COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Chief Economist Dr. Mark Dotzour is crisscrossing the nation delivering his economic message and collecting valuable data for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.
Among the comments he heard this week at meetings of the National Association of Business Economics in Washington, D.C., were:
• “Clearly there is virtually no threat of inflation in the next two years.”
• “There’s virtually no chance of the Fed increasing interest rates (maybe a symbolic small move aside).”
• “The last recession, the Fed waited until unemployment was 5.5 percent before tightening.”
• “We won’t get to that level for several years.”
• “The threat is for deflation across the globe, with the exception of China.”
• “China’s money supply is up 30 percent from last year. Our M3 (the Fed’s measure of the money supply) is virtually unchanged from a year ago, and available credit is less than last year.”
“The Congressional Budget Office said the United States is going to be unable to pay for the social contract with America,” said Dotzour. “It’s only a matter of when and how the adjustments for failed promises have to take place. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security cannot be funded at current levels of spending.”

The Spring Lakes HOA will hold the annual neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt on April 3rd at 10 a.m. Don’t forget the egg basket and your camera. The Easter Bunny will be hopping by! If your children will be participating, please provide 12 candy filled eggs per child by March 31st to 506 Spring Lakes Haven. If you are currently a Spring Lakes resident I look forward to seeing you there! If you’d like to become a Spring Lakes resident, you can visit BuySpringLakes.com .

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This Saturday, March 13th, I will be holding open 20223 Cypresswood Glen in the Cypresswood Lake Subdivision in Spring, TX from 12 – 2pm. The gate code to the subdivision is 1057. You can get directions, see photos of the home, watch a video, and get more information by visiting http://buyandsellwithshannon.com/blog/134900-20223-cypresswood-glen-spring-tx-77373/ . I hope you’ll stop in on Saturday!

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This Sunday, Feb. 28th,  I will be holding open 20223 Cypresswood Glen in the Cypresswood Lake Subdivision in Spring, TX from 1-3pm.  The gate code to the subdivision is 1057.  You can get directions, see photos of the home, watch a video, and get more information by visiting http://buyandsellwithshannon.com/blog/134900-20223-cypresswood-glen-spring-tx-77373/ .  I hope you’ll stop in on Sunday!

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New Lease on Apartment Life

COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) — Many new Texas laws were effective with the New Year. Among them were new guidelines aimed at keeping Texas landlords and tenants at arm’s length.

Judon Fambrough, the Real Estate Center’s attorney and author of the recently updated Landlords and Tenants Guide, provided some examples of how rules for the traditional antagonists have changed. Here are some examples.

Parents sign as guarantors for their daughter’s apartment. The parents guarantee rent payments for their daughter as well as her two roommates. When the daughter renews the lease for the second year, do the parents continue as guarantors even though the daughter has different roommates?

“The answer is no,” says Fambrough. “Texas law provides for parents to be bound as guarantors for the renewal, but the renewal must involve the same parties.”

What if the parents agree to be bound as guarantors for subsequent renewals by their daughter? Assuming the daughter has the same roommates, do the parents continue as guarantors even though there is a rent increase?

“Again, the answer is ‘no.’ New Texas law provides that there can be no change in the guarantors’ financial obligation,” Fambrough explained. “A rent increase changed the parents’ obligation and, therefore, they are no longer bound as guarantors.”

What if the daughter is hearing impaired? If this fact is disclosed to the landlord prior to signing the lease, must the landlord install smoke detectors for her before she moves in?

“No,” says Fambrough. “Landlords must install smoke detectors that are capable of alerting the hearing impaired in the bedrooms they use — if requested by the tenant or as required by law. The daughter must request the installation. Otherwise, the landlord has no obligation to install smoke detectors for the hearing impaired.”

Fambrough’s 2010 update includes the latest on many landlord-tenant subjects. When may landlords interrupt a tenant’s utility service? What is required to terminate a lease when family violence is involved? What rights do members of the military have? What conditions must be met before a landlord can legally charge a late fee?

To learn about these and other landlord-tenant laws, take the Landlord-Tenant Law Quiz on the Center’s website at http://recenter.tamu.edu/quiz/quiz201002.html#. For a free copy of the Center’s Landlords and Tenants Guide, go to http://recenter.tamu.edu/pdf/866.pdf.