Smile, you’re on red light camera
January 28th, 2010 categories: Discover Spring Texas | views
Since 2003, over 46 cities in the State of Texas have installed red light cameras and Houston has its fair share of red light cameras too … some 70 cameras at 50 intersections. There’s significant debate as to whether the cameras decrease traffic accidents and save lives or if they are just a money maker for the city of Houston. My personal opinion of what the truth is “it depends upon who is providing the answer”. It seems very similar to if you contact four roofers and ask them if your house needs a new roof at least one of them will say “Yes”.
Where exactly are these red light cameras? The Texas Tribune has a cool interactive map that shows where all the red-light cameras are located in Houston Texas and the surrounding areas.
They also have data on a per light basis of the quantity of red light citations issued, the estimated revenue of these citations, the number of crashes, and the number of red light related crashes.
The closest red light cameras in the Spring Texas area are located by the Willowbrook Mall (one of our regional malls). The cameras are located at F.M. 1960 & Texas 249 Southbound and F.M. 1960 & Texas 249 Northbound. The data available for these locations was from the time period of July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009.
I have first hand knowledge of the traffic around the Willowbrook Mall area but I was still surprised with the quantity of citations issued. At the F.M. 1960 & Texas 249 Southbound intersection 2,147 citations were issued for an estimated revenue of $112,718 and at the F.M. 1960 & Texas 249 Northbound intersection 4,121 citations were issued for an estimated revenue of $216,353. During a 12 month period 6,268 citations were issued at these two intersections. That’s a lot of tickets issued for running red lights.
One more thing to know about the red light cameras is you do not receive a pardon just because you performed a rolling stop before turning right on a red light. As far as the camera is concerned stop means stop!
Read also:
- Tips on navigating the roads in Spring Texas
- State Law prohibits cell phone use in Spring Texas school zones
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Making sense of the new GFE and HUD-1
January 26th, 2010 categories: Home Buyer Information | views
Loan officers, escrow officers, and Realtors® have all been scrambling over the last 60 days to either implement or simply to understand the revamped GFE and HUD-1 settlement statement that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2010.
The purpose of the new GFE (Good Faith Estimate ) is to help make shopping for a home mortgage easier for borrowers and the purpose of the new HUD-1 (Housing Urban Development -1 settlement statement) is to make comparing the GFE to the settlement statement easier. Both really good things for borrowers and changes that were long overdue.
The new GFE is a huge improvement over its predecessor and it should make it easier for borrowers to compare the loans terms amongst various lenders.
What was wrong with the OLD GFE that the NEW GFE fixes?
1. Standardization. Previously the GFEs provided by lenders did not look the same making it difficult … if not impossible to compare GFEs from different lenders.
2. Identification of fee originator. The old GFE did not identify whether a fee was charged by the lender, the title company, or the insurance company. If lender 1 estimated lower third party charges than lender 2, you were lead to believe that you would be spending less money by using lender 1. As a borrower you were left trying to make decisions based upon misleading information.
3. Lender charges reduced to two items. Its a whole lot easier to identify the bottom line or the bottom number when all of the lender’s charges are rolled up into just two line items. Previously you had a list of 8 to 10 separated out charges which would be okay if Lender A called his charges the same as Lender B but that was not case. Lender A would call it a processing charge and Lender B would call it an administrative charge.
The amount of the lenders charges on the GFE have to match exactly to the HUD-1 / closing statement. They can not change.
4. Terms of loan are front and center. The old GFE did not identify if the interest rate on a borrowers loan could increase, if the loan has a balloon payment, or if there was a prepayment payment. These are all identified now on page 1 of the GFE in the Summary of your loan section. Below is an example.
The GFE does freeze the origination charge but it does not commit the lender to the rates and points shown on the GFE. The rates and points on the GFE are not final until they are locked by the lender. If the loan has been locked when the borrower receives the GFE, the GFE will show the lock period of usually 30 to 60 days. Read the rest of this entry »
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Who has the best cheese fries in Spring Texas?
January 24th, 2010 categories: Dining and Entertainment | views
Cheese fries have to be the best pig out and comfort food of all time. They probably have a gazillion calories and a high percentage of fat content but they are so good that I don’t know how anybody could resist them. At least not all the time.
If you are going to eat cheese fries you want them to be really good otherwise they are just wasted calories. A good example of wasted calories is Sonic’s cheese fries. Their cheese fries are limp fries with a small amount of cheese sauce on top. After you have eaten the first layer all the cheese is gone and all that remains are fries. Even the fries with the cheese are not that good.
So who has the best cheese fries in Spring Texas? Cheddars. Before Cheddars opened its doors for business at 21001 Interstate 45 in Spring Texas in spring of 2009, Outback Steakhouse had the best cheese fries. But that was in the past and now the best cheese fries are at Cheddars.
What makes Cheddar’s cheese fries so great? For starters, you get a lot of cheese fries for a very reasonable price of $5.99. But price isn’t everything. If they don’t taste great, it doesn’t matter how reasonable the price is.
The fries part of the cheese fries are crispy and thin but not too thin like Steak n Shake’s fries. Next they are covered with two types of melted cheese. Not cheese sauce but melted cheese. Plus there is enough cheese to have cheese with the first layer of fries and the bottom layer of fries. Then they are topped with crispy bacon and served with ranch dressing.
Crispy fries with enough melted cheese to cover all of the fries with crispy bacon and ranch dressing makes Cheddars the place for the best cheese fries in Spring Texas.
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Sellers contribution to buyers closing costs slashed 50%
January 22nd, 2010 categories: Home Buyer Information | views
This week the FHA announced changes for FHA home loans. The good news is the changes were not as drastic nor potentially devastating to the housing industry as what they could have been.
In a nutshell, the changes which will become effective sometime this summer are:
1. Maximum seller contribution to buyers closing costs reduced from 6% to 3% of the sales price. Of the three changes to FHA home loans, the reduction in the amount sellers can contribute to a buyers closing costs has the biggest impact. But even the impact of this change is going to be small.
A few years ago, it was common practice for buyers to essentially roll their closing costs and prepaids into their loan but these were the good old days. With the extra scrutiny on appraisals, buyers are no longer able to add the 4% to 5% in closing costs and prepaids on top of the sales price and still have the house appraise.
2. Upfront Mortgage Insurance Premium raised from 1.75% to 2.25%. The 0.5% increase will be a small increase in a home buyer’s monthly payment. For example on a $150,000 loan the $0.5% increase would be $750. The Mortgage Insurance Premium can be added to the loan amount.
So at today’s interest of 5%, an increase of $750 in the loan amount would increase a home buyer’s monthly payment by $4.03. Less than the cost of a combo meal at the majority of fast food restaurants.
3. If a borrower’s FICO score is below 580, the borrower would be required to put 10% down instead of 3.5%. Requiring borrowers to have a higher credit score to qualify for a minimum down payment of 3.5% is going to be of moot impact. The majority of lenders already require borrowers to have a minimum credit score of 600 or 620 to qualify for a FHA home loan. Even if the borrower was willing to put 10% down there are very few lenders who are willing to give him a loan.
If you are going to be a first time home buyer and planning on getting an FHA loan what does all these changes mean to you?
If you are planning on buying before summer, these changes will not impact you. The changes would have been made after you purchased your home in Spring Texas.
If you are planning on buying a home after spring, then you better be ready to bring more money to the closing table. Because the sellers will only be able to contribute a maximum of 3% to your closing costs and prepaids which will leave you footing the tab for the remaining 1% to 1.5%.
Read also:
- How do damage points affect your FICO credit score?
- First time home buyers tax credit, what is it, how much is it, and when does it expire?
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Winter is bragging season
January 20th, 2010 categories: Discover Spring Texas | views
Every area of the country has at least one time of the year when their weather is superior to other parts of the country. I refer to this as “bragging season”. It’s the time of the year when you call your friends and family to brag about how beautiful the weather is where you live in comparison to where they live. 
In Spring Texas winter is our bragging season and my family who live in Illinois certainly know this to be true. A typical Illinois winter is windy with finger numbing low temperatures in the teens and twenties and several snowfalls. A typical Spring Texas winter is very pleasant with daily high temperatures in the sixties and a mixture of sunshine and rain.
During the winter my telephone conversation with my sister will start off innocent enough with “How are you doing? How are the kids?” She will reply “Great. Kids are doing fine. They called off school today because of the frigid temperatures and the 5 inches of snow we received last night.”
This is when bragging season officially begins. The conversation continues with me saying “It’s really cold here today too. So cold I had to wear a coat today.” During the winter months my family and I have will have numerous conversations about the weather. All of the conversations will be pretty much the same with them suffering through another cold winter and me bragging about our mild temperatures.
My family is always very happy for winter to end and spring to arrive. But I don’t know if it is because they are tired of the snow and cold temperatures or they are tired of hearing me brag about the weather in Spring Texas. Winters in Spring Texas are one of the top 20 reasons why I live in Spring Texas.
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Where are the buyers?
January 18th, 2010 categories: Home Seller Information | views
You have probably heard of the saying “Fish where the fish are”. 
It means that the best way to catch a fish is to fish where the fish are. Sounds logical. The same principle applies to Spring Texas real estate . If you want to sell your home you need to have your home’s listing where the buyers are.
Where are all the buyers? They are on the Internet. In 2003, 71% of home buyers used the Internet to search for homes. Now fast forward six years and 90% of home buyers are using the Internet in their search for homes.
If your Spring Texas Realtor® places your listing on the HAR.com and Realtor.com websites is that enough? In my opinion, the answer is ”No, that is only the very beginning because buyers are not using just one website to search for homes. They are searching on numerous real estate websites.”
Before you list your Spring Texas house for sale, you need to ask your Realtor® what his or hers Internet marketing strategy is for your home. Does their marketing strategy include placing your listing on Craigslist , OLX, Viewr, Vast, Hotpads, Google , Yahoo, YouTube , and Facebook? Or maybe you need to ask if your Realtor® has even heard of these websites?
Next question is how is your Realtor® going to make your house stand out from the other houses on these websites? Finally, ask your Realtor® what his or hers marketing strategy is for mobile applications? On the weekends, some of these real estate websites report 20% of their traffic originates from buyers phones.
Real estate marketing is changing has CHANGED. If you want to sell your house for the most money you need to hire a Spring Texas Realtor® who knows how to “fish where the fish are”.
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Spring Texas Real Estate 2009 – Year in Review
January 15th, 2010 categories: Spring Texas Real Estate Market Reports | views
With the February 2009 numbers of home sales down 30% and median sales price down 16%, the Spring Texas real estate market was off to a frightening start. The 8.5% of the Houston Realtors who decided not to practice real estate at the end of 2008 were starting to look like the smart ones in the room.
As we progressed further into the year, our government finalized a first-time homebuyers tax program and a program to purchase mortgage backed securities keeping interest rates at record lows plus the stock market began to recover. All of these events combined helped the Spring Texas real estate market to end the year signficantly stronger than how it began.
With home sales (2,288) being down 11% and the median home price ($137,000) being down 2.5% from 2008, the real estate market for 2009 was not great. Its all relative though because if you compared our market to real estate markets in other parts of the country, our market fared significantly better.
What should you expect from the Spring Texas real estate market in 2010?
- New construction – Flat. Metrostudy expects about 18,000 new homes to be built in the Houston area which is the same number as 2009. New homes levels will be at 65% of 2006 when 51,000 homes were built.
- Interest rates – Low through Q1 then increase. Interest rates are generationally low. They will continue to hover in the low 5 percent range while the government continues its commitment to purchase mortgage backed securities. At the conclusion of the program which is anticipated to be the end of March, the interest rates will begin rising. They will end the year around the mid to upper 5 percent range.
- Hottest price ranges – $400,000 or less. During the first half of the year, the hottest price ranges will mirror 2009 which were homes priced at $400,000 or less. After the homebuyers tax credit programs end on June 30th, I predict the lower price ranges will still be the drivers of the market. The economy along with higher paying jobs are required before we will see an increase in sales activity at the upper price ranges.
- Home prices – Stable. Less new homes will favor the resale market. The less competition will keep prices stable and provide upwards pressure.
- Whose market? Buyers or Sellers? – Dependendent upon the price range. $200,000 or less price ranges the sellers will have a slight upper hand in the market, $200,000 to $400,000 will be a balanced market, and $400,000+ will be a buyers market.
How will 2010 compare to 2009? In the end the total numbers of homes sales will show a slight increase over 2009. The median sales price will also experience an increase as more homes will be sold in the higher price ranges as the economy improves.
For more numbers, check out the Real Estate Market Reports category.
The data represented is from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University and the Houston Association of Realtors MLS for single family existing homes in Area 13. Area 13 covers the geographic boundaries of East – I45 to West – Hwy 249 to South – Beltway 8 to North – Spring Cypress. A good portion of the houses in MLS area 13 have a Spring TX mailing address
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How do damage points affect your FICO credit score?
January 13th, 2010 categories: Home Buyer Information | views
Over the years, the secret behind how your credit score is calculated and how different “what ifs?” affect it have been guarded better than the Bush’s baked beans recipe . That is until recently as FICO has shared how different “what if?” scenarios can affect your credit scores .
Did you max out your Macy’s card over Christmas? Expect a credit drop of 10 to 45 points. Did you get behind and had to make a 30 day late payment? That mis-step just cost you a whopping 60 to 110 points.
What I found most interesting about the damage points is how financial mis-steps are tougher on people with great credit scores. In a few years there will be less people with great credit scores and a lot more with only decent credit scores because the FICO credit rating system makes great credit scores tougher to keep.
I have been fielding more and more questions about credit and home loans lately. The questions are coming from both buyers and sellers. The two main questions are “Are buyers still able to get loans?” and “Are the lenders requiring higher credit scores?”. The answers to both these questions are “Yes”.
Lenders are still lending money and loans are still available. The documentation and verification process is more stringent than it was a couple of years ago. Credit scores have become more important too. A couple of years ago, a borrower could get a loan with a 580 or maybe a 560 credit score. That is not the situation today. If you need a loan in order to buy that house in Spring Texas you want, you are going to need a minimum of a 620 credit score.
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Water costs on the rise …… AGAIN!!!
January 11th, 2010 categories: Home Buyer Information | views
That’s right again! Last summer, the cost of watering my Spring Texas yard increased and I wrote a post about it titled “Are the days of cheap water gone?”. The answer to the question was Yes. The portion of my water bill identified as Regional Water Authority had increased from $0.99 to $1.50 per 1,000 gallons. An increase of 51% . Now, $0.51 doesn’t sound like a lot but considering my average water usage during the summer months is 26,000 gallons that $0.51 increase meant my monthly water bill increased by $13.26.
But that was last summer’s rate. On January 1st, 2010, the Regional Water Authority groundwater pumpage fee increasedfrom $1.50 to $1.75 per 1,000 gallons. An increase of 16%. And when my MUD converts to surface water in the early part of 2010 the Regional Water Authority fee will increase to $2.20 per 1,000 gallons. An increase of $0.70 or 47% over last summer’s rate.
Thus I can anticipate the Regional Water Authority portion of my water bill to be $57.20 this summer instead of the $39.00 in the summer of 2009. In addition to the Regional Water Authority charge on my water bill, there is a charge for water, sewer, and Texas Comm Environ Quality.
Unfortunately there is absolutely nothing I can do about the rate increase. As the reason for the rate increase is to pay for the infrastructure constructed by the North Harris County Regional Water Authority (NHCRA). The NHCRA was created to comply with mandates to reduce our dependence on groundwater. Thus the NHCRA laid infrastructure to connect our MUDs with Lake Houston for a source of surface water.
We have just reached the first mandated deadline of January 1, 2010 that requires 30% of our water to come from surface water. In 2020, 70% of of water is mandated to come from surface water and by 2030 the surface water requirement increases to 80%.
Since the days of cheap water will soon become a distant memory, it’s time we all begin implementing ways to conserve water. Here’s a good list of 100 ways to conserve water to get you thinking.
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8 ways for homeowners to save money
January 8th, 2010 categories: Home Buyer Information, Home Seller Information | views
Did the holidays drain your bank account? If so, here are some tips to help you save money on the costs of homeownership this year.
1. Claim all your real estate tax exemptions - one of the easiest ways to reduce the taxes on your Spring Texas home is to claim the homestead exemption offered by the state. Go to the Harris County or Montgomery County appraisal district websites to see what exemptions are currently being applied to your account and to determine if you are eligible for any additional exemptions such as the over 65 or disability exemption.
2. Check the settings on your programmable thermostat - Adjust the heat settings to lower temperatures while you are at work and at night. Turning your thermostat down 10° – 15° for 8 hours will reduce your heating bill by 5% to 15% a year.
3. Shop your kilowatt hour rate – In Texas, electricity is deregulated giving you more than one choice of provider. Go to Powertochoose.org to compare the rates of the electrcity providers that service your area. Last summer I changed our electric provider and reduce our rate by 30%.
4. Install insulation or a radiant roof barrier - If your home is more than 5 years old there is a good chance it was not built with a radiant roof barrier. Installing a radiant barrier which can be done in existing homes will lower the temperatures in your attic and lower your cooling bill by 5% to 15%.
5. Eliminate unnecessary water usage - Last summer, the cost of water in Spring Texas increased and it increased again on January 1, 2010, and it is going to increase again by the end of March. Our days of cheap water are gone and its time to get serious about conserving water. By setting your sprinkler systems to water during the early morning hours or late evenings you will be increase the effectiveness of your watering and be able to reduce your watering times.
6. Review your homeowner’s insurance policy – Call your insurance agent and review your homeowners insurance coverage and deductibles. Next call 2 or 3 other insurance agents to get quotes for comparable levels of coverage. The rates for homeowners insurance varies greatly from company to company. You may be surprised how much you can save by changing the homeowner’s insurance companies.
7. Replace older inefficient appliances – If you have an old refrigerator or a washer and dryer that you have been meaning to replace this could be the year for you to do it. Due to the American Reinvestment and Recovery Program, you will get an additional incentive / rebate ranging from $45 to $1,600 for replacing old appliances with qualified energy efficient appliances. Not all of the details of the program have been released but the rebate is only available for purchases made from April 16 to April 25, 2010.
8. Unplug and turn off - When you leave a room turn off the lights and the television. My Dad instilled this money saving practice into us when we were very young. As I don’t think nothing made my Dad as mad as coming into an empty room and seeing the lights and television on. In addition to turning off the lights and television, you should turn off the home computers and printers when not in use.
Unplug the toaster oven, coffee maker, toaster, electric can opener, and clock in the spare bedroom. All of these still use electricity even when they are not in use.
If you have a great way to save money on the costs of homeownership, please share it with us by adding it in the comments section.
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