Register Real Estate Advisors

LITTLE ROCK (Gadberry Group) – Four Texas suburbs made the Gadberry Group’s 2009 list of the country’s nine most notable high-growth areas.

 Houston suburb Atascocita was last year’s second most notable suburb. Since 2000, the number of households there grew 108 percent, from 11,475 to 23,917. Average household income grew from $79,054 to $99,272, placing Atascocita third for income growth.

 Katy occupies the number five position. The area is second for absolute household change, adding 15,699 households since 2000, and third for percent household change, increasing from 6,585 households in 2000 to 22,284 households in 2008, or 238 percent.

Dallas suburb Mansfield was seventh. Households grew from 8,492 in 2000 to 17,246 in 2009, or 103 percent. Mansfield tied for the third position for annual growth from 2008 to 2009, adding 15 percent to its total households last year.

 Wylie, also near Dallas, earned its number eight position on this year’s list with a household growth of 163 percent, adding 10,310 households to the 7,149 that lived there in 2000.

News Release Issued: January 5, 2010 8:01 AM EST

Amid real estate market uncertainty, homeowners, buyers, sellers – and now renters — turning to Zillow® and the Zillow iPhone App in record numbers for research and advice

SEATTLE, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ — Real estate Web site Zillow.com today announced it broke multiple records for site traffic and user activity in 2009. An average of 8.2 million unique users visited Zillow each month during this period, which is an increase of 57 percent year-over-year (i). Additional milestones include:

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060503/ZILLOWLOGO)

• 37 percent year-over-year growth in page views in 2009.
• 3.9 million for-sale, rental and Make Me Move listings are posted on Zillow today, up 43 percent year-over-year, as the result of more listings feed partnerships with brokerages and Multiple Listings Services.
• In December 2009 Zillow launched Rental Listings and Search, enabling anyone to post a home for rent on Zillow, and giving home shoppers the option to search both homes for sale and homes for rent. Nearly one million of Zillow’s monthly visitors are exclusively renters, with countless others searching both types of homes simultaneously.
• The Zillow iPhone App has been downloaded more than 870,000 times since its launch in April 2009, quickly making it the most popular real estate app on the iPhone. Over 2 million homes are viewed on the app each month. Additionally, O’Reilly Media named the Zillow iPhone App “Best App for Real Estate” and a “top pick.”
• Consumers submitted 550,000 loan requests on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace in 2009. Of those requests, 46 percent, or 253,300 were for refinance loans as mortgage rates reached record lows in 2009. Lenders responded with more than 10 million custom loan quotes during this same period. To date, more than 7,000 lender ratings and reviews have been submitted by borrowers.
• 171 U.S. newspapers began using Zillow’s search and listings technology to power their real estate Web sites in 2009, including The Tampa Tribune, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

“2009 was a wild year for real estate, with continued home value declines, government intervention, record low mortgage rates, and an enormous amount of consumer uncertainty about what the future holds,” said Spencer Rascoff, Zillow’s chief operating officer. “As a result, people flocked to Zillow for information and advice. Uncertainty always benefits information providers, and 2009 was the year that Zillow solidified its place as a clear leader in providing millions of people with real estate information.”

“It also was the year we saw a real shift change in how people consume and find real estate information. Within just eight months of launching our Zillow iPhone App, it’s been downloaded nearly 900,000 times and over 2 million homes are viewed via the Zillow iPhone App each month. It’s clear to us that more and more people want Zillow’s real estate information on location, while touring neighborhoods and homes, and we expect this trend to magnify in 2010,” Rascoff said.

To learn more about Zillow, visit the Zillow Blog at www.zillow.com/blog. Learn more about Zillow Mobile and the Zillow iPhone App by visiting www.zillow.com/iphone.

About Zillow.com

Zillow.com is an online real estate marketplace where homeowners, buyers, sellers, renters, real estate agents and mortgage professionals find and share vital information about homes and mortgages. Launched in early 2006 with Zestimate® home values and data on millions of U.S. homes, Zillow has since added homes for sale and homes for rent, a directory of real estate and lending professionals, Zillow Advice and Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. One of the most-visited U.S. real estate Web sites, with more than eight million unique visitors per month, Zillow’s goal is to help people become smarter about homes and real estate in every stage of their lives — home buying, selling, renting, remodeling and financing. The company is headquartered in Seattle and has raised $87 million in funding.

Zillow, Zillow.com and Zestimate are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc.

(i) Source for unique users (monthly unique visitors) and page view data: Omniture.

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060503/ZILLOWLOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

SOURCE: Zillow.com

AUSTIN (Austin Business Journal) – The area’s 1,389 home starts in fourth quarter 2009 were down slightly from the year ago period, according to Residential Strategies Inc.

 “We view this market performance favorably as indicating that the bottom of the market has been, or will soon be reached,” Residential Strategies Austin Division Manager Tommy Tucker said.

 Austin home starts totaled 6,784 last year, 60 percent below the 2006 peak of 17,128 starts and 25 percent less than in 2008.

 New home median prices dropped from $206,888 in the third quarter to $201,481 in the last. This quarter’s new home price is off 8.35 percent compared with the same period one year ago.

 AUSTIN (Austin Business Journal) – Grubb & Ellis Co. ranked Austin the best U.S. city for long-term investment in commercial real estate, while Houston placed sixth.

 The California-based company expects commercial real estate to falter at a slower rate in 2010, bottoming out at the end of the year and beginning a slow recovery in 2011.

Grubb & Ellis forecasts the investment market to rebound slightly in 2010, with some assets entering the market. This uptick should prompt increased sales volume of 20 to 30 percent. The forecast also predicts the record-high office vacancy rates to continue, stretching as high as 19 percent by the end of the year.

HOUSTON (Houston Business Journal <http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2009/12/14/daily7.html> ) – Houston is the top Texas market for distressed commercial real estate by total property investment volume, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc.

 Overall, Houston had 211 troubled assets valued at $4.8 billion as of Dec. 3.

The city’s apartment sector had 85 troubled assets, valued at $1.12 billion. Retail had 67 distressed properties valued at $1.05 billion, and hotel had 22 properties valued at $188 million. The office sector had the least number of distressed properties — 19 — but those totaled $2.4 billion.

Dallas–Fort Worth was second in the state, with $4.4 billion in distressed properties.

 Nationwide, Houston ranked ninth.

 Real Capital ranks the cities by the estimated dollar value of the distressed assets compared with the size of each market. It bases market activity on the total transaction volume in each market from the past four years.

HOUSTON (Community Impact Newspaper <http://www.impactnews.com/northwest-houston/415-transportation/6472-hwy-290-projects-and-construction> ) – The Texas Transportation Commission has allocated $314.6 million in Prop. 12 funds to advance construction on the SH 290 and I-610 interchange.

 The project, which is phase one of the Texas Department of Transportation’s Hwy. 290 corridor renovation, includes one of two direct connectors from SH 290 eastbound to I-10. The connector will bypass I-610, alleviating rush-hour traffic.

 This intersection is ranked as the 13th most-congested road segment in Texas.

“The main benefit you’ll see is traffic on inbound SH 290,” said Mike Zientek, senior public involvement representative for the SH 290 program. “What backs it up in the morning is the people who have to get on 610 to go to I-10. The big reason for the backup is so many of those cars must get on 610.”

 Voters approved Prop. 12 two years ago, allocating $5 billion as general obligation funds for transportation projects.

AUSTIN (Austin Business Journal) – A proposal to adopt the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code and require housing starts to undergo energy inspections has been sent to the city council.

The proposed law would mandate testing for every single- or two-family unit by outside contractors. The current rule requires only a sampling of similar new housing by the same builder to be tested.

Multifamily complexes and attached buildings would still undergo testing of a random sample of units.

The ordinance would increase the minimum sf for requiring a check of heating, ventilation and cooling equipment for new commercial buildings from 5,000 to 10,000 sf, costing owners 25 to 50 cents per sf.

The proposal was recommended 5-0 by the Building and Fire Code Board of Appeals on Nov. 4 and recommended 5-1 by the Mechanical Plumbing and Solar Board 13 days later. It will most likely go before the city council in the new year.

The 2009 international energy code is a national code; statewide adoption is required to receive federal stimulus funds.

TEXAS (Real Estate Center, Realtor.org) – A total of 19,347 existing single-family homes were sold in Texas last month, a 15 percent increase from October 2008, according to MLS data compiled by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

The median price rose 1 percent to $143,300 during the same period, and the state finished the month with a 6.9-month inventory of existing homes.

Here is how select Texas cities fared in October (data current as of Nov. 24, 2009):

Additional home sales data for these and other major Texas cities are available on the Center’s website.

At the national level, the National Association of Realtors reported this week that single-family home sales rose 9.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.33 million in October from a pace of 4.86 million in September. That was 21.4 percent above the October 2008 pace. The median price was $173,100 in October, down 6.8 percent from a year ago.

TEXAS (Real Estate Center, Realtor.org) – A total of 19,347 existing single-family homes were sold in Texas last month, a 15 percent increase from October 2008, according to MLS data compiled by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

The median price rose 1 percent to $143,300 during the same period, and the state finished the month with a 6.9-month inventory of existing homes.

Here is how select Texas cities fared in October (data current as of Nov. 24, 2009):

Additional home sales data for these and other major Texas cities are available on the Center’s website.

At the national level, the National Association of Realtors reported this week that single-family home sales rose 9.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.33 million in October from a pace of 4.86 million in September. That was 21.4 percent above the October 2008 pace. The median price was $173,100 in October, down 6.8 percent from a year ago.

I found an article by Kerry Hannon in the Winter 2009 publication by USAA Magazine and really liked what it offered.  I hope it will be helpful to you.  Not everyone can be a member of USAA, but I am, so I am sharing with you the information I took from the article they published.

Sometimes it only takes a small stumble to wind up in deep debt.  Ready to get out?  A USAA Member and a financial expert point you in the right direction.

10.  Budget and Save – Pay yourself in a savings account like you would pay a monthly bill collector.  You will quickly learn not to miss that 10% of your income each month.  Systematically adding money to a savings account is a must. 

9.  Cut Spending – Trim those grocery bills!  Look at downsizing options or getting a roommate or move in with you.

8.  Track Daily Expenses – Write down everything you spend money on.  Most of the time it’s not the big items that get you into trouble.  Little expenses add up.

7.  Set Goals – You can make a plan to exit from that revolving debt.  Quit using the credit cards and pay cash for items.  Make a plan for paying down the debt.  Some good short term goals are paying down your debt by $1,000 or paying off one credit card at a time. 

6.  Take a Second Job – Getting some extra income can pay off debt quicker.  Cutting expenses and increasing income works to reduce debt.

5.  Pay Off High Interest Loans Systematically – Don’t pay off the smallest debts first just to see progress.  Work on the larger ones.

4.  Pay Bills Automatically Online – Paying bills online will help you budget and get things paid on time.  Paying bills on time increases credit scores.  

3.  Find Out Your Credit Score – A good credit score can translate to loans when you need them and thousands of dollars in interest savings.  Scores range from the 300s to 850, with most people falling in the 600-700s.  Strive for a score of at least 720 to 740 to get better rates on credit cards, auto loans and mortgages.

2.  Fix Credit Report Errors – Regularly check your credit report so you know if there are any errors you need to correct.  Go to the official site, AnnualCreditReport.com, to request a FREE Credit Report from each of the three reporting agencies – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion – every 12 months.  Your credit score doesn’t come with the report.  You’ll have to purchase your score from each bureau. 

1.  Do Periodic Checkups – Assessing your situation regularly should be part of your financial regimen.  Getting out of debt is possible, but it takes patience.