For any loyal readers, the blog hasn’t been updated in a few weeks because The Monitor is experimenting with a new blogging system. This blog may or may not exist in a few weeks, so until then, just hold tight.

McALLEN - The Upper Rio Grande Valley registered a slight increase in residential building permits last month but continued its home construction freefall with the poorest February since 1997.

Builders filed 312 building permits in February in Hidalgo County, 10 more than in January, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The local home construction industry has been on the decline since late 2006. Many say the local home market was overbuilt during the peak years for 2004 to 2006. Slower existing home sales has also pushed down demand.

Five Upper Rio Grande Valley Gas Stations are shortchanging customers on their gas, according to a report released today by the Texas Department of Agriculture.

With gas going for more than three bucks a gallon, every drop takes pennies out of the wallet.

The Ag Department puts out the survey every sixty days. Most of the stations cited are hit up for malfunctioning tanks.

Check out this Monitor story from last summer.

To fall onto the list, the station had to shortchange customers by at least six tablespoons of fuel, or have other pump maintenance issues.

Here’s the list:

La Mina Grocery

8 Miles NW of ROMA Hwy 83, Roma

Short measure two times the tolerance

United Drive In #5

2620 S. 23rd St., McAllen

Improperly maintained pumps

Wooden Nickel

1801 W. Hwy 107, MCALLEN

Diesel pump does not hold zero

Triple H #5

107 E. 7th St., Mercedes

Short measure

Betts Oil and Butane

401 S. Shary Rd., Mission

Diesel pump does not hold zero, improperly maintained, short measure two times the tolerance.

Valley Shamrock

900 W. Ferguson St., Pharr

Diesel pump improperly maintained

The newest survey from Manpower, a staffing firm, says more McAllen-area companies are expected to hire employees during the second quarter of the year than drop employees.

It’s good news in an economy that seems to be slumping everywhere else and may be pointing to an emergence from slowdowns.

Manpower, which puts out the survey every quarter, said 23 percent of employers they interviewed said they will hire more employees, while only 7 percent will reduce their payrolls.

But most businesses are holding tight. 67 percent said they would maintain their current staffing levels.

 McALLEN  - New home permits in Hidalgo County dropped again in January to its lowest figure this millennium, another sign that the Rio Grande Valley home market is softening.

Builders filed 302 home permits in Hidalgo County during January, down 29 permits from December, according to data from the Texas Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

Permits are down about 9 percent from December and more than 25 percent from January 2007.

It’s also the lowest January home permit figure for the county since 1997.

Across the board, the real estate market in Hidalgo County took a big hit last year as nationally figures plummeted. Home sales were down about 10 percent during Hidalgo County in 2007.

Real estate experts say tougher lending standards are keeping more prospective homeowners from buying a home, even though interest rates continue to drop.

So Laredo is taking a shot at the growing number of Mexican shoppers that have made the Rio Grande Valley a gold mine for retailers.To give credit where credits due, this story was in today’s edition of the Laredo Morning Times.

A Memphis developer wants to build a 452,000-square-foot outlet mall, like the one in Mercedes, It will be off Interstate 35 - the main highway from Monterrey to San Antonio.

But just like the Valley has experienced with a slew of past mall projects, this one might not yet be in the books. Mercedes got lucky by snagging Simon Properties, one of the world’s largest retail developers, to do their outlet mall. That took more than a decade. Weslaco has struggled with their proposed outlet mall. The Shoppes at Rio Grande Valley isn’t exactly turning out to be what it seemed either.

Real estate development company Newman, Tillman, Simkin, LLC is heading the Laredo Factory Stores project, which is supposed to open in Fall 2010.

No retailers have been announced for the Laredo project.

So tonight will be the night Starbucks closes down operations for three-and-a-half hours to “retrain” staff at 7,100 company stores in the coiuntry, including Valley locations.

The hiatus starts this afternoon at 5:30 and ends at 9 p.m.

Honestly, the only thing that they could improve would be those monster drive-thru lines every morning. Just don’t mess with my peppermint hot cocoa.

Apparently I was a little quick on the story I wrote yesterday about gas prices jumping up to $2.99 a gallon. Several local stations posted a record high $3.09 a gallon gas prices today.

As far as I can tell, it’s a record. The record for our neck of the woods is about $3.04, set in May of last year.

With my excellent analytical skills, I’ve noticed a trend with high gas prices. The higher the national average prices, the closer local prices come to that average.

For instance, if the national average is $2.75, our price is like $2.55. But when prices are high, like today’s national average of $3.14, our prices are much closer. Today its only a 5 cent difference.

It’s my guess that gasoline suppliers have to jack up prices here to make up for lost profits in more competitive areas like San Antonio or Houston.

Isn’t this just low on Valentine’s Day. 

Th FBI is warning about a new e-mail virus that targets the cutest, cuddliest fibers our souls.

This one looks like a normal Valentine’s Day e-card (you know the one with dancing bears and bunnies that hug). Well, if you click on the link to view said dancing bears and hugging bunnies, , the link downloads a malicous “malware” program, called a botnet, onto your computer.

“A botnet is a network of compromised machines under the control of a single user. Botnets are typically set up to facilitate criminal activity such as spam … identity theft …”

 The FBI is warning to only open cards from known senders (sorry secret admirers).

No surprise here, but McAllen-Edinburg-Mission ranks 98th out of the nation’s 100 biggest metropolitan areas in terms of total foreclosures, according to RealtyTrac.

Like reported last week on the Biz Buzz, there were only 305 foreclosures here last year, compared to more than 72,000 in Detroit, the most foreclosed area. Stockton, Calif., Las Vegas, Riverside, Calif. and Sacramento, Calif. rounded out the top five.

In all, less than 1/10th of a percent of homes here were foreclosed last year. 

I know some were skeptical last time I said this and cited their “real estate buddies” who showed them massive lists of foreclosures. Well, the truth is that foreclosures are low, according to multiple sources in the real estate industry, including local foreclosure tracking professionals.

True, a lot of people are in the preforeclosure stages, but if they can sell first or refinance, then it doesn’t count as foreclosure.

Anyways, overall, the number of foreclosures here dropped 19 percent in 2007 from the previous year, showing that maybe the subprime panic isn’t hitting buyers as hard as it is elsewhere.

What is hurting homebuilders and making it harder to sell a home is tighter lending standards. It’s not forcing people out of homes, but it sure is keeping them out of new ones.