Real Estate Center Economist: Significant Drop in Home Building Needed
College Station, Tex. (Vocus) October 3, 2007 -- Texas' new-home market could face a long period of decline unless home building drops significantly, says Dr. Mark Dotzour with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.
"If home building doesn't drop 25 percent from where it is now, the Texas home market could slow down for a longer period than we would like," said Dotzour, the Center's chief economist.
Dotzour's remarks were in response to recent data from the U.S. Commerce Department, which showed that, nationally, new home sales in August dropped to their lowest rate in seven years.
"I think the national economy is on the verge of a tipping point," Dotzour said. "The odds of a recession are increasing to about 50 percent, which is way up from three months ago. The Fed may have to cut rates even further, but I'm not sure that cheap money will help much right now. In fact, the ten-year treasury rate, which is the base for 30-year mortgages, has gone up ¼ percent since the Fed cut the Fed funds rate by ½ percent."
According to Commerce Department data, sales of new homes in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 795,000, 8.3 percent below July's revised rate of 867,000 and 21.2 percent below the August 2006 estimate of just over one million.
The inventory of unsold homes fell by 1.5 percent to 529,000, representing an 8.2-month supply at the August sales pace. Texas' inventory in August was at 5.8 months, a 12 percent increase over a year ago.
"The inventory of unsold homes is rising all over the state," Dotzour said. ?For example, in San Antonio, the MLS reported 12,857 homes for sale in August, up 45 percent from a year ago.?
Nationally, the median sales price on new homes in August was $225,700, a 7.5 percent drop from last year and the largest year-over-year decline in 37 years.
Dotzour said he is hearing reports of Texas builders substantially lowering prices and offering massive concessions on new homes to move inventory.
"One builder in Dallas had more than 150 homes for sale, so the company had a huge, three-day sales blitz. They dropped the prices of spec homes substantially ? up to $150,000 on some homes," he said. ?This makes it very difficult for existing homeowners in the area to move if they need to.?
?Clearly the recent chaos in the mortgage markets has closed the door for many entry-level new home buyers,? said Dotzour. ?Without the aid of subprime loans and other loans that didn?t require income verification, the pool of available buyers for new homes has been substantially diminished. The buyers won?t come back soon, if ever.?
Builders have done a good job of scaling back production to avoid a huge buildup in inventories, said Dotzour. However, it appears even more reduction is needed to keep the inventories at reasonable levels. Such reductions will allow Texas to avoid price declines like those in other areas of the United States.
The Real Estate Center (http://recenter.tamu.edu) has been providing solutions through research for 35 years. Funded primarily by Texas real estate licensee fees, the Center was created by the state legislature to meet the needs of many audiences, including the real estate industry, instructors, researchers and the general public.
###
|
|
 |
 |
|
Miami Condo Real Estate Can Potentially Be your Best Bet
So what are the good things to consider when you are looking at investing your money with? Actually there can be a lot, not just looking on it in a way that people will commonly take but rather using my own point of view. Miami condo real estate is something that people are looking at a grade in which has improvement on a overall take. Miami condo real estate is a big step on investing; I mean it has some of the qualities other markets lack. Right now I can honestly say that it is in a more in demand market right now. It is identified as a market with potential that can be real high or an expectation as low as the ground. It is considered as a high risk, high reward market. And more to a fact that people are trying to look for a market that...
Worldwide Real Estate Prices Compared to Panama: 2007
Introduction - We are a Panama Law Firm not a real estate business. Our clients are frequently relocating to Panama and we assist in the real estate acquisition for them. We are often asked if the real estate bubble is going to bust in Panama or if the boom has just begun. Well we are not sure. We have done a few articles on the Panama real estate bubble breaking but now we are going to present objective data in support of the Panama real estate boom just starting. It could be true and prices may continue to escalate.
Mississippi Real Estate Being Offered With Zero Down Payment To Benefit Community
In an effort to give back to the community where he conducts business, an investor is offering Mississippi real estate for no money down to help families become home owners. Similar program successful in several Georgia cities.
Robyn Filippo is an Anaheim, California Real Estate Agent Working with Prudential Serving the Needs of All those Seeking to Buy or Sell Real Estate
Filippo has been a dedicated real estate agent for over 12 years. Her experience focuses mainly upon residential listings, buyer representation, and bank owned properties. She equates much of her success to service. By extending the up-most in care and understanding to the clients wants and needs, she has been able to close deals where others have missed. She also attributes much of her success to technology, utilizing websites and other online tools to help match buyer and seller in perfect win-win scenarios for all.
Noted Photojournalist Designs Rugged Line of Portable Lighting Tools for Portable Flash
Noted photojournalist David Honl has released a rugged and innovative line of lighting tools designed to fit any shoe-mount flash and provide a wide variety of dramatic light shaping.
Personal Branding Techniques for Real Estate Agents and Brokers
Branding can be done to any product, or any person. Before undertaking an exercise in personal branding, however, consider your distinctive strengths and abilities and what they offer the market place.
Real Estate Investment Now Made Easier with Real Estate Investing Firm Real Net USA
Real Net makes real estate investing easier with the development of the innovative three Fs: Find, Fund, and Fix.
There Is More Than One Way To Skin?A Real Estate Deal With Seller Flexibility In Selling Property
Jack and Mary were desperate. Mary received a big promotion in another state and Jack was looking for a new job in the same city. It was just too good to pass up. Mary was a rising star in the health care industry and with the huge pay boost and promotion it was a job she had dreamed of ever since leaving graduate school armed with her MBA. Jack was a natural born salesperson and could work anywhere selling just about anything. He liked high tech sales in the high ticket electronics field and was close to catching on with a company in the same city as Mary?s new job. One problem, they had a large house to sell in a very slow and slumping real estate market.
Local Real Estate Agent Gets Involved in Charlotte
Charlotte area real estate agent, Deanna Slep, and her Team Sponsor National Healthy Kids Day at local YMCA.
Raintree Systems Inc. and MDnetSolutions, LLC Form a Strategic Alliance to Offer Best-in-Class Bariatric Practice Management Tools
In an innovative partnership, Raintree Systems Inc. and MDnetSolutions, LLC, two healthcare industry service providers, have come together to create one fully-integrated system for the bariatric practice, free-standing surgery center and hospital-based surgery department that seamlessly manages all office and patient activities. Raintree Surgery Manager for Bariatrics automates all aspects of bariatric practice management into one fully-integrated solution that provides an automated feed into the Bariatric Outcomes Longitudinal Database? (BOLD?) for compliance with the Bariatric Surgery Centers of Excellence (BSCOE) requirements.
|
 |
|
