I wasn't born in Texas, But I got here as soon as i could!

FIVE TEXAS CITIES NAMED HEALTHIEST HOUSING MARKETS

TEXAS (Builder) – Five Texas cities swept the top spots on Builder magazine’s list of “Healthiest Housing Markets for 2009.”
Houston ranked first, Austin second, Fort Worth third, San Antonio fourth and Dallas fifth.
Rounding out the top ten were Raleigh, N.C., Seattle, Indianapolis, Ind., Fayetteville, Ark., and Washington D.C.

To compile the list, Builder analyzed the top 75 housing markets in the country, ranking them based on population trends and job growth, perennial drivers of housing demand. They also looked at home prices and the number of building permits.

TEXAS TOPS IN JOB GROWTH

TEXAS (St. Paul Business Journal) – Texas was top in job growth last year, according to a recent analysis by bizjournals.com.

Five Texas cities ranked among the top ten, with three securing the top three spots.
Houston added 57,300 jobs in 2008, giving it the best year of any U.S. market. Dallas–Fort Worth was next with 43,300 additional jobs, then San Antonio, which was up by 14,900 jobs.
Austin ranked fifth with 9,600 jobs added, and El Paso’s 5,300 additional jobs landed the city at ninth. Bizjournals.com examines markets that have at least 250,000 non-farm jobs and compares employment figures for the final month of the past two years. Seventy-two of the 88 markets studied suffered declines in employment in 2008.

HIGHEST HOME APPRECIATION IN TEXAS

SANTA ANA, CALIF. (First American CoreLogic) – Texas continues its trend of weathering the recession better than most other states. The state’s major metros top the nation in home price appreciation over the last year.

Austin–Round Rock leads the country’s largest core-based statistical areas (CBSA) in home price appreciation with a 3.7 percent increase in 2008, according to First American CoreLogic.
Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown experienced a price appreciation of 3.3 percent over the last year, putting it right behind Austin–Round Rock. Dallas-Plano-Irving homes appreciated 1.92 percent and San Antonio’s homes 0.17 percent, putting them third and fourth in the nation.
Only one other major CBSA, Denver-Aurora, Colo., showed an increase in home price, according to CoreLogic. Of the 958 smaller communities the study observed, College Station–Bryan experienced the sixth highest home price appreciation, with an increase of 6.78 percent.
Overall, Texas homes saw an appreciation of 1.83 percent in 2008, putting the Lone Star State sixth among all state rankings.

TEXAS NATION'S TOP EXPORTER

AUSTIN (Dallas Business Journal) – Mere days after being named tops in job growth by bizjournals.com, Texas has been declared the nation’s top exporter by the U.S. Department of Commerce. According to Governor Rick Perry’s office, Texas exports totaled $192.14 billion last year, about $23.92 billion more than the year before. The top five recipients of those exports were Mexico, Canada, China, the Netherlands and Brazil. This marks the seventh year in a row in which Texas has ranked first.

FANNIE, FREDDIE INCREASING FEES

WASHINGTON (Washington Post) – Effective April 1, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will increase the "delivery" fees they charge lenders based on FICO scores, down payment amounts and other loan characteristics. Under the new guidelines, even applicants who assumed that their FICO credit scores would get them favorable rates will be charged more unless they can come up with down payments of 30 percent or more. For example, a buyer with a 699 FICO score who brings a down payment of about 25 percent to the table will be hit with a 1.5 percent delivery fee at closing under the new guidelines. A buyer with a FICO score between 700 and 720 will pay an extra three-quarters of a point. Someone with a 739 FICO — once considered a platinum guarantee of the best rates available — will get dinged with a quarter-point add-on.
Condominium buyers who cannot come up with a 25 percent down payment will be hit with a three-quarter point add-on penalty, no matter how high their credit score.

NEW LAW TO HELP HOUSING MARKET

WASHINGTON (Texas Association of Realtors, National Association of Realtors, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) – President Obama earlier this week signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which contains provisions intended to help the housing market and create jobs that benefit the environment. Among the housing provisions: 1.) An $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers who purchase a principal residence between Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 1, 2009. The credit does not require repayment. 2.) Reinstatement of last year's 2008 loan limits for FHA, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae loans. 3.)$2 billion in additional funding for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which provides grants to states and localities to address problems that can be created when whole neighborhoods are decimated by foreclosures.

The law also includes $7.22 billion for projects and programs that will protect and promote both green jobs and a healthier environment. These environmental areas include: $4 billion to assist communities with water quality and waste water infrastructure needs and $2 billion for drinking water infrastructure needs. A portion of the funding will be targeted toward green infrastructure, water and energy efficiency, and environmentally innovative projects. $100 million for competitive grants to evaluate and clean up former industrial and commercial sites.

The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, introduced this week by President Obama, is intended to help seven million to nine million families avoid foreclosure by restructuring or refinancing their mortgages.

The plan includes three main elements: 1.) Government-sponsored enterprise refinancing for responsible homeowners suffering from falling home prices. 2.) Three-year $75 billion initiative to reduce monthly payments for three million to four million at-risk home owners. 3.) Support for low mortgage rates through strengthening confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

This information was provided by:

Mandy Andrews
Prominent Title, LLC
3101 Bee Caves Road, Suite 300
Austin, TX 7874

Real Estate Center Online News
February 13th, 17th & 20th 2009
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Material herein is published according to the fair-use doctrine of U.S. copyright laws related to non-profit, educational institutions. Items attributed to sources other than the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University should not be reprinted without permission of the original source.