PRESS ROOM
WFAA Good Morning Texas - 03.10.2008
KLIF Interview with Jeff Bolton - K Hovnanian Clip 1
KLIF Interview with Jeff Bolton - K Hovnanian Clip 2
DFW HOUSING CAMPAIGN DETAILS AFFORDABILITY AND VALUE OF LOCAL MARKET
North Texas Building Leaders Announce Industry-Wide Campaign to Promote that Now is a Good Time to Buy
DFW Housing Facts.org Buy Now Campaign
DFWHousingFacts.org Radio Spot
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Hot On Homes Clip
The Good News
- Housing: Best time to buy in four years
- Dallas housing market: nation's most stable
- Dallas-Fort Worth home prices least likely to drop
- CEO says strong economy fuels real estate market
- Dallas gets green light for overall strength in housing market
- NAHB UPDATE: Housing Stimulus Bill Passes the Senate
Report: Real estate is Texas' 3rd most important private industry
Texas is best known for its oil well and high-tech business.
But real estate is a close third. That’s what a new report by Texas A&M University’s Real Estate Center found. read more
Study: Dallas-Fort Worth homes will hold their values
Texans shouldn't be so concerned, according to a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Cities Where Your Nest Egg Goes Farthest
Dallas and Houston ranked second and fourth, respectively. A warm climate and growing economies make both of these spots great places to live up your golden years.
Real estate report favorable for Dallas-Fort Worth
The 30th Annual PricewaterhouseCoopers-Urban Land Institute Emerging Trends in Real Estate Report was released today and it held good news for the Metroplex as the Dallas-Fort Worth area was named the ninth best commercial real estate major market in the United States.
WINNERS COME IN LAST
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (PMI Group Inc.) – Four major Texas metros were ranked among the least likely in the country to experience home-price depreciation in the next two years, all with less than a 1 percent chance. On the list of 50 major U.S. metro areas, San Antonio placed fifth from the bottom with a 3.95 volatility rate and a 4.02 price appreciation in second quarter 2008. Ranking third from last was Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown, which had a 1.74 volatility rate and a 4.44 price appreciation. Dallas-Plano-Irving came in second to last, showing a 0.93 volatility rate and a price appreciation of 2.06. Fort Worth–Arlington came out best with a 0.89 volatility rate and a 3.07 price appreciation. All Texas MSAs had less than a 10 percent chance of prices decreasing in the next two years. For full details on the study, see PMI Group Inc.’s Fall 2008 Economic and Real Estate Trends Report
Economy woes fail to deter FW construction boom
We've seen the record foreclosures, shredded savings accounts and Wall Street bailouts. read more
Study: Dallas-Fort Worth has lowest risk of home price declines
The Dallas-Fort Worth area came off best in the latest forecast of future home values. read more
North Texas cities among those with highest employment gains
A report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor shows a majority of metropolitan areas evaluated for August reporting higher year-over-year unemployment. Of the 369 areas studied, 354 had gains in unemployment. read more
Local housing industry could get boost from Fannie, Freddie bailouts
It didn’t take long for mortgage rates to fall at Colonial National Mortgage, one of Tarrant County’s largest mortgage lenders. read more
Report: Dallas-Fort Worth has strongest job market in U.S.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area had the strongest job market among large U.S. cities in the 12 months ending in July 2008, the U.S. Department of Labor said Wednesday. read more
First-time homebuyers may qualify for tax credit
On July 30, 2008, President Bush signed a major housing bill (H.R, 3221) into law. As part of that bill, Congress has created a new, temporary tax credit to provide an incentive for first-time homebuyers. The $7,500 credit will be available for the purchase of a “principle residence” on or after April 9, 2008 and before July 1, 2009.
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Dallas home sellers still expecting top dollar
The real estate market slowdown doesn't appear to be affecting what area home sellers expect for their properties. more…
Corporate Executives rank Texas’ business climate No. 1
Texas’ business climate is the best in the nation, according to a new survey of corporate executives. more…
Study says Texas still top state for business
The business climate in Texas is the best in the nation, according to a study by marketing company Development Counsellors International. more…
Texas adds 47,700 jobs in June.
"Texas employers hired 47,700 workers in June, and statewide unemployment declined to 4.4 percent from 4.5 percent in May." more…
Texas: The Place for Business
AUSTIN – A Message from Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) Chairman Tom Pauken: Texas is a great place to do business. Recent reports reveal that more Fortune 500 companies are now based in Texas than in any other state. Job growth in our state remains high while unemployment rates are still low, in spite of negative national trends in this recessionary environment. Texas added more than 213,000 new jobs last year, and job growth has exceeded 1 million over the past four years. more…
Dallas-Fort Worth job market is staying afloat.
"We have seen a slowdown, but Texas and Dallas-Fort Worth have held up quite well in terms of job growth," says D'Ann Petersen, business economist with the Federal Research Bank of Dallas. more…
Area home prices up from one year ago
Home prices in the Fort Worth area in the first quarter rose 2.59 percent from a year ago, but they are down slightly from the end of 2007, a federal report finds. more…
Forbes today: Top 10 recession proof cities:
#10 Dallas-Ft. Worth
#7 Houston
#3 Austin
#2 San Antonio
#1 Oklahoma City
Report: Dallas-Fort Worth is a good place to build home equity
Potential Dallas-Fort Worth homebuyers who are nervous about whether it's a good time to purchase a house might find some comfort in a new report. more…
Texas economy is continuing to outpace the nation
The Texas economy has been dragging its feet since January, but continues to outperform the nation, according to an update from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. more…
The Housing Crisis Is Over
The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now. more…
Report: Dallas-Fort Worth won't see big home price declines
While North Texas' housing market decline has accelerated in recent months, analysts are still betting that the Dallas-Fort Worth area won't see measurable price declines.
Indeed, the latest report from mortgage insurance firm PMI Group says that D-FW is one of the last places in the country likely to see a drop in home prices during the next couple of years…
One of the promising signs for the DFW market is its price stability. According to the latest (Jan 2008) figures from Case-Shiller, DFW house prices declined just 3.3% yearover- year vs. a national decline of 10.7%. The median price for a new home continues to climb in DFW, now at $204,983, up from $203,243 at YE 2007, and up from $193,818 on year ago (1Q07).
Another promising sign for the DFW new home market is that job growth remains robust. For the 12-months ended Feb, 2008, DFW created 70,900 jobs according to the most recent report from the Texas Workforce Commission (CES Survey).
Likewise, the 30-year mortgage rate remains very attractive by historical standards, the April 10 survey from Freddie Mac at 5.88%. “While the homebuilding industry is going through a challenging time, there are several positive aspects about the DFW market. Not only does the area boast a vibrant economy, it exhibits house price stability and is one of the most affordable major markets in the United States” says Ted Wilson, Housing Consultant.
Dallas-Fort Worth avoids U.S. housing glut
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the number of pre-owned houses on the market hasn't increased significantly in the last two years. At the end of February, about 43,000 homes were for sale in the Realtors' multiple listing service. That's up only about 2,000 listings from February 2006. And while there is almost an 11-month supply of homes on the market nationwide, in the DFW area, the inventory of houses has stayed close to a six-month supply for the last four years. During the first two months of 2008, median home prices in North Texas fell 2 percent to $138,000, according to the latest statistics from the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems. That's down from a peak of about $155,000 last August. For all of 2007, median home sales prices here were up a scant 1 percent. Total pre-owned home sales were down about 8 percent last year in North Texas, ending a string of record sales totals. North Dallas and the Park Cities both saw a 28 percent jump in home listings during the first two months of 2008 compared with the same period of 2007. And listings this year are up 16 percent in Sunnyvale and 12 percent in McKinney. During the first two months of this year, on average it took 103 days to sell a house in the Park Cities. That compares with about 87 days area wide. Overall sales times are up only about a week at the end of February compared with a year earlier.
Census: 4 Texas cities among top 10 in growth
DALLAS (AP) — Four Texas metropolitan areas were among the biggest population gainers as Americans continued their trend of moving to the Sun Belt in 2006 and 2007, according to Census Bureau estimates to be released Thursday.
Metroplex employers created more jobs than businesses in any other U.S. metro area, according to the Greater Dallas Chamber. The Dallas-Fort Worth area added 81,900 jobs in 2007, besting the New York region and Houston to top the chamber's ranking. That brought the local job count to more than 2.9 million and reflected a growth rate of 2.9 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Fort Worth-Arlington area lagged the east side of the Metroplex, with 2.2 percent job growth and 18,600 new jobs. The Dallas-Plano-Irving area grew at 3.1 percent. The statistics differ slightly from the most recent estimates created by the Texas Workforce Commission. That agency reported that the Fort Worth-Arlington area added 16,400 jobs between December 2006 and December 2007.
"North Texas has long stood out as one of the few large metropolitan areas not to experience dramatic home price appreciation over the last few years. During the last five years, Dallas-are home prices have risen less than 16 percent while the nationwide market has appreciated by more than 40 percent."
"A Texas recession isn't in the forecast," economist Fiona Sigalla says. "A relatively low cost of living continues to attract firms and residents to the state, and an economy that is more globally integrated than in other states boosts demand for Texas products and services."
A group of high-profile developers, civic leaders and real estate industry icons and residential developers in North Texas has launched an extensive advertising campaign to say that it's OK to buy a house despite the dour reports about the nation's real estate market.
While a housing downturn continues in other area of the country, particularly in California and Florida, and a current threat of a recission is in the air, Texas' economy remains relatively healthy, (Dr. James P. Gaines, research economist, Real Estate Center at Texas A & M University) said. Affordable housing , a lower cost of living and cost of doing business, rising employment opportunities and attractive lifestyle are drawing more people than ever to Texas. These and other circumstance point toward a Texas-sized boom over the next 25 years, he said.
Metroplex Housing Market On The Rise
It's not a seller's market yet but the Metroplex home sales market is rocking along. The MetroTex Association of Realtors says sales are up 24 percent from January to February and housing prices are basically holding steady.
Texas Housing Economy: Better Than You May Think
Dallas-Fort Worth employers added 66,500 nonfarm jobs last year, a hair above the previously announced 65,800, according to revised figures released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Labor. That puts D-FW among the top U.S. metro areas for 2007 job gains, alongside such leaders as New York and red-hot Houston.
A modest recovery for existing-home sales is expected in 2008 as the impact of the credit crunch subsides, while pending home sales indicate near-term stability. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the housing market will improve from a steady unleashing of pent-up demand and from a wide abundance of safer mortgage products. “Even with relatively low fourth quarter sales, 2007 will be the fifth highest year on record for existing–homes sales. The median existing-home price in 2007 has fallen by less than 2 percent from the all-time high set in 2006,” Yun said.
The report from California-based Altos Research Co. and Real IQ estimates that it takes about 80 says to sell a house in Dallas, compared with an average of 110 days for the cities surveyed.
Propelled by a growing economy the Texas housing market is doing much better than most of the country, despite a slow down in sales in many places. Dallas has a sort of mystic romance for an urban area, attracting many Newcomers to “Big D.” Dallas will still work through 2008 with healthy home sales volume and is projected to appreciate slowly at 2.0% in 2008.
The borrowing rate on a $200,000 home with a 90 percent loan has fallen as low as 5.25 percent this month from 6.7 percent in July, said David Brown, Dallas-Fort Worth director for Metrostudy, which tracks the housing industry. That's a $30,000 difference in purchasing power, he said. "This is as low as it gets," Brown said.
"From 2000 to 2007, Texas added a little over 3 million people," Gaines said, adding that California lost population during that time.
The good news for Dallasites is that the Dallas housing market is the strongest of any major city in the United States.
A recent PMI Group study reported that the risk of U.S. housing price declines remained low in many areas of the South, Midwest and Northwest. Among the 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas, Texas cities were the lowest and most stable in risk outlook during 2007.
Home prices in Dallas have avoided the speculative bubble that rapidly drove so much of America's real estate to record prices and record unsold inventory levels. To this point, home prices in the Dallas area increased a steady 17% over the last five years, while the U.S. averaged an extreme 53.5% increase during the same time period, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.
As the nation struggles with a housing downturn, Texas often is cited as being among the best, safest places in the U.S. for real estate.
There is less than a 1 percent chance that home prices will fall in San Antonio, Austin, Houston , Dallas or Fort Worth during the next two years, according to the most recent Winter 2008 U.S. Market Risk Index. The index is released by PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. and looks at the measures including price appreciation, affordability, unemployment, foreclosures and unsold inventory to predict volatility in home prices in the largest 50 cities. All of the Texas cities had unemployment rates under 5 percent.”
Rates on 30-year mortgages dropped for a third straight week to the lowest level since the summer of 2005 as worries intensified about the current economic slowdown.
The stability comes largely from the areas strong job growth and housing affordability, said David Berson, chief economist and strategist for PMI, an insurer of mortgage lenders. Plus, the slight appreciation of home prices in recent years has given the area a slow, sustainable price growth. “Its not just the Metroplex,” Berson said. “Many parts of Texas are doing well.” The stability is good news for buyers, said Bob Havran, president of mortgage-lending group Omni-American Bank in Fort Worth. Borrowers here have a bigger selection of mortgages than in riskier parts of the country, he said. “Lenders are eager to loan in North Texas,” Havran said.
Dallas-Fort Worths housing market is the least likely of any in the country to see a decrease in home values, a new report confirms. “Because Texas did not participate in the double digit home price gains in the first half of the decade, it doesnt have to take the great pain of the areas that are compensating for that now,” Mr. Berson said in an interview. “The state economy is doing pretty well and job growth is above the national average,” Mr. Berson said. “Its quite likely Texas will be doing better than the national average for the foreseeable future.”
Most recently, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Limited announced its selection of Irving as its new U.S. headquarters. The move is expected to employ more than 1,000 people in the region over the next several years in many roles, including research and development, technical support and administration.
“The Bureau of Labor reports that among the 12 largest metro areas in the nation, Dallas-Fort Worth has added the largest number of jobs in the past year and had the second-fastest rate of job growth, surpassed only by Houston,” says Sheila Rice, executive vice president of Virginia Cook Realtors. “Texas also has the best tax structure for business and will continue to out perform other states in attracting relocating companies and job growth.”
Optimism in ‘08
Even amidst negative reports, this past year; some real estate veterans see opportunity-the silver lining of a seemingly grey cloud.
“While sales activity has been slow, other conditions have been favorable for starting a homebuilding company,” says John Wozniak, president of Naperville-based J.Lawerence Homes.
“Interest rates are low, capital is still available and there are good deals on land. Were well-positioned for what we think will be an industry comeback in 2008 and 2009,” says Wozniak.
Texas slower home appreciation rate and a continued, global interest in the state as a place for business contribute to the Dallas/Fort Worth areas evading of a housing crisis.
Coldwell Banker Dallas/Fort Worth says Texas business-friendly approach to industry helps stabilize our economy during tough times, and ensures the state and Metroplex see increasing property value.
The one segment of the single-family market upon which the UF survey collects detailed information, the new home market , is the least distressed, Archer said. “While the outlook for existing home sales is grim for the next quarter or two and possibly even over the next year, the outlook for new home sales looks like its going to be stable a year from now, at least in some markets,” he said.
Analysts predicted that construction activity will slump even further in coming months as builders strive to reduce their inventory of unsold homes. They noted that applications for new building permits, considered a good barometer of future activity, fell 6.6 percent to an annual rate of 1.178 million units. “This is just what the doctor ordered.” Said David Seiders, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders. “Given weak demand and the large overhang of inventory, you just have to cut back on production.” Seiders predicted construction activity will start to rebound by the second half of next year, once sales stabilize.
While nationwide home prices are down almost 2 percent this year, many areas of the country, including North Texas, are holding up well, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors. “The job markets in Texas are the strongest in the country,” he said.
