Tag Archives: Housing Market
Survey Says … Trulia Economist Asked Homeowners What Their Biggest Regret is as National Housing Market Shows Signs of Rebound
More and more homeowners are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and as the downward trajectory of the housing market turns upward, they are also seeing missed opportunities.
Good Luck Finding a House! Forbes Ranks Dallas as Third-Fastest Growing City Behind Houston And Austin
As Candy already mentioned, pre-owned inventory is scary low, which is driving prices up for Dallas properties. Sure, demand means a seller’s market, but what about all of the folks that are either being born or moving to Dallas? That’s putting our housing market in a tough spot! Several big corporations have moved to Dallas in recent years — Comerica Bank being one of the largest — which has made move-in ready pre-owned homes sell like hotcakes. Continue reading
Another Case-Shiller Report Calls for a Toast: Home Prices Up 4.3% Nationally, 4.6% in Big D
They may be talking Fiscal Cliff in D.C., but you can only say good things about our housing market unless, that is, you live in Chicago. Or New York. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Index shows home prices continued to rise in October, with prices up 4.3% annually within the 20-city composite index that S&P scrutinizes for us.
Housing Starts Are Up, Builders Stocks Are Rebounding: Is it Time To Crack One Open And Celebrate?
I bet big builders like Lennar Corp., Fort Worth-based D.R. Horton, and Pulte Homes are breathing a collective sigh of relief. According to a report from the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, housing starts are up — way up, as a matter of fact — from November 2011.
And Then That Little FHA Bombshell: Next Taxpayer Bailout? Take a Lesson From Hostess
I hate to put a damper on your holiday week, but hope you saw this item: the agency responsible for guaranteeing most of our housing loans, may need a bailout: FHA. The agency doesn’t make loans, but it backs lenders if borrowers stop paying, like a nice parent or co-signee. With this guarantee in place, banks are more comfy offering mortgages to borrowers with lower credit scores or incomes. It also allows prospective homeowners to buy property with down payments as low as 3.5%, such as first time home-buyers. So even with 872,000 new housing starts in September, home prices up nationally by 11.7% and us humming right along with a 29% increase in home sales in North Texas in October, we hear the FHA may be headed to the ER:
Read more on And Then That Little FHA Bombshell: Next Taxpayer Bailout? Take a Lesson From Hostess…
Something Significant Happened This Past Week In Dallas Real Estate: the WSJ Almost Said It’s Miller Time, Here
To a real estate junkie like me, this was almost as exciting as getting a new Porsche: People are starting to get wise about Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller report. Did you notice that numbers came out this week, Monday in fact, the news was pretty bleak IN SOME LOCALES, but no one (here, at least) freaked out? Then the Wall Street Journal produced what I think is one of the most significant real estate articles in eons. If you don’t subscribe and cannot read it, here is what it says in a nutshell: REAL ESTATE IS A LOCAL STORY.
Posted in Dallas real estate news
Tagged California, Housing Market, Oil And Gas Jobs, real estate, The Wall Street Journal
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Bernake Talks to Home Builders: Weak Housing Impeding Recovery. Translation to DC: It’s Still About the Lending, Stupid
Just to show you how crucial housing and home building remains to the nation’s economic recovery, Fed Chairman Ben Bernake rubbed shoulders (and used hand gestures) with Bob the Builders last week in Orlando. His talk was the hottest ticket in town at the 2012 National Association of Home Builders International Builders Show in Orlando. Dallas photographer Suzanne Felber for Lisa Stewart Photography played reporter for me and, hopefully, got a little sunshine! Here’s how Bernake “soothed” the builders: the Fed, he basically said, is analyzing housing 24/7.
President Obama’s SOTU Address: This Man Just Doesn’t Get Housing, God Bless Him. Maybe He Should Consult With Michael Lewis?
Oh my, on the housing real estate front, his SOTU speech was even more dissappointing than I had anticipated. While President Obama spoke, I was at the rain-drenched McFarlin Auditorium at SMU hearing out Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short and his latest book I am dying to devour, Boomerang. I thought it ironic that Lewis told us how we are socializing big banks, and described the incredible graft and greed in Greece that has led to their almost total economic downfall. Example: on the Greek railroad, the average worker earns about $150,000 a year.
What President Obama Will Say About Housing in Tomorrow’s State of the Union Addy: Not Much
He’s got himself in a real pickle. The President has been ineffectual in resurrecting the housing market from the crash he (to be fair) inherited in 2008 over four years in office! As Stacy Kaper reports in The National Journal, he won’t mention housing much because he has so little to brag about. He and his team seem to be crossing themselves and their fingers that the economy is getting better and that somehow that “betterness” will metamorphize to the housing sector. What is sad but true is that even though other parts of the economy are getting better, housing is not, in part because of lending strait jackets and a never-ending stream of foreclosures. Look for him, says Kaper, to brag about a year long effort by state attorneys general to reach a broad mortgage-servicing settlement, which would provide up to $25 billion in relief to homeowners. But will such a settlement just come back and bite consumers in the butt? He’s also said to be implementing a plan to create rentals out of foreclosures, and let underwater owners turn in mortgages in exchange for becoming renters. All interesting, but no addressing of the lending issues and way broad sweeping “reform” which is clogging the system and choking housing.
