Karen Shrock-Jones

No one can predict the market. It has a life of its own. People make and lose fortunes speculating on what the future will hold. The current real estate market is a good example of that situation.

As far as low and affordable housing goes, Texas and the Texas Association of Realtors began in the last several years to put an emphasis on affordable housing. If you see any cars with the "I am a Texas Realtor" license plate, know that a portion of the annual cost of that specialty license plate goes directly to providing for a future that includes affordable housing for all Texans. The impetus for this emphasis is in part due to national statistics that put Texas at the bottom of the list in personal homeownership.

The City of Arlington has many programs to help first time homebuyers and others to purchase homes. They also provide funds for home rehabilitation. In addition, the State of Texas and the HUD/FHA have special loan programs. There are down payment assistance programs out there, too.

You might talk with a mortgage loan officer to see just where you stand in being able to purchase a home right now. That will show you what you will have to do financially to get in the game. You may find that you are already in the ballpark now.

Home ownership is part of the American dream. Barring something catastrophic, I would think that there will always be a market for low income families. - Tue Jul 22 2008, 10:52

The Barnett Shale and subsurface mineral rights became a hot topic about two years ago. Then it was speculated that the Shale, which is a geological formation or subsurface strata, did not extend into Northeast Tarrant county. Now the speculators have gone out and bought up mineral rights and started to drill all over the place. I don't believe that I've heard anything about the Shale producing crude oil, but I have heard about it producing gas.

Most of my knowledge of mineral rights are about coalfields of Kentucky. Oil and gas are different. With coal, you are talking mostly about strip mining and removing the surface to get to the subsurface. That's not the case in Texas where it is all about drilling to get to the reserves. You are also talking about a resource that is more or less fluid unlike coal or other minerals which are solid.

Drillers do not have to drill straight down to get at the oil and gas. Like water, they only have to tap into the place where the underground puddle or lake is and start pumping. If there is oil or gas beneath your new property, it could be being pumped out from wells drilled at DFW airport or somewhere else far away. Unlike a hard mineral, you cannot tell from where the product is being retrieved . In order to learn if there is actually oil or gas beneath the property, core samples would have to be drilled and analyzed, which is not a cheap venture.

If you have some age on you like I do, you may remember a big controversy about 20 or so years ago about a proposal to slant drill into reserves below national parks to retrieve subsurface oil and gas reserves. The speculators proposed to locate the wells outside the park and tap into the reserves by drilling at an angle into the park. After the controversy in the 1960's and 1970's about the environmental damage that might be caused by the construction of the Alaska pipeline, the companies and the Reagan administration thought that they could get around those objections with this proposal since the surface lands of the national parks would not be harmed. Actually the Alaska scenario was much different, because those objections were about tdangers related to he possibility of a massive oil spill if the above ground pipeline had a leak and the effects the above ground line would have on the migratory patterns of herd animals and others who live in the Artic region.

Title companies have an attorney who is generally an owner. Closings go through a title company and that attorney of record is the legal signatory on the title search and record. Most of the courses being taught to realtors are being taught by title company attorneys who have had to become familiar with the topic. Your realtor should be able to get you all the information you need about the topic. If you need counsel on the issue, the title company attorney should be able to advise you. That's part of what you are paying for.

Another terrific resource is the Real Estate Center at Texas A & M. They are well respected sources on anything related to real estate in the state of Texas. I did a search on oil and gas on their website and pasted the link to the result below.

There is a "Jed Clampett" epidemic of sorts going on out there. Many folks are hoping to cash in big on subsurface mineral rights and move to a mansion in Beverly HIlls or maybe just a nicer place in a nicer neighborhood. Only time will tell how much of the fervor is hype and how much is substance. - Tue Jul 22 2008, 10:37

My sister-in-law lived in a house in the floodplain many years ago. The only way she could get insurance was through the National Flood Insurance Program. Check out the website below. - Mon Jul 21 2008, 09:29

Little Elm has wonderful prices and is a nice community with a bit of a rural flavor. It's also to Lake Lewisville. The major problem with Little Elm is access. The means of ingress and egress for Little Elm are limited making rush hour a nightmare. If you don't need to follow that kind of schedule or if you work from home, you won't have those problems. If you work in the Denton or McKinney area, I believe the traffic issues would not be as great.

I think that LIttle Elm has huge potential for price growth in the next 5 years provided the Lake Lewisville bridge is finished and other access is expanded. I had one new home rep tell me a couple of years ago that Little Elm was Frisco without the taxes and the high prices.

I would expect that Plano prices would not increase as much as Little Elm. - Fri Jul 18 2008, 14:23

My daughter has lived in Denton for two years now, and I think it is a lovely area. She is a student at TWU, so I am most familiar with the area around the universities and in-town.

I adore older construction and tree-lined streets. If you are into working with a fixer with good bones that could be renovated over time to add value, your price range is adequate for finding just that.

I have worked with lots of folks in your price range. The fact that you are already pre-approved is a big plus! A pre-approved buyer with high motivation is like buried treasure these days! Shame on those agents who didn't snatch you right up! - Sun Jul 13 2008, 11:46