work using stimulus funds is under way on about 75 homes.

Past problems

Texas has a checkered past with the federal Weatherization Assistance Program, which the U.S. Department of Energy has run since the mid-1970s.

In 2003, a state audit documented how some local agencies that received money did weatherization work for people whose incomes were too high to qualify them for the low-income program:

• One local group, which was not identified, used $202,000 for weatherization work at an apartment complex without analyzing whether the work was needed, according to the audit.

• A second local agency changed expired contracts with firms to pay them more for labor costs, instead of allowing other firms to bid, the audit said.

• State inspectors failed to report that a local agency could not produce an entire set of employee time sheets for the past year. Nonetheless, the agency received federal funds for its work, the audit said.

• State housing officials didn't track the amount of federal funds used to weatherize multi-family dwellings and didn't ensure that local agencies and governments gave the low-income elderly and disabled a high priority for receiving weatherization work, the report said.

The state auditor's office has not done a follow-up review, but housing department leaders maintain the problems were corrected "very quickly" after the audit's release in 2003.

The state strengthened rules to determine how income is documented to ensure that people are eligible for the work at their homes, said Gordon Anderson, a housing department spokesman.

State officials said they have crafted an "aggressive monitoring program" to track how federal stimulus funds for weatherization are spent and will do so, in part, by doubling their energy assistance section from 15 to 30 employees, using federal dollars for payroll costs.

Under the Weatherization Assistance Program, the Energy Department ships money to the states, which then contract with community groups and local governments to spend it.

The local groups then hire contractors to insulate walls and attics, seal cracks, caulk windows, and supply energy-efficient appliances. They also monitor the work.

Under the stimulus program, the Texas housing department will more frequently inspect how the local groups and governments are handling their finances, said Michael DeYoung, director of the agency's community affairs division.

Federal regulations require states to inspect 5 percent of homes under the stimulus program. Texas officials say they will inspect 10 percent and possibly more.

Every three months, the state must send the federal government a report with the names of firms that the local agencies and governments hire to weatherize homes.

"If the agency knows their feet are going to get held to the fire for the quality of their work, then ultimately they are not going to keep using a contractor that gives them poor-quality work," said Boston, the state housing department official.

If the federal government is dissatisfied with how the program is run, it can demand that some of the money be returned.

A Dallas Morning News review of state inspection records found that problems at local agencies and governments this year ranged from zero at the Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services to nine at Tri-County Community Action in Shelby County.

The state said Tri-County's initial and final inspections of homes were "incomplete," and the agency spent federal funds on roof and other repairs that didn't save energy. The state said it plans to resolve its concerns with the agency soon. Tri-County's executive director couldn't be reached for comment.

When the state finds problems, it usually dispatches trainers to local agencies. If that doesn't work, federal funds are cut off until work is documented properly, Boston said. Typically, that happens to one to two agencies a year, she added.

Why the slow pace

State housing department officials cite several factors for the slow pace of spending so far, including a new requirement that contractors pay "prevailing wages" to weatherization workers.

But some of the community service agencies have voiced concerns about the state's oversight.

At a public hearing in April in Dallas, Stella Rodriguez, executive director of the Texas Association of Community Action Agencies, cited the housing department's delays in replacing staff and signing contracts, along with inconsistent inspection reports on Dallas apartments.

The agencies also criticized the state for proposing to send stimulus dollars to cities and small nonprofit groups that have no experience running a federally funded weatherization program. The state later dropped the small cities and nonprofits, but kept big cities, including Dallas and Houston, in the pipeline.

"It's not all the state's fault," said Art Kampschafer, contract manager for Community Services Inc. in Corsicana. "The feds have set up a whole bunch of roadblocks as far as restrictions on the money."

Dallas City Hall has set a goal of spending $13 million over two years to weatherize 1,800 Texas apartments and homes of lower-income residents.

Work is expected to start in March, said Terry Williams, assistant director of the city's housing-community services department. The city is collecting bids and will need City Council approval to award the work, he said.

Yesenia Serrato, a Dallas resident, has lined up weatherization work through the Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services.

"It was just supposed to be for insulation, to replace broken glass in the windows, and put caulking where that is needed," she said. "When they tested the house, they said they would replace all of my windows."

Texas Gained The Most People In 2008-2009

Bloomberg

Texas gained more people than any other state in the 12 months ended July 1, with 478,000 new residents, and Florida and Nevada now have more people moving out than moving in, the U.S. Census Bureau said today.

The U.S. population grew 0.86 percent in the last year, to 307 million, the agency said in a release. California posted the second-highest growth, with 381,000 more people, followed by North Carolina with 134,000 and Georgia with 131,000, according to bureau estimates.

The numbers are the final estimates by the bureau before it releases the official 2010 census next December. The numbers are used to determine the distribution of seats in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the U.S. Congress.

“We are focused now on ensuring we get a complete and accurate count in 2010,” Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said in a statement.

California stayed the most populous state with a July 1 population of 37 million. Texas had 24.8 million, New York 19.5 million, Florida 18.5 million and Illinois 12.9 million.      Wyoming had the largest percentage growth as its population climbed 2.12 percent to 544,270. Utah was next, increasing 2.10 percent to 2.8 million. Texas ranked third, as its population climbed 1.97 percent to 24.8 million, with Colorado next, growing 1.81 percent to 5 million.      The only three states to lose population over the period were Michigan, with a decline of 0.33 percent; Maine, whose population fell 0.11 percent; and Rhode Island, which dropped 0.03 percent.

It is vitally important now that the state ensures an ample supply of Texas apartments and housing solutions for a growing population.

Louisiana, which lost population after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, grew by 40,563 people, or 0.91 percent, to 4.5 million from a year earlier.

Florida and Nevada, which earlier in the decade had net inflows, are now experiencing new outflows, the bureau said.

Chop House Betting On Hungry East Dallas Crowd

Dallas News

Dallas boosters are hungry for signs that the millions being invested in downtown's long-neglected eastern end are bearing fruit.

Karen Babb is just hungry for a good meal closer to her workplace in the Comerica Building, one of the main employment centers on Main Street.Both might get their wishes. In two weeks, restaurateur Mike Hoque, known for his seafood shops, will take a stab at steak in the $3 million Dallas Chop House, opening on the Comerica Building's ground floor.

While most of this year's "development potential" chatter has focused on downtown's glitzed up Arts District, Hoque and his partners are opening where hulking relics of bygone businesses hover nearby.

Hoque said money already plowed into buildings near Comerica, with the promise of more to come, helps him focus on the future.

 "I think we're at the beginning of the upturn," said Hoque, 36, founder and owner of DRG Concepts, a Dallas restaurant company. "All I see is big developers buying buildings around me and converting them to condos. When I see people investing $300 million around me, I feel pretty secure."

DowntownDallas, a nonprofit booster group, offers a brightly colored map with downtown divided into at least eight districts. "Eastern edge" is not one of them. Rather, the phrase over time has become a shorthand way to say, "You know, that area past Neiman Marcus with those empty buildings."

John Crawford, president of DowntownDallas, conceded that the Chop House is at "an end of downtown that has not seen as much traffic."

 That began to change in 2005 when Cleveland-based developer Forest City Enterprises struck a deal with the city to convert the Mercantile Building on Main Street, known for its clock tower, into high-end apartments. The Dallas apartments opened in March 2008, following a city subsidy of about $60 million and an investment of "substantially more than $60 million" by Forest City, said Jim Truitt, vice president of the company's residential development arm in Dallas.

Since October, the Dallas City Council has approved more than $25 million in tax-increment subsidies and federal housing loans for Forest City to restore the vacant Continental Building, also on Main Street.

The revived Merc, across the street from Comerica, is one of the biggest examples of the city's effort to boost the number of downtown dwellers.

Since 2005, the city has directed more than $100 million in public money and subsidies toward reinventing the three blocks on which the Mercantile Building, the new Main Street Garden and a future University of North Texas law school sit.

The hope was that more wallet-bearing residents would lure retailers and restaurateurs.

"It's just now that the eastern end of downtown ... can justify more restaurant activity than what we've seen in recent years," Crawford said. "In the past two ... years, the Merc alone and the [adjacent] Element added 350" apartments.

Hoque has noticed.

"People are moving into downtown," he said as he showed off the Himalayan sea salt (used to dry-age beef) and the leather-clad walls in his 5,700-square-foot steakhouse.

With the Main Street Garden park coming in, also across the street, "we cannot go anywhere but forward in this area," he said.

Only paces away from the Chop House is Hoque's Dallas Fish Market, where this year's sales are running 7 percent higher than last year's.

More than a third of sales at the Dallas Fish Market, which opened in 2007, are convention-driven, he said. He thinks the ratio at the Chop House will be higher because it will attract visiting beef eaters looking for a Texas experience. They'll find selections from executive chef Kenneth Mills such as prime strip steak and crawfish Maque Choux, served beneath Italian chandeliers and cattle-themed artwork from Fort Worth's James Spurlock.

The heavy metal restaurant – metal railings, metal hostess stand, metal art work – also is expected to draw heavily from the 3,200 workers in the Comerica Building, the bank's corporate headquarters. Babb, who has worked in the building since the 1990s, can hardly wait.

"We think it's a great idea," said Babb, an administrative assistant with Andrews Kurth, one of a dozen law firms in the building. "Our attorneys will have a place to take their clients. It's convenient. ... It's a nice place to get away from the office."  Shane Baggett, senior property manager for the building, said he didn't think there had been a restaurant in the 60-story building since the early 1990s. The previous owners wanted to attract a restaurant, he said, "but couldn't get it done."

Most restaurateurs who were approached "were afraid they'd get no night business," he said. "With the Merc and UNT coming in, there's going to be so much more night traffic. It makes sense for a restaurant to be here now."

Not all the traffic streaming into the area is sought-after.

Rich Goza is general manager of the Press Box Grill, at the base of the historic Wilson building at the corner of Elm and Ervay, one block north of Main.

Recent upgrades to Elm – new streetlights, sidewalks and greenery – have improved the look, Goza said. But he said nearby stores selling alcohol and cigarettes often attract the homeless.

"We get a lot of homeless traffic up and down Ervay," he said. "We've had minor fights and issues with them trying to come in" to solicit change.

A year ago, he said, a panhandler came into the restaurant and rebuffed attempts from a manager to get him to leave.

The man "just reared back and slapped her," Goza said. "It was not a good scene."

Crawford conceded that the area faced challenges with panhandlers a "couple of years ago." Since then, Dallas police and his group's own safety patrol have beefed up their presence, he said.

A problem now, he said, would be "a very isolated incident."

For Hoque and other restaurateurs to succeed, that message will need to get out.

"My goal is to bring people downtown once again," he said. "If we do a good enough job, people will come."

County Turns Down Multi-Family Housing Incentives Proposal

KFOX TV

EL PASO, Texas -- The Department of Defense says El Paso is thousands of multi-family housing units short for all the troops coming to the Sun City, and on Monday, El Paso County leaders were asked to take up a policy that could help with the shortage.

The deal to developers is a simple one -- build an apartment or condo complex with at least 150 units and get a full rebate on any increase in county property taxes for the first five years your complex is open.

"We know that the Department of Defense has said that we have an 8,000 unit deficit coming in the Texas apartments as the soldiers start to get here from BRAC," said Kathy Dodson with the city of El Paso.

The city has a similar incentive policy in place to get developers to start building, but on Monday in a 3-1 vote, the county shot down the idea.

"I'm not convinced that we need an incentive policy to create more multi-family housing for the future," said Commissioner Veronica Escobar.

Escobar said the real issue is the lack of credit nationwide.

"I don't think this incentive would necessarily help with that part of the problem," she said.

Commissioner Anna Perez didn't necessarily agree with this policy, but wanted to have a discussion about alternatives to help with the impending problem.

"I thought by deleting it, it ignored the problem, it ignored the advice and the situation that was being described to us," said Perez.

City officials said in the end, soldiers won't necessarily be the ones without Texas apartments to live in.

"Our main concern, and the reason for bringing it to the city and the county is that we're concerned the soldiers who have a monthly housing allowance, might displace El Pasoans who don't have that $892 a month to spend on housing," said Dodson.

Dodson also went on to say hopefully developers will still recognize that the city has an incentives policy and decide to build in El Paso before all of the troops arrive.

Housing Project Nears Completion In Amarillo

Amarillo.com

Affordable housing stock in Amarillo will increase with the completion of two apartment complexes in the city, but inventory still won't meet demand, two city representatives said.

Tenants have begun to move in to the first units completed at Cypress Creek at Jason Avenue Apartment Homes, one of two neighboring complexes that Austin apartments developer Bonner Carrington Corp. is building in north Amarillo, just east of River Road.

The $20.7 million dual project will provide affordable housing for families and individuals at Cypress Creek and for older adults at Mariposa Apartment Homes at Jason Avenue, next door.

The housing will be available to individuals and families who make no more than 60 percent of the $53,900 median family income estimated for Amarillo by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Bonner Carrington Corp. started construction of the complexes in September 2008, with help from $13 million in tax-exempt mortgage bonds issued by a multicounty nonprofit agency and $2.55 million in government money.

The government money included $1.1 million from the city of Amarillo Home Investment Partnership Program, which supports construction and renovation of affordable housing, and $250,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant money allocated by the city's Community Development Advisory Committee.

"It won't address the need completely," CDAC Chairman James Allen said. "Honestly, it's a never-ending battle. The more we do, it seems like the more need there is, unfortunately. I don't really see us, in the near future, catching up to the demand."

An estimated 2,400 individuals or families are on a waiting list for rental housing vouchers the city provides through federal funding, city Community Development Administrator Todd Steelman said.

"Right now, that's equating to about a 2½-year waiting time to get on the program," Steelman said.

For several years, the city has received $6 million to $7 million annually for rental assistance for low- to moderate-income residents. About 1,100 individuals or families currently are being served, he said.

The amount that residents receive to help pay rent is determined by their income, Steelman said.

The city has seen increased applications for housing assistance during the current economic downturn. But the waiting period also is being stretched because more individuals and families need to stay in the assistance program longer, Steelman said.

Cypress Creek will contain 156 two-, three- and four-bedroom units upon its completion in March, and about 20 percent of the units already are pre-leased, spokeswoman Beth Woods said.

Five Cypress Creek buildings, containing 66 apartments, are ready for move-in, with about 10 apartments occupied, according to Woods and Property Manager Arra Coleman.

The first units in the 96-apartment Mariposa will be available for senior residents in January, Woods said.

Annual income limits for residents are based on the area's median income for individuals and families of different sizes.

Cypress Creek offers a clubhouse with a fitness studio, a business center, a family activity room, a sport court and playground.

Mariposa will have a fitness room, theater, meeting area, library, salon, card and craft rooms and an outdoor pavilion with a fireplace.

City staff and CDAC members looked at the projects as an opportunity to encourage economic development.

"This is the largest project, that I'm aware of, there (in north Amarillo) in quite some time," Allen said. "We hope that that kind of builds, so that you might see other businesses come in."

Older adults living in north Amarillo also will benefit from a housing solution close to their current home, he said.

"If it's hard for them to maintain a home, this is a way for them to stay in the neighborhood that they're familiar with, but to move into a facility that will take care of a lot of their needs," he said.

Bonner Carrington has developed nine communities of Texas apartments across the state, including two opened last summer in Houston. The company also has plans to announce development of more complexes in 2010, Woods said.

Texas Apartments Offering Incentives To Attract Renters

from News West 9

MIDLAND/ODESSA - From a lack of housing in the Permian Basin to a lack of renters, thanks to the economy.

Many apartment complexes across West Texas are seeing empty apartments stay that way.

In fact, some apartments are offering deals and incentives to attract tenants, including free rent.

Some managers tell NewsWest 9 that people are tripling up in one bed room units.

The President of the Permian Basin Apartment Association says they manage Texas apartments from several counties, but there is one city that has been more affected than others, and it all has to do with the bad economy.

 “Right now, Odessa is the one that is hurting worse than anyone, because we are so geared to the oil industry,” David Pope, Permian Basin Apartment Association President,, said.

Sunset Apartments is holding a raffle, just to get people to come and look at their apartments.

All you have to do to get your name in the hopper is enter the drawing.

The winner will be announced in November.

Texans Re-Tweak State Constitution

from the Wall Street Journal

For the 467th time, Texans voted on Tuesday to modify the state's constitution.  But that doesn't mean all the voters were quite sure what they were approving.

Since the state adopted its constitution in 1876, the legislature has frequently tinkered with the document, making changes that require approval by voters.

This year, most of the propositions passed by a wide margin, as they usually do. Only about one million of the state's 13 million voters showed up at the polls, and turnout was low even in Houston, where residents were voting for a new mayor.

In Dallas, Rene Martinez, 62 years old, found the proposition section of his ballot "very confusing." At his polling place, he rushed through that section so he could vote for his wife, who was running for school board (but didn't win).

Gaylan Burden, a 57-year-old teacher from Dallas, said she showed up at her polling place to "enforce her right as a voter," but wasn't familiar with some of the propositions. She followed to the letter her local newspaper's advice and voted yes on all 11.

The constant rewriting of the constitution has led to revisions of previous revisions. One of the changes approved Tuesday, for example, modifies a section of the constitution that bars civil servants from holding more than one civil post to make an exception for members of the Texas State Guard.

The volunteer force had been left out of earlier, piecemeal changes that had exempted other branches of the military, such as the Texas National Guard, from the rule. With the approval of the amendment, school board members and other civil servants will be able to volunteer to the state guard.

Local political mavens don't blame befuddled voters a bit. "The amendment language is too complicated and too arcane for even sensible people to spend time to figure out what's going on," said Calvin Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University.

Voters approved 11 changes on issues including beach access, property rights, texas apartments and university finances.

Tulsa Firm Buys Grand Prairie Apartment Complex

Dallas News

A Tulsa firm has completed the purchase of more than 900 Oklahoma and Texas apartments - including a Grand Prairie rental complex.

The properties were valued at almost $30 million and were sold by American Residential Group of Tulsa in partnership with Lincoln Properties of Dallas apartments.

Capital Assets Inc. of Tulsa put together the 928-unit sale, which includes the Windridge Grand Prairie apartments.

Windridge contains 720 Texas apartments built in two phases.

Apartments in Tulsa and Oklahoma City were also part of the deal.

All the properties were constructed in the mid to late 1980s.