It is too bad that FOX, CNN and other news stations don't clearly confine their riveting real estate news reporting to the specific geographical areas they are reporting about. Sure we know about the problems in the lending space, and how they have hurt a lot of people, especially in markets that where excessively over valued like Florida, California, Phoenix and scores of other locations.
The fact is there are actually good Real Estate Markets in the U.S. and Texas just happens to be one of them. Yes during the "pre-pop" days prices were going up here, but that was more a function of supply and demand. The Dallas market never saw the price speculation of a Florida for example, nor the bust that followed, but we did see prices level off, then decline by various percentages, depending upon location. Yes, there were also some foreclosures that were sold at fire sale prices, but as sure as the Sun rieses in the East, those firesales were very much the "exception." So if you base your next home purchase on a rumor about what someone paid on a foreclosure, you are going to be very disappointed when you realize the general market is going up in price and the longer you delay.....
What the national news media is actually doing to potential local homebuyers may very well wind up making you pay more for your next home. Yes, negative news may very well be keeping you from buying a house now, but it is also keeping you from capitalizing on the best home buying opportunity since the 1980's here in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. Affordability is at an approximate 38 year high and from my vantage point the real bottom in the DFW housing market was actually around October 2007 to January of 2008. Since then prices are actually improving and interest rates have risen making affordability worsen.
So what to do? Stay at home and bite your nails listing to network pros tell you the sky is falling or do you do what great profiteers have done for millenniums, take the opposite approach!
The reality is that home prices need to rise about 25% just to correct back to where they should be if you take into consideration historical trends and inflation. Yes, you are still in a very strong buyer's market, however time is working against you should you put off your DFW home buying plans. As the cost of new homes continue to rise (and they are going up) to adjust for inflated material, labor and energy costs; so too will existing home prices begin to follow that trend. Move up home buyers at some point will simply refuse to give away their homes when the price for new construction continues to increase. Hence, the pressure on existing home prices go higher will increase over time.
So are existing home prices depressed realative to new home prices. Currently YES! And this is what makes buying now so attractive. However that trend is about to change locally due to a number of positive factors, population growth and job creation. Here is an excellent article concerning the Texas Real Estate Market as of July 2008. Once the market changes and prices are higher, there will be no "time out" to go back and pay yesterday's prices.
Here is a link courtesy of Hexter Fair Title that shows many areas are down sharply with regards to the number of homes sold at the same time prices in many of these areas are actually rising. Again showing that waiting is the WRONG choice if you want to buy at a lower price.
Click Here to See MLS Activity Report for June 2008
To get full updates on the latest reports visit: http://www.mckinneyhomerebate.com/Dallas-Housing-Market-Update.htm
To access more information concerning the Texas Real Estate Market visit http://recenter.tamu.edu/pubs/
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