Lifestyles Unlimited, the nationally renowned Education and Mentor Group for Real Estate Investing, congratulates member Ira Gross.

Ira has been selected the 2011 National Apartment Association Independent Owner of the Year, 101-500 units category. Mr. Gross joins a fine group of elite owner-operators from Lifestyles Unlimited who have received this coveted award.

Ira is a member in good standing with Lifestyles for more than six years. During that time, he has successfully purchased with his partners two apartment complexes, one in Stafford, TX and the other in southwest Houston. The first property, 175 units, which was submitted for this award, has had total returns of more than 150% to the partners. Mr. Gross had no prior experience in the apartment business and joined Lifestyles Unlimited for mentoring and guidance from founder Del Walmsley and VP of Acquisition, Broker, David Fantin. Ira also receives support from other members who are owner-operators.

In 2009, Ira was awarded the Houston Apartment Association Independent Owner of the Year.

Home foreclosures in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are down 4% from last year, according to a recent article from the Dallas Morning News. In some counties the numbers have even dropped 20% from last month’s “6,000 postings.”

The article quotes George Roddy stating “any decline from last month looks good” and “one month does not make a trend.” Since 2007 this is the first month that foreclosure postings have declined “on a year to year basis.”

The article goes on to state that duplicate monthly postings may have contributed to the year’s high total.

Click here to read the full article.

Want to learn how over 8000 people have been successful in real estate? Many of our members have never owned investment real estate before. Meet other local investors who have learned how to be successful in real estate and earn monthly passive streams of income!

WHEN: Click here for our upcoming workshops!

WHERE: 106 Decker, Suite 300, Irving, TX 75062

CALL 972.827.0208 FOR MORE INFORMATION

Want to learn how over 8000 people have been successful in real estate?

Many of our members have never owned investment real estate before. Meet other local investors who have learned how to be successful in real estate and earn monthly passive streams of income!

WHEN: Click here for our upcoming workshops!

WHERE: 106 Decker, Suite 300, Irving, TX 75062

CALL 972.827.0208 FOR MORE INFORMATION

Members and mentors gather to discuss step by step how they located, negotiated and closed recent deals. Case studies range from single-family all the way up to 200+ unit apartments

Despite significantly lower values compared to 2007′s peak, Dallas News considers why this year Dallas-Fort Worth has seen the lowest home price declines of any city.

Using the Case-Shiller index, analysts are able to track the recent shift in home prices to higher levels, admitting that the upswing may be attributable to the first time home buyer credit.

Although foreclosure and unemployment remain central concerns, most economists expect prices to continue to climb, with North Texas cities, such as Dallas-Fort Worth, leading the road to recovery.

Dallas News used the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index to rank the decline in house prices in August 2009 from the year before in each market. According to the index Dallas-Forth worth saw the least decline:

City with Percent Decline
1. Las Vegas -29.9%
2. Phoenix -25.1%
3. Detroit -22.6%
4. Miami -18.8%
5. Tampa, Fla. -17.7%
6. Seattle -14.7%
7. Minneapolis -13.7%
8. Chicago -12.7%
9. Portland, Ore. -12.5%
10. San Francisco -12.5%
11. Los Angeles -12.0%
12. Composite (20 cities) -11.3%
13. Atlanta -10.6%
14. New York -9.6%
15. San Diego -8.9%
16. Charlotte, N.C. -8.6%
17. Washington, D.C. -7.9%
18. Boston -4.2%
19. Cleveland -2.8%
20. Denver -1.9%
21. Dallas -1.2%

Click here to read the entire article at Dallasnews.com.

It gave me chills to read that BusinessWeek put 5 Texas cities it it’s Top 10 Strongest Economies in America.

The article citied a steady real estate market that never got “too hot or too cold”.

BusinessWeek.com used research from the Brookings Institutions new MetroMonitor to rank the nations top 40 strongest economies. Texas dominated the list:

#1 San Antonio, TX
#2 Austin, TX
#3 Oklahoma City, OK
#4 Little Rock, AR
#5 Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
#6 Baton Rouge, LA
#7 Tulsa, OK
#8 Omaha, NE
#9 Houston, TX
#10 El Paso, TX

Click here to read the entire article at BusinessWeek.com and click on each city to read what they wrote about each city.