The Real Estate Center in College Station has just announced that the state of Texas has gained over 170,000 jobs from October of 2009 through October of 2010. If you look at the annual growth rate, that is a gain of 1.7%.
Now when you look at the job gain of our entire nation, over the same time period, nationally, the U.S. had a gain of 626,000. That is an annual growth rate of about 0.5%.
When looking at the nation’s private sector there was a gain of 0.9% in employment. The state of Texas surpassed this number with a 2.1% gain in annual employment.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our clients and business associates a very happy Thanksgiving. Our family will be spending a nice quiet Thanksgiving at our home in Texas. We hope that you all are having a wonderful and safe holiday.
According to a report published by the Mortgage Bankers Association, after conducting a national survey on mortgage delinquency, it showed that Texas is not struggling
as much as the majority of our nation when it comes to being delinquent in house payments. When you compare Texas’ delinquencies, which were at 5.2 % and that of the nation, which was at 8.7%, you can see that Texas is getting stronger and is on its way to recovering.
While we are taking steps to recovery, there is still progress that needs to be made. But make no mistake, real estate is selling and buyers are buying.
In a recent Forbes blog post, multimillionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson declared that today™s record-low interest rates made this the best time to buy homes in fifty years. œIf you don™t own a home, buy one, Paulson said. œIf you own one home, buy another one, and if you own two homes, buy a third and lend your relatives the money to buy a home. Why should we care what Paulson thinks? Well, he was among the few to accurately predict the subprime collapse and, while no one has a crystal ball, a closer look at the numbers supports his call to action.
Historically low interest rates are the key¦and they aren™t likely to hang around for long.
As we wrote in SHIFT, buyers who œchoose to wait until prices come down more are gambling that interest rates will hold steady or drop. The truth is even a 10 percent drop in home prices is nullified by a 1 percent increase in interest rates. The figure below illustrates how this works for a $250,000 home purchase and the relative likelihood of each scenario.
To figure out which was a smarter bet“counting on home prices to fall further or interest rates to rise“our research department took the last ten years of monthly home price and mortgage interest rate data and ran the numbers to see which was more likely: an increase in mortgage rates or a further drop in home prices. Here™s what we found:
A one percent increase in mortgage rates is ten times more likely to happen than a ten percent drop in home prices.
A one percent rate increase more than offsets a ten percent reduction in home prices.
When interest rates fall by one percent, the total interest paid is almost three times more than the interest savings from a ten percent drop in home prices.
The probability of both happening at the same time is ridiculously small, and homeowners would still pay 15 percent more in interest over the life of the loan.
Interest rates have dominated the news in recent months as we™ve shattered record low after record low. Potential home buyers need to understand the positive financial impact low interest rates have on the cost of home ownership and the thousands of dollars that can be saved over the life of a typical mortgage loan. For those who can afford to buy, trade up, or invest, our current market presents a lifetime opportunity.
I could go on and on, about how spectacular each one of these cites are. Of course, I am biased, because I absolutely love TEXAS.
Today I came across a very interesting article that places these three cities: Houston, San Antonio and Austin in the national spotlight! According to Forbes magazine, these three Texas cities made the Forbes list of the 10 most affordable cities in the United States. Houston placed 7th on the list, while San Antonio came in 6th and Austin ranked 10. Forbes looked at many factors when ranking these top 10 cities including, the state’s business friendly atmosphere, a stable housing economy and rich natural resources.
In short, people are moving to Texas because of the business friendly environment, job availability and the low cost of living as compared to other cities in the United States.
I have received quite a few calls from clients over the past week concerning my website. I am making changes to my site that will take about a week or two. These changes will give me the ability to serve you better in all of your real estate needs.
