New Texas House Speaker Could be Boon for Big Cities

Joe Straus, the likely Texas House speaker-in-waiting, told reporters today that he wanted to tackle health care, transportation and education – issues that are priorities for big cities. The San Antonio lawmaker said his support in the race for speaker had swelled to 94 of the 150 House members. That would give him a virtual lock on replacing current speaker and fellow Republican Tom Craddick of Midland. Straus said it would be presumptuous, before the Jan. 13 vote of the House, to lay out the differences to be expected under his administration. But he promised to empower all members - including Democrats, who have formed his largest bloc of supporters. More

Banned for Life - Builder May Accept Huge Punishment

A home builder in Central Texas may accept a lifetime building ban -- the first ever ban in the state. But Pete Stucky's trouble doesn't end there. The Williamson County Sheriff's Office recently arrested Stucky on five counts of perjury. Stucky is accused of signing legal documents saying there were no unpaid debts on several houses he built. But according to investigators, Stucky admitted he signed the documents knowing that it was false. More

DFW Home Sales Fall 18 Percent

An 18 percent drop in December pre-owned home sales helped push down North Texas housing totals for the entire year. Last year area real estate agents sold 14 percent fewer homes than in 2007 through their multiple listing services, Texas A&M University’s Real Estate Center and the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems said Wednesday. More

Asking Prices for North Texas Homes Stay Flat

The asking prices for North Texas homes in December were essentially unchanging, making this one of the few metro areas of the country showing stability, according to figures released Wednesday from Altos Research and Real IQ. North Texas was one of three areas, along with Miami and Boston, in which home prices were flat from the month before. Of the 26 markets surveyed, it was one of six areas that did not decline in the past month and one of four that did not decline in the past six months. More

2009 Austin Home Starts Projected to be Half of 2007 Total

The news was bleak at the first joint economic housing forecast for the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin and the Austin Board of Realtors. According to Eldon Rude, director of the Austin market for the market research firm Metrostudy, housing starts in 2009 will total roughly 6,000, a 25 percent drop compared with the 8,000 new home starts in 2008. “Things will probably get tougher before they get better,” Rude said. Austin’s 8,000 new home starts in 2008 represented a sharp drop from the 12,400 new home starts in 2007. More

Lawmakers Await Revenue Report

When the state comptroller estimates the state's revenue next week, lawmakers will get their first glimpse of how much the national recession has hit Texas. The biennial announcement from Comptroller Susan Combs -- coming as the Legislature convenes for its 140-day session -- will tell state budget writers how much money they have to spend on such things as public schools, courts and health care services for the 2010-11 spending cycle. And it will show for the first time if Texas shoppers have tightened their belts so much that they put a dent in sales tax revenue. More

Jim Walter Homes Closing Locally, Nationwide

Jim Walter Homes, which operates a branch in Corpus Christi, will close nationwide, its parent company Walter Industries Inc. announced Tuesday. The business had not been profitable for several years and efforts to sell it in the distressed home building industry were unsuccessful, according to the Walter Industries statement. Sales efforts were to cease immediately but Jim Walter Homes would complete its homes in progress and meet its obligations to customers, according to the statement. More

DFW Reports Second Largest Job Growth in Nation

The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area reported the second largest year-over-year employment gain nationally in November 2008 by adding 46,900 jobs. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area trailed only the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown area, which reported a non-farm employment gain of 54,300 jobs. A report from the U.S. Department of Labor also said 121 metropolitan areas had jobless rates reaching 7 percent or above, up from only 18 areas the year before. In addition, 34 areas had rates below 4 percent --far fewer than the 133 areas that had jobless rates below 4 percent in Nov. of 2007. More

National Association of Realtors Pending Sales Index Drops

The National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index has dropped to a record low as the housing market continues to weigh on an already distressed economy. The index fell to 82.3 for the month of November. That’s down 4 percent from October, and the lowest level since the index began in 2001. The November reading is 5.3 percent below the same month a year ago, when the index stood at 86.9. More

FEMA Mobile Home Site May Open by Next Month

Construction on the county’s first Hurricane Ike mobile-home park could begin as early as next week, FEMA officials said Tuesday. If things go smoothly, the first few units should be in place by Feb. 1. Also on Tuesday, officials revealed the federal government would pay $12,270 a month to lease the 64 acres that will serve as the temporary home site for up to 209 individuals or families displaced by Hurricane Ike. In its agreement with landowner Max Teer, FEMA has agreed to lease the property through Dec. 7, 2010 at a rate of $147,240 a year. More

Editorial: Texas Legislature Takes a Look at Straight Ticket Voting

Allegiance to one political party should not be frowned on, although it must be noted that such loyalty can make one blind to the outstanding qualifications and services of those from a different party. That allegiance often causes voters to cast straight-ticket ballots, which can be a double-edged sword. More

Opinion: Texas House Needs Orderly Process to Avoid Fights Over Speaker

Legislative sessions are controlled chaos in the best of circumstances. If you add in confrontation, controversy and the always-present politics, work becomes almost unmanageable. The worst time to try to prevent a meltdown is in the middle of one. The best time is before the next one occurs, when tempers are cool. And so it is with the rules that govern selection - and perhaps dismissal - of the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. Now that Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick has withdrawn as a candidate for speaker for the 2009 session, it might be possible to review the rules without a toxic mix of personalities. More

Numbers Tell Story of Craddick's Defeat

One number naturally matters most in the theatrical fade of Rep. Tom Craddick of Midland as speaker of the Texas House and the rise of fourth-year Rep. Joe Straus of San Antonio as his expected successor. It's 76, the minimum number of House members needed for a speaker candidate to win a turn leading the 150-member body. It's 76, the minimum number of House members needed for a speaker candidate to win a turn leading the 150-member body. But I can't shake two other numbers due to be cherished by Democrats and gnawed on by Republicans. They're also the numbers that explain why Craddick was imperiled right after November's elections and why both parties view the 2010 elections as do-or-die-pivotal for controlling the House. They're 26 and two. More