Woman, Infant Rescued From Flooded Home
 San Antonio firefighters rescued a mother and her infant son from their flooded home on the city's Southwest Side on Thursday afternoon.Elisa Del Toro and her son, Yestin, were rescued when flood waters rushed into their home from the back yard in the 6600 block of Cougar Village. The Del Toros, who had moved in the home in January, said they'll be meeting with the home builder to assess the damages. A press release from Main Street Homes said drainage conditions in the new subdivision are unacceptable.

Legislators respond to concerns
House Bill 1338, or the Homeowner Protection Act of 2007, passed the state House and Senate last legislative session and was signed into law in April... Gibbs and Fitz-Gerald called House Bill 1338 a consumer protection measure that gives homeowners legal recourse against a builder who leaves them with a defective home.  Gibbs, who said he voted for the bill to protect people who are trying to live the American Dream by buying their own home, said he doesn't think builders will be affected so long as they stand behind their product. "If you don't build a defective home, you have nothing to worry about," Gibbs said.

Gimme Shelter:Tax Shelter-Funded Affordable Housing
Each year, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) doles out approximately $45 million in federal tax breaks to private companies. The purpose of these generous subsidies—first enacted by President Ronald Reagan—is to promote the development of affordable housing. This tax-incentive program for private developers has all but supplanted the old system in which the government funded public housing directly.

Developer takes Corps to court
After spending nearly four years and $800,000 seeking federal approval for its project, an island development firm wants a federal court to declare the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers no longer has jurisdiction over its property. The lawsuit, which follows a Supreme Court decision last year, could limit the corps’ authority to protect wetlands throughout Galveston’s West End.

Letting your real estate agent pick your home inspector is a bad idea
If you’re thinking about buying a brand-new house, there are some things you need to know. Ironically, the first thing you need to know is that many of the people you’ll encounter during the house-shopping and house-buying process won’t tell you everything that you need to know.

Homeowner Alleges that Texas Senator John Corona is involved in a homeowner association foreclosure scam
Maintenance dues homeowners pay to his management company will be used for fines so he can foreclose on homes.  We received notice last week of a new foreclosure - extortion scam being perpetrated on the homeowners in Rockwall Timber Creek Estates by Texas Senator Senator John Carona's management company - Principal Management.  Principal Management has convinced our board to institute an illegal fining policy without a vote of the membership. They will now apply the maintenance dues homeowners send in to the fines they charge so they can ignore the Texas Property laws and foreclose on our homes for non-payment of arbitrary fines by homeowner association boards and Carona's management company.

If you’re thinking of buying a brand-new house, answer Dirty Harry’s question
Telling 10 families a week that they’ve picked out a good house is a nice way to make a living. But telling any family that their dream house is a leaking, creaking pile of moldering crap takes a fair bit of the shine off a day’s work. It’s like being the guy who feeds the doomed chickens to the neck saw at the chicken-processing plant. No matter how much effort you put in, no matter how much pride you take in your work, at the end of the day, your contribution to the universe is a pile of lifeless chicken heads... a lot of new houses are OK, but a pretty good percentage—I’d say as many as 20 percent—have problems. It’s hard to know what’s going to happen after somebody buys a house and moves in. It’s like that scene in Dirty Harry where Harry’s got the bad guy at his mercy. Anybody who’s thinking about buying a new house needs to ask himself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’

Live Oak City Council Special Consideration of Ryland Homeowners
Discussion, Presentation, and possible action concerning Bridlewood and Ryland Homes by City Manager, City Attorney, City Engineer, other Staff Members, Representatives of Bexar County Appraisal District (BAD) and Ryland Homes. See: City Council Agenda -  View: photos.  More photo: View Photos

Governments May be Owed Over One Hundred Billion Dollars
For over two years, Americas Watchdog has been conducting a nationwide investigation involving regional and local homebuilders using cheap undocumented workers to build much of our nations new housing stock. In the majority of cases examined, no taxes were paid on potentially millions of undocumented residential construction workers. From the coyotes who smuggle the workers into the country, to the homebuilders, to our elected officials, every aspect of this fraud contains corruption and a disregard for the law. It may now be the right time for organized labor to step in to protect these workers.

Defective homes pose growing problem, but help is out there
You've bought a dream home - or so you thought. Now the foundation is cracking, the basement has flooded and the roof sags. Not so dreamy anymore. County residents who have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the biggest investment of their lives are sometimes left with a defective version of the American dream... County homeowners are experiencing a "national problem," said Janet Ahmad, president of the San Antonio-based Homeowners for Better Building. Binding arbitration issues and legislation passed to protect builders from legal retribution have made it hard for buyers to fight back, she said."It has affected the lack of quality homes and virtually made warranties absolutely worthless," she said.