Monthly Archives: December 2012

TEXAS MORTGAGE MARKET UPDATE – For the week of December 17, 2012 – There are just two weeks to go for politicians to broker a deal to stop the country from going over a fiscal cliff of draconian tax hikes and spending cuts. Unfortunately, Washington isn’t proceeding with much urgency. Investors reacted poorly to the uncertainty as all three major stock indexes slipped for the week. Not helping things, the economic data was mixed, as inflation cooled and Industrial Production beat expectations, but Retail Sales missed consensus targets. Continue reading →

Texas Mortgage Market Update – For the week of December 10, 2012 – What are rising now are asking prices for homes. A major Web real estate portal reports prices for homes listed there were up 3.8% in November versus a year ago. This is the largest year-over-year gain since the housing downturn began. In addition, the listing prices for the three months ending in November were up 0.8% from the prior three months. And the good news was widespread: annual gains were reported in 76 of the 100 largest metros. Finally, asking price gains are now beating rent price gains in the 25 largest rental markets. Continue reading →

Texas Mortgage Market Update – For the week of December 3, 2012 – We who toil in the housing market must surely be very strong by now, having overcome some powerful forces, not the least of which has been the downward pressure on home prices. The latest evidence that pressure is letting up came with the Case-Shiller home price index, UP 0.4% for September and UP 3% versus a year ago. Nineteen of 20 metros reported higher prices not just for the month, but for the past three months! The FHFA index of prices for homes financed by conforming mortgages was UP 0.2% for September and UP 4.4% over a year ago. Continue reading →