Posts Tagged "strong real estate market"

Texas housing market took some hits but is still standing

Posted by themattesongroup on Dec 17, 2010 in Buyers, Dallas Metroplex Housing Market, Housing Market Update, Real Estate, Rockwall/Heath Housing Market, Sellers, Texas Housing Market, U.S. Housing Market | 0 comments

(An article by Steve Brown)

By now you’ve heard about the huge debt problems in Ireland, the protests in London over government cutbacks and the growing financial crisis in Spain.

You can’t help but hear about it – on television and every news website.  And of course there’s the home foreclosure crisis in Florida, cascading unemployment in Michigan. And California is basically broke.

What does all that have to do with Texas? If not for the dire national and international news, we’d be feeling a lot better about our economy and real
estate market. Texas is in comparatively good shape when it comes to housing, commercial real estate and unemployment.

But it’s hard to feel good about that with all that’s going on in the rest of the world.

That’s a shame. During the Oil Patch meltdown of the late 1980s, our neighbors to the north and in booming West Coast markets didn’t seem to give a whit about our woes here in Texas.

Of course, the downturn is more universal this go-round, and the declines are steeper. But still, the Texas real estate market deserves props for getting through two years of a nuclear economic winter and only catching a cold.

Don’t take my word for it. Just this week the Brookings Institution put out its regular economic assessment of major U.S. metro areas, and Texas and Dallas-Fort Worth were near the top of all the lists. D-FW, and most of the other big Texas markets, were included in the top U.S. housing markets during the third quarter, according to the Brookings report. North Texas is among the areas that have seen the smallest home price declines since the nation’s housing market fell with a thud.

North Texas also got high marks for being one of the areas with the highest economic output and stronger employment markets.
And D-FW was singled out by Brookings as one of the top overall 20 markets in the country.

The only area where North Texas doesn’t outperform the rest of the country is in number of foreclosed homes. And there we are close to the middle of the pack.

Brookings estimates that about four out of every 1,000 D-FW homes with a mortgage is now in lender hands. The average among major U.S. metro areas is closer to six out of 1,000.

So again, things here aren’t so bad compared with the rest of the country. It’s just that it isn’t easy to get past all the noise about the international financial mess and problems in places like California and Arizona.

And Americans in general – the real estate industry found in a recent survey – are more pessimistic than in previous economic periods. The weight of all the bad buzz on our real estate market won’t be lifted right away. But when the chatter about U.S. economic trends improves, don’t be surprised if attitudes about Texas’ property market turn on a dime. Again, the hole we have to climb out of isn’t very deep.

Source: Dallas Morning News

Dallas-Fort Worth home prices edge higher in report

Posted by themattesongroup on Aug 12, 2010 in Buyers, Dallas Metroplex Housing Market, Economy, Housing Market Update, Real Estate, Sellers, Texas Housing Market | 0 comments

D-FW was one of 100 U.S. metropolitan areas that saw improved home prices from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.  Median home sales prices in the area rose 2.1 percent in the second quarter from the same period the previous year, the Realtors said. That beat the nationwide increase of 1.5 percent.

And it was more than double North Texas’ first-quarter gain.  Almost two-thirds of the U.S. markets that the Realtors track had year-over-year price rises at midyear.  But analysts aren’t overselling the latest numbers, which are compared with the depths of the housing shakeout in 2009.  “The recorded home prices in many markets were significantly depressed last year because of a large percentage of distressed homes sold at discount,” said Realtor economist Lawrence Yun.

“Now as more normal, nondistressed home sales are occurring, the median price in many areas is showing higher values,” he said.  Sales of distressed homes still account for almost a third of U.S. purchases nationwide, according to the Realtors.  An increase in the number of sales of higher-priced homes in some markets may also increase the median price, Yun said.

In the Dallas area, sales of homes in affluent neighborhoods are up sharply this year.  Nationwide, prices were up for the first time since 2006 in the closely watched report.  Some of the biggest second-quarter price increases were in California, which in recent years suffered huge residential value declines. Prices were up 36 percent in San Jose, 25 percent in San Francisco and 17.8 percent in Riverside.  Prices were still falling in more than 50 areas, including Cumberland, Md., -15.4 percent, and Tucson, Ariz., -13.7 percent.

The D-FW area had the best quarter price performance among major Texas markets. Prices were up 1.3 percent in the Austin area.  But median home sales prices fell 1 percent in Houston and were down 3.2 percent in San Antonio.

EXISTING HOME PRICE CHANGES

Source: Dallas Morning News, NAR, MetroTex

Dallas-area home prices turn positive!

Posted by themattesongroup on Jan 27, 2010 in Buyers, Dallas Metroplex Housing Market, Housing Market Update, Real Estate, Sellers | 0 comments

Dallas-area home prices turn positive in S&P/Case- Shiller index

After more than two years of declines, home prices have finally turned positive for Dallas in the closely watched Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

Residential values in the Dallas area were up 1.4 percent in November from a year earlier – the first increase in the price index of pre-owned homes since September 2007.

The Dallas area also performed the best out of the 20 cities Case-Shiller tracks each month in the survey released Tuesday.

The upbeat Dallas numbers support other recent reports that show residential values in the area are no longer falling.

“Obviously this is positive news and reflective of the tight inventory of both new and existing homes,” said Ted Wilson of Dallas-based home market analyst Residential Strategies Inc. “And we could see further strengthening of home demand and prices in 2010 if job growth resumes later this year, as several forecasters have predicted.

“But before we get too giddy about the housing market, we should understand that there are still headwinds.”

Continued high home foreclosure rates in North Texas are a drag on home values, industry analysts warn. And sales could dip again when the federal home buying tax credit runs out in April, economists say.

Economic pressures also still constrain home buying.

“I expect to continue to see mixed signals in the home price indexes month to month during 2010 because demand will not measurably strengthen until job growth re-emerges,” said David Brown of Metrostudy Inc.’s Dallas housing research office.

Positive territory

No one doubts that the Dallas housing market is among the healthiest in the country, and the Case-Shiller numbers confirm that.

“Looking at the annual figures, four markets – Dallas, Denver, San Diego and San Francisco – finally entered positive territory, something we haven’t really seen in at least two years,” Standard & Poor’s David M. Blitzer said Tuesday in the report.

Other major U.S. home markets weren’t so lucky. Charlotte, N.C.; Las Vegas; Seattle; and Tampa, Fla., hit new low points in the index.

Prices were down 5.3 percent for all the cities in the report from a year ago and fell 0.2 percent for the month of November.

Dallas-area home prices were flat in November compared with October, Case-Shiller said.

For all of 2009, median home sales prices in North Texas were unchanged from 2008 levels, according to statistics from North Texas Real Estate Information Systems Inc. That follows 2008′s 3 percent decline in homes sold by Realtors through the Multiple Listing Service.

Dallas-area home values bottomed out in the Case-Shiller in March, when prices were down 5.6 percent on an annual basis.

Prices here are still down about 5 percent from their peak in mid-2007.

Case-Shiller tracks the prices of typical single-family homes in each metropolitan area. The index does not include condominiums and townhouses.

Its researchers compare sales of specific properties over time.

Rebound expected

Most analysts expect the Dallas housing market to begin to rebound this year. The National Association of Home Builders is predicting that the local home construction market will be back to “normal” by 2011.

Economists are cautious given the fragile state of the U.S. financial markets and sluggish consumer spending.

“I don’t think it’s time to celebrate,” said Bernard Weinstein, an economist with Southern Methodist University. “We still have a lot of cleanup to do before the local housing market reaches equilibrium.”

But Weinstein said the strong Case-Shiller number “gives more testimony to the strength of the metroplex economy and the likelihood of an ongoing recovery in the local housing market.”

Source: STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

TEXAS’ EXISTING HOME SALES CLIMB, PRICES INCH UP

Posted by themattesongroup on Nov 25, 2009 in Economy, Housing Market Update, Texas Housing Market | 0 comments

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.

Source: Real Estate Center, Realtor.org

Real Estate Update – April 20-26th – Episode #20

Posted by themattesongroup on Apr 28, 2009 in Housing Market Update, Real Estate, Rockwall/Heath Housing Market, Sellers, The Matteson Group | 2 comments

Evan and Richard keep you updated with the real estate market in the Rockwall Texas area. For the week of April 20-26th of 2009, we are continuing to see an increase in showings. Several homes closed last week, 8 to be exact, so that is great news for those buyers and sellers! The market is strong and continuing to become more active. We are seeing multiple offer situations on many properties our clients offer on too!

The Matteson Group
Coldwell Banker Apex, Realtors
214-405-3640

Your trusted advisors providing a joy filled real estate experience!