Texas Real Estate

Look For Dallas Fort Worth Employment Engine To Cool

The Dallas Fort Worth employment engine could be cooling off after consecutive years of impressive growth. The latest numbers from the Texas Workforce Commission were still solid for July, reflective of the typical summer turnover, but there are headwinds now blowing against DFW job sector growth. Dallas Fed economists have miraculously figured out that previous employment growth projections for Texas were probably overstated. They have since dialed back their job growth forecast to 2.7%, down from the previous forecast of 3.0% released just last month. While it may catch many local economists off guard, the [...]

Denton TX Home Sales Hit The Breaks In July

Denton TX home sales hit the breaks in July. It would appear that the summer selling season peaked a little sooner than normal in the Denton County area this year. It looks like both the city of Denton and the greater Denton County area saw home sales volume peak in June. Closed home sales in the city of Denton are off by 20 percent according to preliminary stats this morning. Pending home sales in Denton are off by 10 percent. Denton County looks like it will squeak out a 1 percent sales increase for July, [...]

By |2018-09-21T09:28:46+00:00August 12th, 2018|Denton TX Real Estate, Economy, Texas Real Estate|0 Comments

Foreign Buyers Purchasing Fewer U.S. Homes In 2018

The latest 'Profile of International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate 2018' shows that foreign buyers were purchasing fewer U.S. homes and for lower average prices compared to the same 12-month period. The latest survey from the National Association of Realtors covers April 2017 through March 2018. Some of the highlights include A decrease in purchases from $153 billion to $121 billion A unit decrease from 284,500 properties to 266,800 An average price decrease from $536,900 to $454,400 Texas accounted for 9 percent of foreign purchases of homes, behind Florida (19%) and California (14%) For [...]

New Home Sales Miss Expectations In June Despite Lower Prices

The Census Bureau reported new home sales for June at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 631,000. This was below expectations, and a 5.3 percent decline from May. The previous three months were also revised lower. Compared to last June, new home sales were up a modest 2.4%. Surprisingly, the decline in new construction sales came despite lower median and average prices for new homes in June. The median price of $302,100 was $13,100 less than last year. The average price of $363,300 was $7300 lower. It would appear that new home buyers are suffering [...]

RECenter A&M Economists Still Wasting Texas Realtors’ Money

RECenter at A&M economists and data junkies are still wasting the dues of Texas Realtors that pay a good chunk of their salaries. It seems the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M economists are phase-locked in a myopic pursuit to somehow rationalize or justify the status quo situation with Texas housing. "Intellectual Phase-Locking is a condition that results when dogmatic 'scientific' assumptions inhibit further inquiry." Rupert Sheldrake Last year I wrote about some of the interesting details on the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M and their funding. I have also clued readers in on the [...]

Dallas Morning News Real Estate Desk Still Missing The Boat

Dallas Morning News' real estate editor, Steve Brown, seems to be waking up to the fact that the DFW real estate market is cooling. He's still off the mark when it comes to the recent peak in DFW home sales, but at least he acknowledged the sales decline last month.  DFW home sales fell for the month of June. See, that wasn't so hard. After successive years of abnormal price growth, the DFW area saw a reported 3 percent decline in home sales in June. I say "reported", because as I detailed in a previous [...]

Zero-Down Mortgages Return With New Names

Surprise! Zero-down mortgages are back! Just when you thought we had learned the lessons of the subprime mortgage meltdown nearly a decade ago, along come new twists on an old formula. The recipe is pretty simple, and the inevitable outcomes are fairly predictable, yet that won't deter some people from making irrational decisions when it comes to the fear of missing out (FOMO). The latest strategies to put cash-strapped buyers into homes they probably can't afford are similar to crowdfunding. HomeFundMe is an example of one such program where buyers can solicit donations for a [...]

Existing Home Sales Slide For 3rd Consecutive Month

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) says existing home sales in the U.S. decreased in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.43 million. This is down from a downwardly revised April figure, and the third consecutive month of declining year-over-year sales. NAR chief economist, Lawrence Yun, seems to be puzzled by the stagnation of sales citing a solid economy and job market: Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says a solid economy and job market should be generating a much stronger sales pace than what has been seen so far this year. “Closings were [...]

The 9 Percent DFW Home Sales Gain That Didn’t Happen

The Dallas Morning News continues to allow real estate editor Steve Brown some serious latitude with the truth when it comes to DFW home sales. In the latest article on May home sales Mr. Brown would apparently have you believe that "11,302 preowned single-family homes" traded hands in May. Unfortunately that didn't happen! You would think that Dallas' largest newspaper would have the resources to fact-check the rubbish Mr. Brown is printing in the digital edition of the paper, but apparently that is asking too much. The Dallas Morning News real estate desk is quoting [...]

Denton TX Mortgages – Lock Your Rate Or Not?

Should you lock your Denton TX mortgage interest rate at the time of application? If you are buying a home, it's a difficult question to answer. As early as last week Treasury bears were screaming at the rooftops that yields (and by default mortgage rates) were going to shoot higher, as evidenced by the 10-year Treasury crossing a supposed line in the sand above 3%. What a difference a few days makes! This morning the yield on the benchmark 10-Year Treasury dipped to 2.82 percent, retracing 29 basis points from the recent "line in the [...]

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