Issue 38
Published September 22, 2026 · Bilingual edition
Fall arrives at 7:05 this evening. The college that runs the campus on Escondido Drive counted more than 100,000 students for the first time and left the price where it was. The monarchs are on their way and the table says they cross here between October 4 and 16. The August home numbers split four ways across four ZIP codes, with a 6.95 percent mortgage under all of them. And a shop on 249 that sold plants nobody else around here carried is closing after twenty-one months.
Community · Education
Lone Star College Crossed 100,000 Students This Fall. The Price of a Credit Hour Did Not Move.
The system counted 100,023 this semester, up from 97,294, with in-district tuition held at $111 an hour for a third year. Magnolia ISD addresses are in-district. Montgomery ISD addresses are not, and the difference is $1,656 a semester on twelve hours. The tax side of that trade, worked on a 77354 house.
Read the story →Outdoors · Wildlife
The Monarchs Cross Magnolia's Latitude Between October 4 and 16. The Plant Sale That Feeds Them Is on the 10th.
Monarch Watch's table for 30 degrees north, the two Texas flyways we sit between, a 64 percent better winter in Mexico that is still short of the six-hectare floor, a federal listing eleven months overdue, what blooms here in October, why tropical milkweed gets cut back now, and the Master Gardeners' sale in Conroe.
Read the story →Housing · Your Money
Fewer Houses Sold in 77354 This Summer and the Price Barely Moved. Up the Road in Montgomery, Both Went Up.
Houston sales down 11.5 percent, median $330,000. In 77354 the median held at $328,000 on 17 percent fewer sales; 77316 jumped 13.8 percent. Freddie Mac's 6.95 percent, worked on the local median: $120 a month more than a year ago on a house that costs 1.8 percent more. Four ZIPs side by side, things to check, no verdict.
Read the story →Business · Pinehurst
The Plant Shop on 249 Closes September 30. Everything in It Is Half Off, Down to the Shelves.
Potted Nursery opened in December 2024 with 400 to 500 rare tropical houseplants and a soil blend the owners mixed themselves. Twenty-one months later the fixtures are for sale too. Alex Drisaldi's note to customers, and what a specialty shop is up against in a town this size.
Read the story →Coming next
The livestock show sale numbers, once the committee posts them. A Pinehurst plant shop closes its doors September 30. Medicare's free seminar is Wednesday at the library and Dolly Parton Day is Friday. Voter registration closes October 5. The Saturday money column returns this weekend.