Dan Green: Purchase loans up; refis down
According to Ellie Mae:
- July Purchase approval rate : 58.7% of applications approved, up from 57.8% in June
- July Refinance approval rate : 37.9% of applications approved, down from 38.9% in June
Upscale Cowtown condos selling again
By Sandra Baker
FORT WORTH, Texas — It took five years, but the last unsold penthouse perched atop The Tower in downtown Fort Worth is under contract.
Read all about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
It’s happening in Oklahoma City, too, on a more modest scale.
Read all about it in The Oklahoman/NewsOK.com.
WHICH reminds me: I got wind that the top spot at City Place was on the verge of selling. Note to self: Check it out.
–rm
Have home prices hit bottom? Only “The Shadow” knows, Freddie Mac’s Frank Nothaft says
By Frank E. Nothaft
Chief Economist, Freddie Mac
Have we hit bottom in house prices or is the so-called “shadow inventory” lurking, ready to send house prices tumbling again?
Read his thoughts on Freddie Mac’s Executive Perspectives Blog.
–rm
: ‘Sharpie parties’ — domestic terrorism against property
In the age Facebook and Twitter, a new crime has hit America: “Sharpie parties,” gatherings of revelers armed with “Sharpie” magic markers and lured by social media invitations to wreak havoc on foreclosed homes.
I know people are hurting. I know people want to lash out. But this ain’t right. It’s domestic terrorism against property.
–rm
Playing chicken with the environment in eastern Oklahoma?
BY SUSAN HYLTON
Tulsa World Staff Writer
Sunday, August 12, 2012
WATTS — A Texas man has been given the green light to build six large-scale chicken houses on property he purchased in Adair County, prompting concerns from residents about further pollution from excess poultry waste in the protected Illinois River.
Read all about it in the Tulsa World.
I don’t like it. I’ve been on some of those big chicken farms and it takes more than one person to run ‘em. It’ll be a frickin’ chicken disaster waiting to hatch.
–rm
Texas farmer sows seeds of doubt over Keystone Pipeline
By CHRISTY HOPPE
Dallas Morning News Austin Bureau
SUMNER — The line across Julia Trigg Crawford’s family farm is practically nothing — a rivet in a skyscraper, a pebble on the highway, just four football fields out of the 1,700 miles that would constitute the Keystone XL pipeline.
But as the 6-foot former Lady Aggie basketball standout spreads her arms marking the planned route across her field of coastal grass, she presents a formidable obstacle for pipeline companies.
“The line in the sand for my family is that we don’t believe a foreign company building a pipeline to put money in their pockets can take a Texan’s land. If you’re going to take it, you’re going to have to prove you can,” Crawford said.
Read all about it in the Dallas Morning News.
–rm
Whither Hotel & Motel Liquidators (NW 23 and Walker Avenue, OKC)?
It’s for sale. Here’s the listing.
Anybody know who, if anybody, is sniffing around?
–rm
