Steve Shatsky - Dallas Real Estate & Short Sale Specialist (469)449-9840

The City of Dallas has announced a program for people with small lawns to trade in their gas powered lawn mowers for discounted electric lawn mowers. This is a great opportunity to do something for yourself and for the environment!

The details can be found online at: http://www.greendallas.net/pdfs/mown_down_air_pollution.pdf

YOU MUST CALL OR EMAIL AND GET A RESERVATION TO PARTICIPATE

Who: City of Dallas Residents ( Must show proof of residency)

What: Trade in working gas powered lawn mowers for a 50% off Electric Lawn Mower.

When: Saturday June 21, 2008

Time: 9am-3pm or as long as supplies last. Only 400 mowers available

Where: Dallas City Hall. Horseshoe Parking Area, 1500 Marilla St., Dallas, TX 75201

Why: According to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the engines in gas powered lawn equipment pollutes more than car engines. ONE HOUR OF LAWN MOWING WITH A GAS MOWER POLLUTES AS MUCH AS FOUR HOURS OF DRIVING YOUR CAR.

For a Reservation: Call Nicole Cooper with the City of Dallas at 214-670-6646 or email her at nicole.cooper@dallascityhall.com

With a reservation, you will bring your gas mower (emptied of gas & oil...see note below) to city hall
and trade it in. You can buy an electric Neutron 5.2 Battery-Powered mower for a total of $198.61 plus
$16.39 tax.

Recent studies show that electric plant pollution to recharge this is less than gasoline pollution, and
costs less (despite higher electric rates).

All mowers must be in working order and emptied of gas & oil to receive the disount. NOTE: To properly
dispose of Gas & Oil take it to Home Chemical Collection Center, 11234 Plano Road (North of 635
LBJ), Dallas TX 75243 call 214-553-1765

Yes, I did it... I walked to Starbucks this morning... and I will admit I felt like a bit of a freak doing it.

A couple of years ago I sold my house and moved to a condo in the Uptown/Turtle Creek section of Dallas. I was tired of the responsibilities that a house brought with it and longed for a less personally responsible lifestyle like I had when I lived in my co-op in New York City a few years prior. I missed the urbanism (which does not exist in Dallas) and decide that Uptown was close enough and that I would see how I liked it. For over two years now though, while I do not miss mowing grass or pruning trees or treating fire ant mounds, something else was missing... it was the lack of freedom from the car.

Dallas is a car city. We drive EVERYWHERE... whether we need to or not, and what I have discovered lately is that there are a lot more times that I don't need to drive that I do simply out of habit. Within a half mile of the front door of my building there are restaurants, supermarkets, bookstores, coffee shops, bars and parks... and I have driven to all of them. I have wasted gasoline, avoided passive exercise and just been generally lazy. Hi, my name is Steve and I am a car-aholic!

The ironic thing that I learned on my 4 block walk to Starbucks today is that people in Dallas don't know what to make of a person walking on the streets who is not clearly en route from a car to a store or vice versa. The looks I got from people in their cars as I walked along Oak Lawn Avenue this morning seemed to imply things like "Hey, where's your car? Don't you own one?" or "What's that strange back and forth motion you are making with your legs to propel you?"

And to those people I answer "It's called walking. Get used to it because my $4.00 coffee at Starbucks tasted a whole lot better knowing that it wasn't a $4.50 cup of coffee when I factor in the $3.80/gallon cost of gasoline it usually includes to get to and from Starbucks!"

Are you looking to save gasoline by moving and cutting down your reliance on a car? As gasoline prices rise, the savings by reducing your reliance on gasoline for commuting, getting out in the evenings or just being able to walk to Starbucks for your morning coffee could make owning your own home Uptown, Downtown, Addison Circle, Victory Park or other area with easy access to DART Rail or other public transportation more financially rewarding than ever! Contact me today and let me help you explore the home ownership options that make the most sense for your personal lifestyle needs!

This is the question I hear more and more frequently. With the national news reporting on real estate crises across the nation it becomes more and more confusing to prospective home buyers in Dallas. The simple fact is that the Dallas housing market, while affected by many of the same factors that are impacting people nationally, is not being impacted anywhere near as significantly.

All real estate markets are LOCAL markets, and basing decisions on NATIONAL information just isn't the smartest way to make a housing related decision, so to help, visit www.dfwhousingfacts.org. See what the experts are saying about our local market and use their perspective and guidance to make the right decision that suits your needs... then call me to help you locate and purchase your new home!

Just 2 days ago I posted a Blog entry titled Welcome to Real Estate Word-a-palooza! Anyone have a Dictionary? In it, I wrote about new real estate terminology. One of the terms I discussed was "TOD".

For those who missed it, TOD stands for "Transit-oriented Development" and is a term used to describe development that is adjacent to or has mass transit (such as DART Rail here in Dallas) as a feature of its design. I first saw this term used in The Dallas Morning News a few months ago and have heard it used by people in presentations twice since then, so this must be an up and coming term! Locally, projects such as Mockingbird Station and the upcoming Lake Highlands Town Center are two examples.

Well, I just was catching up on my newspaper reading and in yesterday's Dallas Morning News there is an article about 2 new TOD apartment complexes going up at the intersection of Maple Avenue and Kimsey Drive. One development anchored by a former hosiery factory that will feature loft apartments and will be a Mixed Use project (another term in my Word-a-palooza blog posting). The other will be new construction rental apartments. Both of these sites are roughly 2 blocks from the future DART Rail station at Inwood Road and Denton Drive.

The Dallas Real Estate market is evolving changing and continuing to grow. As the new trends in real estate emerge I am glad to see them take root and flourish. Are you seeing new trends in your area? If so, let me know.

And if you are looking for a Dallas Real Estate Agent to assist you in buying or selling your home, let me know about that too. I'd love to hear from you!

I try to look for and emphasize the good news in the real estate market... and there is a lot of good news out there. Interest rates are low, buyers seem to be interested in buying again after what seemed to be a slow 4th quarter of 2007. Well priced and well updated homes are in high demand in several areas of town, and inventory is still high enough that buyers have some good choices.

But some numbers just are difficult to ignore! Case in point, I was reading the newspaper last week and sadly was not entirely shocked to see a story reporting a rise in homes scheduled for foreclosure next month. What did surprise me was the percentage rise reported... it was an increase of more than 30% from the same month last year!

I took some notes while reading the article. Among them, I noted that for the DFW Metroplex 5,300+ homes are scheduled to be sold at auction next month and that in some counties the increase was as high as 50%. Dallas County had the lowest increase, but still was reported to be a 22% increase.

Fortunately, foreclosure may not be the only solution for homeowners dealing with financial and life challenges. Recent changes to the tax laws now make a Short Sale solution an even more attractive option for struggling homeowners who are facing foreclosure.

Do you qualify for a Short Sale in the Dallas / Fort Worth area? Need to speak with a Short Sale Specialist? Please visit my website at www.homesalesremedy.com and email or call me today for more information. I will be happy to schedule a consultation so that we can get started on helping you move forward!