TEXAS' EXISTING HOME SALES UP 4 PERCENT

 COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Sales of existing single-family Texas homes in December were up 4 percent from a year ago, according to the most recent Multiple Listing Services (MLS) data compiled by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

More than 16,500 homes were sold, data showed. The median home price was $150,700, about the same as a year ago, and the state's overall inventory was at six months.

December 2011 MLS data for many Texas cities are available on the Center's website. Here is a sampling (data current as of Jan. 30, 2012):

Sales Change from Last Year Median Price Change from Last Year Months' Inventory Austin  1,738 up 11%

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SATXBlog Crossword Puzzle #1

 Crossword Puzzle #1 by Myles Mellor Print and Solve the Crossword Puzzle. We also have a daily interactive crosswords puzzle, too!

Across 1. 60s rock group, with Corner 5. Slight 9. Partition 14. Lion's beard? 15. Type of insurance for owners 16. Pointed arch 17. Nose out 18. Tapi endings 19. Rich tapestry 20. Place for pessimists 23. Virgo mo. 24. Cries at a circus 25. Keen 28. Swimmer's gear 30. Banned pesticide, for short 32. "Star-Spangled Banner" preposition 33. Tongue 35. Conundrum 37. Invest in a risky fashion 40. Witch 41. Bean 42. Greyhound, e.g. 43. Magazine revenue source 44. Come back again 48. Go up and down 51. Supporting 52. Grassy area 53. Investing term that came from poker  57. Salad oil holder 59. Old audio

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Checkout the Online Services of the State of Texas Website

by Randy Watson

I drove by the DPS Licensing office yesterday and there was a line out the door and around the building. Luckily, I didn't have to get my driver's license renewed, but what if I did? Could I renew my license on line? Hopefully, so... I wouldn't want to wait in line at the Driver's License Bureau if I didn't have to.

So, I did a quick check online to find out what all can be done.  This is just a sampling of what you can do online at the Official Website of the State of Texas ... but, here is some of the more popular tasks you can do on the Official State of Texas Website. Need to renew your Texas CHL or Concealed Handgun License, renew your Physicians license, renew your

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Never Too Early Garden Start

 … in the spring to begin reviving the garden.

But if I knew then what I know now about the topsoil in the yard around my San Antonio home, when I first moved in, I would have hired someone to come in with a small bull-dozer and scrape off the top few inches of topsoil. Then I would have had a third of it put back into place, and mixed with another generous third of sand and a final generous third of well-rotted compost.

This is what I have finished up with in most of those places where I have plants growing, by the way – doing it at the very start would have saved a lot of time and trouble. The prevailing topsoil around my neighborhood is clay – splendid for making adobe bricks from. It’s dense, heavy and soggy

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OIL INDUSTRY BOOSTS TEXAS JOB GROWTH

 COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Texas’ mining and logging industry ranked first in job creation in the past year, followed by the professional and business services industry, and the leisure and hospitality industry, according to the latest Monthly Review of the Texas Economy.

Overall, the state’s economy gained 205,100 nonagricultural jobs from December 2010 to December 2011, an annual growth rate of 2 percent compared with 1.3 percent for the United States. The state’s nongovernment sector added 261,200 jobs, an annual growth rate of 3 percent compared with 1.8 percent for the nation’s private sector.

Texas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from 8.3 percent to 7.8 percent while the nation’s

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Overall 2011 San Antonio Home Sales Show Stability

by Randy Watson

The San Antonio Board of Realtors summarizes the 2011 San Antonio real estate market, stating that 2011 ended on a slow and steady note, but like the old adage says, “slow and steady wins the race”, and it looks like San Antonio is doing just fine.

The year to date median sales price of San Antonio home sales increased over 2010, up very slightly 1% to $152,000. The total number of sales for 2011 was 17,914, no change from 2010. The 2011 average sales price for a San Antonio home, sold at $185,516. No change from the 2010 average home price.

Mayor Castro expects San Antonio to create more jobs than any other Texas city. Angela Shields, President and CEO of SABOR said, “With

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 MAARs Pizza Restaurant Review-2 Thumbs Up!

by Celia Hayes

Well actually, MAARs doesn't want pizza – they actually want you to want their pizza. The Red Hat Ladies group that we belong to tries to rotate around to various local restaurants in the north-east quadrant of San Antonio. We have a monthly dinner event once a month; nothing fancy or expensive, just good eating for a reasonable price. We swap gifts now and again, and dress up for Halloween, all good fun. My daughter insists that I need a social life with real people off the internet now and again, and since it was her birthday month, and since the birthday celebrant gets to pick the restaurant for that month, my daughter opted for pizza at MAAR's Pizza.

It's right around the corner from

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The Splendid Hanging Gardens of Spring Creek Forest

 by Celia Hayes

As the backyard of my Spring Creek Forest home is small, I must make the absolute most of it when it comes to plants both ornamental and vegetable. Space is at a premium, and those places which offer a favorable exposure to maximum sunlight are at even more of a premium. The back yard of our Spring Creek Forest home looks to the west south, but half of it is shaded by a very large mulberry tree planted by the original owner … and a couple of Carolina laurel-cherry trees that planted themselves. There are only about three places in the back yard which get hours of afternoon sun – and I can only hang so many topsy-turvy planters and hanging pots from the edge of the back porch, which

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Spurs Lead Division; Ginobili Out with Broken Hand

by Randy Watson

The good news for Spurs’ fans is that, due in part to an underperforming division as a whole, the Spurs are in first place in the Southwest division. The bad news is that Manu Ginobili broke his hand in the recent loss to Minnesota, and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks. In this year’s condensed season, that comes as very bad news to a team made up of aging veterans and many untested younger players.

There is no way to sugarcoat the loss of the Spurs most dynamic playmaker and emotional leader. Ginobili is the best defender on the team, and the player that makes the Spurs’ pick and roll work efficiently. Without him, untested or role wing players like James Anderson, Daniel Green, and

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 Looking Ahead – 2012

by Celia Hayes

It's axiomatic that the year seems to fly faster, the older you get. Someone explained it to me, thusly: the year is merely a portion of your total life. When you are four years old, a single year is a whole quarter of your entire life. By the time you are forty, that year is only one-fortieth of your entire life. This makes sense, if you don't think too hard about it. But 2011 was a year of events, portents and wonders. Sometimes I felt as if we were skidding from one extreme to the other, in between every kind of loss and gain imaginable, both personal and professional. We lost my father, for one – the day after Christmas, 2010 – and I spent a month in California early in the year, helping my mother adjust.

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