Tag Archives: Texas Housing Market

Texas Existing Home Sales Up 4%

on February 7, 2012 in News

COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Sales of existing single-family Texas homes in December were up 4 percent from a year ago, according to the most recent Multiple Listing Services (MLS) data compiled by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

More than 16,500 homes were sold, data showed. The median home price was $150,700, about the same as a year ago, and the state’s overall inventory was at six months.

December 2011 MLS data for many Texas cities are available on the Center’s website. Here is a sampling (data current as of Jan. 30, 2012):

 

Sales

Change from
Last Year

Median
Price

Change from
Last Year

Months’
Inventory

Austin 

 1,738 up 11% $188,200 down 2% 4.2

Beaumont

 151 up 2% $114,000 down 14% 11.1

Brownsville

 39 down 33% $86,800 down 22% 12.4

Dallas

 3,315 up 3% $162,800 up 1% 4.7

El Paso

 420 down 9% $97,900 down 27% 7

Fort Worth

 645 up 5% $112,500 down 6% 5.2

Houston

 5,048 up 7% $160,400 up 2% 5.9

Midland

 134 up 17% $184,000 down 1% 3.3

San Antonio

 1,393 up 3% $148,400 down 6% 6.6

Sherman-
Denison

 84 up 22% $96,700 up 3% 8.8

Temple-
Belton

 115 up 4% $120,700 down 13% 7.9

Tyler

 198 down 5% $130,800 up 1% 11.4

Victoria

 74 up 37% $131,100 down 2% 3.8

Waco

 153 up 2% $116,200 down 1% 9

Wichita
Falls

 81 down 31% $102,300 down 9% 7.6

Texas

 16,505 up 4% $150,700 no change 6

Negative Equity Mortgages: Texas Faring Better Than Most States

on June 17, 2011 in News

SANTA ANA, Calif. (CoreLogic) – Texas had 335,446 negative equity home loans
(10.1 percent of all mortgages) and 177,410 near-negative equity loans (5.4
percent) at the end of first quarter 2011, according to
CoreLogic data compiled by Real Estate Center Research Economist Dr. Jim
Gaines.

Texas ranked 33rd out of 44 states for which the data were reported,
which Gaines said is good news.

Negative equity, often referred to as “underwater” or “upside down,” means
that borrowers owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

Nationally, 10.9 million (22.7 percent) of residential properties with
a mortgage were in negative equity, according to CoreLogic data. That’s down
slightly from 11.1 million, or 23.1 percent, in fourth quarter 2010.

An additional 2.4 million borrowers had less than 5 percent equity, referred
to as near-negative equity, in the first quarter.

Together, negative equity and near-negative equity mortgages accounted for
27.7 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage nationwide. In
fourth quarter 2010, these two categories stood at 27.9 percent.

Your Wish is Granted

by Shannon Register, Broker/Owner on November 27, 2009 in Blog

A new grant issued by the National Association of Realtors has been given to the Texas Association of Realtors to aid consumers and realtors alike in preventing foreclosures.  This grant will develop a training program for Texas Realtors in the practice of identifying foreclosures and short-sales opportunities.  With the assistance of housing giants: TDHCA (Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs), HUD (Housing and Urban Development), Texas Foreclosure Prevention Task Force, and NeighborWorks, this resource will be a vital lifeline for distressed Texan homeowners and the Texan housing market.  An educational web site is also available for consumers, www.KeepMyTexasHome.com, which will include a homeowner’s checklist that you can use as a reference guide to stopping foreclosure.

Texas Still Buyer’s Market

on June 28, 2009 in News

TEXAS (Real Estate Center, The Herald-Zeitung) – Despite rising foreclosure rates in the United States (now nearly 32 percent), the rate in Texas is down 14 percent since last year.

Jim Gaines, research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, said the Texas housing market is doing very well compared with the rest of the nation.

“We’re being compared to large, high-growth states like Florida, New York, California and Illinois, and our housing market is in much better shape. This is partly because about four or five years ago, we didn’t have the big run-up in prices that many of those states had,” Gaines said.

Texas also benefits from a lack of overbuilding, which often creates an excess of inventory to drive down home prices.

Affordable homes, low mortgage and interest rates, and first-time homebuyer tax credits also make this an ideal time to buy a home, according to Gaines.

Economist Predicts Strong Texas Housing Market in 2009

on February 20, 2009 in News

BEAUMONT (Beaumont Enterprise) – Despite the negative news surrounding the real estate industry, now continues to be a great time to buy a home in Texas, said Dr. Mark Dotzour yesterday, speaking before the Beaumont Board of Realtors.

Dotzour, the chief economist for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, said the states’s housing market should thrive in 2009 thanks to affordable housing and steady job growth.

However, he also told the group to expect a decline in new home construction this year, partly because more new homes could inflate the market, causing existing home values to decline.

Although the latest report from California-based foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac showed an 81 percent increase in the number of homeowners facing foreclosure last year, Dotzour said he does not expect foreclosures to become an issue in Texas.

“Our home prices have been going up,” he said, “and when your house is going up, you’d rather sell it then give it back to the bank.”