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2009
2/28/09
TEXAS HOME PRICES UP, REPORTS FHFA
WASHINGTON (FHFA, Real Estate Center) – Latest home appreciation rates released this week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) indicate Texas home prices increased 2.1 percent last year.
Midland led the way with a 10.4 percent increase between fourth quarter 2007 and fourth quarter 2008. At the other end of the spectrum were Odessa and Brownsville, where prices fell 2.7 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.
In the final quarter of 2008, Texas home prices increased 0.2 percent.
"The data indicate what we have believed all along," said Real Estate Center Research Economist Dr. Jim Gaines. "Texas fared well in 2008, especially compared with the rest of the country."

2/24/09
HIGHEST HOME APPRECIATION IN TEXAS
SANTA ANA, CALIF. (First American CoreLogic) – Texas continues its trend of weathering the recession better than most other states. The state’s major metros top the nation in home price appreciation over the last year.
Austin–Round Rock leads the country’s largest core-based statistical areas (CBSA) in home price appreciation with a 3.7 percent increase in 2008, according to First American CoreLogic.
Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown experienced a price appreciation of 3.3 percent over the last year, putting it right behind Austin–Round Rock.
Dallas-Plano-Irving homes appreciated 1.92 percent and San Antonio’s homes 0.17 percent, putting them third and fourth in the nation.
Only one other major CBSA, Denver-Aurora, Colo., showed an increase in home price, according to CoreLogic.
Of the 958 smaller communities the study observed, College Station–Bryan experienced the sixth highest home price appreciation, with an increase of 6.78 percent.
Overall, Texas homes saw an appreciation of 1.83 percent in 2008, putting the Lone Star State sixth among all state rankings.

The Healthiest Housing Markets for 2009
Builder, in conjunction with Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, debuts its metric for determining markets with the best and least potential.
With most economists and builders expecting a national market decline this year, this may not seem like the best time to be selecting the "healthiest" markets in the country. Virtually every market was down last year. But a close look at the numbers reveals that some markets have way outperformed others during the last four years and are likely to continue to do so this year.
When the housing market stages its official recovery, the markets listed on the following pages are likely to lead the parade. It may take a year or more for the weakest markets--where burgeoning foreclosure sales are still pounding new home values, making building and selling new homes an exercise in futility-- to finally stage a turnaround. We’ll present that list next week.
The healthiest markets have many things in common. Most of them are great places to live, either close to the ocean, mountains, or major universities. Most of them didn’t have a huge run-up in prices during the boom and aren’t experiencing rampant deflation during the bust.
To compile these lists, we analyzed the top 75 housing markets in the country. We ranked them based on population trends and job growth, perennial drivers of housing demand. We also examined what’s happened with home prices; many of the healthiest markets have managed to hold the line on home values. And finally, we considered the rate building permits, which may be the single best ongoing indicator of builder confidence in a market. We combined all these metrics to produce a score for each market.

5. Dallas, Texas
2008 total building permits: 26,145
In a year when permits declined 35 percent nationally, Dallas only experienced a 9 percent fall-off. With a population of 4.2 million, Dallas was the third largest home building market last year, as measured in permits pulled. Employers in Dallas, a popular place for corporate relocation and expansion, added 42,000 jobs last year, a growth rate of 2 percent. Existing home prices have held steady, falling a paltry 2.3 percent in the last year, Interestingly, the face of residential construction has changed dramatically in Dallas in recent years; 58 percent of the activity last year was in multifamily, compared to a five-year average of 23 percent.

2/8/09
TEXAS TOPS IN JOB GROWTH
TEXAS (St. Paul Business Journal) – Texas was top in job growth last year, according to a recent analysis by bizjournals.com.
Five Texas cities ranked among the top ten, with three securing the top three spots.
Houston added 57,300 jobs in 2008, giving it the best year of any U.S. market. Dallas–Fort Worth was next with 43,300 additional jobs, then San Antonio, which was up by 14,900 jobs.
Austin ranked fifth with 9,600 jobs added, and El Paso’s 5,300 additional jobs landed the city at ninth.
Bizjournals.com examines markets that have at least 250,000 nonfarm jobs and compares employment figures for the final month of the past two years. Seventy-two of the 88 markets studied suffered declines in employment in 2008.

2/4/09
TEXAS ECONOMY STILL AHEAD OF NATION'S
COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – The Texas economy is cooling but continues to create jobs. While the U.S. economy lost more than 2.8 million jobs from December 2007 to December 2008, Texas gained 154,600 jobs over the same period.
The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from 4.2 percent in December 2007 to 6 percent in December 2008. By comparison, the U.S. seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from 4.9 percent to 7.2 percent during the same period.
Recent decreases in oil prices have begun to adversely affect the Texas oil and natural gas industry’s ability to generate jobs. The industry’s employment increased 3.7 percent from December 2007 to December 2008, a drop from 7.1 percent for the period November 2007 to November 2008. Even so, the industry ranked first among Texas industries in employment growth rate.
The professional and business services industry and the leisure and hospitality industry posted annual employment growth rates of 3.3 percent from December 2007 to December 2008 and ranked second among Texas industries in job creation.
All Texas metros experienced positive employment growth rates from December 2007 to December 2008. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission ranked first in job creation followed by College Station–Bryan, Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown, and Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood.
The state’s actual unemployment rate in December 2008 was 5.7 percent. Midland had the first lowest unemployment rate followed by Amarillo, Lubbock, Odessa and College Station–Bryan.
The complete Texas economic report is available on the Real Estate Center's website.

2/2/09
TEXAS ATTRACTS INTERNATIONAL INVESTORS
AUSTIN (Austin Business Journal) – Despite increasing global real estate turmoil, Texas remains an attractive play for foreign investors looking for opportunities in the United States, a report shows.
The Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate ranks members’ top cities for U.S. and global investment in 2009. Houston ranked fifth, while Austin ranked 11th, tying with Las Vegas, Phoenix, Orlando, Atlanta, San Diego and San Jose, Calif.
Washington D.C. claimed the first spot.
The United States ranked first among nations in terms of opportunities for capital appreciation.
Conducted in fourth quarter 2008, the survey polled the association’s members who collectively hold about $1 trillion in real estate worldwide

2 0 0 8
1/23/09
TEXAS HOME PRICES AT LEAST RISK
WALNUT CREEK, CA (PMI Group) – Amidst a nation of MSAs hosting tumbling home prices, the Lone Star State’s own metropolitan areas have held tight to their home values, with only five of 26 MSAs seeing price declines in a 12-month period ending in September.
According to PMI Group’s Winter 2009 Risk Index, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio were the least likely large MSAs in the country during third quarter 2008 to experience lower home prices in the next two years. Each had a risk index of less than one.
Austin ranked as the 12th least likely metropolitan area to experience home price depreciation, with a 3.1 risk index, up from 2.3 in second quarter 2008.
Overall, Texas MSAs averaged a 2.8 percent increase in home prices between September 2007 and the same month in 2008.
Four of Texas’ MSAs claimed spots in PMI Group’s list of top ten annual house price appreciation rates. Sherman-Denison had an appreciation rate of 8.56; Victoria, 8.34; Odessa, 7.98; and College Station–Bryan, 6.71.
PMI’s U.S. Market Risk Index uses economic, housing and mortgage market factors (including home price appreciation, employment, affordability, excess housing supply, interest rates and foreclosure activity) to determine the probability of lower home prices in the future.

For the full study, including more rankings for Texas MSAs, see PMI Group’s Risk Index.

9/9/08
TWO TEXAS HOUSING MARKETS AMONG NATION'S MOST AFFORDABLE
TEXAS (Coldwell Banker, Dallas Morning News) – Two Texas cities landed on Coldwell Banker's list of ten most affordable housing markets in the country.
Arlington ranked seventh with a 2008 average sales price of $143,775. Killeen ranked ninth at $145,812.
Dallas, with an average price of $326,425, was deemed the most expensive market in Texas. However, that price is substantially below the national average of $403,738.
Sioux City, Iowa, offered the best value in the country at $133,459, while La Jolla, Calif., was the most expensive at $1.8 million.
Coldwell Banker Real Estate's annual Home Price Comparison Index tracks the cost of homes in more than 300 markets nationwide. The survey compares typical single-family dwellings that have about 2,200 sf, four bedrooms, two and one-half baths, a family room and two-car garage.