One for Austin...and Dallas! D-FW economic, housing markets among top in U.S.

The Dallas/Ft. Worth area has one of the stongest economic and housing markets in the country, according to a just-released analysis.
D-FW ranked fourth in a second-quarter economic comparison of 100 U.S. cities that was released Tuesday by the Brookings Institution. Austin was at the head of the list of cities with the strongest performing economies.
And D-FW ranked third among markets with the best home prcie performace, the study found.
Local home prices, when adjusted for inflation, have increased in the D-FW area 3.8 percent during the last year, Brookings researchers estimate. That's the third-best performance in the country, behind Houston and Wichita, Kan.

BEST PERFOMING AREAS:
1. Austin
2. Baton Rouge
3. Columbia, S.C.
4. Dallas-Ft. Worth
5. Des Moines, Iowa
6.El Paso
7. HArrisburg, PA
8. Honolulu
9. Houston
10. Jackson, Miss

One for Dallas... Groundbreaking for Woodall Rodgers deck park!

Officials held a ground-breaking ceremony Monday for the five-acre park that will span Woodall Rodgers Freeway from Pearl to St. Paul streets. The park will provide a pedestrian link between downtown Dallas and Uptown and will include features such as a restaurant, performance pavilion and dog park. Construction is expected to begin in October and slated to finish in 2012. The price tag is about 105 million!
To watch the Woodall Rodgers deck park celebration go to dallasnews.com/video.