[speaker001:] okay what kind of home do you have
[speaker002:] well we we bought more than we can afford
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh so we're in a fairly uh exclusive neighborhood and got a big house
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] five thousand square feet with
[speaker001:] wow
[speaker002:] a bunch of kids running around
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and horrible real estate taxes and and everything else
[speaker001:] oh really
[speaker002:] so it's about all we can afford
[speaker001:] yeah I know what well mine's I guess I live in a upper middle class type home uh neighborhood uh most of them are all professionals in the neighborhood uh I live by myself what I uh I have more than I need I have a two story home which I don't need but uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] I got it as a steal and property taxes I mean property in Texas you know I bought uh came I used to live in Texas and I moved to Florida for four years and I moved back and when I moved back was in a slump and so I really stole this house for you know for peanuts it was a one of those corporate buy outs a couple had had moved in it lived here three months and and got transferred to uh Atlanta so their corporation was trying to sell it you know they just want to get rid of it so they took and offer I gave them which was very low
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] I know the neighbors probably hated me because it kind of ruined the resale you know I think what though the average I think when you go to sale but we don't have too many homes for sale in this area because it's it is growing and building fast
[speaker002:] well that's interesting because I I've I heard around Dallas that uh real estate was up for grabs
[speaker001:] yeah it's it's improving now where I live I live out by DFW airport and uh it's really growing like mad I mean they're just building and they're
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] I'm talking two and three hundred thousand dollar homes uh and they're just building them yeah faster than people can move in them and that you know I understand that the slump in the market didn't affect didn't affect that price range chunk because those people are going to buy you know whether it's you know rich people like that are going to buy you know there it's the the middle income people I think and the lower middle income they're that are hurting you know that
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] sixty and seventy thousand dollar homes that are hard to get rid of
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but and then I've heard pros it has it's picking up though now it has
[speaker002:] well we've sort of got the other end of the spectrum going here the uh we had Mobil Oil Corporation move their corporate headquarters here about five years ago
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and I bought this house uh just before they moved down
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and when they moved in here the price on houses just about doubled all over the area
[speaker001:] did it really huh
[speaker002:] and uh
[speaker001:] that tells you something
[speaker002:] so we we got ours at a a fairly good price
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] but it stimulated a lot of the builders to start building fancy homes
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and so we've got a lot of houses within a a few miles of us that are one million million and a half
[speaker001:] yeah I I know I do too
[speaker002:] and uh
[speaker001:] it helps though it helps the value your property
[speaker002:] yeah it helps the value of our property except we
[speaker001:] it helps makes your taxes go up too though
[speaker002:] except we had a neighbor here just about gave his house away
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] uh he sold it for only slightly more than he paid for it uh four five years
[speaker001:] really
[speaker002:] and uh so he's kind of knocked down the neighborhood for a little while until that that average goes out but an awful lot of these fancy homes are not selling
[speaker001:] yeah yeah right yeah oh really
[speaker002:] because they built them and put all this money into them and nobody's interested in buying
[speaker001:] oh okay well boy they're sure buying them here grabbing them up it they're gorgeous homes but I've never seen so many two story homes and they're really building a lot of two stories all of the really fancy ones are all two story you just don't find any sprawled out one story homes anymore for some reason they're just and boy the area I live in is really really growing fast in fact they're just fixing to right behind me was a a house sat behind my property it was on fourteen acres it was just a kind of a nice little brick home had some horses and you know and a developer bought them out about six months ago and so they were going to build some really nice nice homes back there which will you know really help my house but like I said except for my taxes are going to go up because of these nice homes you know I they're going to jack the prices up you know so I mean taxes that so we end up probably having to pay more taxes but
[speaker002:] uh-huh  well they're doing some some strange things here I think that the price of real estate's gotten so high and they're trying to get the value out of the homes so they subdivide around here they'll put a million dollar home on a half acre lot
[speaker001:] oh do they
[speaker002:] and you know you put a five thousand square foot house on on a half acre lot or one acre you know half acre lot and you can clip the lawn with a pair of scissors
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah you are right man we have some in Dallas has some of those zero lot line homes are you know five hundred thousand dollar homes sitting on a zero lot line and you can you know wave at your neighbor you know and hear their stereo well they build them really where you can't hear them they put the living areas opposite one another so I guess it's all right I don't know I I have a lot I have an enormous backyard a really much much more than I can take care of which I don't I have it done because I can't afford I I tried taking care of it myself the first year I moved here and I said I'll go without groceries but I'm going to have my yard done I just I can't do it you know it just wasn't worth it so I have it done and I it's a best money I've ever spent is having it done
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and it's just so regular and I just just don't have to worry about it
[speaker002:] well sometimes it uh keeping after the yard gets me we enjoy sailing quite a bit
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and sometimes we go off on a one week cruise
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and I come back it's rained quite a bit while we're gone I can hardly find the house
[speaker001:] oh yeah I know I know when I lived in Florida my mother visited me she says you know you can almost watch your grass grow down here can't you and I said yes you can I mean it just grew and I could have mowed it twice a week down there if I had the inclination which I didn't but uh that's when I started and when I lived in Florida I had my yard done down there too it was the humidity was so bad that I just I couldn't get out there and do it as much as I wanted to
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] I like yard work no I don't if I did I'd do it uh if I had to I would do it I'll put it that way I don't have to so I don't do it but if I had uh I bought myself I bought the the best of equipment I said if I'm going to do it I'm going to get myself a good lawn mower and get all the bells and whistles and and I did and now it sits out in the garage and hasn't been running in over two years
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] but I'm but everybody in the neighborhood keeps a very nice yard thank goodness and that
[speaker002:] yeah that's one of the things I have to face up to there's uh quite a few retired people in our neighborhood
[speaker001:] oh okay
[speaker002:] and it seems like all they have to do is is go out there and put down lime and spread fertilizer and pull up dandelions and
[speaker001:] uh-huh I know it
[speaker002:] take care of their lawn as beautiful beautiful lawn and I come over and look at my lawn and this nicely cut crabgrass and uh dandelions and plantains and everything else under the sun coming up
[speaker001:] I know it
[speaker002:] um the uh
[speaker001:] oh I know but you know usually there in this uh new I've got one on this there's usually one neighbor in the in on a block that doesn't doesn't take care of their yard as or doesn't do anything to the yard and I keep thinking why do the people buy homes if they're not going to keep their yard why don't you stay in an apartment if you're not going to touch your yard you're not going to you know you just ruin it for everybody else I think I know where my daughter lives there's a woman that lives behind them that the yard has never been watered and she lives in a real nice neighborhood and it it's I saw it for the first time this morning what a eyesore eyesore that was I said I'd run her out that's a shame that somebody let their yard she has poison ivy growing over her garage can you believe poison ivy and she's got children
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] and it's just oh what an eyesore terrible but no I I really do like my neighborhood it's close enough to DFW I can be at the airport in ten minutes but I can't hear the planes flying I can see them uh from upstairs I can almost watch them land on the runway but I can't hear them for some reason
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and uh uh I like living real close to an airport because when I get home from a trip I want to get home I don't want to drive forty five minutes you know after I get home I want to be home so I I always choose to live by an airport in Orlando I did the same thing I lived right by the airport so I could get right home
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and the the noise isn't real I say I can't hear this and when I lived in Orlando I couldn't hear the airplanes either I guess if I lived right on the flight pattern it would be different but uh I don't I like I like to watch airplanes a fact I can lay in my bed at night and watch the planes coming in DFW and I'm I I know if they're two seconds apart or just watch the lights come over they must come all in from the same pattern
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and I can just lay there and just just watch one come past the the roof line of the people across the street from me and uh just like seem like every two seconds I'll see them come in from about you know nine o'clock to ten fifteen they're just streaming in
[speaker002:] is that your version of counting sheep
[speaker001:] yeah I guess so must be they I hadn't thought of that but I guess it is and sometimes I have uh come downstairs at night and used my telephone downstairs if it rings and uh and I look out my kitchen window and there must be thirty airplanes circling above not over my house but over DFW
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] it's the weirdest looking sign I thought my I guess they're I don't know why they're all circling I guess they're but it's weird looking so many lights up in the sky
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but I I guess it's interesting uh I like to look at airplanes
[speaker002:] well we're kind of fortunate we're right about halfway between National Airport and Dallas
[speaker001:] oh are you
[speaker002:] and so they've uh sort of established sort of a no man's land here
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and so we don't get any traffic from Dulles over the house and we don't get any traffic from uh National
[speaker001:] oh okay
[speaker002:] and but you can sit in the backyard and you can watch the planes uh lining up for the approach
[speaker001:] yeah that's nice I have a girlfriend lives in Alexandria west is it Virginia Alexandria she works for the government she's a
[speaker002:] yeah that's that's not well it's about forty five minute drive from here yeah
[speaker001:] oh is it