Blog Assignment Four

My Hometown

I am from Dallas, Tx, and I love my hometown. The city is a great place to live and a great place to have grown up in, with plenty of things to do with family and friends, beautiful homes and parks, and amazing food, restaurants, and shopping. Dallas has many attractions to visit, where you can take the DART train all around the city, and trolleys around our downtown area.

Growth Patterns: In the past decade, there has only been a 1% growth increase in the city of Dallas. There has, however, been larger growth outside the city in the suburbs and in the surrounding counties. This is most likely due to the fact that city does not have much room to grow any more, so the growth is being pushed to suburbs.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27ttdallas.html?_r=0)

Demographics: Dallas is almost split evenly between males with females, with 50.4% male and 49.6% female. The races in Dallas are slightly less equally distribution, with a 50.83% white, 25.91% black, and 35.55% mexican population. The major demographic of Dallas is that of primarily male, white, 25 to 34 years olds.
(http://dallas.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm)

Economics: The unemployment rate in Dallas, TX is 8%, the job growth is 1.2%. They predict a future job growth rate of 34%. In February the national unemployment rate was at 7.7, so the Dallas unemployment rate is average compared at a national level.
(http://www.bestplaces.net/economy/city/texas/dallas)
(http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000)

My Favorite Places: 

Northpark Mall- This is one of my favorite malls in Dallas, which went through a renovation and expansion that was completed in 2006.












Dallas Arboretum- The Dallas Arboretum has a wide array of flowers, trees, and shrubbery, as well as beautiful ponds located throughout the premises.

Dallas World Aquarium- The Dallas World Aquarium is one of my favorite places to visit in Dallas, with not only a huge variety of fish, but also animals that can be viewed, including monkeys, penguins, and sloths. 

Blog Assignment Three

On February 28th we had two wonderful guest speakers, Mike Gentry and Samuel Harrison. They came to speak to us about a major project that they had been working on, with Samuel Harrison being the owner and land developer, and Mr. Gentry the attorney for that land. Both of these gentleman were alumni of A&M and former members of the Corps.

They are currently working on a project in town that is off of Briarcrest and Highway 6. They spoke of the difficulties that have arisen from this project, which are not too uncommon when working on development projects. One of their major problems was involving a leak of an oil pipe after the pipe was removed. Though it was only a very small leak, it is a huge concern when developing homes, and rather than forgoing the entire project they paid $250,000 to replace the soil that was contaminated by oil with clean soil. Another problem that they came across was the town it was located near, which happened to be a historical site. When they were digging the foundation, they were praying they would not find any artifacts as that would put them even farther behind than already and may even ruin the chance of finishing the project. Fortunately for them, none of these artifacts were found.

I enjoyed learning about how volatile these development projects are the entire way through. It doesn't matter if you spend thousands on the perfect location with all your permits filled, if something goes wrong, like an oil spill, discovery of artifacts, even endangered species or plants are found, then the entire project can be halted or even stopped, more than likely with no return of investment. Though I found their speech very interesting, it also made me realize how risky the business can be and that anyone who wants to succeed in it would have to have very thick skin.

Blog Assignment Two

Private Restrictions on Ownership 

Definition: Private restrictions on ownership are restrictions that are not made by the government, but made by developers. They are also known as encumbrances, which restrict your rights of ownership of your land. These include

• Covenants, conditions, restrictions
• Liens
• Easements
• Profit a prendre
• Adverse possession
• Encroachments 

Article:

I read an article entitled "Brazilian Man Attempting Adverse Possession of 25 Million Boca Mansion."A man has decided to try and use adverse possession in Florida to take control of a $25 million dollar mansion. It was listed as owned by the Bank of America in July 2012, and a man named Andre Barbosa decided to take advantage of that fact and file for adverse possession of the home in the same month. His neighbors and the bank are both displeased with this turn of events, and are trying to ensure that he leaves the premise. A neighbor noted that he turned on the lights but was not using water, which would mean that he was not using the home as a permanent residence, which he hopes will help them with their mission to get this man to leave the million dollar home.


http://abcnews.go.com/Business/brazilian-man-attempting-adverse-possession-25-million-boca/story?id=18303253

Public Restrictions on Ownership

Definition: Public restrictions on ownership are government limitations on the rights of ownership of property. Examples of public restrictions of ownership include

• Taxation
• Eminent Domain
• Police Power 
• Escheat

Article: I read an article called "Does the State Have Your Money." This article talks about an increasing problem of states taking and liquidating escheated properties to produce revenue for the state, without following proper protocol. According to one woman, her mother received a check $16,000 from her Uncle after he passed away, but didn't move to cash it for several years. When she did, she was told it was escheated to the state, though no one had even attempted to contact her about the money before then. The state has been doing the same thing regarding real estate that someone may have forgotten about, preferring to keep the revenue rather than attempt to get ahold of the owners.

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/investing/states-grab-unclaimed-property-1.aspx