Houston Housing Market

The still strong Houston Homes Market has gotten a lot of positive press as of late. With Forbes Magazine naming the Houston Housing Market as the number one place to buy a home in 2008 and Kiplinger’s Magazine naming Houston the United States number one city for 2008, I felt it would make sense to note the Houston Homes Market’s top 10 hottest areas for my readers. These ten Houston Homes Market areas and Houston’s strong job growth have continued to push the Houston Housing Market median and average home sales prices to record highs each and every month, leaving the Houston Real Estate Market as the strongest and most stable market in the United States.

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A new Houston real estate forum has been launched where people looking in the Houston homes market can get questions answered on all aspects of the buying and selling process.  Questions can be anywhere from specific questions about home inspections to general questions about Houston homes market neighborhoods.  In addition to Houston housing market topics, [...]

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Houston Housing Market presents the first-time homebuyer federal tax credit in a easy to understand format using examples to assist in your understanding of how it affects you. As part of the “Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008” that was recently signed into law, Congress has created a new, temporary federal income tax credit to provide an incentive for first-time homebuyers. This is very good news for first time home buyers, in the Houston homes market, as it gives them a chance to join the home owner’s ranks without totally depleting their savings.

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One thing that is keeping the Houston homes market strong is the availability of jobs. Even though the overall economy has been doing poorly throughout the country; Houston has kept a strong and stable job market. If you just graduated college or you just simply want a change from the area you have been living in because of the economic down turn, Houston, Texas is the place you should think of first. If you are already living in Houston area, you should be happy to know that you’re better off than most places in the country. While there is still area for improvement within the Houston job market, it is doing well compared to the national job market, which declined by 0.1 percent. The Texas Workforce Commission reported on August 15, 2008 that during the month of July, Houston employers were able to create 57,100 jobs for an over the year growth rate of 2.2 percent.

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The Houston Housing Market continues to show strength in pricing. However, the Houston Homes Market posted declines in the number of homes sold with July of 2008 posting 5,885 total closed sales compared to July of 2007 which posted 6,856 Houston Homes sales. These numbers show a slight improvement over June of 2008 on a percentage basis, as July posted a 14.2 percent decrease in Houston Single Family Home sales on a year over year basis, while June showed a decrease of 14.7 percent on a year over year basis. This trend has again increased Houston Housing Inventory now pushing 6.9 months with a total of 36,287 active Single Family homes on the market.

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The Houston Housing Market, just like everywhere else in the country, has been feeling a pinch due to the credit crisis. I was inspired to make this post after reading a blog post on BiggerPockets. This well written article by Rob Blake struck me as well intended, but inaccurate. So, I decided to post a paper that I wrote for a course while attending Cornell University. The course I wrote the paper for was taught by Jon Kleinberg, a true genius, and covered several topics on information systems and networks. One of the topics covered was on how asymmetric information can cause previously robust markets to halt trade in what seems like overnight. The paper below introduces how CDOs are packaged and what events led up to the collapse of the mortgage backed securities market and concludes with a link to an explanation for this occurrence using an academic paper written by Nobel Laureate George Akerlof

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It is pretty common knowledge for most Houston Housing Market consumers that in order to purchase their dream home or car that they will need to have a strong credit history. However, trying to decipher the idiosyncrasies of how a credit score is actually calculated can be intimidating for many Houston Housing Market consumers. Discover which factors are the most important in credit scoring and demystify the credit scoring process for yourself now by clicking on the link above.

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Most people in the Houston Metro Area have heard that buying a foreclosure can provide you with a fantastic deal on a home. What most have not heard is that it can just as easily cause you to go broke. These scenarios are equally common in the Houston Housing Market. Many of the homes in Houston that we are seeing go through the foreclosure stage are being torn up by the owners just before they are forced out. Legally the lender has no way to stop it. This is because there are no laws that prevent someone from damaging their own home. Until the home has gone through the entire foreclosure process, it still belongs to the individual who is in default (the act of not complying with the loan terms).
In this blog post, we will discuss the steps a Houston Homes buyer must go through to assure that they do not end up paying more than the home is worth after the necessary repairs are completed.

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Houston Homes sales and the Houston Housing Market showed mixed results for June 2008. Even during a collapse of the housing market in other areas of the country, the Houston Metro Area posted increases in both the average home sale price and the median home sale price. However, the June data was not solely on a positive note as total Houston homes sales were down or flat in all price ranges except below the $80,000 mark, where home sales jumped 29.3%. Click on the link above to get a complete breakdown on the market highlights listed below.

Houston Real Estate Milestones in June

1. Highest average single-family home sales price ($228,448);

2. Highest median single-family home sales price ($162,000);

3. Highest average sales price for townhouses/condominiums ($179,331);

4. Largest number of single-family home sales since August 2007;

5. Largest number of townhouse/condominium sales since August 2007;

6. Sales of single-family homes below $80,000 rose by 29.3 percent;

7. Lowest Days on Market since September 2007

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