Housing Policy

housing policy

Tax “Reform” Makes Denton County Property Taxes Even Less Appealing

The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act was signed into law this week, and a significant portion of your Denton County property taxes may no longer be deductible under the new law in 2018. Aside from being one of the worst researched and most ill-conceived pieces of legislation in modern history, the new tax bill is very favorable to corporate America. Unfortunately the new tax "reform" is not exactly friendly to home ownership. It remains to be seen how the new tax law will affect DFW area home prices, but the new rules certainly don't favor [...]

Mortgage Interest Deduction In Play, 2018 Housing Market Still Cloudy

The controversial mortgage interest deduction is still in play if you follow the back and forth in DC, and the picture for housing is still rather cloudy. There is a lot which could change depending on what Congress tries to ram through reconciliation in terms of the House and Senate tax sausage. Regardless of what Congress and the GOP approve, you can rest assured it won't stimulate job growth and it won't contribute to long-term economic growth. What we are seeing play out in the halls of DC and Wall Street right now is a [...]

Average New Home Size Continues To Shrink

The National Association of Home Builders reported that the median and average size of a new home in the U.S. continued to decline in the third quarter. Third quarter numbers on housing starts show that the median single-family new home size was 2,378 square feet.  The average square footage for new single-family homes declined to 2,518 square feet. According to the NAHB, this is apparently just part of the normal housing cycle. "The post-recession increase in single-family home size is consistent with the historical pattern coming out of recessions. Typical new home size falls prior to and during a [...]

QE Or Bust – US Yield Curve Continues To Flatten

Behold the flattening U.S. yield curve! Reading through the latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, you might get the impression that things are still humming along just fine. After all total household debt just hit a new high in the latest survey posting at $12.96 trillion. Mortgage debt is still below the previous bubble peak, so home buyers would appear to be doing doing just fine. If you peak below the headline metrics, however, you begin to see some cracks in the "everything is awesome" narrative. One of the first things that stands [...]

More Denton County Homes For Sale As QE Unwind Begins

As the Federal Reserve begins their QE unwind, one interesting metric to watch will be the number of Denton County homes for sale. The number of Denton TX homes for sale was up 34 percent year-over-year in October. In Denton County inventory was roughly 18 percent higher through October. In Collin County the number of homes for sale was up a surprising 38 percent compared to last year. Reading between the lines, it appears the Goldilocks economy that the DFW area has enjoyed for the past 5 years is due for some consolidation. The inventory [...]

DFW Home Prices Pushing Limits Of Affordability

DFW home prices have been on a tear during the last 5 years. That begs the question of whether the recent price gains are sustainable. The answer to that inquiry generally boils down to who is selling what. In our hyper-financialized housing market it is not surprising when real estate practitioners or lenders suggest that we are not in a housing bubble. Whether you call it a housing bubble or not, there is no denying that the past decade has seen some dramatic shifts in the real estate market. Dallas/Fort Worth is certainly part of [...]

Dallas Home Prices Challenge Builders

Dallas home prices are expensive, and builders are finally getting the message. That's the news from the most recent data on home starts in the DFW area, which reportedly surged in the 3rd quarter. Builders reportedly started 8,853 single-family homes in the DFW metroplex. For the 12 months ending in September there were apparently 32,234 permits recorded. This was the highest total in a decade. More interestingly, builders' starts for houses under $500,000 rose by 14.5% during the past year. Builders are finally waking up to the fact that the Dallas Fort Worth housing market [...]

Student Loan Debt Delaying Home Purchases

First-time home buyers and millennials are having a pretty difficult time keeping pace in the current housing market, and student loan debt is a significant part of the problem. The National Association of Realtors and American Student Assistance study, Student Loan Debt and Housing Report for 2017, provides a number of interesting examples of how debt is keeping home purchase activity subdued. The study The amount of student loans in the United States now exceeds $1.45 trillion, and the growth shows no signs of slowing. One of the more interesting findings of the study is [...]

Foreign Buyers Still Flooding U.S. Real Estate Market

The the volume of foreign buyers buying U.S. residential real estate rose dramatically during the latest 12-month survey from the National Association of Realtors. The 2017 Profile of International Activity in U.S. Residential Real Estate shoes that the dollar volume of purchases by foreign buyers rose from $102.6 billion in 2016 to $153 billion in the latest 12-month period ending in March. In all, foreign buyers purchased 284,455 U.S. residential properties accounting for 5 percent of existing home sales and 10% of existing home sales by dollar volume. If you were wondering what's been driving the [...]

New Home Sales Rebound In May

The Census Bureau reported a rebound for new home sales in May. New residential home sales posted at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000. This was 2.9 percent higher than the revised April numbers and 8.9 percent higher than a year ago. The median price of a new home contracted in May was $345,800 while the average new home price in May came in at $406,400. Just like we saw with existing home sales this week, median home prices hit a new all-time high. New home sales volume, while up from last month, is [...]

Go to Top