Donna Harris

I found this chart at frontdoor.com and found the information very interesting. This chart compares home construction with Dallas and the entire state of Texas.

As you can see, Dallas was well above the curve before the rest of the state of Texas could catch up.

This would explain why there are so many older parts of the city as much of the construction was in the 50's, 60's, and 70's.

Even though there has been tons of new construction in Dallas in the 1980's, 90's, and into the 2000's, the numbers seem miniscual compared to construction throughout the state. It's like builders all of a sudden realized that they could build in other cities besides Dallas, and they took off.

Enter, the Suburbs...

America's Got Talent will be in North Texas at the Fort Worth Convention Center at the The New You Expo Saturday, March 14 and Sunday, March 15, 2009 from 12pm-3pm.

Last year, North Texas made a huge impression including the indoor football team's dancing team, The Desperados.

There are lots and lots of rules, so go here to read them all. Basically, be there early as there is no guarantee that you'll be seen with only a 3 hour window each day.

The North Texas Tollway Authority has been working on making 121 a tollway rather than a regular highway. Many lengths of the new tollway have been up for a few months, with more to come.

It currently runs from Coppell through Frisco and heading through McKinney.

At this time, they are looking into selecting a name for this Tollway. There are new rules and regulations in naming Tollways, and you can read those rules here if you can't sleep at night. 121 is the first Tollway to be named since the new rules took effect.

Here are the choices:

Interurban Tollway. Personally, I don't like it. 121 runs through the SUBurbs and not an urban city.

Sam Rayburn Tollway. This one is ok. Sam is the longest serving Speaker of the House of Representatives, 1940-1961.

121 Tollway. I like it! It's simple. It's what we've been calling the highway for years. Everyone already knows the name. It would lead to less confusion.

NTTA even put together a 5 minute video you can watch that talks about the naming of the tollway. You have until March 6, 2009 to let your opinion be heard, so if you have any thoughts on the subject, you can email TalktoNTTA@ntta.org.

For years and years, HotOn! Homes has been on one channel on Sundays. And now, starting this weekend, they are not only changing channels, but they're changing days as well.

HotOn! Homes is moving to CBS 11 on Saturday mornings at 8:30am. I'm not sure why there was a change, but why did NBC sell the rights to Scrubs to CBS? It happens.

Tune in to watch the new communities in the area, and then contact me before visiting the communities! You should always have a REALTOR® on your side as the Builders' Sales Representative works for the Builder and represents the Builder's best interests, not yours!

Crime decreased 10% in Dallas, TX in 2008 over 2007. Every category of crime breakdown was lower in 2008. That's great! The murder count was "only" 170 within the actual city limits which is the lowest since 1966.

Violent crime stats were down 14% and the previous year had a 12% decline. If Dallas can keep these types of numbers up, Dallas is going to start being seen on one of the safest cities in the country lists.

The final numbers haven't been put out yet, but it's looking like Dallas is going to have the largest crime reduction of any major city across the country. That's not really a stat to be too proud of as we still have a lot of crime, but being at the top of that list shows Dallas is working hard to change their image.