Justin Howeth’s Blog

Sen. Johnny Isakson, of Georgia; and Sen. Chris Dodd (sponser) are going to be introducing a bill soon that would increase the now $8,000 tax credit to $15,000.   The proposed credit would have income restrictions, unlike the $8,000 credit; which phases individuals out at $75,000/year and couples at $150,000/year.  Keep watch and keep checking back for updates.  Join me on Facebook and LinkedIn to follow along as well.

I have just created another new web poll about mortgage rates.  Mortgage rates have gone up dramatically in the last few weeks.  Today, according to bankrate.com 30 year fixed rates are at 5.27%.  Last week rates were at 4.98%.  Things are starting to get back to “normal”.  Click Here for the web poll.

Should Realtors be forced to disclose listing and expiration dates on the MLS?  That is the question in my latest poll.  The rest of my polls can be found at howethproperties.com.

Should Realtors be forced to disclose listing and expiration dates on the MLS? 

The local MLS board came out with April sales numbers today and they are looking much better than before.  Both Average and median home prices reached the highest levels since September 2008, and the sales volume was the second highest for 2009.  Although the season of the year does account for some of this up-ticking, however, overall April property sales fell 24.3 percent from a year ago and single-family homes fell 22.5 percent from one year ago. 

The single-family home median price held steady versus one year earlier.  Without foreclosures factored into the median home price, the price rose to $170,000.  The average price dropped 5.8% to $194,222.

Sales of foreclosed properties, which typically sell below market; continue to taper off.  In April 2009, foreclosures made up 23.6% of single-family home sales, compared to 34.0% in January, 28.0% in February, and 24.5% in March. 

In conclusion:The spring and summer seasons are typically the “hot” times of the year to buy a home.  Typically from March thru September.  Yes home prices are down about 20 percent from one year ago, but the world is not comming to an end as the national media would like you think it is.  Houston has always come out on-top thanks to the petro-chemical industry. 

If you are looking to buy…do it NOW!  As you can read things are turning around.  Prices will only go higher.  Interest rates are low, low 4%-High5% range.  BUY, BUY, BUY.

According to the Wall Street Journal the median house price dropped 14% in the first quater of 2009 according to NAR.  Nar has stated that in the first quater of 2009 half of the homes that were sold were sold to first-time homebuyers, and many of them bought foreclosed homes and that is what dropped home prices.  There were some areas of the country that showed an increase in the country, like the Cumberland area of Maryland and West Virgina, the median price jumped 21%. 

This is amazing news coming from NAR.

In February the number of homes sold rose 5.1% to a seasonally adjusted 4.72 Million units, compared to 4.49M annualized units.  The bulk of the increase in sales is due to the increase of distressed homes.  The Nation Wide average home price is $165,400 down 15.5% from one year ago. 

As it has been for the past couple months, existing home sales were stronger in the West than the rest of the nation — primarily in the struggling housing market of California. Existing home sales in the region were up 2.6% from a month ago to 1.2 million annualized units, and are up 30.4% from a year ago.

In the Northeast, sales rose 15.6% to an annualized rate of 740,000 units and are down 14.9% from a year ago. In the Midwest, sales were basically flat — up 1% — to 1.04 million units.

In the struggling Southern market, existing home sales rose 6.1% to an annualized rate of 1.74 million units, according to the trade organization. 

Texas Topped the job growth market last year.  Five Texas cities were ranked in the top ten with three of them securing the top three spots. 

Houston added 57,300 jobs in 2008, Dallas-Ft. Worth was next with 43,300 and then San Antonio with 14,900.  Austin came in fifth with 9,600 jobs created and El Paso came in ninth with 5,300 jobs in 2008. 

Coastal Markets Still Moving

Hurricane Ike brought commerical and residential construction on the Texas coast to a halt.  But now the experts in the area are seeing construction and consumer interest picking up again. 

Hurricane Ike was one of the most costly and destructive storms to ever hit the Texas Gulf Coast, but that has not deterred buyers’ interest in beach homes, as made clear by December’s increased home sales along the coast.

The Texas economy is still cooling but we continue to create jobs in Texas.  From December 2007- December 2008 the U.S. economy saw 2.8 million people loose their jobs, while Texas gained just over 150,000 jobs over that same time period. 

The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from 4.2 percent in December 2007 to 6 percent in December 2008.  The U.S. seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from 4.9 percent to 7.2 percent over the same time period.

The recent drop in oil prices have started to adversely affect the Texas oil and natural gas industry’s ability to create jobs.  The industry’s employment increased from 3.7 percent from December 2007-December 2008.  Although from November 2007-November 2008 this industry’s employment increased 7.1 percent.  Even with the drop this industry ranked first among Texas industried in employment growth rate.

The professional and business services (real estate brokers and agents) and the leisure and hospitality industry came in second among job growth.

In Houston, sales continued to be sluggish.  Overall property sales were down 16% last month when compared to December 2007 and sales of single-family homes were down 13.5% according to new monthly data from the Houston Association of Realtors. 

These figures show a dramatic improvement from November, when both the total property and single-family sales volume declined by more than 30%.

The average price for a single-family home in Houston dropped 10.4% last month to $192,135 compared to December 2007, but on a year-to-date basis rose 1% to 208,266.  The median price for a single-family home in December was $145,000, fell 6.1% year-over-year.  On a year-to-date basis, the median price was unchanged at $152,000.

 Total dollar volume for properties sold during December totalled $960 million versus 1.2 billion one year earlier, this translates into a 24.5% decline.  Full year 2008 sales of just under 70,000 properties produced $14 billion in total dollar volume. 

With Mortgage rates in the 4-5.5% range now is a great time to be buying a home.  15yr fixed rate mortgage that is no more than 25% of your take-home pay with no points. 

HAR.com reports that sales in the Houston, Texas area were down 33.7% in November.  It will probably be another month before we have December’s numbers out.  Sales of single-family homes were down 31.7%.  Rental property demand is up, with single-family rental demand up 16% and townhouse/condo demand up 2.8%.

 The Texas economy is still fairing much better than the rest of the nation.  According to the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M Univeristy between November 2007 and November 2008 the nation saw more than 2 million people loose their jobs, but in the same period Texas gained 222,900 jobs and increased its labor force by 2.1%.  Despite the recent deline in oil prices, the state’s mining industry continues to come out on top in job creation. 

The economy and 2009: 

Despite all the negative news surrounding the real estate community, now continues to be one of the best times to buy a home in Texas.  The housing market in Texas should begin to thrive in 2009, mostly because of the affordable housing and steady job growth.  However, new home construction could continue to decline this year.