Through an exclusive agreement with the Associated Press, the newly created “RE/MAX National Housing Report” for the U.S. is being distributed to the news media on a monthly basis. The report for August was released on September 24, 2008. With extensive national distribution, the monthly report is bringing tremendous exposure for the RE/MAX brand.

The report is designed to fill the need for an accurate and comprehensive gauge of today’s real estate market. It’s unique because it provides data for all types of residential properties (single-family homes, condos and townhomes) and covers a large sampling of 60 metropolitan areas, representing all 50 states.

“We want to give the most thorough representation of the marketplace possible.” says Dave Liniger, Chairman and Co-Founder of RE/MAX International. “By including entire metropolitan areas in all 50 states, we hope our report will become the most complete guide to the overall health of our national real estate marketplace.”

The Associated Press will prepare news stories and informational, interactive graphics based on the monthly updates for use by its extensive broadcast, print and Internet subscribers.

“It’s critical at this point in time to have the most reliable information available,” Liniger says. “The consumer is anxious to know what this market is doing and where it’s headed. The RE/MAX National Housing Report will provide sales, inventory and price information that can help homebuyers and sellers get through this market.”

The Titus Woman Ministry is a 501 (c)3 faith-based nonprofit organization dedicated to serve the community through the holistic development of women in need.

One of our primary goals is to construct and operate a homeless shelter for women and their children in the Waller area, with the intent of equipping the women to enter (or re-enter) mainstream society and become self-sustaining and providers for their children. This proposed shelter will be constructed in Waller County, Texas and will house families from all the surrounding communities.

We have opened a resale shop, name Grace & Mercy, on March 1, 2008. Funds obtained from sales of merchandise at the Grace & Mercy resale shop will help fund this project, we are asking for the support of your church and the community to make the vision a reality. Come out and buy our resale merchandise.

Any donations to this worthy cause will be appreciated.

The shop is called Grace & Mercy for it was God’s grace that gave us the vision and His mercy will allow us to carry it through. Can we count on you?

The resale shop wiill carry furniture, clothing (for the family), household goods, and much, much more. It is located at 71 Scroggins Lane Waller, Texas (off FM 1488 In the Held Store Mini Warehouses). The grand opening was March 1, 2008.

For further information and/or donations, contact Rosemary Butler @ 936-931-1726; 281-682-4177 or Carol O’Brien @) 281-302-S333 or Fern Poyser at 936.931.3344. Pass the word and support this God given vision. We thank you in advance for what you will do.

The Titus Woman Ministry is preparing to take Waller County for Jesus!

We have secured retail space in the Fieldstore area of northern Waller county to open the Grace & Mercy resale shop.  This will enable us to be open more often in an effort to generate the funds necessary to work towards the shelter for women and children in Waller county.

We praise God for this small stride and look forward to many, many more fruitful days and bountiful blessings as we reach out to the community.

A recently enacted law (HB 1530, 80th Legislature, Regular Session) requires any person applying for or renewing a broker or salesperson license on or after January 1, 2008 to provide their fingerprints, in a specified format, in order to enable an FBI criminal history check to be performed. These new fingerprint requirements apply only to brokers and salespersons. They do not apply to other TREC licensees, such as home inspectors. Once fingerprints are on file with DPS for a TREC license, a licensee will not need to be fingerprinted for subsequent renewals.

This new fingerprinting requirement for Texas realtors is very welcome.  This is good news for the real estate community.  It will give homeowners and property owners a greater sense of security knowing that the people responsible for selling or showing their homes are not wanted for any crimes.  Also, should any criminal activity occur within or on a property owner’s property, the law enforcement agencies can quickly and easily identify the perpetrator(s) through this new fingerprinting requirement.

The Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) conducts background checks on ALL licensees.  This new fingerprinting requirement will NOT affect current licensees’ licensing status UNLESS that person has committed a new crime and is convicted of a felony offense within the state of Texas. 

If a licensee has committed new crimes and has new felony convictions which were not reported to TREC since he or she last applied for a real estate license, the new convictions resulting from a background check may or may not hinder the issuance of a real estate license.  TREC will decide if the licensee’s license should be renewed after conducting their own independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding the new felony conviction.

Under no circumstances will TREC suspend or revoke a licensee’s license unless (1) they falsify or try to hide any new felony convictions (2) they willingly lie about having new felony convictions (3) they refuse to submit to fingerprinting and background checks and (4) they fail to pay their renewal fees or honor any delinquent debts owed to TREC.

Affordable mortgage money is the fuel that is going to pull the real estate market out of the woods. And there are some encouraging signs that may be happening right now.

Take a look at interest rates: They plunged last week by nearly a quarter of a point on 30-year fixed-rate money — down to 5.74 percent from 5.98 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.

Then there was the big jump in new loan applications from people looking to buy houses. They were up by almost 11 percent for conventional conforming loans — those are the types funded by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — but up by an amazing 21.1 percent for government-backed mortgages, primarily FHA.

You can be the world’s grouchiest, grimmest housing market bear … . But you can’t deny that something is stirring out there in the market.

It may not be the end of the down cycle as a whole, but it’s certainly pointing to a more active spring season than the naysayers on Wall Street have projected.

There were some other positive signs that popped up last week as well: The total inventory of unsold houses dropped by 3 percent. New homes for sale dropped 2.1 percent. Those inventory numbers are critically important because they tend to be heavy drags on local markets — pushing prices down and making buyers pickier.

Even new home sales did better than most analysts had predicted: They dropped by 1.8 percent last month, which may not sound good, but that decline was measured off upward revisions of the two prior months’ sales.

In other words, there were more home sales going on than reported earlier in January and December, and overall sales are stabilizing.

Now, in fairness, not everything is cheery out there. Consumers are still rattled by the economy and the upheavals they see on Wall Street. The latest consumer confidence index from the Conference Board nosedived to levels usually associated with recessions.

People are worried. They’re spending less, and that is rippling throughout the economy. Continuing price declines in the once-booming housing bubble markets are also keeping consumers on the sidelines. Many of them don’t want to commit to a purchase until they are sure prices won’t go much lower.

So all in all: There are unmistakable glimpses of light out there. You can’t — and shouldn’t — ignore them.

But we’ve still got a way to go before we can officially pronounce the correction cycle done, down and out.

FERN POYSER HAS JOINED THE TITUS WOMAN MINISTRY LAUNCHED BY ROSEMARY BUTLER IN WALLER, TX.

Titus Woman Ministry has opened a resale shop on March 1 in Waller, Texas.

WALLER – The Titus Woman Ministry is a 501 (c)3 faith-based nonprofit organization dedicated to serve the community through the holistic development of women in need.

One of our primary goals is to construct and operate a homeless shelter for women and their children, with the intent of equipping the women to enter (or re-enter) mainstream society and become self-sustaining and providers for their children. This proposed shelter will be constructed in Waller County, Texas and will house families from all the surrounding communities.

We will open a resale shop, named Grace and Mercy, March 1,2008. To help fund this project, we are asking for the support of your church and the community to make the vision a reality. Come out and buy our resale merchandise.

Any donations to this worthy cause will be appreciated.

The shop is called Grace and Mercy for it was God’s grace that gave us the vision and His mercy will allow us to carry it through. Can we count on you?

The resale shop wiill carry furniture, clothing (for the family), household goods, and much, much more. It is located at 71 Scroggins Lane Waller, Texas (off FM 1488 In the Field Store Mini Warehouses). The grand opening was March 1, 2008.

Thereafter, the resale shop will be open the first Saturday of each month with the same operating hours from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m..

For further information and/or donations, contact Rosemary Butler @ 936-931-1726; 281-682-4177 or Carol O’Brien @) 281-302-5333; 713-294-1476 Fern Poyser @ 936-931-3344. Pass the word and support this God given vision. We thank you in advance for what you will do.

With the State of Texas being the 8th largest economy in the world (oh yes!) and with the population projected to increase by 17 million by the year 2040, it should come as no surprise that land prices in Texas is soaring to new heights (no pun intended).

Texas land markets continued to push into unchartered territory in 2006.  Driven by an unprecedened demand for land, the statewide price per acre jumped 23 percent over 2005 market levels. 

The 2006 prices represent an appreciation at a 14% annual compound rate since 2001 and a more than 93% total increase over the five-year period.  This was the fourth straight year annual price growth exceeded 10%.

Fueled by high demand, Texas recorded 8,215 land sales transactions, slightly below 2005′s record volume of 8,368.  The explosion in land buying activity that began in 2002 continues unabated.

Market developments in 2006 reflected an increasingly intense contest for control of the Texas countryside.  Investment minded buyers continued to pour funds into land purchases, and recreational buyers rushed to get in before prices climbed even higher.

Current activity sugests that by the end of 2007, Texas land prices will post another sizeable gain.

I was honored to be present at the July Waller Economic Development Corp. monthly networking breakfast at which State Senator Glenn Hegar was present and briefed us (Waller area business and community leaders) on the state budget and other topics.  Here’s the scoop:

• The 80th Legislative Session was very successful in limiting government spending, increasing our individual liberties, and promoting traditional family values. 

• Conservatives can be very proud of these successes, despite a few losses, such as the voter identification bill and the eminent domain reform bill which the Governor needlessly vetoed.

• In the state’s budget, Texans received a record $14.2 billion in school district property tax reduction.  This was the first state budget in which a surplus was not used to grow government, rather $2.5 billion was left un-appropriated to continue property tax reductions in the future and another $4.3 billion was left in the State’s rainy day fund. 

• Taxpayers gained a victory in the elimination of the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund tax, thus saving Texans over $200 million a year.  In actual new state spending, the new budget will increase 2.65% per year over the previous state budget, even though our state’s population grew by almost 9% in the last two years. 

• A few other major successes of the last session include:

• Overturning the Governor’s HPV vaccine mandate,

• Placing a moratorium on comprehensive development agreements (the Trans Texas Corridor),

• Enacting a hard ten percent appraisal cap so that your property taxes can no longer increase up to thirty percent in a single year,

• Extending the no-call list in Texas to cell phones,

• Providing students in public schools greater freedom of expression concerning their religious views on school campuses,

• Ensuring taxpayers have greater transparency over state spending, allowing high schools to offer elective courses on the Bible,

• Implementing tougher penalties for repeat child molesters, increasing funding for our state parks system,

• Adopting penalties for businesses that employ illegal workers, and

• Improving our second amendment rights so that Texans may defend themselves with deadly force in their homes, cars, and workplace.

The Waller County area could soon have its first hospital in some 20 years if efforts currently under way prove successful.

For more than a year, Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace Dwayne Charleston has spearheaded the drive to build a new hospital in the northern half of Waller County and is now seeking support from local governmental entities for the project.

Charleston explained the project to the Hempstead City Council during a regular meeting Monday night.

A site for the 25-bed acute-care, teaching hospital has not been selected, Charleston said, but three sites are under consideration. He said plans are to break ground for the construction in six to seven months.

Renaissance Healthcare Systems of Houston will own and operate the hospital and Caldwell Watson of Houston will be the developer.

Charleston said the hospital will be built and operated with private funds and the project will not call for formation of a hospital district. A non-profit Waller County health foundation will be formed, he said. No projected total costs for the project were listed.

Renaissance currently operates hospitals in Dallas, Terrell, Groves, Grand Prairie and Houston.

The Waller County hospital is proposed to be a teaching hospital in conjunction with the Prairie View A&M University College of Nursing and the Texas A&M University Health Sciences Center and will serve as an additional learning lab for the PVAMU Medical Academy.

The new 25-bed critical-care medical facility will offer services “commensurate with other regional hospitals in the area,” including full emergency room services, delivery rooms, day surgery and other medical needs, Charleston said.

A group of county and city officials have visited Renaissance Healthcare facilities, including County Judge Owen Ralston, county Economic Developer Director Vince Yokum, Hempstead Mayor Michael Wolfe and Alderman Larry Wilson, Prairie View Economic Development 4B Corp.

Director and City Councilman Herb Thomas and PVAMU’s Center for Innovative Economic Development Director Dr. Freddie Richards.

During Monday’s council meeting Wolfe and Wilson commented favorably on what they had observed.

“I was very impressed with their facilities and technology,” Wolfe said. “It would be very, very advantageous for us to get on board. I urge the council to support this effort.”

“I looked at one of their facilities and I was very impressed,” Wilson said.

Charleston told the council, “We want to make sure we have the broad support of the cities, the county and the citizens. We want your imput in helping us put this together.”

He asked the city to sign the letter of agreement supporting the project. “The agreement is not a contract, it just says you are interested in the project and we want the city to be a part of it. We are not asking for tax revenue, this is a totally private funded hospital.”

Charleston said the county will be asked to designate part of its annual indigent fund to use in the operation of emergency services for the local community.

He pointed out that the new facility will “decrease by hundreds of miles what the Waller County EMS travels each week transporting patients to area hospitals. The EMS now takes patients to six hospitals, all outside the county.

“We need to take care of our own destiny and take responsibility for ourselves,” Charleston said.

©Houston Community Newspapers Online 2007

Safety is another great plus within Waller County. Waller County is a very safe community, which is attractive to both business and residential development. Comparing the total number of incidents of crime to its neighbor Harris County, Waller County pails in comparison with only 972 incidents of crime compared with 187,751 in Harris County. These numbers speak to the quality of life in the community.