Register Real Estate Advisors

WASHINGTON (Forbes) – Several Texas cities are poised for a quick recovery from the national recession, according to Forbes.

Austin–Round Rock ranked first on the magazine’s recent list of ten cities most likely to bounce back quickly.

Meanwhile, San Antonio ranked fifth, Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington seventh and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission ninth.

To compile its list, Forbes looked at estimates from Moody’s Economy.com of the projected gross domestic product of metropolitan areas across the United States, as well as unemployment figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and home prices, incomes and affordability data from the National Association of Home Builders.

Forbes also put together a list of ten worst cities for recession recovery. No Texas cities made that list.

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.

AUSTIN (Austin Business Journal) – Governor Perry signed legislation yesterday that will protect Texas landowners from eminent domain.

If approved by voters in November, House Joint Resolution 14 will establish greater protections for property owners by including landowner rights in the Texas Constitution.

“Land ownership is an essential part of Texas’ culture, and we owe it to our citizens to protect their rights as landowners and members of the community from government entities that overstep their bounds and abuse eminent domain,” Perry said.

The resolution will require two-thirds of all house members to approve any request granting eminent domain authority to a party.

The bill will also prevent government entities from labeling a neighborhood as “blighted” without taking into account each individual property.

I have finally completed my Glossary of Real Estate Terms and it is online.  You can get to it from the front page of my web site.  I know I promised it a long time ago, but it was a lot more work than I thought it would be.  After pulling together all of the terms I felt would be most useful, I have posted them online as a reference for my clients.  I hope this will help you when you have questions about your real estate transactions in the future and any paper work you might have to complete.  As always, if you have questions about real estate feel free to email them to me.

I am cancelling my Open House this Sunday that was supposed to be from 3-5 since we got a contract on 515 West North Hill this week.  I knew that house would sell fast because it’s so well cared for.  It showed so nicely.  Less than a month on the market…my marketing plan sells…Call me if you need help selling your house.

AUSTIN (Austin Business Journal) – Despite increasing global real estate turmoil, Texas remains an attractive play for foreign investors looking for opportunities in the United States, a report shows.

The Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate ranks members’ top cities for U.S. and global investment in 2009. Houston ranked fifth, while Austin ranked 11th, tying with Las Vegas, Phoenix, Orlando, Atlanta, San Diego and San Jose, Calif.

Washington D.C. claimed the first spot.

The United States ranked first among nations in terms of opportunities for capital appreciation.

Conducted in fourth quarter 2008, the survey polled the association’s members who collectively hold about $1 trillion in real estate worldwide.

Click on this link for an amazing video about Texas.  With all of the media doom and gloom and negativity in the housing market, this is a wonderful video from YouTube about Texas Real Estate.  We still have the best housing market in the country.  We have people relocating here every day.  We still have job growth.  Texas is an amazing place to live!