Growing number have mortgage to themselves

More singles taking the plunge, becoming homeowners
Monday, September 26, 2005
By PAULA LAVIGNE / The Dallas Morning News

In less than three weeks as a first-time homeowner, Janie France has fired a painter, hired a plumber and haggled with an insurance adjustor after her washer gushed a foot of water in her garage.

Despite the hassles, the 41-year-old interior designer said she's still confident in her decision to buy a house on her own.

She's single and living alone, and she is in good company.

Nationwide, people like Ms. France make up about one of every four households. The composition is similar in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Locally, the percentage of single-applicant home loans increased from 37 percent to 47 percent over five years, according to an analysis of conventional home loan figures.

The most common type of household has shifted in the U.S. from married couples with children as the most prominent in 1990 to people living alone in 2000, according to a recent census study.

That trend in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has parlayed into the real estate market, where experts and lenders say single buyers are a strong and growing contingent.

Jeff Updike, senior vice president of Virginia Cook Realtors, said he's seen a 4 percent increase in single homebuyers from the first nine months of 2004 to 2005. While more people are waiting longer to get hitched, they seem to be rushing to homeownership.

Mr. Updike said single people – especially younger buyers – are attracted to the same low interest rates and relaxed lending requirements that have drawn other lifelong renters into mortgages.

"With what they see and what they read about the housing market, there's really no better investment than a home," he said. Even if people plan for a family in the future, they can buy a smaller house or townhome – which they can later use as a rental property – until they are ready for spouses, kids and big back yards, Mr. Updike said.

But it's not all about the dollars and tax write-offs.

"It really feels nice to be able to say I own my own house," Ms. France said. "Being 41, it kind of grounds me a little bit."

Ms. France said she's "been a bit of a gypsy," having moved from San Francisco to New York to Dallas. She was a longtime renter and decided buying a house would be a good financial investment, she said. She said it also allowed her to join in the camaraderie of her peers who chatted about yardwork, roof repairs and water bills.

She's not married because she hasn't met the right person, but she said her friends and relatives never questioned her decision to buy a house without a husband.

"Nobody ever said, 'Gosh, Janie, could you handle this on your own?' I think, in retrospect, it's kind of odd for people to think along those lines, that owning a house is something you do with somebody else," she said. "I enjoy the fact that I don't have to argue with anybody on the placement of furniture or the color of walls."

Single and loving it

Independence is in, said Thomas F. Coleman, executive director of Unmarried America, a national nonprofit research and advocacy group for singles in Glendale, Calif.

More people are living alone and staying single because they can afford to, he said. But their desire stems from something deeper.

"You see sitcoms ... and read stories about single people and how they have more freedom in their lifestyle," said Mr. Coleman, who is single. "You see that you don't have to compromise. You can live as you want. Get up when you want. Watch whatever you want. In this particular time in society, people are really craving and enjoying more freedom and independence."

Buying a house is a big part of asserting that independence and proving you can fly solo, he said.

"If you have a partner – someone you're in this together with – all of the sudden you have this extra confidence that you can do this together and together [you'll] make better decisions," he said. However, two buyers are not always better than one.

With two people, there can be more conflict, Mr. Coleman said. And it can take longer to make decisions, which is something Mr. Updike has noticed after years of working with buyers.

"I have more people that are couples that say, 'Oh, gosh, we need to think about this or we need to think about that,' than I do among single people I take out,' " he said. One decision-maker makes for a faster offer, he said.

Ready to own

One week is all it took for Jonathan Hubble to decide he had found home in an Uptown condo. The 24-year-old human resources manager said he had temporarily moved into his parent's house after spending a year in China. When it was time to move on, he decided it would be smarter to invest and build equity in a home instead of spending the money on rent.

Some folks were skeptical that he was too young to own, but he said he's not stretching himself as far financially as some of his married friends who've moved to the suburbs.

"It's easier to live within my means," he said.

Buying a condo has made him feel like he belongs in the community, and he's already looking for opportunities to volunteer.

"I joked with all my friends that I'm a real member of society now that I have a house," he said. "I guess I just always saw it as a matter of course. For me, buying a house was like going to college. It's just something I knew I would always do."

North of Lemmon could be another Uptown

FirstWorthing plans to redevelop 25 acres near the tollway

12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, September 1, 2005

By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

Developers have quietly bought most of a neighborhood on the northern edge of Oak Lawn for an apartment and townhome community.

FirstWorthing Corp. – already one of central Dallas' busiest builders – has purchased almost 25 acres near Lemmon Avenue and the Dallas North Tollway.

The builder will knock down blocks of aging apartments and replace them with new housing.

John Allums, FirstWorthing's executive vice president, confirms that his company has acquired apartment houses along Bowser and Holland streets just north of Lemmon Avenue.

But, Mr. Allums said, the project is still in the planning stages, and it would be premature to discuss details.

Real estate brokers say FirstWorthing plans to rebuild the area as a new urban neighborhood similar to Uptown.

The property is zoned for apartment construction and could accommodate almost 1,000 units.

"It makes perfect sense as a development site," said Dallas-based apartment industry analyst Ron Witten.

"One of the struggles that the rental development industry has is finding some way to build new product they can lease at other than record-setting rents."

With land prices high in Uptown and rising on the east side of downtown, developers are looking for alternatives, he said.

"Taking a half step out of the fairway and saving a substantial amount of money on land gives the developer an opportunity," Mr. Witten said.

Most of the apartment buildings FirstWorthing bought have been emptied of tenants, and many of them are boarded up.

Most have two stories and were constructed in the 1960s.

The apartment blocks are just south of the Highland Park city limits and are close to the entrance to the Dallas North Tollway at Lemmon Avenue.

Developer Gables Residential is about to break ground on a smaller apartment community at Lemmon Avenue on the south side of the tollway.

Gables' Tom Bakewell said he isn't surprised that FirstWorthing and other builders are interested in the neighborhood.

"Even the car dealerships going in now along Lemmon are spiffy like Bentley – if you have to have a car dealership as a neighbor, that's the one to have," he said.

FirstWorthing is building in several central Dallas locations.

It has two Cityville projects east of downtown on Live Oak and on Fitzhugh avenues.

It's also planning to break ground soon on the first phase of a 16-acre apartment and retail complex on Motor Street near Parkland Memorial Hospital.