Home Sales Up 5% Nationally in November
U.S.: Existing homes sales across the country were up nearly 5% in November from a year ago. The National Association of Realtors also said in a new report that the median sales price also had risen to just over $406,000, a 4.7% increase from last November. But that was below the national high of $426,900 in June. Home prices were higher in all regions of the country in November and first-time homebuyers comprised about 30% of the home sales last month. That news comes at a time when mortgage rates continue to fluctuate and many would-be homebuyers continue to wait for the right home at the right price and at a rate they can afford. The Federal Reserve this week lowered the benchmark interest rate by a quarter percent, but that has had little effect on the mortgage rate.
DFW: The City of Dallas is getting into the amusement park business. Sort of. City officials have agreed to pay nearly $14 million from bond money and other funds to buy Adventure Landing and to develop a community park in Far North Dallas. Adventure Landing includes batting cages, laser tag, mini-golf and an arcade. There are two soccer fields on the site that is actually located in Dallas District 12 but within Collin County. The fields will be named after the amusement park’s owners, Wilber and Lucy Hildebrand, who declined offers from developers and sold to the City of Dallas in order to maintain the legacy of their property. The amusement park will continue to operate and will pay the city graduated rent.
DFW: More homes in Celina? Of course. Another community will soon rise in the Uptown Celina Development, an 800-acre mixed-use development that will have about 3,000 single-family homes. Perry Homes, Shaddock Homes and Grand Homes partnered to buy more than 150 acres of land within the larger development. They will build 450 homes on various sized lots over the next several years. Prices in the Glen at Uptown Celina development will range from upwards of $600,000 to more than $1 million. Work is scheduled to begin in the first part of 2025. Trails and parks will connect the Uptown Celina Development to the downtown area of Celina, one of the country’s fastest-growing cities.
DFW: Go to a company holiday party this year and see no “significant others?” That’s by design, says Challenger, Gray and Christmas, the country’s preeminent outplacement firm. Only about a third of the companies that hosted parties this year were welcoming “plus-ones,” down more than 50% from 2021, the company said in a survey of 173 companies nationwide. Why? Costs, of course, also include team building at a time when remote work still exists for some companies and a call for separate corporate and personal lives as other reasons for employee-only parties.
DFW: Happy New Year? Perhaps not for some AT&T employees who’ve spent part of the last several years working from home. The Dallas-based company is the latest to announce a return-to-the office for its employees. Beginning in January, the company will be calling in its hybrid workers into the office five days a week in San Ramon and Los Angeles in California, along with those in Seattle, St. Louis, Washington, Atlanta, and, of course, Dallas. AT&T is the latest company enacting return-to-office policies. Among them have been banks and financial services companies and, most recently, Amazon. Many companies cite more collaboration among team members when they are together and managers can more closely monitor adherence to 40-hour work weeks.
LA LA LAND: There’s no way to mask what Jim Carrey had to do. The star of “Bruce Almighty” and other hit movies had to sell his California mansion at a deep discount because, well, he needed the money. In early 2023, he listed his sprawling five-bedroom, nine-bath Brentwood estate for nearly $29 million. He had to slash it several times and only recently sold the 2-acre estate that also includes a wine cellar, pool and guesthouse, a tennis court, an art gallery and more for just under $20 million. The star of “Ace Ventura,” “The Mask,” among others over the past 30 years had debated whether to retire, but has had to return to the big screen to offset some financial setbacks in recent years. No lie.
