Perry Wants FEMA to Pay $300 Million for Temporary Housing

Gov. Rick Perry is requesting that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) fund an alternative temporary housing program to bolster the existing program being used for victims of Hurricane Ike. “Hurricane Ike’s landfall in Southeast Texas destroyed or flooded approximately 100,000 homes and left half a million Texans homeless,” Perry said. “With alternative housing funds from FEMA, we will be able to work with local officials to ensure that all Texans are in safe and adequate housing as soon as possible.” More

Linda Harper-Brown Wins House Recount

Republicans maintained their two-vote majority in the Texas House of Representatives on Friday after election officials completed a recount in a Dallas County race. More

Sharp Confirms Senate Run

Former Comptroller John Sharp announced today he will seek the Senate seat now held by Kay Bailey Hutchison. Hutchison says she won't seek reelection in 2012, and is mulling the prospects of quitting early to challenge Gov. Rick Perry in the GOP primary in 15 months. The prospects of a Hutchison resignation - possibly as early as the end of next year - prompted Sharp to say he's in. In a statement Monday, Sharp says he'll be filing the papers Jan. 1 to begin raising money. More

Three in Speaker Race Call for Keel’s Resignation

The Texas House is locked down in a 10-way race for Speaker Tom Craddick's job, but three of the candidates agreed on one thing this weekend: Parliamentarian Terry Keel of Austin should resign. At the same time, the State Republican Executive Committee , meeting in Austin on Saturday, urged its GOP lawmakers to elect a Republican in a public vote - not the secret ballot that some of Craddick’s opponents are advocating. More

Forecast Raises Dallas Risk of Mortgage Defaults to Moderate

The latest mortgage market measurement gives the Dallas area a moderate risk of widespread mortgage defaults. San Francisco-based researcher First American CoreLogic rated the Dallas area 174th out of the 376 metropolitan areas it includes in its fourth-quarter mortgage risk forecast. Other Texas cities in the ranking include Houston, which also has a moderate risk of mortgage defaults, and Austin, Fort Worth and San Antonio, which are deemed at low risk. To come up with the rankings, researchers use factors including expectations for the local economy and home price declines. More

Judge Says He Can’t Order Recount in State House Race

A high-stakes legal battle over a close election remained in limbo Tuesday after a Dallas judge ruled that he had no jurisdiction over a recount in the race between Republican state Rep. Linda Harper-Brown and Democrat Bob Romano. Texas Democratic Party spokesman Hector Nieto said Romano and party officials had not decided whether to appeal District Judge Jim Jordan’s ruling. More

Economist: House Prices Will Bottom Out in September

The U.S. housing market is very near a bottom for home sales and prices will hit their low in September, Moody's Economy.com economist Mark Zandi said on Monday. "I think home sales are pretty close to bottom," he told an Office of Thrift Supervision housing conference. "Foreclosure sales, distress sales, are about forty percent of the market. Of course a bad jobs market means we'll have a couple months more of weak sales.” More

Day Laborers Hit As Housing Slumps

Many "jornaleros," as they are known in Spanish, worked five or more days a week earning up to $1,400 a month during the good times, according to a University of California at Los Angeles study two years ago, most saving money to support families in Mexico and other Latin American countries. But as U.S. construction stumbles, home foreclosures bite and credit dries up amid the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, workers in the casual labor pool from California are facing hard times. More