My New BFF

My good friend and the most polarizing blogger, Merrit Patterson over at Overheard, sent me this link from Lance Puig and his York Street Blog. The money shot?

"...if you were to remove the three most speculative markets from the mix (California, Florida and New York), you would see that the rest of the country for the most part is not doing all that bad."

So there you have it. I. Told. You. So.

RE: It's All About Perspective

I got this comment from a DREB reader about this post. Thanks to the anonymous poster because I appreciate this type of feedback and dialogue. Also thanks to him/her for clarifying the stats for me.

The 78% drop is volume, not price. Also, there may not be 60% appreciation in one year, but there are areas that have experienced very high appreciation. That makes the overall DFW market more difficult to analyze. There are some ZIP codes that will see depreciation.

I could not agree more that there are some zip codes that will see depreciation. I've said that many times and even on T.V. But I must disagree that some areas have seen "very high appreciation". First, what does that mean? And second, the only areas that will ever appreciate around 25% will be Preston Hollow and Park Cities and maybe some parts of Lakewood or around White Rock Lake. If any other area appreciates by this much then there are other forces at play such as big time developers scooping up land or apartments in a smaller city.

Dallas Still One of The Strongest Metros in U.S. for Real Estate

Sixty-one percent (or 19) of the Top 31 "core based statistical areas" saw price declines from September 2006 to September 2007. Dallas was not one of these and rounded out the Top 10 major metros to see a rise in sales prices during this time period. Texas represented by having 4 out of the Top 10 cities to see price growth. Another reason why Texas is better than every other state.

Thanks to Top Producer for linking to the Inman News article that you would otherwise have to subscribe to.

I'm Right and You're Wrong

I've been saying this for a while but it's good to see some positive publicity that speaks the truth.

Dallas has largely avoided the boom-and-bust cycle, which is one reason this market is on track to post the best returns on housing of any major U.S. city during the next two years.

So rock on Dallas!

Subprime Woes Not Felt in Dallas Like Rest of Country

Could this actually be a positive report about real estate in the Dallas area? Why yes it is. Although everyone is still scared of what the future holds it's still nice to show that we are insulated from the doom and gloom of the Florida and California real estate markets. Dallas was 1 of 5 real estate markets in the country in the second quarter to see a gain in sales prices. I like these two takeaway quotes from the story.

"In a lot of places in Dallas, home prices are still going up by double
digits. "In other neighborhoods, they are actually falling. But across the board, the gainers outweigh the losers,"

And,

"The mortgage shakeout is affecting other parts of the country a lot more than it is Texas. We didn't have anywhere near the level or magnitude of subprime loans that other markets did. But that doesn't mean that Dallas-Fort Worth homeowners aren't going to be hammered with a steady diet of bad news about the U.S. housing market. Those negative reports weigh on consumer psychology."

But then this isn't news to me.

Texas Surpasses National Home Appreciation Rate

Just came across this bit of information from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. California, Florida and Las Vegas are VERY jealous.

COLLEGE STATION (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, Real Estate Center) – According to recent figures from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, home prices in Texas increased 6.8 percent during first quarter 2007, well above the 4.3 percent national average.

“Despite the national slowdown, Texas is still strong,” said Dr. James Gaines, research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “There’s no reason prices shouldn't continue to rise despite the increase in foreclosures and the slowdown in transactions, construction and new home starts.”

By comparison, home appreciation slowed to 1.2 percent in California and 3 percent in New York. Nevada price increases virtually disappeared at just .6 percent. Even rapidly growing Florida and Arizona reported value increases of 4.3 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively.

Within Texas, there is a wide variation in appreciation rates in the 25 metropolitan areas. Among the state’s large metro areas, Austin and San Antonio are seeing the strongest rate increases at more than 10 percent.

Meanwhile, the energy industry is fueling strong housing markets in some smaller metros. Home prices are up more than 21 percent in Midland and 16 percent in Odessa. Victoria prices are up 8.3 percent.

Some border communities are on fire as well, thanks to a surge in government hiring and business activity. Laredo is up 16.6 percent, while El Paso is up 11.2 percent.