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TEXAS (Real Estate Center, CNNMoney.com) – A total of 22,511 existing homes were sold in Texas last month, a 4.8 percent decline from July 2008, according to MLS data compiled by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. The median price increased 0.6 percent to $153,800 during the same period, and the state finished the month with a 7.4-month inventory of existing homes.

Here is how select Texas cities fared in July (data current as of Aug. 28, 2009):

City,Sales, Change from Last Year, Median Price, Change from Last Year, Months' Inventory
Amarillo 254 down 21.6% $124,600 up 1.2% 7.2
Austin 2,288 down 0.2% $189,700 down 0.6% 7
College Station–Bryan 304 down 15.1% $151,000 down 2.3% 6.8
Dallas 4,815 down 6% $164,800 up 0.8% 6.5
El Paso 478 down 4.8% $135,200 down 2.4% 9.1
Fort Worth 840 down 12.3% $118,700 down 1.1% 6.6
Harlingen 78 up 20% $95,000 up 13.6% 28.7
Houston 6,393 down 4.8% $161,900 up 1.3% 6.8
Killeen–Fort Hood 257 down 6.2% $124,800 down 0.9% 10
Laredo 91 up 11% $122,800 up 2.3% 9
Lubbock 348 up 0.9% $110,300 up 0.3% 5.5
Palestine 21 down 16% $102,500 down 2.4% 10.1
San Angelo 125 down 5.3 % $121,700 up 10.6% 5.6
San Antonio 2,040 up 7.9% $156,900 up 2.3% 8.4
Waco 213 down 14.5% $114,600 down 1.4% 8.4


Additional home sales data for these and other major Texas cities are available on the Center’s website.

Nationally, sales of existing single-family homes last month were up 5 percent from July 2008, according to the National Association of Realtors.

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TEXAS TOPS U.S. IN HOUSING AFFORDABILITY


COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Texas beats the rest of the country when it comes to housing affordability, according to first quarter 2009 Texas Housing Affordability Index (HAI) numbers compiled by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

The numbers reflect the ability of a median-income family to purchase a median-priced existing home in their area. Texas had a ratio of 1.95 in first quarter 2009 compared with the nation's 1.55.

"The slowdown in the housing market nationally and within Texas has led to significantly increased housing affordability everywhere, and Texas continues to maintain its place as the most affordable high-growth state in the country," said Dr. Jim Gaines, research economist with the Center.

The index is posted on the Center's website.
We bought a cheap fixer-upper with my husband's 401k a few years back, and in the intervening years I've seen the local housing market bottom out. Now it's starting to make a come back. We could have used the opportunity to buy another if we'd had additional funds. It would have provided us with rental income, if we'd played our cards right.

If we'd been buying now instead of in ' 06 we might have gotten a better deal.

I love our little house, though, and wouldn't trade it for the world.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (U.S. News and World Report) – Just in time for the start of the fall term and another college football season, U.S. News and World Report has put together its list of 15 most underpriced college towns in the country. Two are right here in Texas.

Houston nabbed the top spot, while College Station ranked third.

Houston, home of Rice University and the University of Houston, had a median home price of $120,000 during first quarter 2009 according to IHS Global Insight's statistics, which were used to compile the list. IHS considered that price to be 37 percent undervalued.

Research Economist Dr. Jim Gaines at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University expects future job and population growth to drive home price appreciation upward.

"The medium- and long-term prospects for Houston are extremely good," Gaines says, adding that the city has "good demographic growth, job growth, and a reasonably balanced housing market."

Head north to College Station, and you’ll be in the third most underpriced college town in the country. The median home price in the first quarter of this year was $107,000. According to IHS, houses in the Bryan–College Station area are 21 percent undervalued.
TEXAS CITIES RANK HIGH ON ECONOMY, HOUSING PRICES


TEXAS (Dallas Morning News) – Texas metros boast the strongest economies, according to a just-released analysis by the Brookings Institution.

Austin ranked first in a second-quarter comparison of 100 U.S. cities. Dallas–Fort Worth ranked fourth and El Paso sixth.

Houston's economy landed it at ninth, but the Bayou City ranked first among cities with the biggest increases in home prices. Local home prices jumped 4.9 percent over the last year.

Third-ranked DFW had a 3.8 percent increase in home prices, while tenth-ranked San Antonio had a 3.1 percent increase.
LOWER-PRICED HOMES DRIVE SA MARKET


SAN ANTONIO (San Antonio Express-News) – Homes under $200,000 are the hottest commodity in Alamo City’s housing market right now, and they are going fast.

Homes below $200,000 have made up 71 percent of the sales so far in 2009, according to the San Antonio Board of Realtors.

“The price range that seems to be moving is the first-time homebuyer market due to the tax credit for these buyers,” said Janet Heydenreich, a Phyllis Browning Co. real estate agent. “I think we will continue to see strong interest in that price range as the deadline approaches.”

The surge in demand for homes under $200,000 and decrease in construction of them has caused a shortage, which means it’s a good time to be a seller in this price range.
TEXAS FORECLOSURES UP 17 PERCENT


HOUSTON (Houston Business Journal) – Texas foreclosures rose 17 percent between August and September, with 13,216 default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions filed last month.

Year over year, foreclosures were up 43.7 percent in September, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

Statewide foreclosures were 11.3 percent higher in the third quarter than in the second with 29,838 filings, and 8.7 percent above third quarter 2008.

Nationwide, filings fell 4 percent between August and September but were up 29.2 percent from September 2008, with over 340,000 filings.
HOUSTON FORECLOSURES DOWN FROM LAST YEAR


HOUSTON (Houston Business Journal) – Houston area foreclosures did not significantly increase between the second and third quarters, and there were fewer than last year.

RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report revealed that Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown foreclosures increased 1.5 percent between the second and third quarters, and actually fell 8.1 percent from third quarter 2008.

Approximately one out of every 256 area homes, or 0.39 percent, posted foreclosure activity from July to September, ranking Houston 124th in the United States for number of households in foreclosure.

The Dallas area’s 10,700 properties, or 0.45 percent of the whole, that posted foreclosure activity made it the highest in Texas.

College Station–Bryan had the lowest percentage of housing units in foreclosure during the third quarter, with 46 properties, or 0.05 percent.
NEW HOME SALES FALL, PRICES RISE


WASHINGTON (Associated Press) – Nationwide, sales of new homes fell 3.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 402,000 from August to September, according to the Commerce Department.

Last month’s decline was the first since March and was off 7.8 percent from a year ago. However, the market has improved 22 percent from its bottom in January.

The median sales price of new homes, $204,800, was down 9.1 percent from September 2008, but up 2.5 percent from August’s $199,900.

Sales declined nearly 11 percent in the West and 10 percent in the South while they remained unchanged in the Northeast and increased 35 percent in the Midwest.
Which Texas MLS had the biggest percentage increase in existing home sales between October '08 and October '09 according to the Real Estate Center website.

The answer is Galveston, which had a 160 percent increase.

While a percentage change like that would usually raise eyebrows, Research Economist Dr. Jim Gaines sums up the increase in one word: Ike.

"The enormous increase in home sales in Galveston reflects the aftermath of Ike," he said. "It’s difficult to imagine that there were any sales immediately after the hurricane, but properties do change hands even in the worst of circumstances. October sales in Galveston from 2004 through 2009 were 93, 68, 88, 85, 25 and 65. The 2009 sales level is not too bad considering the recession and the rebuilding."
HARRIS COUNTY JANUARY FORECLOSURES SPIKE


HOUSTON (Houston Chronicle) – At 4,333 properties, Harris County’s January foreclosure auction featured nearly as many postings as the record 4,773 in October 1987, according to Foreclosure Information & Listing Service.

Actual foreclosures rose dramatically in January as well, increasing 79 percent to 1,412 this month.

Postings for February’s auction are more reasonable.

Monthly postings should continue in the 3,500 range and stabilize this year, said Amanda LeCureux of Foreclosure Information & Listing Service.

The recent spike in postings and foreclosures are likely connected to lingering effects from Hurricane Ike, which stalled real estate transactions for months.
1,000 TEXAS TAX CREDIT CLAIMS FLAGGED FOR POSSIBLE FRAUD


DALLAS (Dallas Morning News) – Nearly 1,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit filings in Texas have been flagged for possible ill-use of a taxpayer identification number primarily used by illegal immigrants, who are not entitled to the credit.

This number represents nearly one-third of the 3,200 suspicious homebuyer tax credit claims submitted by noncitizens around the country, the total of which are valued at $20.8 million, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for the tax administration, said that involvement of third-party preparers in some questionable homebuyer claims filed nationwide suggested that there may have been “conspiracies and attempts to cheat the government by more than one person.”

Of the 1.5 million claims made to the Internal Revenue Service for the tax credit, the Justice Department has filed one criminal case and one civil injunction against tax preparers for submitting false claims for the homebuyer credit. One of these cases was from Mission, Texas.
MORE STRUGGLING HOMEOWNERS ELECT BANKRUPTCY


FORT WORTH (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) – A growing number of Texas homeowners are filing for bankruptcy to avoid losing their homes, according to a recent study by Foreclosure Listing Service. Unfortunately, bankruptcy may not offer the protection they're hoping for.

The Addison-based firm analyzed post-bankruptcy cases of homeowners in 60 Texas counties and found that $2.28 billion worth of real estate was affected by a bankruptcy filing last year. That's an increase of 26 percent over 2008’s volume of $1.92 billion.

In 2009, 12,170 properties were affected — about 1,000 more than the previous year. In those cases, the homeowner did not comply with a mortgage payment schedule set up by a court trustee, said George Roddy Sr., president of Foreclosure Listing Service. As a result, the property loses bankruptcy protection.

"Generally, when these properties lose the protection of the bankruptcy court, they enter the foreclosure pipeline," Roddy said.

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