Texas Real Estate

Texas Realtors Pay Over $6 Million For Bogus Research At A&M RECenter

"The first rule of fight club is: You do not talk about fight club." Texas Realtors continue to throw money at bogus research at the Texas A&M Real Estate Center. Many Texas Realtors probably don't even know that a portion of their annual licensing dues goes to pay the salaries of the staff at the RECenter. Many are probably unaware of how they are being shortchanged by this Texas institution which is still partnering with the Federal Reserve when it comes to economic research. That is a shame, because the garbage being produced by the [...]

New Home Sales Improve On Lower Rates, Big Drop In Prices

According to the Census Bureau new home sales for March posted at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 692,000, a 3 percent increase from the same time last year and 4.5 percent better than February sales numbers. Apparently the big drop in mortgage interest rates continued to provide some lift to the new home market in March. This confirms what we were seeing in the DFW market last month as new home sales outperformed the resale market. The supply of new homes stood at 5.0 months in March, up from 4.5 months a year ago. [...]

Hoisington Quarterly Review: Parallels of Past Fed Mistakes

Hoisington Investment Management has released their latest Quarterly Review, and it's certainly worth a read if you want to understand the Federal Reserve's capitulation on policy normalization and the stagnating global economy. The global economic slowdown should really not be surprising considering the massive amounts of stimulus by global central banks which have resulted in massive amounts of debt and economic bifurcation. The problem with quantitative easing and all of the central bank intervention is that liquidity has not not been used for productive, organic growth. As the debt keeps piling up, the economic benefit [...]

Denton County Home Sales See March Revival

Denton County home sales experienced a spring revival in March as plunging mortgage interest rates helped to offset continued affordability constraints. Home sales jumped 5 percent in the area while pending sales edged 6 percent higher for the month. The big decline in mortgage rates boosted home sales activity. Average home prices in Denton County also edged higher in March, rising almost 2 percent compared to March of last year to nearly $365,000. New home sales in the Denton area experienced the biggest boost from the recent interest rate swan dive. Sales of existing single-family [...]

Denton County New Home Sales Spring To Life In March

Denton County new home sales are enjoying a spring revival courtesy of lower mortgage interest rates. Preliminary March data for North Texas shows that home sales rebounded in March, with new home sales driving the action. Buyers were obviously lured off the fence in the DFW area when it came to buying new homes. It also helped that new home builders were keeping price points lower. The average price of new homes in Dallas-Fort Worth still shows to be softening. Pending sales data for March looks a bit weaker than closings, so it will be [...]

Denton County Real Estate Market Gets Lift From Crashing Yields, Lower Rates

The Denton County real estate market is getting a much-needed lift going into the spring selling season. That lift is coming courtesy of crashing bond yields and a drop in mortgage interest rates. Lower interest rates were desperately needed to stimulate a stagnating housing market. The Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey confirmed today what many have been expecting.... a continued drop in mortgage rates. Freddie Mac's index just posted the biggest one-week drop in a decade. If the economy continues to slow, 3 percent mortgage rates could be in play again. That could be [...]

Fed Says No Rate Hikes In 2019, Balance Sheet Drawdown Ending In September

The Jerome Powell cave is now a comical farce. Aside from using the word "patient" about 30 times in the March FOMC statement, Jerome Powell told us the Fed does not expect to hike interest rates at all in 2019. To top things off, the Fed balance sheet that was on autopilot at the end of last year will now end this September. In terms of the Fed's projections for the economy, growth was revised down and the unemployment rate was revised up slightly. "In light of global economic and financial developments and muted inflation [...]

Lower Mortgage Rates Fuel February Rebound In Denton County Real Estate Market

Lower mortgage interest rates and a sharp rebound in the stock market helped fuel a rebound in the Denton County real estate market in February. Closed home sales declined 4 percent year-over-year, improving from poor January figures. Average home prices in Denton County rose 2.4 percent compared to February of last year. Pending home sales for February actually moved into positive territory rising 6 percent for the month. The increase in contract signings indicates that buyers were enticed by dramatically higher inventory levels and the improvement in mortgage interest rates. New home sales in particular, [...]

Shadow Bank Lending, Rising Debt To Income Ratios Fueling Denton County Home Price Growth

Shadow banks, or nonbanks as they are often called, continue to dominate the mortgage space in the real estate echo bubble. This is the case in Denton County Texas and all across the country. Since 2008 the share of mortgage originations by nonbanks has more than doubled, rising from 24% in 2008 to 54% in 0217. The share of mortgages issued by traditional large banks continue to decline. As home prices rose throughout Denton County, the quality of the mortgages originated during this boom began deteriorating. Last year the deterioration in mortgage quality was pronounced. [...]

Caveman Powell Looking To Levitate Stock, Housing Bubbles

Yesterday the Federal Reserve yelped like a whipped puppy as Jerome Powell turned into the latest iteration of his market-dependent Bernanke/Yellen/Greenspan predecessors. If you remember, Mr. Powell was here in the DFW area back in November playing up the fabulous state of the U.S economy and the Fed's wonderful policies. At the time expectations were that the Fed would be raising the Federal Funds rate four more times this year with a balance sheet reduction schedule that was supposedly on "autopilot" to the tune of $50 billion per month rolling off. Flash forward one quarter [...]

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