Volume Slows in Holiday-Shortened Week

DALLAS — Volume slows to a trickle this holiday-shortened week in the Texas municipal market.The largest deal of the week is a $158 million issue of mortgage bonds for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. No firm date has been set for the negotiated deal led by Citi. Proceeds from the sale will be used to replenish the agency’s first-time home buyer program.The bonds have not yet received ratings.The housing agency is responsible for affordable housing, community and energy assistance programs. The department annually administers funds in excess of $400 million, most from mortgage revenue bond financing and refinancing, federal grants, and federal tax credits. Last year, the agency issued $240 million in low-interest loans to first-time home buyers.The Frisco Independent School District plans to issue $100 million of unlimited tax school building bonds in the competitive market Wednesday.The debt comes to market backed by the state’s triple-A rated Permanent School Fund.Southwest Securities Inc. is the district’s financial adviser and McCall, Parkhurst & Horton LLP serves as bond counsel.Enrollment in the suburban north Dallas district climbed to about 27,500 when classes began last week from 3,750 students a decade ago.The district’s building schedule calls for 19 new campuses, including 10 elementary schools, six middle schools and three high schools, to accommodate a student population that’s expected to reach 60,000 in the next decade. Tomorrow’s sale taps a 2003 authorization, as well as a $798 million bond package overwhelmingly approved by voters in May 2006. The district carries underlying ratings of A from Fitch Ratings and A1 from Moody’s Investors Service.Small towns and municipal utility districts fill most of the spots on the calendar.Fairview is bringing a two-tranche issue worth about $5.9 million to market at some point this week through a negotiated sale led by A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. The deal includes $3.1 million of combination tax and limited surplus revenue certificates of obligation and $2.8 million of general obligation bonds.First Southwest Co. is the financial adviser to the town, which is about 115 miles west of Waco in central Texas.Hardin County will sell $3.5 million of certificates of obligation with maturities running from 2009 to 2023 to build a 70-bed addition to the county jail. The financial adviser for the county is Coastal Securities with Southwest Securities as the underwriter.With a population of 51,000, Hardin County is in the Big Thicket forest of southeast Texas near Beaumont and Port Arthur. The bonds have not yet received ratings, but the county has applied for insurance on the deal.The Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 165 is bringing about $11.7 million of unlimited-tax bonds to the competitive market Thursday.RBC Capital Markets is the financial adviser to the Houston-area utility, and Allen Boone Humphries Robinson LLP is bond counsel.Proceeds will be used to reimburse developers for construction of infrastructure within the district, which has about 3,100 completed homes, 74 homes under construction, 1,365 vacant developed lots and 555 lots under construction.Standard & Poor’s assigned a BBB-minus rating to the sale.In a competitive deal, the Williamson-Travis Counties Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 is selling $3.5 million of tax-backed bonds on Thursday. Southwest Securities is financial adviser to the district.