Texas Mortgage Market Update – For the week of June 25, 2012 – Those of us who toil in the U.S. housing market have certainly stayed with our problems a long time. But you don’t have to be Einstein to see light at the end of the tunnel. Housing starts were down slightly in May but are UP 28.5% over a year ago. Single-family starts were actually up 3.2% for the month and are UP 26.2% versus a year ago. New Building Permits went up 7.9% for the month and are UP 25% versus a year ago. Total number of homes under construction gained for the ninth month in a row, which hasn’t happened since 2003-2004! Continue reading →

Austin Mortgage Market Update – For the week of June 11, 2012 – Forward is where the housing recovery appears to be going, though some advances are bigger than others. According to a leading data aggregator, home prices rose in April for the second month in a row, UP 2.2% over March and UP 1.1% versus a year ago. Taking out distressed sales, prices were UP 2.6% for the month and UP 1.9% year over year. These price gains are at a rate not seen since late 2006 and better than 2010, when sales jumped thanks to the federal tax credit. Continue reading →

Texas Mortgage Market Update – For the week of June 4, 2012 – Those looking for healing in the housing market needed to see past April’s 5.5% dip in Pending Home Sales and focus on the 14.4% gain in the index compared to a year ago. The small drop ended a three month run of monthly gains, but we’ve now had annual gains for 12 months straight! The National Association of Realtors’ chief economist stated, “Housing market activity has clearly broken out at notably higher levels and is on track to see the best performance since 2007.” Continue reading →