-
A Texas-Sized Housing Recovery
Tweet Share on Facebook September 13, 2012 CommentThey say everything's bigger in Texas, including, it seems, the housing market recovery.
Real estate agents in Dallas-Fort Worth sold almost 8,000 single-family homes in August, according to the Dallas Morning News, an 18 percent increase over July and the 14th consecutive month purchases have been higher than the year before.
Another landmark: August sales in the region mark the largest number sold in a single month since the start of the recession in 2007. Meanwhile, median sales prices were 8 percent ahead of levels a year ago.
What's more, Dallas-Fort Worth isn't alone. Other major Texas markets including Houston, Austin, and San Antonio are also seeing more than just a few green shoots in their housing markets.
-
Home Builders: 99 Markets Now Breaking Free of the Housing Bust
Tweet Share on Facebook September 10, 2012 CommentA top home builders group said nearly 100 housing markets across the nation qualified as "improving," further cementing the notion that the beat-up housing sector is finally throwing some punches of its own.
The 99 markets that made the cut in September—up almost 25 percent over August figures—include metro areas in 33 different states and the District of Columbia, including "geographically diverse locations" such as Tucson, Ariz., Jacksonville, Fla., Springfield, Ill., Greenville, N.C., and Bend, Ore.
-
Romney: Obama's Do-Nothing Approach to Housing a Failure
Tweet Share on Facebook September 5, 2012 CommentAlthough often blamed for the economy's unimpressive and fragile recovery, housing has largely stayed out of the presidential race, making only brief appearances on the campaign trail where the brunt of the housing bust's destruction fell.
But amid the ongoing Democratic National Convention, Mitt Romney released his own vision for ending the housing crisis this week, slamming Obama's "government-centric" approach as a failure.
"To address the housing crisis, President Obama rolled out an alphabet soup of more than ten housing finance programs rather than offering a real solution," the campaign website says. "President Obama has hamstrung the economic recovery and slowed the recovery of the housing market."
Whether or not that's true is up for debate, but Romney has a little damage control to do of his own when it comes to housing issues.
-
As Asking Prices Rise Again, Have House Hunters Missed the Window of Opportunity?
Tweet Share on Facebook September 5, 2012 CommentAfter several years of miserable housing market conditions, it seems sellers are getting a little more comfortable with nudging up their asking prices. While that's good news for sellers and underwater homeowners, house hunters looking for bargain basement deals could be running out of time.
Asking prices—the earliest indicator of the direction of property values—rose 2.3 percent in August year-over-year, according to real estate site Trulia, with gains recorded in more than two-thirds of the nation's largest metro areas.
That's the largest annual jump reported by the Trulia Price Monitor index, and the largest year-over-year increase since the beginning of the recession. Cutting out foreclosures, which tend to sell at deep discounts and drag down home values overall, means the gains were even higher, with asking prices nationally rising almost 4 percent.
[Read: Housing Market Continues to Heal as Home Prices Rise Again.]
-
Housing Market Continues to Heal as Home Prices Rise Again
Tweet Share on Facebook August 28, 2012 CommentIt's a steep upward climb, but home prices continue to gain ground, according to the widely followed S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released Tuesday.
Nationally, property values inched up more than 1 percent in the second quarter, while both the 10- and 20-city composites the indices track saw month-over-month gains of more than 2 percent. It's the first time all three readings showed positive annual growth since 2010.
Only the Charlotte, N.C. and Dallas, Texas metro areas saw a slowdown in their annual price appreciation rates.
-
Riskiest Real Estate Markets for Investors
Tweet Share on Facebook August 27, 2012 CommentNow that home prices are rising, house hunters and real estate investors are starting to feel a little more comfortable about dipping their toes into the housing market.
But just because home values are rising in some markets doesn't mean real estate isn't a game without risk, especially for those seeking an income stream from their investment. Although rents across the country are rising due to heightened demand, finding renters who will pay a high enough rent to offset an investor's carry costs isn't always a sure thing.
[Read: Property in College Towns a Boon to Real Estate Investors, Parents.]
-
Housing's Achilles Heel: Under 40 and Underwater
Tweet Share on Facebook August 24, 2012 CommentWith encouraging news about home prices finally rising and sales picking up, it's easy to think that the housing market is finally coming out of the dark ages.
But there's at least one trillion-dollar problem that lingers on: negative equity.
Though rising home values have shaved $42 billion off the nationwide total—about $1.15 trillion, according to the latest data from real estate information site Zillow—millions of Americans still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, also known as being "underwater."
Just shy of 31 percent of American homeowners with mortgages are underwater, according to Zillow, and nearly half of them are under 40 years old. But although a good chunk of that age group has underwater mortgages, they are some of the least likely borrowers to skip payments.
-
Oops! Realtors Break Own Embargo on July Existing-Home Sales; but They're Up
Tweet Share on Facebook August 22, 2012 CommentExisting-home sales data for July went out a little earlier than expected Wednesday morning, after Bloomberg reporters spotted the updated numbers on the National Association of Realtors' website ahead of the usual release time.
"The National Association of Realtors inadvertently released existing-home sales data early on their public website and broke their own embargo. As soon as Bloomberg notified the NAR that this information was on their website and verified its accuracy, we published the story," Bloomberg said in a statement, according to the Wall Street Journal.
[Read: Property in College Towns a Boon to Real Estate Investors, Parents.]
-
Property in College Towns a Boon to Real Estate Investors, Parents
Tweet Share on Facebook August 22, 2012 CommentFor some parents, sending kids off to college means equipping the budding academics with a laptop and carting their stuff to a closet-sized dorm room on the far side of campus.
For others, it involves making a different kind of investment: real estate.
According to Realtors in some of the nation's hottest rental markets, more parents are opting to purchase property for students to live in during their four-year college stint instead of forking over big bucks for on-campus housing or sky-high rents.
-
Rising Building Material Costs Could Crimp Construction Gains
Tweet Share on Facebook August 16, 2012 CommentIt would seem the winds of fortune have finally changed for the better when it comes to the construction industry.
Builder confidence edged up to a five-year high in August and permits—an indicator of future construction—rose almost 7 percent in July to their highest level since August 2008, helping cement the notion that the homebuilding industry will be a major contributor to the nation's economic growth in coming months.
Although builders broke ground on slightly fewer homes last month—starts fell by more than 1 percent according to a report released Thursday by the Commerce Department—the pullback doesn't worry economists.
