January 2014

Many of us have strong opinions about what we want to happen — or not — at the end of our lives. Here’s some information that may help you make these difficult decisions.

Manufactured housing is a popular form of affordable housing in Texas. Now, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will make it harder to finance manufactured homes.

Here’s how it works: Determine which homestead exemptions you’re eligible for. Apply for those. When your next property tax bill arrives, count the cash you saved.

Other areas have more oil rigs, but Houston is the beating heart of Texas’ (and the nation’s) oil industry. With a specialized workforce, producers, drilling and service companies, refiners, and pipelines and tankers to transport the oil, Houston supports every sector of the oil business. 

Asset price bubbles, including the housing bubble that wreaked havoc in the early 2000s, are hard to predict. Economists can, however, get some insight into bubble formation by studying the relationship between home prices and economic fundamentals such as supply and demand.

Center research used Dallas-Fort Worth area Multiple Listing Service sales data to measure the housing boom-bust’s and 2007’s Great Recession’s effects on the housing market. Distressed sales — how many and for how much — document how the recovery is going.

In the beginning, we didn’t have to pay sales tax on stuff we brought on the Internet. But those taxes we weren’t paying meant decreased revenue for state and local government programs. More and more online stores are beginning to collect sales taxes to keep states happy.

Can real estate investments be included in an IRA? Yes. A self-directed IRA allows you to diversify your retirement investments with real estate. Of course, you have to follow IRS rules.