This year’s tour will feature 6 beautiful homes and a local school, ranging from a new, modern farmhouse on Coronado to historic J.L. Long Middle School to a revamped Hutsell on Lakewood Boulevard.

As usual, the first peek will be from those participating in the candlelight tour on Friday evening, which features an additional home.

For tickets or more information, visit the Lakewood Home Festival website.  Proceeds from ticket sales for this beautiful home tour benefit Lakewood Elementary, J.L. Long Middle School and Woodrow Wilson High School.

The law, passed in 2010, imposes a 3.8% surtax beginning next year on many types of real estate transactions. This will not apply to all sellers and is not a sales tax. However, many common transactions are included in the new law.

That’s why we wanted to let you know about Utility Concierge, a 100% FREE service that will set up all of your utilities for you.

You tell them the services you need and they will search the rates of local service providers, making appointments on your behalf with the providers of your choosing.  Think of all the time and hassle that will save!

Give us a call to find your next home, and then check out Utility Concierge to make the move a breeze.

The housing boom and bust gave rise to the myth of a “national” housing market. After all, prices rose in almost every part of the country until 2006, when they began dropping from coast to coast.

But today’s story in the Journal looks at how the beginnings of housing recoveries are neighborhood and even street specific. While the media are often pressed to generalize about the national market, or to highlight cities that, on the whole, are rising or falling, most real-estate agents will remind buyers that broad housing indexes may not hold much water when it comes to pricing their homes.

Zillow provided data that looks at the share of ZIP Codes within a given market where values are rising or falling. With demand clearly stronger than one year ago, the areas that are doing best are those neighborhoods that have “always had a premium associated with them,” says Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist.

In some ways, this might seem unfair, because many of those communities also saw less dramatic price declines. “The non-premium areas took it on the chin,” says Mr. Humphries. “The premium areas took their cake and are eating it, too.”

The pattern isn’t true everywhere. In markets that have seen a glut of foreclosures, such as Miami and Phoenix, some of the hardest hit parts of town are seeing the most dramatic home price appreciation. (Of course, prices are rising from an extremely depressed level in those areas—and the supply of homes is constrained by many sellers who owe more than their homes are worth and aren’t choosing to sell, even if they’d like to).

Winners:

Desirable communities: The places where people always want to live have done well. This includes neighborhoods that are the closest to the city center, with low crime rates, attractive housing stock, accessibility to major job centers, and good schools.

Attractively priced homes: Just because homes are in a choice neighborhood doesn’t mean they’re selling. They aren’t selling if they’re overpriced, and some high-end neighborhoods are still seeing sellers test the market at unrealistic prices, say real-estate agents.

Losers:

Far-flung exurbs: Why would buyers move to the outskirts of town, or settle for a neighborhood that tried to gentrify during the bubble but didn’t quite make it, when lower prices have made formerly-out-of-reach communities more accessible? Some of these places could face a double whammy, as they also faced higher shares of subprime loans.

When the so-called “shadow inventory” of foreclosed properties that haven’t yet been taken back by banks does materialize, it’s likely to strike many of these communities while bypassing the more established parts of town that saw less dramatic housing bubbles.

Townhouses and condominiums: These were often an attractive entry point during the bubble to homeowners who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford single-family homes in the same neighborhoods. But now that prices have corrected, would-be buyers aren’t interested in these properties if they can get a single-family home. “Townhouses are the inventory of last resort,” says Glenn Kelman, chief executive at brokerage Redfin Corp. “Single-family homes are doing much better.”

Feel free to call us with any questions, or for a lender referral. There are many good options, ranging from retail lenders to small mortgage banks and everything in between.

This home had been beautifully remodeled in 2012 and boasted natural oak  floors throughout, new kitchen and bathroom cabinets, custom tile work, designer plumbing and electrical fixtures, and a superb 200 square foot deck. Congratulations to these first-time home buyers on their purchase!

The tour spotlights gardens where Water-Wise and EarthKind™ gardening have been utilized. Basically, this type of gardening is designed to preserve water resources while maintaining a gorgeous landscape. 30 minute informational talks about the gardening will also be given every hour at tour headquarters. To learn more about the tour, call (214)  670-3155 or visit the Save Dallas Water website.

The home tour will feature seven homes, allowing visitors to explore some of the city’s most fabulous early 20th century properties. A champagne brunch in Savage Park on Sunday will feature entertainment from a big-band orchestra. For more information about the weekend, visit the Swiss Avenue Historic District website!

We always love working with first-time home buyers, and this cute couple was no exception.  Over the course of several months we showed them dozens of properties, contemplated a few offers, almost made it onto an HGTV show, and finally found the one.

The home that this couple fell in love with couldn’t have been more perfect – it was beautifully updated and charming, in their ideal neighborhood of Lakewood Heights, and had a great floor plan with room to grow into.  We were able to help them snag the home just as it came on the market – and they were able to close on the home just in time for an exciting marriage proposal in their beautiful new backyard.  Congratulations to the happy couple!!

This Sunday, April 29th, the Turtle Creek Association is hosting its 11th Annual Turtle Creek Home Tour from 1-5 pm.

These five private residences will be featured on the tour, followed by an after party:

Click here to purchase tickets for the 11th Annual Turtle Creek Home Tour, and click here to learn more about this prestigious part of town!