Question: What's a New Year's resolution you wish your local leaders would make for 2007?

12:00 AM CST on Saturday, December 30, 2006

Approve public funding of elections like the Clean Elections law in Arizona.

Lynn Walters, Irving

I wish the city leaders of Lewisville would not clear-cut any more land for buildings that end up empty. When we moved here 18 years ago, there were trees and fields everywhere. Now, all I see are empty shopping centers and storage buildings.

Jennifer Lane, Lewisville

My hope for the new year is that the Bedford City Council members will really strive to understand the issue and hear more than one side before they vote on a resolution or ordinance.

Debbie Schmid, Bedford

I wish that state legislators would be more concerned about clean air than about the bottom line of TXU and the cement kilns in Midlothian. They are allowing these companies to reap unnecessary profits at the expense of the air quality of the entire area. Our elected officials should be demanding that these companies use the best available technology to reduce emissions.

Lois Day, Irving

Stop issuing building permits for commercial and multifamily developments without more-than sufficient infrastructure in place to support them: roads, water, drainage, electricity, green space. All the tax benefits in the world we may derive from new commercial entities cannot make up for the heavy traffic, water shortages, poor roads, flooding, crowding and loss of the country-living atmosphere for which we moved here.

Gale David, Flower Mound

It is my eternal wish that the City Council in Irving would make a serious and immediate plan to upgrade and even save the numerous older neighborhoods in Irving that have deteriorated dramatically in recent years. They are breeding places for crime and are causing longtime, good families to leave our town. This issue gets serious discussion at election time only, and after elections, no one exercises the leadership to make a difference.

Nell Anne Hunt, Irving

Return to focusing on common sense instead of teamwork – common sense usually leads to teamwork. The other way around usually leads to the tail wagging the dog and the will of the taxpayers being ignored.

Sue Richardson, Irving

Nov. 10 front page: "Legislators slam record TXU profits." How about a resolution to follow through on getting this back under control?

Butch Murden, Irving

Try telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I wish they would also do what we, the people, ask them to do and not what they think is best and in their self-interest.

Alfred Hersh, Carrollton

When they say they will help education, please spend some time in schools and classrooms to see what will really help education.

Tammie Gurley, Lewisville

Protect property owners from having their land taken, and protect citizens from taxation when used for private economic development in the form of sports stadiums, condos, retail shops, private toll roads, etc. Quit wasting millions and millions of dollars in tax money on "pet" boondoggle projects!

Linda Lancaster, Arlington

Enforce our laws, and cut wasteful spending of tax dollars.

Janice Grimm, Denton

Stay focused. It seems as though things sometimes get so sidetracked that nothing gets accomplished. Make a list, and mark things off as they get done!

Judy Gaman, Southlake

Stop raising taxes and spending. In Arlington, we have a problem with the City Council loving to do both.

Richard Weber, Arlington

Make it known to us what they are doing for the public! Promises made, promises kept, promises in progress! That way, we can intelligently determine if we want to keep or change them.

Shirley Gordon Jackson, Arlington

Single women take No. 2 spot in home market

Realtors refocus to keep pace with trend

08:58 AM CST on Friday, December 8, 2006

By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

Laurie Minchew has been in her new home for only about a week.

But the 35-year-old single woman said she made the right decision to buy the three-bedroom house in Red Oak.

The appeal was both the lifestyle and investment potential of homeownership.

"It was about 50-50," said Ms. Minchew, who was previously living with a friend. "It's still all very new for me, but I like it."

The latest housing industry surveys show that single women are the fastest-growing segment of homebuyers – now second only to married couples. They account for nearly one in four homebuyers and purchase houses at more than twice the rate of single men.

Researchers say it's a combination of social changes and finances that's causing the increase.

"More women are simply living alone – either never married or formerly married – and are much more active in career paths earning more money than ever before," said James Gaines, an economist with Texas A&M University's Real Estate Center.

Mr. Gaines said it is also "no secret that for the past five years or better, homeownership has been a very desirable investment position."

He also points out that "historically this was a small group in terms of homeownership, so any increase will look large in percentage terms."
Also Online

Who's buying houses (.pdf)

Over the last 10 years, single female buyers have been the fastest- growing segment of the housing market, according to surveys by the National Association of Realtors.

This year they make up about 22 percent of homebuyers, compared with 14 percent in 1995, Realtors' research shows. At the same time, the number of married couples in the market has fallen by almost 10 percentage points to 61 percent, and single male buyers have remained unchanged at about 9 percent.

Whatever the reason, homebuilders are catching on to the shift in the market.

"We are looking for opportunities to address this market," said builder Steve Wall, who sold Ms. Minchew her home in north Ellis County. "Having products that address each of the buyer groups is important.

"There was a time when you had a one-size-fits-all mentality," Mr. Wall said. "We have to give people what they want, not what we want to build."

Real estate agents are also refocusing efforts to attract single female buyers at a time when the overall housing market is a bit soft.

"I've had a lot of female buyers this year," said Kim Fowler with David Griffin & Co. Realtors. " My average age of the five or so single women I have sold to this year has been about 28."

Ms. Fowler just sold a two-bedroom condo in Oak Lawn to Laurie Self, who's in her mid-30s.

"The rent just went way up at my apartment – that was part of my motivation," Ms. Self said. "Mortgage rates are good now, and it's a buyer's market."

Ms. Self, a corporate auditor who lives near the High Five interchange in North Dallas, was also interested in moving deeper into the city.

"I saw how real estate prices were going up like crazy," she said. "I can flip it in a few years and have some equity."

It isn't just builders and home sellers who've seen an uptick in single female customers.

"We have had a lot more single female renters than we initially thought downtown," said Ted Hamilton with Hamilton Properties, which has successfully converted several downtown office buildings into rental housing.

Mr. Hamilton estimates that about 40 percent of his single renters are women and that many of them like the security aspect of the buildings.

The turnaround in the central business district has also caught the attention of these renters, he said.

"The more vibrant downtown gets, the more appealing it will be to single females."