BRIAN and MARIE SPRAY - Frisco TX Realtors

Like many of you, I've seen the TV commercial for an awesome sounding product called Magic Jack. Its a

USB device that you plug in a conventional phone to and voila! you can make free long distance calls to

the US and Canada. They tell you "Buy now and the first year is free! Then its only $20.00 a year!

Sound to good to be true? Maybe so. We spend alot of hard earned money on many necessary things

around here so when I hear of some inexpensive way to accomplish the same task I was paying much

more for I'm interested! Before you go and buy that gadget or service, do your due diligence! Google

them and read up on other peoples experiences with whatever the product might be. These days with all

our available resources online you'll be able to prevent making mistakes you might otherwise have

made.

I googled "Majic jack" ( I know - wrong spelling) and found this report. If its true, I really really don't like

the idea of installing something on my computer that'll basically be a huge spyware program wrapped up

in a tempting package. How often do we install software and not actually go over the terms, instead we

just click on "agree" and move on. We have to be careful these days with all the identity theft going on

and the constant junk mail coming in! Maybe theres ways to disable some of the undesirable

functions/effects on this product but I think I'll just stick with what I've got.

Buyer Beware!!!

Friday morning Jan. 16 Circuit City Stores Inc. announced it was unable to workout a sale of the company and is therefore forced to go out of business! They are closing 567 U.S stores and appx 30,000 people will lose their jobs. Circuit City's acting chief exec. James A. Markum said "We are extremely disappointed by this outcome." They had been seeking a buyer to help pull the ailing chain out of bankruptcy for some time and negotiations with a potential buyer/investor went on past midnight Thursday but no solution resulted.

Here is their official statement

Local stores that will close include:

Arlington, Cedar Hill, Dallas, Denton, Fort Worth, Frisco, Garland, Hurst, Irving, Lake Worth, Lewisville, Mesquite, Plano, Rockwall, Southlake

Listed below we have recent statistics of Real Estate activity in Frisco TX. We took all sales in December of 2007 and compared them with December 2008. As you can see, nearly every catagory has gone down. One thing to take note of is the median list price under contract actually went up 9.1%

Does this information mean that your home is worth less this year than last? Well, that depends on many things - everything from particular neighborhood, to style of home needs to be taken into account. Also there were a significant number of foreclosed homes sold this year as well, contributing to an overall lower price. The good news, is that there is less competition, and average days on the market are pretty low! If you are thinking of selling, don't fret too much over the exact value of your home because if you are buying another home anywhere around here, its value has likely been affected the same way. You may still be looking at an 'apples to apples' comparison.

If you'd like any information about your home, neighborhood or anything else, give us a call and we will be happy to answer your questions!

2007 2008 % change

New listings 322 239 -25.7%

Avg. list price $368,062 $320,399 -12.9%

Median list price $277,900 $269,900 -2.8%

Under contract 199 128 -35.0%

Avg. list price $301,826 $267,798 -11.2%

Median list price $228,900 $249,800 +9.1%

Sold 207 151 -27%

Avg. sold price $308,967 $259,907 -15.8%

Median price $227,500 $225,000 -1.0%

% sales to list price 96.55 95.97 -.6%

Avg. days on market 105 78 -25.7%

Median DOM 22 14 -36%

I'm sure by now many of you have noticed that what appeared to be a very popular spot in Frisco has

CLOSED! Yes its true! I heard rumors about it but couldn't believe it. Every time we went there, there

were lots of people there, many socializing in front of the place, enjoying their Royal Turtles or Grants

Grasshoppers (my favorite!) with their baseball teams, friends, dogs you name it! The drive through line

always had a long line. They couldn't have possibly closed - could they? I had to see for myself! We all

piled into the DFW Area Realtors.com mobile for our 'fix' of yummy frozen custard and drove over there

and - what? They are closed!!! In fact there is a large 'For Sale' sign on Gaylord! What now? How did this

happen? We felt lost, like we came home and our house was gone! We sat there idling - along with

someone else who apparently was as shocked as we were and tried to figure out what to do! We wanted

some ice cream - but where to go? We thought of Baskin Robbins over by the Kroger on Rolater and

Preston - oh and there is the Sonic Drive in right by there. We ended up going to Sonic - mainly because

we didn't want to get out of the truck. It was good but just wasn't the same :-( What happened to

Sheridan's - anyone have an inside scoop? - scoop - get it? sorry bad pun. (Sometimes I can't help

myself) I'll update this post as I get more information!!!

If you're in or around Frisco TX this year and are looking for where to go to see some outstanding Christmas light displays, look no further! We love going out on a nice cool Texas evening to check out the Christmas spirit around town and I've got a few places here where you can go if you want to be really wow'd! We like to gather up the kids in the trusty old Suburban and bring along some candy canes, a thermos of hot chocolate, maybe some doughnuts and tune in some classic Christmas music and spend a few hours on a Saturday night looking at beautiful displays that some dedicated people have spent hours upon hours setting up to celebrate His glory!

In Frisco, a MUST SEE is Jeff and Bridgette Trykoski's house on Bryson Drive. They have set up an amazing display of over 65,000 lights computer synchronized to music! They have been doing this a few years and people come from near and far to witness it! They ask for a canned food donation to the Frisco food bank and the Frisco Family services center. Check it out on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=szLmAPW39UE www.friscochristmas.com

Another place in Frisco is to visit the Frisco Christmas in the square. Its located at the corner of the Tollway and Main street. You will see the largest choreographed light display in Texas! Viewing times for these places is 5:30 to 10:00 every night until Jan. 1^st. While you're there at the square you can visit Santa or even catch a ride on a carriage ($6.00)

(the date on the above photo is wrong, it was taken on 12/20/08)

Near Frisco in the neighboring city of Plano you should visit the upscale neighborhood of Deerfield. Its located at the corner of Ohio and Legacy and is a rather large subdivision with many homes that really go all out with decorations! There is also a home here that has a fantastic synchronized display near the neighborhood clubhouse. Bring canned food for donations here too! This is a popular neighborhood and has many cul de sac roads so be prepared to deal with some slow traffic and occasional bottlenecks when people have parked on the road. We visited here last night and enjoyed 2 hours and still didn't see it all! There are a couple horse drawn carriages here! We've seen many super stretch limos here too! Its interesting to see them negotiate the cul de sacs!

East of Frisco is Mckinney. There is a great place to spend an evening here on Country Club just off Eldorado Parkway. Traffic isn't as thick but the roads here flow well and the people really take pride in their displays. You'll see some roads that have a theme and most will decorate with that in mind. Go there, you won't be sorry!

Whatever you do this season, take the time to enjoy yourselves and your family. Be thankful for all that has come your way and above all else,remember the true meaning of Christmas! Its easy to get caught up in all the stress that naturally occurs especially over money but the joyus spirit that He was born is the true meaning of Christmas and what we cannot forget - ever.