Register Real Estate Advisors

WASHINGTON, D.C. (National Association of Realtors) – The National Association of Realtors is launching a new website with information for homeowners and more tools for Realtors.

The site, called HouseLogic, is intended to help homeowners protect, maintain and enhance the value of their homes, and to provide business-building tools for Realtors. The site will also allow homeowners to speak together with Realtors to federal legislators on public policy issues where homeowners and the real estate industry have a common interest.

HouseLogic will be promoted to consumers in earnest starting in February. Until then, the site is in beta and is being promoted primarily to Realtors, giving them a chance to explore the site and provide feedback.

WASHINGTON (U.S. EPA) – Houston and Dallas top the list of 20 U.S. markets with the most Energy Star homes, according to an announcement released today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

San Antonio and Austin also made the list.

The EPA also announced that it reached a milestone for the Energy Star program by passing the one millionth Energy Star–qualified–home mark.

According to the EPA, families living in Energy Star–qualified homes will save more than $270 million on their utility bills this year while avoiding greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from about 370,000 vehicles.

AUSTIN (Marcus & Millichap) – Although the economic downturn in Austin is expected to subside in the fourth quarter, Class-A apartment owners will face challenges into the first half of next year, according to a fourth-quarter apartment research report by Marcus & Millichap.

Homes are becoming increasingly affordable, which will likely entice some renters into ownership in the coming months.

Following are some of the most significant aspects of the Austin apartment research report:

• Payrolls are anticipated to expand in the fourth quarter, limiting job losses in Austin this year to 5,000 positions, a modest 0.6 percent decline. Since the dot-com recession, the market has added nearly 130,000 jobs.
• The pace of development in Austin will remain robust in 2009 as 9,900 units come online. A slowdown in permitting activity and thin development pipeline suggest a significant decline in construction in 2010.
• The addition of new stock will underpin a 360-basis-point increase in vacancy this year to 11.3 percent. Despite the rise, demand for apartments is expected to tick up 2.5 percent.
• Asking rents are forecasted to end the year at $852 per month, a 2.1 percent decline, while effective rents are projected to fall 4.7 percent to $747 per month.

HOUSTON (Houston Business Journal) – The recession has prompted a slowdown in new tenants and construction starts for the Energy Corridor, but experts say the submarket is faring better than others in the city and expect it to perform well in the long term.

In 2007, the overall vacancy rate stood at 6.4 percent. In 2008, that dropped to 5.7 percent, but by midyear 2009 it had risen to 8.8 percent. Net absorption was at 1.2 million sf in 2008, although by June 2009 it reached only 48,000 sf.

In the short term, the more than 1.25 million sf of space coming online — 33 percent of which is preleased — combined with low natural gas prices, will result in downward pressure on lease rates, mainly on these new buildings.

Class-A vacancy is expected to rise 50 percent this year, the highest increase in five years.

On the upside, recent expansion of I-10 along the corridor will provide increased access to future and existing buildings and promote growth.

The Open House for Serene Springs Lane in the Springs Lakes Subdivision has been cancelled.  It was supposed to be held open from 6-8pm on Tuesday November 10th.  The other two homes in Spring Lakes that were advertised in the Houston Chronicle will continue to be held open from 6-8pm on November 10th.  Hope you will come out and see what Spring Lakes has to offer.  You can learn more at http://BuySpringLakes.com

Open Houses November 10th, Tuesday, from 6-8pm

415 Spring Lakes Haven & 25518 Myrtle Springs, Spring, Texas 77373 

I will be getting flags out to the entire neighborhood for Veterans Day, so I have two other agents that are holding these homes open for me.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about these homes 832.628.SELL (7355)  or if you would like to learn more about selling your home.

THE WOODLANDS (Houston Business Journal) – Local architecture firm Watkins Hamilton Ross will break ground in early 2010 on the 240,000-sf expansion of Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital.

The first phase of the $104 million project will add eight surgical suites, pre-operation and recovery rooms, waiting areas, sterile processing, a 36-bed patient care unit and a parking garage to the hospital.

The hospital will have 288 beds and three shelled floors for future growth.

Walter P. Moore is contracted for civil and structural engineering, while mechanical, electrical and plumbing duties have been given to Smith, Seckman and Reid.

HOUSTON (Houston Business Journal) – Houston area foreclosures did not significantly increase between the second and third quarters, and there were fewer than last year.

RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report revealed that Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown foreclosures increased 1.5 percent between the second and third quarters, and actually fell 8.1 percent from third quarter 2008.

Approximately one out of every 256 area homes, or 0.39 percent, posted foreclosure activity from July to September, ranking Houston 124th in the United States for number of households in foreclosure.

The Dallas area’s 10,700 properties, or 0.45 percent of the whole, that posted foreclosure activity made it the highest in Texas.

College Station–Bryan had the lowest percentage of housing units in foreclosure during the third quarter, with 46 properties, or 0.05 percent.

According to Rob Cook, the 2009 MLS Chairman and the Houston Association of Realtors, we met a few milestones back in August and I wanted to share them with you.  The median price for a single-family home rose for the 4th straight month to the 3rd highest level of 2009 ($160,880.00).  The average price of a single-amily home reached its 3rd highest level of the year ($213,396.00).  Month-over-month volume of single-family home sales reached the 3rd highest level of 2009.  Month-over-month volume of townhouse/condominium sales reached the 3rd highest level of 2009.  Month’s inventory of singel-family homes dipped from 6.7 to 6.5 months compared to the national average of 9.4 months.  This is all good news for the housing market that I wanted to share with you as you are making real estate decisions as we head into 2010.

WASHINGTON (Associated Press) – Nationwide, sales of new homes fell 3.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 402,000 from August to September, according to the Commerce Department.

Last month’s decline was the first since March and was off 7.8 percent from a year ago. However, the market has improved 22 percent from its bottom in January.

The median sales price of new homes, $204,800, was down 9.1 percent from September 2008, but up 2.5 percent from August’s $199,900.

Sales declined nearly 11 percent in the West and 10 percent in the South while they remained unchanged in the Northeast and increased 35 percent in the Midwest.

TEXAS (San Antonio Business Journal) – Four of the five best labor markets in the country are in Texas, according to a new study compiled by Portfolio.com.

Austin leads the way, followed by San Antonio. Houston ranks fourth and Dallas–Fort Worth fifth.

Landing at third is Baton Rouge.

All 100 metropolitan areas in the study, including those in Texas, have seen employment decline since last year. However, while 5 percent of the nation’s private-sector jobs have disappeared since June 2008, the collective decline for the ‘Texas Four’ has been 2.6 percent.

The Texas markets still have 589,500 more jobs than they did five years ago.

Portfolio.com used a nine-part formula to analyze employment trends in the nation’s 100 largest labor markets. The formula used midyear U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for 2004–09, including unemployment rates and trends, and raw and percentage changes in private-sector employment.