SE Texas Real Estate Talk

Buying a home a safer bet than buying gold (INFOGRAPHIC)

Buying a home a safer bet than buying gold (INFOGRAPHIC).

Take a look at this article.  The majority of people still say buying a home is the best way to build wealth and save for retirement.  Second place?  Investing in your 401K.

Home Inventories Shrink, but not in SE Texas

For-sale inventories shrink for fourth month in a row.

Interesting article by Inman News.  Click link to read full story.  Good news for the national housing market as inventories of unsold homes are shrinking. 

Here is Southeast Texas we aren't seeing that trend- yet.  We started the year with 1677 residential properties for sale.  Currently there are 1822 residential properties for sale. 

The high for the year was hit in June when there was a 12.6 month supply of unsold homes on the market.  At the end of July there was a 12.4 month supply. 

A balanced market would have about a 6 month supply of homes for sale.  The Southeast Texas residential housing market still remains a buyers market.  There are more sellers than buyers. 

Its also worth noting that the Southeast Texas real estate market stayed healthy long after the national housing market was faltering.  It will be interesting to see how long it takes before we are seeing the number of homes for sale in Southeast Texas start to decline.  Shrinking inventories are a good sign that home prices will start to stabalize and the housing market will start to recover. 

Single Family Home Sales in Southeast Texas

After a month of triple digit heat most Southeast Texan's are happy to say "Goodbye August."  It seems like the heat slowed everything down including home sales. 

Looking at the Preliminary data 150 homes sold during the month of August.  In 2010, 174 homes sold in August.  In 2009, 187 homes sold.  Check for yourself at The Real Estate Center of Texas A&M's Website.  It is one the of best resources for home sales date for the entire state of Texas.

Broken down by area, here's a look at sales.

 

Three notable changes from early months:

1. Sellers are coming off their asking price more.  Once holding at 95% across the area, the trend is that more sellers are accepting less than 95% of their asking price to sell their home.
2. Only two of the best selling areas averaged less than 100 days on the market.  This is the time from when the house is put in the MLS until the day it is closed. 
3. The three areas with the highest number of sales were Lumberton, Beaumont W2 and W4.  No other areas had double digit home sales for the month of August.

The official summer "selling" season has come to an end.  This one is going in the record books as one of the worst in the past five years.  The local housing market in Southeast Texas is still plagued by an excess of inventory and not enough buyers.  The homes that are selling are the cream of the crop, ready to move in or the bargain basement prices on REO's.  Its a hard time to be a seller unless your home is in excellent condition or you are willing to be very aggressive with your price. 

If you want to learn more information about the Southeast Texas housing market contact me today. 

National Flood Insurance Program Set to Expire Sept. 30

Fate of Flood-Insurance Program Still Murky.

If you own a home in Southeast Texas chances are you have homeowner's insurance, windstorm insurance and flood insurance.  Most of us who've lived here a few years saw the damage that occurred from Hurricane Ike when over 90% of the homes in Bridge City received flood water damage.   In Jefferson County you have to add windstorm coverage to your owner's policy.

It seems a normal homeowners policy doesn't cut it in the case of "flooding."  The insurance companies want to call any water damage from a storm "flood damage."  It was a catch 22 for many Southeast Texas homeowners who had homeowners insurance but not a seperate flood policy.  A lot of people learned a lesson that hard way. 

It unlikely the government won't extend the National Flood Insurance Program but with the way things are going in Washington these days anything could happen.