Every cloud has a silver lining and the foreclosure crisis is no different. The down side of the foreclosure crisis is the hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their homes. The upside is the ability for the country’s leading real estate housing charity, Habitat for Humanity, to purchase properties below market value. Many Habitat for Humanity chapters across the US are snapping up dozens of empty lots and unoccupied homes — some for as little as half price.

“The down real estate market is a wonderful opportunity for all Habitats,” said Gage Yager, executive director of Trinity Habitat for Humanity in Fort Worth. “As prices drop, we have the opportunity to acquire at prices that just weren’t available a few years ago.”

Habitat offers affordable housing to low income families. The charity uses volunteers to rehab these newly acquired foreclosed properties or in extreme cases, tears them down and rebuilds.

Some criticize that Habitat is taking advantage of someone else’s misfortune, but renovating an already vacant property is far better than leaving it abandoned, resulting in higher crime rates and lower property values.
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Flower Mound based Win Kids hosted a huge Community Yard Sale this past Saturday, March 8th, to raise funds for their competitive gymnastics team. Beginning at 8 am, the Flower Mound Texas / Highland Village and surrounding communities were invited to shop ‘til they dropped at the Win Kids Yard Sale in hopes of raising enough money to purchase a new pit bar for their competitive gymnastics team, the Gym Stars. Texas Home Central donated their company box truck to assist with the collection and storage of items to be sold. The Gym Stars were pleased at their success of raising $1,200 towards their ultimate goal of $2,000. Win Kids is located at 3000 Waketon Road in Flower Mound Texas and is an amazing facility where children of all ages participate in sports, music, dance and FUN.

If you are looking to buy or sell a home anywhere in the Highland Village or Flower Mound area please call us at 800-326-9011 or email us by clicking here.

McKinney, Texas will be host to Habitat for Humanity’s annual “Taste of Collin County” on Feb. 25th at Collin County Regional Airport in McKinney. This year’s theme will be “Beach Party” and guests will sample amazing dishes from several premium Collin County restaurants — each vying for bragging rights as a celebrity-judged competition will crown the year’s winner.

In addition to the delicious food, McKinney residents and their guests will be treated to excellent entertainment provided by nationally-known artists Troy Allen, Ian Dickson and Jimmy Barcus; plus a live and a silent auction.

Churches, organizations and individuals are invited to partner with North Collin County’s Habitat for Humanity by donating creative baskets for raffle. Proceeds will exclusively benefit the McKinney Texas and North Collin County area. Donations are also welcomed for the live and silent auctions. Please list items and their approximate values, wrap up in plastic and drop off at the Habitat for Humanity office by Feb. 21st.

This McKinney TX annual event raises thousands of dollars to benefit Habitat’s mission of building decent affordable housing for God’s people in need. With the money raised from the event, Habitat plans to build six to ten more homes in the North Collin County area. The organization recently dedicated its 32nd home in the area and has two more under construction.

For more information on the “Taste of Collin County” event, contact event chair Sharon Weideman at 972-542-5300 or visit www.ncc-habitat.com.

If you are looking to buy or sell a home anywhere in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex to include McKinney Real Estate please call us at 800-326-9011 or email us by clicking here.

Northstar Bank participated in our 4th Annual Canned Food Drive for CCA. Kenda Nelson, a VP with Northstar Bank in their Lewisville Main Street office was very helpful in organizing the drive for her offices making our lives easier. Their whole staff was wonderful and went out of their way to help. Thank you Kenda! Please thank your wonderful team for their help and giving spirit.

Northstar Bank in Lewisville Texas

Each holiday season, we celebrate all of the blessings in our lives. We look down at our children and feel warm pride swell as we watch them decorate the Christmas tree and sip their warm apple cider. That warmth quickly fades when we have to scold them for peeling back the corners of their gifts to see what is inside.

It’s fun to give our family and friends gifts to show them how much we love and cherish them. When you are shopping for gifts or preparing the holiday feasts, I hope that you will also remember the families in our local communities that do not have the food or money that we have been so blessed with.

Every year, Texas Home Central works with CCA (Christian Community Action) to collect food for our local communities. We go door to door with our friends from Texas Mortgage Team collecting cans from our wonderful neighbors and set up signs and boxes in many of our local businesses in Flower Mound, Southlake, Keller, Frisco and McKinney.

We hope that you will share the blessings with others in your community. There are so many ways to help and giving a handful of canned food is such an easy way to do just that. I hope that God will continue to bless your life. Have a happy and safe holiday season and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. -2 Corinthians 9:7