This Sunday my Buyer’s Agent, Linda Parrish, will be holding open 20223 Cypresswood Glen in Spring from 2-4pm. This lovely, well maintained one story home in the Cypresswood Lake Subdivision has been reduced to $129,900.00. That’s an amazing value! The sellers are motivated and awaiting your offer! Come see this one on Sunday, because it will not last long! The subdivision gate code is 1057. See you there!!

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GALVESTON (Galveston County Daily News) – City council members yesterday released $25 million in federal disaster recover funding to begin the plan to rebuild 569 units of hurricane-damaged public housing.
The Galveston Housing Authority will use the money not only to rebuild the units, but also to leverage support for federal Hope VI grants to revitalize entire neighborhoods on the island.
The housing authority must rebuild 569 rental units of public housing, not homeownership units, according to an agreement with advocacy group Lone Star Legal Aid.
The first round of federal funding must be spent by September 2011, two years after the council approved the plan for spending the money.
Council members also approved conceptual plans for rebuilding three of the four public housing developments. These include Oleander Homes, Cedar Terrace and Magnolia Homes.
The housing authority will begin searching for architects for these developments as it draws up plans, which will then be sent to the planning commission to make a recommendation to the council for final approval.

WASHINGTON (Associated Press) – After one year of activity, the government’s mortgage relief plan has helped about 12 percent of borrowers who signed up for the program.

 According to the Treasury Department, about 116,000 homeowners had completed the application process as of last month and are making permanently reduced loan payments, compared with over one million homeowners who began the process.

 Over 61,000 homeowners have dropped out of the program either because they failed to make payments or did not return the necessary paperwork.

 There have been calls recently for a major overhaul of the program, particularly for the government to further encourage banks to cut borrowers’ principle balances on their primary loans. Nearly one in three homeowners with a mortgage owes more to the bank than their property is worth, according to Moody’s Economy.com.

AUSTIN (Austin Business Journal) – RealtyTrac’s annual foreclosure report, released yesterday, revealed Texas metro rates to be under the national average of 2.21 percent.

 Austin and Round Rock area foreclosure rates increased 39.5 percent between 2008 and 2009. About 1.25 percent of all housing units, or one in every 80 homes, foreclosed last year, and 8,002 homeowners filed. This was an increase of 54.6 percent from 2007. Of the 203 metros ranked nationwide for foreclosures, the area was ranked 117th.

 Dallas–Fort Worth ranked 94th with a 1.5 percent foreclosure rate, and Houston was 111th with 1.3 percent of its area homes foreclosed upon. San Antonio ranked 109th in RealtyTrac’s report, with a 1.31 percent foreclosure rate.

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.