Why real estate is even worse than claimed, especially in Big D

Many repoed houses that are resold? The official sale price ain't anywhere near being true. Oh, and shock me that this type of sales lying may have its ground zero in Dallas.

That's why Gov. Helmethair's claims about the strength of the Texas economy are bullshit. Unemployment is still going up in most major metropolitan areas, the heavy local reliance on property taxes looks shaky (especially with those fake resale Z prices, eh?)

And, I totally agree that this is part of the issue, too:

Compounding the problem is the seemingly endless prairie that stretches in every direction. Residential real estate in Dallas is all about what’s new, fresh, clean and contemporary, and beyond last year’s farthest-flung suburban outpost there is always more prairie, another slice of raw land on which to build this year’s model of the luxe domestic dream.

And, no, per the quote at the end of the story, nothing will change. Cheap gas prices will lead to more sprawl, not just suburban but exurban sprawl, while inner-ring suburbs on the north and east of Dallas, not just the south, will age ever less gracefully and ever more quickly.

I lived in suburban Dallas just about all of the last decade. Trust me on this one. I told residents of a Dallas suburb, back in late 2006, to vote against a new school bond issue in part because default and foreclosure numbers were already rising.

So, state Sen. Steve Ogden's plan to push more of school funding on a statewide property tax may not work so well, either. Especially if it caps appraisal rises not at 10 percent, but at even less than that.

How much is white flight behind exurban growth?

Find out if you read "The Search for Utopia." Get details about it among my latest Amazon book reviews.

Fineman makes attempt to salvage Palin for McCain

Howard Fineman appears to have stepped into Ron Fournier mode with this cluelessness.

Basically, he argues that Palin being from an exurban area (Wasilla is about 35 miles from Anchorage), that this makes her ideal for McCain to make a pitch for exurban voters.

For you Texans in the largest cities, this is like claiming that being from Ennis (re the DFW Metroplex) or Waller (re Houston) is a good qualification to be vice president.

Here’s Fineman’s take on exurbia:

In Exurban America, you can buy a new home with a driveway and enough bedrooms for a big, traditional family. You can be near to nature, and big playgrounds and spaces. You can be far away from the fears and fractiousness of an old downtown, but close enough to go t0 the zoo or a concert or take in a ballgame.

And (assuming gas prices aren’t insane — a fateful assumption, of course) you can buy a big home on less than a six-figure family income. You can therefore get close as to “Leave it to Beaver" America as most middle-class folks can afford or even find.

First, especially re Peak Oil, Fineman’s already shot himself in the foot and refuses to admit it.

Second, especially in more conservative states, the definition of exurbia is:
Suburban whites fleeing middle-class black flight from central cities and the first ring of suburbs. (You can include Hispanics in that “flight from” in some areas.)

Given that Alaska has mighty few blacks or Hispanics, exurban Wasilla has little in common with exurban Ennis or Waller, Texas, Cedar Hill, Mo. (St. Louis), Shawnee, Okla. (Oklahoma City) or other such places in the lower 48.

Third, that sociological fact undercuts Fineman’s next two grafs of pablum:

ExAm is where the country that traditionalists think existed decades ago still exists – and where people fervently want it to exist.

That makes it, on balance, more socially conservative than other, closer-in suburbs, not to mention core cities. Eager for a settled, traditional life amid the hustle and chaos of modern, 21st century economic competition, ExAm families tend to favor rule-setting religion, old-fashioned family values — and ample but efficient government that has no ties to old arguments over Business and Labor.

That’s all true, to a fair degree, for Ennis, Waller or Cedar Hill. But not for Wasilla.

Howard, your “fact-finding trip” to Alaska must have left you with baked Alaska brain cells.