The November housings statistics were released just before Christmas (the national numbers are provided by the National Association of Realtors while the Texas numbers are from The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University). The numbers showed big increases as first-time homebuyers rushed to beat the original November 30 deadline for the $8,000 tax credit (which has since been extended and expanded). In fact, first-time buyers accounted for 51% of the sales in November. Distressed properties (foreclosures and … [Read more...]
Archives for December 2009
1 in 9 Texas Mortgages are Negative Equity
According to a recent study by First American CoreLogic, 1 in 11 mortgaged properties in Texas had negative equity. Commonly noted as "under water" or "upside down" it simply means that 11% of the properties are worth less than what is owed on the mortgage. For those who like numbers, there are 3,168,016 mortgaged properties in Texas of which 348,208 were upside down as of September 30, 2009. Another 6% are defined as having "near negative equity" because they have between 0% and 5% equity. In the Austin area, … [Read more...]
All This Talk About Loan Modifications
There has been a lot of news lately about the government sponsored loan modification programs. In general, there are some who are lamenting the low number of homeowners who have been approved for a permanent loan modification. Further, they want more done to increase the number. From a real estate standpoint, I find all of this to be nothing more than political posturing. Loan modification rarely succeed in their stated goal which is to allow the homeowner to have payments affordable enough to retain ownership of … [Read more...]
Texas is Sticky
While flying on Southwest Airlines over Thanksgiving, I found an interesting grid about state populations. It measured the states' "stickiness" and "magnetism." Stickiness is a measure of the number of natives who never move out of the state. The higher the stickiness, the more the natives stay put. Magnetism measures the number of residents who were born elsewhere. The higher the number, the higher the number of transplants in the state. As it turns out, Texas is the stickiest state in the country (and that … [Read more...]