FIVE TEXAS CITIES NAMED HEALTHIEST HOUSING MARKETS
Five Texas cities swept the top spots on Builder magazine’s list of “Healthiest Housing Markets for 2009.”
Houston ranked first, Austin second, Fort Worth third, San Antonio fourth and Dallas fifth.
Rounding out the top ten were Raleigh, N.C., Seattle, Indianapolis, Ind., Fayetteville, Ark., and Washington D.C.
To compile the list, Builder analyzed the top 75 housing markets in the country, ranking them based on population trends and job growth, perennial drivers of housing demand. They also looked at home prices and the number of building permits.
NEW HOME SALES UP, PRICES DOWN
Sales of new homes were up last month according to the latest report from the Commerce Department.
Sales rose by 2.4 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 515,000 units, the most since April. Even with the over-the-month increase, new-home sales are down 35.3 percent from last July.
The average price of a new home sold in July was $294,600, down 4.1 percent from a year ago. The median home price was $230,700, down 6.3 percent from last year.
Source: Associated Press
Read MoreNEW HOUSING NEARING BOTTOM, SAYS NAHB ECONOMIST
The dramatic contraction in new housing that has hurt the national economy for some two years may be nearing bottom, NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders said this week.
After a “very slow” first half of 2008, Seiders said he believes the new home market will “solidify” in the second half. He said sales should go up some in the third quarter.
“The bulk of the housing contraction is now behind us,” he said.
Seiders expects the Fed to lower interest rates at its March 18 meeting by another half point.
While the new economic stimulus package will be felt beginning in the third quarter, the nation’s economy will only grow 2 percent for the year, said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac chief economist.
“That’s not good,” he said. “The economy must grow at 3 percent just to keep pace with the growth of the labor force.”
Nothaft said the building industry must clear the “overhang” in unsold inventory of homes before home prices will pick up. He said the people in the best buying position today are prime borrowers with down payments who qualify for conforming loans.
David Berson, chief economist for the PMI Group, believes the economy went into recession in December but that it will be brief and mild.
While home prices will continue to fall in 2008 and 2009, he said that won’t happen in Texas and the Carolinas.
He said the number of would-be buyers showing interest in buying a home is once again on the rise.
METROPLEX NEW HOME STARTS, NEW HOME SALES DOWN
Home starts fell almost 30 percent in the Metroplex area during the third quarter, while sales of new houses were down 20 percent from the same period last year, according to new statistics from housing analyst Metrostudy Inc.
Builders started 8,855 houses in the third quarter, compared with more than 12,000 during the same period last year.
Sales fell to 10,000 units, down from 12,520 new home purchases the previous year. Houses priced under $200,000 accounted for most of the drop in sales.
Builders have trimmed the inventory of homes available for purchase by almost 4,500 units so far this year. According to David Brown, director of Metrostudy’s Dallas office, 24,500 new homes are still in inventory, both completed and under construction.
Last week, Dr. Mark Dotzour, chief economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, called for a drop in home building.
Source: Dallas Morning News
Read MoreNEW HOME SALES UP
After a 4 percent drop in June, sales of new homes rose 2.8 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 870,000 units, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Sales increased 22.4 percent in the West and 0.6 percent in the South during July. However, sales dropped 24.3 percent in the Northeast and 0.9 percent in the Midwest.
The median price of a new home in July was $239,500, up 0.6 percent from last year. The average home price, however, dropped to $300,800 in July, down 3.4 percent from last year.
Source: Associated Press
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